His friends snickered and Emma stretched higher, letting her lips brush his jaw near his ear as his hand slid lower, gripping the upper curve of her backside. “Too bad they don’t include you.”

With that, she dropped onto her heels again and smiled up at him, one hand propped on the dramatic flair of her hip.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Emma’s game was a bit like taunting an angry gorilla through a flimsy window screen, but what can I say? She was fun to watch.

“You’ll change your mind.” Doug grinned and winked, walking backward away from us to keep Emma in his sight. He was a much better sport than I’d given him credit for.

“Not likely.” Emma turned to her locker and threaded the padlock through the holes in the latch, then snapped it shut as Nash waved off several summonses from his friends, so he could hang out with me. And his mother. “Come on, pedestrians, where am I dropping you? Your place or his?”

“His,” I answered so quickly Emma’s brows shot up in amusement.

“Trouble at home?” She shrugged her backpack onto one shoulder as I grabbed mine from the floor, and we followed her down the hall in the opposite direction of the offensive line.

“No more than usual, but I have a lesson this afternoon.” I left it vague because she knew what I was talking about.

Nash climbed into the back of Emma’s metallic blue Sunfire and I took shotgun. Her car was far from new—it was a hand-me-down from one of her older sisters—yet it made mine look like an antique in comparison. However, the major advantage to Emma’s vehicle over mine was that she was actually in possession of her keys.

I buckled as she pulled out of the lot onto a side street, barely glancing in her rearview mirror before changing lanes right in front of the first stoplight. “Give me a hint.” Em glanced sideways at me, when she really should have had her eyes on the road. “Just a little one. Is someone else going to die? Is it another cheerleader?”

I laughed at her lighthearted inquisition.

“Maybe you should tell her,” Tod’s voice said out of nowhere, and I jumped so hard the seat belt cut into my neck.

“Stop doing that!” Nash shouted, and I turned to see Tod on the bench seat next to him, one finger pressed to his lips in an exaggerated “shh” signal, while his other hand pointed at Emma.

“Sorry!” she snapped, assuming Nash was talking to her. She swerved into the right-hand lane without bothering to flick on her turn signal, and the driver of the car behind us honked, gesturing angrily. “It’s not like I’m actually wishing for more dead cheerleaders. I’m just saying, if someone has to go…”

Tod snorted. “I like her!”

Nash elbowed him in the side, and Emma raised both brows at him in the rearview mirror. She’d seen thegesture, but couldn’t see the reaper now holding his ribs, nor did she hear his oof of pain. “Sorry.” Nash finally met her gaze. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

Her mouth opened, but I cut off a question I was sure we wouldn’t be able to answer. “Em, go.” I pointed out the windshield, where the cars in front of us had already driven through the intersection when the light turned green. The man behind us honked again, and Emma stomped on the gas. We lurched forward, and she forgot about Nash’s odd behavior. At least for the moment.

“Does this have anything to do with Eden dropping dead onstage?”

I couldn’t think of an answer fast enough, and Em’s lighthearted smile died when she realized she’d actually hit the bull’s-eye.

“Kaylee…” Tod said from the backseat.

“What’s wrong?” I twisted so I could see all three of the other occupants.

“I just didn’t see the light change.” Emma slammed on the brake when the school bus in front of us slowed to a rumbling stop, the pop-out stop sign swinging away from its side.

Of course, I wasn’t talking to her. I was talking to the uninvited, invisible reaper in her backseat.

“I can’t get Addy and Regan alone long enough to explain the plan to them. They’re constantly surrounded by this whole entourage. Assistants, and publicists, and Security, and their mother, who, by the way—” he turned to Nash “—hasn’t changed one bit, except for a whole web of new wrinkles. She still has her nose in everything Addy does.”

“Is there a point to this?” I looked from one brother to the other.

“A point to what?” Emma glanced in the rearview mirror again to see what she was missing. “What is wrong with you guys today?”

“Sorry, Em.” I turned to face her more directly. “It’s—”

“Bean sidhe business. I know. And I’m getting pretty damn sick of the whole thing.” She smacked the steering wheel with the heel of one palm, then swerved into a right-hand turn without even touching the brake.

I grabbed the door grip, but she only stomped on the gas again before the wheel even straightened out. “I lied to your dad last night, and I got stuck in the ticket booth with Glen ‘the human sprinkler’ Frank for four hours yesterday. And I’ve driven you around today like your own personal chauffeur. The least you could do is explain why you two are acting so weird.”

Sighing, I glanced at Nash, then pointedly at Tod, raising my brows in question. Should we tell her?

He shrugged, leaving the decision up to me. She was my best friend.

I shifted to face Emma, exhaling slowly. “I don’t want you mixed up in all this. It’s dangerous.”