“Well, he’s figured something out. I spoke to him here, on the human plane, twice in two days, and both times he was wearing the skin of a dead person. First Scott Carter, then Heidi Anderson.”

Em shrugged. “So maybe he’s just possessing them, and not really crossing over. Not that that is any less terrifying.”

“What’s the difference, in practical application?” Luca asked, and I nodded to Alec, tossing the question his way.

“Hellions can only possess the sleeping and unconscious, and even then, only those who have some link to the Netherworld. Possession victims have to have died—even if just for a minute—or have traveled across the fog at least once. And since possession is merely borrowing someone else’s body, his abilities would be limited to those his victim already has.”

“Like when he possessed Sabine and gave you nightmares?” Em asked, and I nodded, while the mara scowled over the reminder that she’d lost control of her own body, even briefly.

“But none of that is applicable here,” Alec insisted. “Because he can’t possess the dead. No one can. It can’t be done. Period.”

“Are you sure about that?” Nash asked, and Alec nodded firmly. So Nash turned to me. “Are you sure Scott was already dead when you talked to him? No chance there was a misprint in the obituary?”

I shrugged. “I seriously doubt it. But even if Scott was still alive and Avari was possessing him, that doesn’t explain how he showed up as Heidi Anderson. She died seven months ago. No misprint can explain that away.”

“Okay, so what do Scott and Heidi have in common?” Sabine asked, glancing at each of us in turn.

“You’ve never met them?” Nash said.

Sabine gave an exaggerated nod. “And I never will. Because they’re both dead.”

“Which means they’re no longer using their souls…” I said, starting to catch on. Then I turned to Alec. “He’s figured it out. Somehow, Avari’s figured out how to install a soul in his body. Or whatever.”

“Not possible,” Alec said again, but no one was listening to him.

“And that makes him look like the person the soul belongs to?” Em asked.

“More likely—assuming any of this is true—it makes him take the form that soul last took,” Madeline said. “Souls don’t really belong to anyone, once they’ve departed their most recent bodies. They’ll be recycled, and they’ve been recycled before. But until that happens, they retain the psychic memory of the life they just lived, including perfect recall of the physical form.”

“It’s much more than that,” Alec insisted. “Disembodied souls retain much more than a psychic memory. If they didn’t, how would hellions be able to torture them for all of eternity? Lifehas two parts,” Alec said, leaning forward on the couch, and I was both amused and relieved to realize that everyone else leaned toward him a little, ready and willing to hear the wisdom that could save us all.

“There’s the physical body, and the soul—the life force that supports it. When the body dies, a reaper takes the soul to be recycled, but that process isn’t death like we understand it. The soul doesn’t cease to exist. It’s just wiped clean of the existence it supported most recently. Until then, the soul still thinks and feels, and it can be tortured for a hellion’s pleasure or nutrition. So if Avari has figured out how to install a soul in his body, what he’s actually discovered is how to absorb a human life force, something he, as a hellion, lacks entirely. And if he’s really figured that out, we are all—all seven billion of us—in very big trouble.”

“Okay, you’re really starting to freak me out,” Em said, and her voice trembled.

“Good.” Alec reached over my lap to squeeze her hand, but his tone of voice lacked any comforting qualities. “If Kaylee’s right, we should all be very freaked out. And we should be willing to do whatever it takes to stop Avari from crossing over, much less handing out tickets to the rest of his hellion garden club.”

“Okay, let’s talk strategy,” Madeline said, and I couldn’t help noticing that no one had touched the popcorn. “But first, Kaylee, where is the soul you extracted?”

“Um, the dagger’s in the bathroom. I’ll get it.”

“The dagger?” Madeline frowned, and I realized I hadn’t actually made my report to her yet.

“Yeah. Avari had it when I got there. He said my amphora wouldn’t work on him—maybe because of whatever method he’s found of crossing over?—and that the other extractors died because they didn’t have my dagger.”

“How did he get it?” Alec asked, his forehead deeply furrowed in concern.

“I’m assuming he took it from my room.” And that was one of the scarier parts of this whole thing. “He obviously has at least some of the standard undead abilities when he crosses over.”

“Let me see this dagger, please,” Madeline said, and I stood, but Nash was already up.

“I got it,” he said. “I’m headed that way, anyway.”

“Thanks,” I said as he crossed the living room toward the hall. “If we’re right about Avari figuring out how to harness a human soul, there should be two in the dagger. Heidi Anderson’s, and the soul of the woman Avari killed in the restroom.” I frowned with another realization. “Well, make that three, with Beck’s.” And I couldn’t help wondering how many souls the dagger could hold.