Yes, that’s exactly what Jayson had said. Except it couldn’t really have been Jayson speaking, because Jayson was dead in the trunk of his own car.

“So, who’s that with Emma?” Luca asked, and I glanced up in horror, searching the shoreline for her and for not-Jayson. I had to squint to see them clearly. They were a quarter of the way around the lake, standing in the sand. Em’s shoes dangled from the fingers of one hand. And she was kissing…him. She was kissing not-Jayson.

My best friend was kissing the demon wearing her boyfriend’s stolen soul.

“That son of a bitch played us.” And now he had Emma within his grasp. Literally.

Tod saw my intent before it could possibly have surfaced in my eyes. “Kaylee, wait!”

But I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t let him have her.

Frantic with rage and impatience, I turned and stomped toward the picnic table, where my dagger lay, still smeared with blood. “Kaylee.” Tod followed me. “We need a plan.”

“I have one: kill him, before he lays another hand on Emma.”

“That’s not a plan, it’s a goal. Plans have steps, and forethought, and—”

I grabbed the dagger, but Tod stood his ground, blocking me in between the table and the grill. “Step one. Kill him. Step two. Repeat as necessary.” I turned to Nash and Luca. “Will you guys go get Sophie?” When they nodded, I turned back to Tod. “You comin’?”

Then I blinked out, without waiting for his reply. An instant later, I stood on the sand behind the Jayson-thing. Over his shoulder, Em saw my knife and gasped.

Jayson turned and laughed out loud. “I wondered how long that would take.”

“About this long.” I swung the knife at him, but he turned at the same time, with Emma in his grip. Em screamed. I tried to abort my swing, but the dagger sliced through the side of her blouse as he swung her around like a human shield. The blade scored her skin in an arc, just above her right hip.

She screamed again, and I gasped, almost frozen by my own horror and regret. “Em, I’m so sorry!”

“Ow, shit! What the hell, Kaylee?” Em slapped one hand over the wound, but Jayson nearly pulled her off balance when he dragged her backward, away from me.

“Let her go,” I said, trying to divide my focus between his face and the blood seeping between her fingers.

“Kaylee, put the knife down,” the Jayson-thing said. His voice was full of trepidation and fear, but his expression didn’t match. His grin was creepy and irrepressible, but Emma couldn’t see that with him at her back. He leaned down to speak directly into her ear. “I always heard she was crazy, but I didn’t think she was violent.”

And that’s when I understood the game—the hellion was stillplaying his role.

“Kaylee?” Emma’s face was white with pain, and her hands were red and slick with her own blood. She was breathing too hard. Too fast.

“I’m so sorry, Em. I was aiming for him.” My focus shifted to his eyes, sparkling with new pleasure over her head. “Let her go. This isn’t about her.”

“What is she talking about?” Jayson’s voice asked, practically shaking with fake fear, while his eyes shined in malicious pleasure. “And why is she armed?” He pulled her farther away from me, pretending to protect her, when he was really shielding himself.

“What’s going on?” Em demanded, and the strength in her voice gave me hope. Surely if the wound was very bad, she’d weaken quickly. Right?

“Don’t mean to scare you, Em,” Tod said, appearing on the left edge of my peripheral vision. “But there’s a better than average chance you may be dating a demon.”

She glanced at him, then back to me. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“That’s not Jayson. Jayson’s dead in his own trunk.”

“What does that mean?” the Jayson-thing said. “They’re crazy, Em. How could I be standing here right now, if I were dead?”

Tod made an exasperated sound. “Oh, let me count the ways… .”

“Emma, listen to me, please.” I stepped forward, but he dragged her back again. “Jayson is dead. He’s in the trunk of his own car, in the parking lot. The thing holding you is Avari, and he’s not protecting you from me, he’s using you as a human shield.”

“No…” Em flinched and pressed her hand harder against her wound. But she’d seen and survived too much to let fear and disbelief—or even pain—blind her to the dangerous truth. That was one of the things I liked best about her. “Jayson’s dead?”

“The word doornail comes to mind,” Tod said.

I nodded and gestured toward the thing still clutching Emma to its chest. “Ask him. Hellions can’t lie.”

Tears spilled from Emma’s eyes and trailed down her cheeks, and I couldn’t tell which hurt her worse: her bleeding cut or the thought that her new human boyfriend—innocent, and ignorant of the danger he’d walked into—had been killed by a monster. “Are you Avari?” Her words were halting, half choked with her own tears. “Did you kill Jayson?”

The Jayson-monster’s brows rose at me over Emma’s head. “No, to both questions.” He was challenging me. Daring me to prove him wrong.

But… Hellions couldn’t lie. Of course, they weren’t supposed to be able to cross over, either. What was I missing?