She rolled her eyes, and when she turned to look at me, she accidently turned the wheel, too, and the front right tire scraped the curb. Emma didn’t seem to notice. “I’m not asking to go with you on some kind of scary field trip. I just hate being in the dark all the time.”

I knew exactly how she felt, but before I could say anything, Tod shrugged at me, blue eyes shining in mischief. “Sounds like she wants to help. Ask if we can borrow her car. Preferably before she drives it into the side of a building…”

“No!” Nash and I snapped in unison. Then, before Emma could get even angrier, I glared at Tod. “Show her.”

“You sure?” He frowned, no doubt thinking of my standing order for him to stay as far from Emma as possible, and never to let her see him. I didn’t want death getting a crush on my best friend.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Wha—” Emma started. Then she squealed, and her eyes went huge as she stared into the rearview mirror in total shock. I grabbed the wheel when her hands fell away from it, trying to keep us on the right side of the road while her foot got heavier and heavier on the gas.

“Told you this was a bad idea,” Tod said from the backseat, as Nash growled wordlessly at him in frustration.

“Em!” I yelled. “Hit the brake!” We were racing toward a four-way stop, where a group of tweens waited to cross the road on bicycles.

“Who…? How…?” She blinked, then actually twisted to look into the backseat, and the car lurched forward even faster when she braced herself against the gas pedal instead of the floorboard.

“Emma, stop!” I shouted, and she whirled around and stomped on the brake, bringing us to a screeching halt two feet from the crosswalk.

“Okay, we probably shouldn’t have done that while she was actually driving.” Nash studied her profile in concern.

“You call that driving?” Tod crossed his arms casually over his chest as if we hadn’t nearly flattened three kids and totaled Emma’s car.

The tweens rode their bikes across the street, glaring at us through the windshield. The last one flipped us off, then tossed long, purple-striped hair over his shoulder and rode off, standing on his pedals.

In the driver’s seat, Emma sat frozen, staring wide-eyed into the rearview mirror. Her chest rose and fell heavily with each breath, and her hands shook on the wheel.

“Want me to drive?” I offered, laying one hand on her arm.

She shook her head without taking her gaze from Tod. “I want you to tell me what the hell just happened. Who is he, and how did he get in my car?”

“Okay, but we can’t sit here forever.” Another car had stopped behind us at the four-way, already honking. “Pull into the lot up there andwe’ll explain.” Part of it, anyway.

Emma forced her attention from the rearview mirror with obvious effort. “This is part of your bean sidhe business? Who is that?” She glanced quickly at Tod again, as she drove slowly through the intersection.

Nash braced his arm on the back of my seat, steeling himself for something he obviously didn’t want to say. “Emma, this is my brother. Tod.” Calm flowed with his words, and I could tell the moment it hit Emma, because her shoulders relaxed, and her grip on the wheel loosened just a bit.

“You have a…Wait.” She turned the car smoothly into a small lot in front of a park full of preschoolers and their parents, then pulled into the first empty spot, facing the road. Emma cut the engine and twisted onto her knees to peer over the back of her seat. “You have a brother?” she said to Nash, after a quick glance at me for confirmation. No one from Eastlake High knew about Nash’s dead brother, because he and Harmony had moved—and changed schools—after the funeral two years earlier. “And he can…what? Teleport into strange cars? Is that a bean sidhe ability?”

“No…” I started, trying to decide how much to tell her. But then the reaper took that decision right out of my hands, in classic Tod-style.

“Okay, we’re kind of on a tight schedule here, so let’s get this over with….”

“Tod—” Nash snapped, but his brother held up one hand and rushed on before either of us could stop him.

“I’m a bean sidhe, just like Nash and Kaylee. Except that I’m dead. Teleportation—never really heard it called that—isn’t a bean sidhe ability. It’s a reaper ability. I’m a grim reaper. I can appear wherever I want, whenever I want, and I can choose who sees and hears me.” He hesitated, and I wondered if my face could possibly be as red as Nash’s. Or my eyes as wide as Emma’s.

“You’re Nash’s brother. And a grim reaper?” She blinked again, and I readied myself for hysterics, or fear, or laughter. But knowing Emma, I should have known better. “So you, what? Kill people? Did you kill me that day in the gym?” She clenched the headrest, her expression an odd mix of anger, awe, and confusion. But there was no disbelief. She’d seen and heard enough of the bizarre following her own temporary death that Tod’s admission obviously didn’t come as that much of a surprise.

Or maybe Nash’s Influence was still affecting her a little.

“No,” Tod shook his head firmly, but the corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. “I had nothing to do with that. I do kill people, then I reap their souls and take them to be recycled. But only people who are on my list.”