“I’m telling the truth.” He grinned. “Pissing you off is a bonus.”

“Oh, you wanna see me mad?” Sabine returned his smile and shoved him back onto the mattress, then threw one leg over him, straddling him. My heart beat so hard it bruised my chest. I tried to pull away from Tod, but he held my hand tight and shook his head, like the ghost of relationships past, demanding I only watch.

Next, would we float through the open window?

Sabine stared down at him, her long hair half hiding them both. “You forget what happens when I lose my temper?” But from the way she was watching him, all flashing eyes and sly smile, I got the feeling she had a rather unconventional, hands-on approach to anger management.

“I haven’t forgotten anything, Bina.” Nash wrapped his hands around her wrists and gently pushed her back onto her side of the bed. “Including Kaylee. This isn’t gonna work if you can’t rein it in.”

“This is only gonna work if I don’t rein it in.”

“I’m serious.” Nash rolled onto his side, propped up on one elbow. “You should give Kaylee a chance. She knows what you are. She could be a good friend, if you’d let her. If you’d stop trying to scare the shit out of her every time you see her.”

Um…no, I could not be a good friend to a vengeful Nightmare. Had he lost his mind?

Sabine snorted. She actually snorted and somehow made it look endearing. “I don’t have to try to scare her. All I have to do is let go. The hard part is not scaring the shit out of everyone else. That took a lot of practice.”

I shot Tod a questioning glance. How much more of this do I need to see?

He just tossed his head toward the bed, where Sabine watched Nash like he was the only flicker of light in a very dark place.

Nash looked at Sabine like she was some complicated puzzle he was trying to solve, and I knew that look. He’d looked at me that way the first time he saw me sing for someone’s soul, before I knew I was a bean sidhe. He’d looked at me like that when I was the damsel he felt honor-bound to save from distress, whether I needed saving or not. I used to love that look.

Now I hated it.

“Sabine,” he said finally, when she showed no sign of breaking what was obviously a very comfortable silence. “Read me.”

“What?” She frowned, looking genuinely uncomfortable for the first time since Tod and I had entered the room. “No.”

“I want you to read my fear. For real. Go deep and take a look at what I’m really afraid of.”

Her brows furrowed over dark eyes. “Why?” Suspicion was thick in her voice now.

“I think it’ll help you understand.”

“What if I don’t want to understand?”

He leaned closer, looking right into her eyes. “Then you’re a coward,and I’m ashamed of you.”

Anger, ripe and bitter, passed over Sabine’s fine features and her frown deepened. “Now you’re trying to piss me off.”

“I’m throwing down a challenge. You used to love a challenge. Has that changed?”

A new smile crawled over her lips, slow and dark, like the gleam in her eyes. “Nothing’s changed. That’s what I keep trying to tell you.”

“Then read me.”

Sabine sat up, and Nash pushed himself upright to face her. “You want me to make it fun? Like we used to?”

I glanced at Tod again. How could having his worst fear read possibly be fun? But the reaper didn’t even look at me.

“Sabine…” Nash said, a very familiar warning in his voice.

She grinned, trying to make light of it, but mostly failing. “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”

But something told me I would be happy to blame her—if I had any clue what she was talking about.

“Fine. Give me your hand.”

Nash held out his hand like he’d shake hers, but instead of a formal hold, Sabine threaded her fingers between his and held their merged grip between them, knuckles pointed toward the ceiling.

I thought they’d close their eyes, but instead, Sabine leaned closer to him, like she was trying to see through his pupils and out the back of his head. For several seconds, they stayed just like that. Nash blinked several times, but the mara’s gaze was unwavering.

However, her hand was not. By the time she finally blinked and he closed his eyes, her hand was shaking against his. She pulled her fingers from his and wiped her palm on her pants, like their shared sweat was contaminated by the fear of whatever she’d read inside him.

“What did you see?” he asked, and this time he was the steady one.

“Kaylee…” she whispered, and I nearly pulled my hand from Tod’s in surprise.

Nash was afraid of me?

“You’re scared of losing her.” Sabine dropped her gaze, like it hurt too much to look at him. “You’re terrified of it. You dream about it, because that’s what he told you would happen. That demon. He said you’d lose her. That you weren’t good enough for her now. That you don’t deserve her. And you believe it. Your worst fear is that you’re not good enough for Kaylee. And that she knows it.”

My lips opened, and the breath I hadn’t known I was holding slipped silently into the room.

I glanced at Tod, and he nodded. That’s what he’d wanted me to see. Or at least something like that. Yet he didn’t look happy.

“That doesn’t make it any easier, you know,” Sabine said. She scooted away from him, but seemed unwilling to get off the bed. “Knowing that.”