“Avari?”

“He found the handcuff key, knocked my dad out, and left me this stupid, cryptic riddle about breaking a ‘fair maid.’ I’m on my way to Emma’s to check on her. So can you please call Sophie?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you right back.”

I got to Emma’s two minutes later, driving way over the suburban speed limit. There were two cars in the driveway and another parked at the curb, and I recognized them all. One was Emma’s, one her mother’s, and the third belonged to one of Em’s two older sisters. I saw no sign of Alec, or Avari, or evil of any kind.

I closed my car door softly and studied Emma’s house. The front rooms were dark, except for the lamp they always left on, and since I didn’t have a key, I wouldn’t be able to get in without waking someone up. But then, neither would Avari, unless Alec had some kind of walk-through-walls power I didn’t know about.

I practically tiptoed across the lawn and onto the front porch, where my hand hovered over the doorknob. An un locked door would mean that Avari had beat me there. But a locked door didn’t eliminate that possibility—he could have gone in through the backdoor or a window.

Holding my breath, I twisted the knob. It turned, and the door creaked open.

Uh-oh.

I stepped inside, and my blood rushed so fast the dimly lit living room seemed to swim around me. A few steps later, I could see down the hall, where a thin line of yellow light shone beneath the second door on the right. Emma’s room.

My sneakers made no sound on the carpet as I crept toward her door, and when I was close enough to touch it, I heard voices whispering from inside, one deep and soft, the other higher in pitch.

Wrapping determination around myself like a security blanket, I turned the knob and pushed the door all the way open. Then blinked in surprise.

Emma sat on her bed in a tank top and Tweety print pajama bottoms, her straight blond hair secured with an old scrunchy. Alec sat in her desk chair, pulled close to her nightstand. Neither of them looked surprised to see me.

“’Bout time!” Emma said, waving me inside. “Shut the door so we don’t wake my mom up.”

Bewildered, and more than a little suspicious, I closed the door, but hovered near it, unwilling to move too far from the exit until I was sure it was safe. I studied Alec, looking for any sign that he wasn’t…himself. “What color was my first bike?” I asked, and Emma laughed.

“You guys are obsessed with this game!”

But Alec knew it was no game. “White, with red ribbons,” he said, right on cue, and only then could I relax. Kind of.

“What’s going on?” My eyes narrowed as I ventured a little farther into the room. Even if he was Alec now, he’d been Avari when he planted those notes and left my house. Something felt wrong. How on earth had heexplained this to Emma?

But before either of them could answer, my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket and flipped it open when I saw Nash’s number. “Your cousin’s not a morning person,” he said, before I had a chance to say hi. “But she’s fine.”

“Thanks. I found Alec, and he and Em both seem okay. Do you think you could run over to my house and…look for that key?” Without it, I wasn’t sure how we’d ever get my father out of the cuffs. “If my dad wakes up, tell him I’ll be back in a few minutes, and I’m fine.”

“Yeah. See you in a few.”

I flipped my phone closed and slid it into my pocket, then looked up to find Emma watching me.

“Alec came to check on me,” she said, in answer to my question. “He said you’d be right behind him, and here you are. He brought ice cream, though.” She gestured to two spoons and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the nightstand. One of the very pints she’d left in my freezer, no doubt. “Just FYI, Kay, if you’re going to wake me up in the middle of the night for my own protection, then refuse to explain exactly what I’m in danger from, bringing ice cream is a good way to soothe my sleep-fuddled anger.”

“Huh?” Considering the time, my lack of sleep, and the fear-laced adrenaline still half buzzing in my system, that was as articulate a response as I could manage.

Alec leaned back in his chair. “Emma, would you mind bringing another spoon?”

Em frowned, then glanced from me to Alec. “You know, if there’s something you don’t want me to hear, you can just say, ‘Em, there’s something we don’t want you to hear.’”

He smiled, and I could practically see my best friend melt beneath the full power of his attention. “Em, there are things we don’t want you to hear. Also, we need another spoon.”

Emma sighed, but stood. “Whisper fast,” she said, then headed into the hall.

“There are notes all over my house and car from Avari,” I whispered as softly as I could, the minute her footsteps faded. “What the hell happened?”

“It sounds like he found the key.” Alec sat up straight, facing me as I sank onto Emma’s bed. “I was here, alone, not ten minutes ago. Then she came in with two spoons. Evidently he brought her ice cream, but I’m not fool enough to believe that’s the only reason for this little excursion.”

“You told her I’d be coming, too?”

Alec shrugged. “He must have said that…before.”

“So…he left notes for me and brought ice cream for Emma.” I closed my eyes, trying to think through exhaustion, anger, and an encroaching headache. “How did you get rid of him?”