The soul hung in the air for just a second, and when I held the dagger up near it, the soul soaked into the hellion-forged steel on its own. To my immense relief.

I was about to blink out of reaper headquarters and into my room to wake Emma up and tell her the good news, when I heard voices headed my way through the door. Very familiar voices...

“Any leads?” Levi asked, and my heart nearly ruptured my sternum in an attempt to flee my body. If I didn’t leave immediately, I would get caught. But before I could go, Tod answered his boss’s question.

“No, but I still have a few more people to talk to. Have any of the souls turned up yet?”

“No. He’s either selling them outside our district, or he’s holding on to them. I’ve alerted the managers of all the closest districts, but no one’s seen or heard from him so far.”

They were talking about Thane. They had to be. Tod was tracking him. Was that why he’d been out of reach so much recently? Why hadn’t he told me he was hunting down my mother’s murderer? My murderer. I would have helped!

But then, that’s probably exactly why he hadn’t told me. To keep me from putting myself in danger. Tod never stood in my way, but he didn’t go out of his way to show me new risks I could take, either. And I couldn’t really blame him for that.

When the footsteps got too close to Levi’s office, I blinked out reluctantly, wishing I could have heard the rest of the conversation.

In my room, I set the broken dagger on top of my dresser, then turned on my bedside lamp and shook my best friend’s shoulder.

“Em. Wake up.”

“Mmmm?” Her eyes fluttered open, then closed, then opened again. She pushed thin brown hair back from her face and sat up slowly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I sank onto the edge of my own bed, facing her. “Nothing new, anyway. I got it.” I couldn’t help smiling from ear to ear. “I got a soul for Traci’s baby.”

“You did? How?” Em was wide-awake now. She tossed back her covers and crossed her legs beneath her on the mattress. “Where is it?”

I pointed at my dresser. “It’s in the dagger. I kind of...took it from Levi’s office. He doesn’t know yet.” I was hoping he wouldn’t figure out the incubus soul was missing for a very long time, and that when he did, I wouldn’t be the first suspect to come to mind. Hopefully lots of people were envious of his “conversation piece.”

Em stared at the dagger, which was thin in profile from across the room. “How? Whose soul is it?”

“That’s the best part. It’s Beck’s. Traci’s baby can inherit his father’s soul! No one else has to die so he can live!”

But Em’s expression fell suddenly, andI knew what she was thinking, because I’d had a very similar thought. “Until he needs to feed.” She suddenly seemed much less sure of what we’d agreed to without Traci’s emotions there to syphon. “How many will die then?”

“None.” I kicked off my shoes and folded my feet beneath me. “I can’t let that happen. I’m hoping Traci’s baby will be like Sabine, in a way.” In several ways, actually. More ways than I really cared to think about. “He’ll have to learn to eat without killing, but first he’ll have to learn to control his charm long enough to find girls who actually, legitimately want to be with him. Maybe if we help Traci raise him—teach him—he’ll be able to control his appetite like Sabine does. Maybe even  better than Sabine does.”

Maybe he wouldn’t have to actually touch anyone to feed....

Tod didn’t think that was much of a possibility, but he hadn’t called it an impossibility, either. And I was personally acquainted with more living, breathing impossibilities than I could count at the moment. My very existence was one of them. As was Tod’s. And it was worth a shot, if we were willing to make sure the teen incubus didn’t accidentally hurt anyone while he was learning his limits.

“So...how do we...make it happen? How do we get the soul from your dagger into the baby?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think we can do that until he’s actually born. Very shortly after he’s born. And I’m really hoping that Tod and I—” or my dad or Nash or my uncle “—can just install the soul in him, like we did for you.”

Maybe it would be that easy.

Please let it be that easy...

“So, can I tell Traci?”

“No! She doesn’t remember any of what we told her, remember? We’ll have to make another disclosure, without Harmony’s forget-me water, later on. Closer to the birth. For now, no one else needs to know about this. But I had to tell you. I couldn’t let you worry about your nephew’s soul for the next six months or so.” Especially considering that she was still going to be worrying about her sister’s health that whole time.

* * *

Wednesday at school was blissfully uneventful—for the first time all week, no hellions showed up at Eastlake. Sabine seemed to be playing nice for once, only feeding Sophie’s and Emma’s fears as necessary, careful not to take things too far, at least that I could tell.

Tod showed up early for lunch, so we had some alone time in the quad, visible to no one, while we waited for the rest of the group to show up. And I realized as we ate that it had been nearly twenty-four hours since the Hudson brothers had been intentionally snippy with one another.