“You first.” A tentacle slithered past his foot, headed in my direction from the crowd at his back, and I had to concentrate to still my pounding heart before he heard that evidence of my terror. “And that’s only my first demand.” Stand strong, Kaylee. I couldn’t afford to let him see anything but confidence. And anger. “You’re not getting what you want until I have everything I want. Starting with my father’s return.”

“Immediately,” Tod said from my side. “Unharmed.”

Avari lifted one dark brow. “Even I cannot undo what has been done to the living. But if you’d like me to kill him, I can then return his undead form to its previous glory. Of course, he would have to remain here....”

“No. Send him back as unharmed as possible, physically, psychologically, mentally, and in any other states of health I may be forgetting.” That tentacle still moved in my peripheral vision, but I resisted the urge to actually look at it. “And I want your word that you won’t try to hurt him again. Ever.”

Odd breathy titters and deep beastly grunts echoed from the crowd at the hellion’s back, and another chill ran through me when I realized I was hearing monstrous sounds of amusement.

“You aren’t in the position to make so many demands, Ms. Cavanaugh.”

“The hell I’m not. I am in possession of my own soul, and we both know you’ll do anything to get it. So give me your word, or I’m out of here.”

“Little bean sidhe, your lies are transparent.” Avari was on the move again, pacing in front of his assembled audience, stepping over tails and through trails of sludge I hoped never to identify, and I could no longer ignore the dozens of eyes, ears, and assorted snouts and muzzles aimed my way. “You would never abandon your father to torture and eventual death. To be followed by yet more torture. I don’t understand that about you, but I don’t doubt it in the slightest.”

“I never said I’d abandon him. But if I surrender without your word, you’ll torture him anyway, which means I’m better off retreating and regrouping.”

Avari scowled. I could practically see him searching for a loophole in what I’d told him to swear. He wanted my soul, most of all, but if he could find a way to keep my father, he would. And if he got Tod in the bargain, too, well...he was a hellion of greed.

But I’d left no wiggle room.

“It’s your turn to talk,” Tod said when several seconds had elapsed in pensive, angry silence from the hellion. “Negotiation is like playing tennis with words instead of balls. I thought you’d be better at this, considering your apparent lack of balls.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or tell Tod to quit poking the lion with a stick.

Avari’s blank gaze narrowedon him, and the hellion gestured to a nearby cluster of those weird candles. “Human fat puts off a nice glow, don’t you think?”

I stared at the fiery, viscous substance, fresh horror crawling beneath my skin.

Human fat. Taken from human beings. Dead humans, hopefully, but thanks to Avari’s fondness for torture, I couldn’t be sure of that.

“Take a nice, long look at your future, reaper. You’ll soon be burning as fuel for hundreds of tiny fires.”

Tod laughed out loud. “If that’s your way of saying I’m hot, rest assured, I already know.” He spread his arms, inviting Avari and his monstrous court to look him over. “But I’m going to have to keep lighting up the room with my dazzling personality, because you couldn’t scrape enough fat off me to fill even one of your sick-ass human candles. And, based on the crowd behind you, I’m guessing most of your friends look better in the dark anyway.”

The hellion’s eyes narrowed. His rage-filled voice slid over me like a blade under light pressure, constantly threatening to draw blood. “Someday soon, reaper, your mouth will be the source of your own destruction.”

“That does seem likely, doesn’t it?” Tod glanced at me and shrugged. “Until then, it remains a source of my own amusement.”

“So are you ready to send my father back, or should I pack up my soul and go home?”

Avari’s gaze fell on me with malevolent focus, and I remembered every time he’d come after me. Every life he’d destroyed to get to me. He wouldn’t stop until he had what he wanted, and when I slipped through his grip again this time, he would only get hungrier. Angrier. More desperate, but no less focused.

His rage made him more dangerous. Mine tended to make me stupid. Ira was right about that.

“Fine. Once we’ve come to an agreement, your father will suffer no further and I will return him to the human world immediately—after I take possession of your soul.”

If this were a real negotiation, I would have argued. “Fine. And you will have no further contact with him, nor attempt to harm him in any way or bring him to the Netherworld, through any means, including but not limited to force, threat, or coercion, personally or through a third party, ever again.”

“Wow.” Tod whistled. “Where’d you learn all that lawyer-speak?”

“Internet user license agreements. They’re almost as hard to navigate as the Netherworld,” I said, and Tod chuckled. “Avari? Give me your word, or this discussion is over.”

The hellion’s jaw tightened, a surprisingly human reaction. “I do so swear. Now hand over your soul.”

“I’m not finished.”