Soul Screamers, Volume 1

“Yeah, I better go.” I stepped away from Nash as Regan opened her arms to hug me.

“Thank you, Kaylee,” she whispered into my ear, as she squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe. “Thank you so much.” She sniffed, and her next words sounded thick, as if she were holding back more tears. “I won’t forget what you did for me. What you helped Addy do.”

I hugged her back, because I didn’t know what to say.

No problem? But it was a problem. I’d nearly died.

Anyone else would have done the same? But that wasn’t true, either.

I’d helped Addy and Regan because I couldn’t not help them. Because in most cases, I believe that people deserve a second chance. And because I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d stood by and let them both die soulless, when I could have helped.

Finally, Regan stepped back and looked into my eyes, her own still brimming with tears. “I want you to know that I understand what Addy gave up for me. And I’m going to do my best to deserve it.”

“I know you will.” With that, I squeezed her hand, then turned toward Tod, who stared at the coffin from beneath the skeletal branches of a broad oak. I needed to talk to him before I left, because I wasn’t sure when I’d see him next.

Or if Nash could see him at that moment. But then his hand stiffened on my arm when he saw where I was leading him, and I knew he could see his brother. “Kaylee, do we have to do this now? He’s really hurting.”

“So is Regan,” I pointed out, and my free hand slid into the pocket of my formal black coat, bought just for Addy’s funeral. “I have to know if he did this.”

“Does it really matter?” Nash asked, and I looked up at him to find his eyes swirling slowly, though I couldn’t quite identify the emotion. “What’s done is done, and justice isn’t always pretty. And, anyway, do you really want to know?”

“Yes. I need to hear it.” Because part of me couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.

Nash frowned, but tagged along. When we stopped beneath Tod’s tree, Nash’s body shielding us from the stragglers still loitering around the coffin, I pulled from my pocket a news clipping folded in half. “Do you know anything about this?”

Tod took the clipping and unfolded it. He couldn’t have read more than the headline before handing it back to me, his face carefully blank, though rage churned violently in the cerulean depths of his eyes. The fact that I could see it surely meant he harbored it deep inside his soul. And that thought scared me.

“Kaylee, don’t ask questions you don’t want answered,” the reaper said, his voice harder and more humorless than I’d ever heard it.

“You killed him,” I accused, glancing at the headline for at least the fiftieth time.





BILLIONAIRE CEO MISSING; SISTER FEARS THE WORST





“No. Death is too good for John Dekker,” Tod said without a hint of remorse. His ruthless expression gave me chills.

“Where is he?” Nash asked, when he realized his brother wasn’t going to elaborate.

“I dropped him off in Avari’s office.”

My heart jumped into my throat, and suddenly I could hear my own pulse. “You stranded him in the Netherworld?”

The reaper shrugged. “A live plaything is rare on that side. They won’t kill him.”

“They’ll do worse,” I spat.

Tod cocked one eyebrow at me. “Does he deserve any less?”

I had to think about that. John Dekker had been responsible for dozens of teenagers losing their souls, and he’d worked to keep Addy and Regan from reclaiming theirs. Did he deserve any less than eternal torture?

Probably not. But that wasn’t my call to make. The very thought of wielding so much power terrified me.

Though, it didn’t seem to have bothered Tod.

“I can’t believe you did that....”

“And yet you haven’t asked me to bring him back.” He ran one hand through his hair. “I think you have no trouble believing it. I think you wish you’d done it yourself.”

“No.” I shook my head, bothered by the spark of anger raging unchecked inside him. Was this why my father didn’t want me hanging out with a reaper? Because, as he’d always insisted, Tod was dangerous?

I shook that thought off. It was too much to think about with Addy not yet in the ground, and my failure on her behalf haunting me. I took Nash’s hand again and shoved the clipping deep into my pocket. “I have to go,” I said, already turning toward my dad’s car.

“Kaylee, just say it,” Tod called after me, and I was glad no one else could hear him. Not even Nash, this time. I could tell from the relief on his face—he was happy to be walking away from his brother. “Say the word, and I’ll bring him back. I’ll rescue him from never-ending torture. It’s your call....”