had always wanted me to do.
Walk away.
“I think,” I said slowly. “If you can find time to stop screwing around with the living, you can help me.”
He sat up, smiling, and rubbed his hands together. “You need my incredibly talented and genius-like mind, of course. Where do we start?”
I blinked. “That easy?”
“Well, I do sort of owe you. What are we doing?”
“We need to find a way to get rid of Maeve. And I mean for good.”
Emotions unfolded across his face. Shock dissolved into contemplation. “You mean—”
“Gone. Whatever that means. I couldn’t care less. But preferably Hell if we can get Easton on board. I don’t know, though. We’re not on the best terms right now.”
Scout stood up and started pacing, the wheels in his head that had already achieved the impossible beginning to spin. “Don’t worry about Easton.”
I nodded, glad I didn’t have to ask.
“It’s possible. I’ve thought about it before, but it would mean going to extremes, and unless you could get her right where you wanted her, it would never work,” he explained, setting me up for disappointment, if I had to guess. There was no way Maeve would ever trust either of us enough to get her to play along.
“How?”
Scout leaned against the door and looked me over, then shrugged as if it were obvious. “We have to kill her.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s already dead, boy genius.”
“Not when she’s in a host body, she’s not.”
Disbelief rippled through me as each of his words sunk in. He was right. But that also meant-“But you’d have to kill the host for that to work, and even then, there’s no way to guarantee she wouldn’t get away.”
“Not if there were a soul there to guide the original one back into its body and another to take her to Hell,” he countered with a smile. “And I’m guessing with all of the nasty tricks Maeve’s been up to, Easton would be the one sent to collect. We’d just be speeding the process up a bit.”
He had no idea just how willing Easton would be to take Maeve out of this picture. Because if Maeve was no longer a threat, there would be no reason for me to be with Emma anymore. And as much as it hurt, I was finally ready to make that compromise.
Hope surged through me. God, this could happen. This could actually work. And he was right. With everything Maeve had done, she’d sealed her fate. There would be no white light waiting for her when she exited the body. No Inbetween, no Heaven. The only thing waiting for her was a one-way ticket to Hell and Easton’s smiling face to take her there. And when he came for someone, he never left empty-handed.
Scout interrupted my thoughts. “It would take two of us for sure.”
“Us?”
“I’m bored as hell. You don’t think I’d let you go it alone, do you? Besides, you need me.” He went to dig in the junk pile, retrieving the unknown car part, then put it back where it belonged under the hood.
“Finn.”
We both looked up at the sound of Easton’s voice. I gritted my teeth. “I haven’t been out long enough to screw up.”
Scout punched me in the arm. “Way to piss off the missing piece to our puzzle.”
Easton ignored Scout. “That’s not what this is about.”
I studied the panicked look in his violet eyes and shot up. “What’s happened?”
“It’s…it’s Emma.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You followed her?”
He groaned and shoved his scythe in its holster. “Fine. Yes. I watched her and Cash sit in her room like awkward little kids while you were in Hell. I’m not as big of an asshole as you think.”
I raised a brow.
“Something bad’s going to happen,” he said. “I just came from there. It’s Maeve. She’s there, and there’s no talking her down this time.”
I didn’t need to hear anymore. Fear pierced my chest. Throbbed in my ribs. I looked at Easton and he nodded. In a flash I was gone.
Chapter 35
Emma Two days.
It had been two whole days since Finn had kissed the breath out of me and started to tell me he loved me. That kiss…that moment…it had been earth-shattering. Reckless. Perfect. How could he stay away that long after what happened between us?
I pulled the milk out of the fridge and set it on the counter next to the flour, sugar, and bag of chocolate chips. After crossing that line, feeling him touch me, he was all I could think about. All I could dream about. Without him…I felt like I was in the dark. Like I couldn’t see what was coming, and I hated it. What if something happened to him? He’d touched me and he wasn’t supposed to. What did they do to souls who broke the rules?
I stared at the ingredients in front of me, not really seeing them. Seeing Finn’s face instead. Why did I let him touch me? Why did I touch him back? If he was okay, he would have come back by now.
My mind wouldn’t stop. It was out of control, thinking about what could have happened to Finn, not to mention the fact that a soul could even possess a body like that. Could Maeve do it, too?
I grabbed the phone off of the wall and called Cash, needing to hear someone’s voice. Needing to not be alone right now. If I was alone, my thoughts were going to eat me alive.
It rang and rang. When it went to voice mail I hung up. Crap. He was probably still freaked out about our “kiss.” I slid down the kitchen wall, careful not to mess with my stitches, and buried my face in my hands, trying to make sense of the screwed-up mess that my life had become. It felt like a tangled, silver web I couldn’t escape, and the fact that Maeve was still out there was the spider coming to finish me off.
“Emma, I’m home!”
I jerked, startled, when Mom stumbled into the kitchen laughing, Parker on her heels. A gust of cold air swirled into the house, stirring the edge of Mom’s red dress, as he closed the front door shut behind him.
“Hey. You’re home early.” It was only eight, far earlier than they typically came home, but I wasn’t complaining. At least I wouldn’t be alone. I hopped up, wincing when I tweaked the stitches in my neck and leg a bit too far, and headed for the refrigerator. “Did you guys get a chance to eat? I can make something if you want.”
“We had dinner,” Mom practically purred. She grabbed Parker’s shirt and hauled him closer, kissing him like she wanted to taste his tonsils, then broke away and ran her fingers through his hair.
“I think we’re more interested in dessert.”
My mouth fell open. “Mom, gross!”
Parker held her at arm’s length, his eyes wide. “Okay, sweetheart. I think you had a little too much wine.” He smoothed a hand down her arm and gave me an apologetic smile. “Looks like I should have cut her off earlier.”
“How are you doing, by the way?” Parker continued. “I want you to know we’re not going to stop until we catch that guy. Everyone in the department is putting in their time on this one. We’ll catch him soon, Emma. I promise.”
Mom snorted and muttered something under her breath, and both Parker and I frowned. I’d seen Mom tipsy before, but never rude like this. Parker helped Mom slide onto a barstool and kept his hand on her shoulder to
