Deals with the devil, Barrons had recently reminded me, never went well. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “What?”

“Get me the Book, and I’ll get you your sister back.”

My heart skipped a beat. I held the phone away from my ear and stared at the receiver, as if seeking some kind of inspiration, or answer, or maybe just the courage to hang up the phone.

Your sister back. The words hung in the air.

Whatever I was looking for, I didn’t find it. I returned the phone to my ear. “The Book could bring Alina back from the dead?” I was chock-full of superstitions inspired by childhood fables; resurrecting the dead was always accompanied by gruesome caveats, and even more gruesome results. Surely something so evil couldn’t restore something so good.

“Yes.”

I wasn’t going to ask. I wasn’t. “Would she be the same as she was before? Not some scary zombie?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that, when you’re the one who killed her in the first place?”

“I didn’t kill her.”

“Maybe you didn’t do it yourself, but you sent them after her!”

“I wasn’t done with her.” There was the barest hesitation. “And I had no plans to kill her when I was.”

“Bull. She found you out. She followed you into the Dark Zone one day, didn’t she? She refused to help you anymore. And you killed her for it.” I was certain of it. I’d thought about it every night before I went to sleep, for months. It was the only conclusion that made sense of the voice mail message she’d left me, a few hours before she’d died. He’s coming, she’d said, I don’t think he’ll let me out of the country.

“You’ve felt the power of my coercion. I might have lost her willing cooperation, but I never needed it to begin with.” Imperious arrogance dripped from his voice, as he reminded me how easily he’d controlled me. No, he wouldn’t have needed her cooperation. With that terrible, will-stealing Voice, he could have made her do anything he wanted, anything at all.

My cell phone rang again.

“Answer it. Barrons hates waiting. Think about my offer.”

“How do you know Barrons?” I demanded.

The line was dead.

“Are you all right?” Barrons growled, when I answered my cell.

“Fine.”

“Was it him?”

“The great LM?” I said dryly. “Yes.”

“What did he offer you?”

“My sister back.”

Barrons didn’t say anything for a long moment. “And?”

I was quiet for an even longer moment. “I told him I’d think about it.”