She cupped his cheek. God, she was glad to see him. “Yes, Kester. It’s me.”

He smiled weakly. Then his body spasmed, eyes rolling back into his head. He’d passed out. Apparently regaining your soul wasn’t easy on the nervous system.

The room suddenly went cold, and Ursula looked up. They were alone. Emerazel, Nyxobas, Abrax, and Bael had all disappeared. She gotten everything she’d wanted, but an uneasy feeling still whispered over her skin. Why had Emerazel agreed to that deal? Why give up a perfectly good hellhound for half the year, just to get the soul of a pop-star and to save a fae girl she could not care less about? It didn’t make any sense.

A rhythmic sound vibrated through the walls—the drumming of hundreds of feet. The fae soldiers must be looking for them. Whatever Emerazel’s motives, Ursula didn’t have time to unravel them now.

Straining her thigh muscles, she dragged Kester into the center of the sigil Nyxobas had lit on the floor. She held Kester’s limp body, intoning the sigil spell, and with a scorching heat they burned into ash.

Chapter 45

Ursula hugged her coat around her, stalking over the icy pier to Kester’s tugboat. Cold wind nipped at her face as she rapped on his door.

Kester pulled it open and smiled, his cheek dimpling. “Ursula. Did you miss me?”

“Terribly. It’s been at least eight hours since I dragged your body from the fae realm.”

He arched an eyebrow. “And you’ve come back for more of my body? In that case, come inside.”

She rolled her eyes, stepping onto the boat. Her eyes flicked to the floor, where blood had soaked into the wood. “Sorry about the blood stains on the floor.”

“Was that your work? I didn’t know you had such a vicious side.”

“I did let him live, which was more than he was going to do for me.” Pulling off her coat, she plopped onto his green sofa. Tonight, she was back in her spring colors—sky blue and amber. She needed a night off from being a lethal, blood-soaked assassin.

Kester collected a bottle of whiskey from one of his bookshelves, and began pouring it into two glasses. “You impress me. Did you come by to celebrate your first victory?”

“I wanted to see how you were doing. Zee has been in my apartment all day pounding champagne and ranting about shadow demons. She seems a little on edge.”

He joined her on the sofa, handing her a tumbler. “That’s just how she is.”

“And I don’t understand the deal that Emerazel made with Nyxobas. Why would Emerazel want to give up a hellhound for half the year?”