“That is a very swift way for one or all of us to get killed,” said Rastin.

Scowling, I put my hands on my hips. “So, we’re not going back in?”

“Oh, we will go in,” said Rastin. “Two of us must, at least. And one tonight. But I would prefer to do so more covertly than your own plan suggests.”

“You want to try going back in remotely?” I guessed. “And what exactly is that going to accomplish?”

“If we’re lucky,” said Rastin, “a conversation with Stephanie.”

“I’m all for catching up,” said Patrick, who leaned one shoulder against a chifforobe. “But what good is that supposed to do her or us?”

“Stephanie can do what none of us can,” said Rastin. “At least not without forfeiting our lives.”

“Which is?” asked Charlotte.

“The heart,” I said, interrupting. “You want her to be the one to implant the heart.”

“We need her to implant it,” corrected Rastin, “or else convince him to do it himself.”

“No way,” I said.

Rastin spread his hands. “I am ready to hear your alternate plan.”

“I have one,” said Wes. “I call it ‘How about We Just Open Up a Door with Your Slice of Stolen Soul, Smuggle ’Er Out, and Run’ ?”

“Emphasis on ‘run,’ ” added Patrick.

“Not bad,” Rastin said. “If we are successful, Stephanie will be free to return to her house later, when her father is acquitted of murder.”

To that, we all went quiet. Rastin had done his homework.

“Fine,” I said. “Say we do things your way. Say we tell Stephanie what she needs to do and she’s somehow able to do it. Then what?”

“Then we go get her,” he said. “So long as he has no heart to focus his soul, we have no chance of casting that soul into the hereafter. It should be clear to you by now that Stephanie can only be free when Erik is.”

“I don’t like it,” I said.

“I am already skeptical about our ability to come close enough to destroy his heart,” replied Rastin. “If you’re suggesting one among us also implant the heart beforehand, then I know we will fail. As Wes so acutely observed yesterday, Erik, given his current state, is unlikely to submit himself to such an operation.”

“Acutely,” Wes said. “Did you all hear that? Yesterday I was annoying, but today? Today I’m acute.”

“So what makes you think Stephanie could do it?” I asked.

“Short of letting her go,” said Rastin, “I think he would do anything to please her. Even that. At the very least, it is worth a shot.”

The silence in the room thickened with that, the tension radiating from each of us.

“You are her friends,” Rastin went on to say. “Your willingness to rush to her aid suggests that you share a strong bond. It should not be unimaginable that Stephanie would be willing to meet us halfway.”

I took a sharp, quick step toward Rastin, but Patrick moved to block my path.