LITMIR.BIZ

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changed.”

      I bit my lower lip, cutting off a groan of frustration. “What does that mean?”

      Springs creaked over the line as he settled deeper into whatever he was sitting on, and I could almost taste his satisfaction seeping through the earpiece. “I agreed to look at the list in exchange for your last name. I’ve done my part but no longer need the agreed-upon reimbursement. Fortunately for you, I’m willing to renegotiate.”

      “What do you want?” I asked, pleased to hear that suspicion was just as thick in my voice as delight was in his.

      “Your address.”

      “No.” I didn’t even have to think about it. “I don’t want you sneaking around here spying on me.” Or revealing himself to Sophie, whose parents didn’t want her exposed to this brave new Netherworld.

      “Oh, come on, Kaylee. I wouldn’t do that.”

      I rolled my eyes, though he couldn’t see me. “How do I know that? You were in Nash’s house tonight.”

      “That’s different.”

      “How is that different?” I tugged my covers up to my waist and let my head fall back against my headboard.

      “It.doesn’t matter.”

      “Tell me.”

      He hesitated, and hinges squealed softly again on his end of the connection. “I knew Nash a long time ago. And sometimes I just…don’t want to be alone.” The vulnerability in his voice resonated in my heart, only further confusting me. But then his actual words sank in.

      “You’ve done this before? What, do you hang out there?”

      “No. It’s not like that. Kaylee.you can’t tell him!” In spite of the earnestness of his plea, I knew Tod wasn’t afraid of Nash. He was afraid of embarrassment. I guess some things don’t change in the afterlife.

      “I can’t not tell him. Tod, he’s supposed to be your friend.” At least he used to be. “He has a right to know you’ve been spying on him.”

      “I’m not spying on him. I don’t care what he’s doing, and I’ve never—” He stopped, and his voice grew hard. “Look, swear you won’t tell him, and I’ll tell you what I found out about the list.”

      Surprise lifted my eyebrows halfway up my forehead. He was willing to pay me to keep his little secret? Terrific. But. “Why would you trust me not to tell?”

      “Because Nash said you don’t lie.”

      Great. A grim reaper was holding me to my honor. “Fine. I swear I won’t tell him in exchange for what you found out about the list. But you have to swear to stay out of his house.”

      For a moment, there was only silence over the line—Tod obviously wrestling with his decision. What could be so important about hanging out at Nash’s house? Why on earth would he need to go back?

      “Deal,” he said finally, and I exhaled silently in relief. For some reason, I was sure he would keep his word too.

      “Good.” I tossed back my covers. I was awake, so I might as well be up. “So did you get a look at the lists?”

      “I caught a bit of a break there. My boss was out of the office for nearly an hour dealing with some kind of complication in the northern end of the district. And since I happen to know his password—”

      “How do you ‘happen’ to know his password?” I sank into my desk chair and plucked a blue metallic pen from a clay jar I’d made in Girl Scouts a decade earlier, then began doodling on a purple sticky pad.

      “Last month he accidentally locked himself out of the system, and as the only reaper in the office who actually lived during the digital age, I’m kind of the de facto tech guy.”

      Oh. Weird, but I’d take it. “So what about the lists?”

      “They weren’t there.”

      “What?” I dropped the pen, anger blazing a white-hot trail up my spine, splintering to burn down to the tips of my fingers. I’d just bargained for nothing? Sworn to keep a secret from Nash only to find out that Tod couldn’t get a look at the lists?

      “The names. They weren’t there,” he clarified, and relief drenched most of my irritation. Followed quickly by renewed fear on behalf of every girl I knew. “You were right,” Tod continued. “Not one of those girls was supposed to die.”

      AFTER TALKING TO TOD, I couldn’t sleep. I needed to tell my uncle that my suspicion had been confirmed: one of Tod’s fellow reapers was working overtime on some unauthorized soul-snatching. But I saw no reason to wake him after two hours of sleep, even for news of this magnitude. None of the other girls had died before noon, so if the pattern persisted, we had a while before the next one would die.

      I would tell my uncle and father at the same time, so I wouldn’t have to say it twice. And in the morning, so that hopefully I could avoid having to explain how a grim reaper got my phone number and why he’d called me in the middle of the night.

      But telling Nash couldn’t wait.

      My pulse thudded as I scrolled through my contacts list for his name, my heart heavy with what I had to tell him and with what I’d sworn not to tell him. I firmly believed that keeping secrets wasn’t good for any relationship; my family was living proof of that. But Tod had sworn not to go back to Nash’s house, so his secret was now harmless, and thus more than worth the lives that might be saved by me keeping it to myself. Right?

      The phone rang three times in my ear, with agonizing slowness. Yet part of me hoped he wouldn’t answer. That I could put off telling Nash for a few more hours too.

      He answered in the middle of the fourth ring.

      “Hello?” Nash sounded as tired as I felt.

      “Hey, it’s me.” Too nervous to sit now, I stood to pace the length of my bed.

      “Kaylee?” He was ins tantly alert, an ability I truly envied. “What’s wrong?”

      I plucked a round glass paperweight from my dresser and rolled it between my palms as I talked, my head crooked at a painful angle with the slim phone pinched between my shoulder and my ear. “The girls weren’t on the list.”

      “They weren’t? How do you know—” His breath hissed in angrily, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the explosion. “That bastard! He found you?”

      “Just my phone number.”

      “How? ”

      “I …you’ll have to ask him.” I’d sworn not to tell Nash, but I wasn’t going to lie.

      “No problem.” Something scratched against the mouthpiece as he covered it, but I still heard him shout. “Come on out, Tod!”

      “You knew he was there?” I couldn’t quite squelch a smile, even knowing how angry he was.

      “He’s not half as stealthy as he thinks he is,” Nash growled.

      I set the glass ball on my dresser and took my phone back in my hand, turning to avoid a glimpse of my bedhead in the mirror. “Neither are you. Your mom’s going to wake up if you don’t quit yelling.”

      “She’s working eleven to seven at the hospital tonight.”

      “Well, I’m sure Tod’s gone now.” Surely he hadn’t called me from Nash’s house….

      A door squealed open over the line, and floorboards creaked beneath Nash’s feet. “He’s still here.”

      “How do you know?”

      “I just do.” Another pause, and this time he didn’t bother to cover the phone, because he was done shouting. “I’m not playing, Tod. If you don’t show yourself in five seconds, I’m

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