She’d assumed the heavy sack contained cheap stones used for making inexpensive amulets or fetishes. But when she entered the workroom, Aziel’s chatter insisted she open the bag.

Have I been doing it wrong all along? she wondered, thinking on how Father Ursu had given her the bowl of salt the night she searched for Elena, and how Aziel had tossed those grains to the floor, too, subtly telling her she was to form a protective circle using them.

Aisling rose long enough to find a container, a can that had once contained peaches. She dumped the collection of polished stones it held on to the workbench, couldn’t stop herself from remembering how she’d returned from her unwilling Ghost trip into the spiritlands to find herself in this room, and how Zurael helped her to the kitchen, fed her peaches by hand. It was the beginning of her downfall, her seduction.

Aziel chattered urgently. He tossed more salt onto the floor, his movements shifting from playfulness to the beginnings of agitation, hinting that his uncharacteristic show of affection toward Nicholette was more than a means of communicating to Aisling that she should agree to search for Nicholas.

She knelt and filled the can full of salt then took her place on the dirt in the middle of the room. The ferret scrambled onto her lap. But when she would have traced protective sigils in the dirt as she cast a circle in salt, Aziel went completely still-his signal for her to stop and think, to consider past lessons-and she understood she needed to duplicate what she’d done the night she searched for Elena.

Do not summon me.

Zurael’s earlier warning, the promise of death she’d read in his eyes, made her heart race just as surely as did the knowledge that she’d encounter another dark priest tonight. Only a lifetime of trusting Aziel gave her the courage to allow the spirit winds to rush through her, to pull her into the world of the dead.

When the ghost winds settled, Aisling welcomed the gray nothingness around her, the calm stillness requiring no action, no decision, no payment. It could last seconds, minutes, hours if she let it, and a part of her wanted to let it go on, but instead she lifted her hand and touched the necklace she’d gotten from Nicholette, let her fingers caress the entwined lovers carved from jasper.

Gray swirled and parted, allowing a familiar figure to step through, though it wasn’t the one Aisling expected. Sinead’s husky laugh filled the space around them, became the purr of a predator. “You’d prefer John?” she asked, touching the scarf tied around her neck, stroking the instrument of her death as she lightly tapped the crop she carried against her leg. “Oh, he’s dabbled in the sex trade, if you can call taking money so guardsmen can have a little sport on their days off being part of the pleasure business.”

Sinead glided forward, leather and perfume, crackling dominance. “Umm, a natural submissive,” she said, circling Aisling, crowding her, making Aisling self-conscious of her nakedness in the ghostlands. “You’d be a fun one to train, but I don’t think that’s why you’re here. Am I right?”

Aisling took the necklace off and held it between them. “I’m searching for a missing sex witch,” she said, and the spirit winds rose, shimmered over the jasper and made it appear as though the man and woman writhed, their bodies glistening with sweat as they fucked.

Sinead licked her lips. “What a temptation. Who is she?”

“The witch I’m looking for is named Nicholas. This is his sister’s necklace.”

“A pity.” Sinead tapped the crop against the leather of her pants. “A pity it’s the brother and not the sister. But better for you.” She closed her hand around the lovers trapped in jasper. Her eyes lost focus until a sly smile formed. “Oh my, this is a delicious turn of events. Karmic fate for those who have the luxury of believing in such things. I can take you to him. If we hurry you might even arrive before he’s welcomed to this world.” Sinead released the necklace and again licked her lips, made a show of caressing Aisling with her eyes. “It will, of course, cost you, and even here my time is valuable.”

Aisling steeled herself against reacting to the blatant display. It was part of the bargaining process, something she’d learned early on. And because she knew that only those who lived fully in this realm could conceal themselves in clothing, she didn’t wish to look down and find herself wearing it.

Sinead circled. Tapped the crop lightly on her leg. “I could do so much with you if you put yourself in my hands for training. Men and women alike would line up, all vying for the privilege of hearing you call them Master.” She stopped at Aisling’s side, her breath a cold whisper across bare flesh. “Or have you already been claimed? Shown the pleasures of being submissive?”

Zurael’s image came to mind before Aisling could prevent it. Her body responded instantly, tightening her nipples and sending heat coiling through her belly.

Sinead moved around to stand in front of Aisling. She shifted her attention to Aziel, for the first time acknowledging she could see him. “Too bad you’re already claimed, but not by this one I don’t think.”

Aisling slipped Nicholette’s necklace over her head. She wondered if Sinead recognized what Aziel would be if he took his true form.

Sinead’s eyes lingered on the jasper amulet before moving to the pouch containing the fetishes, then abruptly lifting to Aisling’s face. She tapped the crop lightly against the palm of her hand, the sound rhythmic, like a clock ticking away the final moments of Nicholas’s life.

“Very well, my price. I will lead you to the sex witch Nicholas. In exchange you will bring Elena to me after she meets her death.”

Aziel’s sharp claws dug into Aisling’s bare shoulder, urging her to hurry while also warning her to be cautious. She shivered, recognizing both trap and the high cost of the favor.

“You will take me to Nicholas as quickly as possible, before he can be killed?”

Sinead closed her hand around the end of the crop, slid it back and forth through the fist of her fingers, mimicking the sex act. “Yes, I’ll concede that point.”

Her smile was sharp, her eyes hard. “I won’t yield on the other demand, so don’t waste your time-or what little of the witch’s that remains-in trying to put limitations and restrictions on the task I want you to perform. In my own fashion I love Elena, as one does a well-trained and obedient pet. Bring her to me in death and I will take you to the witch in time for you to call on another to save his life.”

Promise me you’ll be careful.

I will be.

But the thundering race of Aisling’s heart made a lie of her words. What Sinead asked was outwardly simple, but could ultimately cost Aisling more than she could afford to pay. There was no way of knowing, in this moment, who might claim Elena’s soul at death, where Elena’s spirit might go when she entered the ghostlands.

Aisling shivered. In her mind’s eye she saw Nicholette’s fear for her brother, and she ached for her. But to risk so much for a stranger… She wavered, torn, also seeing the images of her family’s future captured on a slate of blood. Only slowly did she become aware of the tension vibrating through Aziel as he waited for her to decide.

You’re trusting him with your life.

I always have.

“I’ll pay your price,” Aisling said.

“Come then.”

They walked through gray nothingness and swirling ghost winds until Sinead stopped. No blood seeped into the spiritlands the way it had the night Elena lay on the altar to serve a dark mass.

“Here we are. With time to spare. As promised.”

Aisling nodded, accepting the incurred debt before closing her eyes and willing herself to sink through the barrier separating spirit world from living one.