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That took the anger out of me so quickly I forgot what I'd been about to say. "What do you mean, it won't work?"

"Think, kiddo. You're the smartest person in this yard when you're not so busy finding solutions but forget to ask whether you understand the problem."

"I understand the problem perfectly."

"No. You don't." Alex leaned forward again, his voice still maddeningly patient. "Your grandmother has had you within arm's reach for twenty-six years. She sealed your magic. She raised you. She knew exactly what you were worth before you were old enough to understand what a soul contract was. If all she needed was you, she's had thousands of nights when she could have walked into your bedroom and taken what she needed."

I started to interrupt, but he kept going.

"She could have told the Council you ran away. Told them you died. Hell, with her position, she could probably have invented something better before breakfast. But she didn't. Now she's down to eight days, she knows exactly what happens if that contract goes to auction, and she still hasn't taken you."

"Because she hasn't decided what she would do yet."

"That's what she told you."

"She wasn't lying."

"I didn't say she was." Alex gave me a moment to mull on that. "I'm saying there may be a reason she can't make that choice unless you make it first."

My fingers went still in my lap where I was tugging on the hem of my shirt.

The idea should have occurred to me. It was so obvious once he said it that I wanted to be angry at him for seeing it before I did.

"She has eight days," he continued. "She knows what she stands to lose. She knows what your soul is worth, and yet here you are. Maybe she hasn't taken you because she doesn't want to. Maybe there's a rule in that contract neither of us knows about. Maybe your mother did something twenty-six years ago that tied Danika's hands. I don't know. All I'm saying is that you should not do things hastily."

My mother. An arrangement made on a Tuesday in a kitchen. A soul arriving at the River of Souls with nothing left to give.

I felt the thoughts beginning to connect and forced myself to keep them separate. Charon had taught me what happened when I jumped to conclusions.

Alex watched me unblinking. "Whatever the reason is, something has kept your grandmother from using you until now. You're about to walk into that coven and remove her reason yourself."

My mouth had gone dry. "By giving her permission like a dumbass."

"Exactly."

For the first time since leaving the motel, the plan I'd been carrying so confidently began to come apart.

"That's not a reason to stop trying to fix this mess."

"No, it isn't." Alex pushed himself to his feet, and the step groaned beneath him. He stood with his hands on his hips, looking across the yard at the fence his people were already rebuilding. "So don't do nothing. Go Sunday. Stand in front of her. Ask every ugly question you can think of and make her answer them for you."

I looked up at him.

"But instead of walking in there offering yourself, find out why she hasn't used you like we both know she would've if she could."

Alex started toward the door, then stopped and glanced back at me. "You spent all morning figuring out what you're worth to your grandmother, kiddo. Maybe it's time you figured out what you're worth to yourself." He went inside before I could say anything.

Lesson number thirty-three: sometimes the most useless thing you can do is offer to be the sacrifice.

The light disappeared from the sky the way it does, almost all at once. Somebody switched on the new floodlight above the barn, throwing the yard into hard white glare. Across from me, two younger wolves carried fence posts toward the tree line while arguing with the particular viciousness of people who had probably shared a bathroom growing up.

I watched them until the back door opened again. I knew it was River before he sat beside me because the temperature changed.

He took Alex's place on the step without saying anything, close enough that the cold rolling off him reached me immediately but not quite close enough for our bodies to touch. Yesterday, I probably wouldn't have noticed the exact distance. Today I noticed all of it.

Last night had apparently taught my body to recognize River before the rest of me caught up. I remembered that cold against bare skin, remembered exactly what happened when I moved closer instead of away, and for one spectacularly inappropriate moment, Danika and Alex and the Council vanished entirely.

I shifted my attention toward the barn before River could catch whatever had just crossed my mind.