Stone and a Hard Place (26 page)

“Ethan?”

It was Stone, and he was very close. Ethan’s gaze darted around, but he didn’t see any way to get out of here unseen and hide his find from the mage. Instead, since there was no way he could take the rest of the books to Trin, he decided to try to allay some of Stone’s suspicions about him. “Over here, Dr. Stone! I found something!”

“Where are you?” He was closer now: he sounded like he was near the point where they’d separated.

“Behind the mirror! I found some books here!”

He could hear Stone’s footsteps hurrying toward him. In a moment, the mirror swung open and the mage appeared, grime-streaked, sweating and flustered. “Bloody hell!” he swore. “You mean it was right here all along?”

Ethan grinned. “I guess it was,” he said, pointing at the books.

“How did you find them?” Stone dropped to his knees and picked up one of the books, paging through it as Ethan had.

“I thought about the footprints,” he said. “I figured maybe if there was nothing special about the mirror, maybe there was something behind it.”

Stone let out a long sigh. “I must be tired,” he said. “Either that, or I’m an idiot. Well done, Ethan. I’m glad
one
of us is thinking, at least.”

Even knowing what he was planning to do, Ethan felt a swell of pride at Stone’s words. He really did like and respect the mage, he realized—he just didn’t agree with his method of teaching. He glanced at his watch again. “Uh—Dr. Stone?”

Stone was still focused on the books, looking through one after the other. He didn’t look up. “Yes?”

“I—kinda need to get going. I want to go see Mom tonight, and visiting hours start pretty soon.”

Stone shut the book he was examining, and began gathering up the rest of them. “Yes, of course. Sorry. Here—help me with these. I’ll take them home tonight and look them over. Hopefully there’s something useful in here somewhere.”

Ethan helped him pick up the rest of the books, and together they carried them back downstairs. Adelaide and Iona were still in the sitting room watching television. Iona looked up as they came in. “Oh!” she called. “You two are a mess! I hope you found what you were looking for.”

Stone nodded. “I hope so, too. Adelaide—is it all right if I take these books with me? I’ll bring them back when I’m finished.”

“You keep them, Dr. Stone. I have no use for them. Are they what you were hoping to find?”

“Not sure yet. I’ll find out tonight. But it’s quite possible.”

They said their goodbyes and headed out. “Home, or straight to the hospital?” Stone asked as they exited back onto the winding road toward Los Gatos.

“Home,” he said. “I gotta clean up a bit. Thanks, Dr. Stone.”

“Thank
you,”
he said. “Good job finding that hiding place. Give my best to your mum. I should come and see her sometime soon—tell her how well you’re doing with your studies.”

Ethan grinned. “Yeah, but maybe not tonight,” he said, looking Stone over. “What did you do, take a dust bath?”

“Damn close,” he muttered. “Got a bit overzealous in my search there toward the end.”

By the time Stone dropped Ethan off at his apartment building, it was already nearly 5:30. Ethan hurried inside, tossed his backpack and parka on his bed, and dug fresh clothes out of his pile of clean laundry. He’d have preferred to have a shower, but he didn’t want to be late. He hoped Mom was doing better today—maybe even well enough that they could talk. He had a lot he wanted to talk to her about.

He threw on jeans, T-shirt, and hooded sweatshirt, ran a comb through his hair, and headed straight back out. Less than five minutes later he was on the road, and fifteen minutes after that he reached the hospital. On a whim, he stopped at the gift shop on the first floor and bought a bouquet of flowers. His mother had never been much of a flower type, but he figured they’d brighten up her room and give her something nice to look at when she was awake. Then he took the elevator up to the fourth floor where her room was.

He knew something was wrong when Matilda, the desk nurse for this shift, spotted him and rose from her chair. “Ethan,” she said softly.

“Hi Matilda,” he greeted, waving the flowers. “How’s Mom doing? Is she awake?”

Her dark eyes met his, and she came out around the desk. “Ethan, I’m sorry. We’ve been trying to reach you. We called your place, but there was no answer. You didn’t get the message to call us?”

His blood froze. “What’s—going on?”

She reached out and gently took his arm. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, Ethan. Your mother passed away about an hour ago.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

The Three were three again, and Trin for one was glad. She would never have told him, but she’d actually been concerned that Oliver would succumb to whatever Stone had hit him with back at the old woman’s house. Not that she loved him or anything—in truth, Trin didn’t love anything but herself, and power—but she’d gotten used to having him around. He was like a comfortable old shoe that she liked to slip into when she needed a good fuck. In any case, he blew the doors off that geeky little virgin Ethan, sex-wise. She consoled herself that she’d only have to deal with the kid for one more day, and then it would be over. If she played her cards right, she might not even have to fuck him again. It was getting harder to pretend she was enjoying it.

They picked Oliver up at the hospital Friday morning. “About fuckin’ time they let me out,” he complained, climbing into the SUV. “They wanted to keep me an extra day because they still can’t figure out what the hell was wrong with me. I got
this
close to telling them that some asshole mage whacked me with a magic sledgehammer, and that I just needed to sleep it off.” He leaned back in his seat. “I need real food. No more hospital shit. And you guys need to tell me what I’ve missed.”

They stopped at a favorite diner near their ritual space. Oliver ordered the biggest breakfast they had and demolished it while Trin explained what had happened over the last few days.

“Lemme get this straight,” he said through a mouthful of pancakes. “This twerp Ethan’s gonna try to grill Stone for information about whatever’s in the house, and we’re gonna get whatever he’s got to tell us and get him to let us in for this ball thing on Saturday night so we can find it. I take it that’s why you guys haven’t killed Stone yet?”

“We’ll kill him once we get what we’re after,” Trin said.

“But how are we gonna do that?” Oliver asked, shoveling in another mouthful. “Do we even know how to control whatever this is? Do you really think the kid is gonna be able to get enough info out of Stone so we can do it? He seems like kind of a fail to me. You’re putting that much trust in him not fucking up?”

Miguel smiled; a nearby waitress got a look at the smile and quickly found somewhere else to be. “Nah, Oliver. See, if he doesn’t come up with the name, we’ve got a Plan B.”

“We do?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been doing some research on this place, and also on enslaving big spirits. It’s best if you have their true name, but there’s another way to do it, too.”

“Yeah?” Oliver looked mildly interested, but still more interested in his breakfast. “What’s that?”

“Human life force. Like the kind you get from a ritual sacrifice.”

That was enough to bring Oliver up out of his pancakes. “You’re shittin’ me.”

“Nope,” Trin said, looking satisfied. “And not any old human sacrifice, either. You get the best power when you use somebody who
has
power. Like a mage.”

Oliver stared at her. “We’re gonna sacrifice
Stone?
”

She shook her head. “Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to slice that bastard open and watch him bleed, but it’s too dangerous. Too much chance he’d get lucky and fuck us up. No, I was thinking of a little more—
inexperienced
mage.”

“One that has such a puppy-love crush on Trin that he’d walk into a woodchipper if she told him to,” Miguel added with a nasty grin. “Especially if she fucked him before he stepped in.”

Oliver grinned. “Ah, okay. I get it now. And if he does come up with the name?”

Trin shrugged. “We might sacrifice him anyway, just for extra insurance. We need to get rid of him somehow, because if I have to fake being hot for him more than another day or two, I’m gonna hurl. Oh—that reminds me. I should call him today. Make sure everything’s set, find out what he knows, and figure out the plan for getting us in. I hope you guys have decent suits.”

Thursday night and all of Friday passed as a blur of indistinct images for Ethan. He remained at the hospital until late Thursday night, answering questions, signing papers, and talking to a kindly counselor that Matilda found for him. He didn’t even remember what he said or what he signed. He stumbled home and fell into bed, sobbing and exhausted.

Friday morning he briefly thought about calling Stone, but decided not to. He didn’t know what the mage would say: whether he’d insist on coming down and helping Ethan deal with things, or whether he’d offer perfunctory condolences but be so distracted by the business at Adelaide’s that he’d remain distanced from the situation. Either way, Ethan didn’t think he could stand it.

The hospital had introduced him to a woman who would help guide him through the process, and he was grateful for that because he was mostly numb. He didn’t have any relatives that he knew of; it had pretty much always been just his mom and himself since his father had died. He supposed he could contact Walter Yarborough, but it hardly seemed right to drag him all the way over here from England just to hold Ethan’s hand. He was eighteen now—an adult. He should be able to deal with this.

But not too many eighteen-year-olds had to navigate the confusing seas of administering their mother’s last wishes and making sure that things like funeral arrangements and burial details were taken care of.

The woman from the hospital, Mrs. Jackson, probably got him through the day. She gently explained what needed to be done, told him he didn’t need to make every decision right now, and helped him make the ones he did
have to make. He drifted through the day on a fog of confusion and grief, signing where they told him to sign and going where they told him to go, and didn’t arrive back home at the apartment until after eight o’clock that night. He threw himself down on the couch, wishing he had a big bottle of something alcoholic to help dull the pain. Once again, he thought about calling Stone. At least the mage might take pity on him and buy him a bottle of booze.

His answering-machine light was blinking.
Blink-blink. Blink-blink.
Two messages.

He thought about not playing them. He’d already listened to the one from yesterday from the hospital, the carefully professional voice of Matilda the nurse letting him know that he should go there as soon as he got the message. These two were new. He didn’t want to listen to anybody right now.

He dragged himself over to the machine. Better to get it over with. He stabbed the button.

“Ethan? Stone here. I forgot to ask you if you wanted us to pick you up for tomorrow night, or if you’ll be driving yourself. Let me know when you can. Give your mum my best when you see her.”

Hot tears formed, and he angrily forced them back, clutching one of the couch pillows so hard he nearly split it.
He doesn’t know,
he reminded himself.
Nobody’s told him yet.

A beep sounded, and then the second message. “Ethan? It’s Trin. You there?” Pause. “Okay. Well, I was just wondering if you found out anything about that stuff we talked about. Give me a call tonight whenever you get home, ’kay? Can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Bye!”

He slumped back into the couch cushions. He hadn’t even thought about Trin all day. He wasn’t sure he wanted to call her now, but he supposed he should let her know what was going on. He didn’t know if he could bring himself to even go to the ball tomorrow night. The last thing he wanted was to put on a monkey suit and stand around in the middle of a bunch of old rich people pretending to have a good time. Stone would understand, he was sure. And as for Trin—she could just come by tomorrow and pick up the stuff he had for her. He didn’t even want to go outside.

He picked up the phone and punched in her number. She answered on the third ring. “Hello?” She sounded distracted.

“Trin?”

“Is that you, Ethan? You sound weird.” There was a muffled sound in the background.

“You left a message,” he said. “I’m calling back.”

“Oh. Uh—right. So, did you find anything?”

“Yeah. I got you some stuff. We found it up in the attic. And I saw the thing in the basement.” In a monotone, he described what he remembered, including the existing prison, Stone’s efforts to reinforce it, and the massive summoning circle in the basement room.

“That’s great!” she said. “You’re awesome, Ethan. So when can I see you so I can get the stuff? We need some time to look it over before the party. You
can
get us in, right?”

He paused. “Trin...I don’t think I’m going to the party.”

Now it was her turn to pause. “What do you mean, you’re not going?”

“I—” He waited to make sure he could keep his voice from betraying him. “My mom died yesterday, Trin.”

“Oh, man...” There was a long pause, and some muffled sounds in the background again. “I’m sorry, Ethan. Really, I am.”

He nodded, even though she couldn’t see that. “Thanks. I just—don’t think I can go, you know? I still need to call Dr. Stone and tell him I’m not gonna be there to help him.”

“Ethan...” Her voice sounded careful. “We really kinda need you there. We planned the ritual with four. If you’re not there, we can’t do it. I’m really really sorry to ask you—I feel like the world’s biggest heartless bitch for asking right now. But—is there any way you could come for even a little while? We can probably figure out how to get inside on our own, but we can’t do this without you. And we won’t have another chance.”

“I don’t know—”

“Look,” she said softly. “I know this is horrible for you. I’m so sorry. If you can just help us out for a little while, we’ll go somewhere after and hang out. Just the two of us. We’ll just talk, if that’s all you feel up to. You really should be talking to somebody about this, Ethan. I take it Stone’s being his usual hard-ass self?”

“I...dunno. I didn’t tell him about it yet.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. I’ll help you, Ethan. What are friends for? We can talk all night if you want to. But if you could just do this one little thing for me—”

He sighed. Right now his libido, which usually did his thinking for him when Trin was around, was silent. But the kind tone in her voice did reach him. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll come for a while, and let you in. I’ll bring the stuff, too. I think it’ll be helpful.”

“Great,” she said. “Thanks, Ethan. Really. And if there’s anything I can do to help you out, just let me know, okay?”

“I will. Thanks.”

He hung up the phone and stared at it for a long time before he finally fell asleep.