Heretics book 3 - The Apocryphile Press

290 :: JOHN R. MABRY
Richard was moved. It took a lot of courage to come here,
to be so vulnerable, and he could see the man’s desperation.
He weighed whether to break the news that he had stolen
Solomon’s Ring. Surely that was the power Dane was holding
over his head. But he hesitated. Maybe Dane had not
revealed the source of his power. Perhaps it was something
else he was holding over their heads. And besides, with all
that was going on, the last thing Richard needed was a pack
of desperate magicians plotting to steal the thing from him.
He decided to keep quiet about it.
When he looked at him again, Larch’s eyes were locked on
something across the street. Richard followed his gaze, and
saw a black limousine rolling to a halt near the park
entrance.
“I’d better be going....” he said and rose to his feet, a little
shakily. “Say you’ll help us,” he met Richard’s eyes again.
“I won’t help you. But we sure as shit are gonna stop
you.”
“Good enough,” he said, and limped off the porch.
“Wait—” Richard said. Something else was nagging at
him—he had to find a way to get the demons to back off. If
Kat and Mikael were ever going to find a way to have a normal
life—assuming they could get Mikael back safe, that
was—then they’d have to break the power of that sigil somehow.
Something Maggie said in their session tugged at him.
Why didn’t he invite his demons to dinner? “I need a favor
from you, first....” he said.
:: 60 ::
Dane noted with a grim, satisfied grin that Larch had seen
him and was walking toward him, though apparently not
without some pain and difficulty.