The Pagan Stone Page 0,100

believe now that's how it will be."

"Honey." Quinn sat beside her, draped an arm over Cybil's shoulder. "You think Gage has to die for all this to happen for the rest of us."

"I've seen it happen. I've seen all of it happen. So has he. How much is destiny, how much is choice? I just don't know anymore." She took Layla's hand, laid her head on Quinn's shoulder. "Some of the research, it talks about the need for sacrifice, for balance-destroy the dark, the light must die, too. The stone-the power source-must be taken into the dark, by the light. I didn't tell you."

Cybil lifted her hands, held them over her face, dropped them. "I didn't tell any of you because I didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to face it. I don't know why I had to fall in love with him to lose him. Not this way."

Quinn hugged harder. "We'll find another."

"I've tried."

"We'll all be trying now," Layla reminded her. "We'll find it."

"We don't give up," Quinn insisted. "That's the one thing we don't do."

"You're right. You're right." Hope wasn't something to dismiss, Cybil reminded herself. "And this isn't the moment for gloom and doom. Let's get out of this house. Let's just get out of this house for a few hours."

"I want to tell Fox. We could drive into town, and I could tell him face-to-face. Make his day."

"Perfect."

WHEN THEY LEARNED FROM FOX'S PEPPY NEW office manager that Fox was with a client, Layla decided to multitask.

"I'll run upstairs, get some more clothes, clean out the perishables from the kitchen. If he's not done by that time, well, I'll just wait."

"I'll let him know you're here as soon as he's free," the new office manager sang out as the three women started up the stairs.

"I'll start in the kitchen," Cybil said.

"I'll give you a hand with that. As soon as I pee." Quinn shifted from foot to foot. "It's probably psychological pee, because I know I'm pregnant. But my bladder thinks otherwise. Wow," she continued when Layla opened the door to Fox's apartment to the living room. "This place is..."

"The word is habitable." With a laugh, Layla shut the door behind them. "It's amazing what a regular cleaning woman can do."

They separated, Cybil to the kitchen, Quinn to the bathroom. Layla stepped into the bedroom, and froze with a knife point at her throat.

"Don't scream. It'll go right through you, right through, and that's not the way it has to be."

"I won't scream." Her gaze latched on to the bed-and the rope, the roll of duct tape on it. On the can of gasoline. Cybil's vision, she thought. Cybil and Gage had seen her bound and gagged, on the floor with fire crawling toward her.

"You don't want to do this. Not really. It's not you."

He eased the door shut. "It needs to burn. It all needs to burn. To purify."

She looked up at his face. She knew that face. Kaz. He delivered pizza for Gino's. He was only seventeen. But now his eyes gleamed with a kind of jittery madness she thought was ancient. And his grin was wild as he backed her toward the bed. "Take off your clothes," he said.

In the kitchen Cybil pulled milk, eggs, fruit out of the refrigerator, set them on the counter. When she turned toward a broom closet, hoping for a box or bag, she saw the broken pane in the back door. Instantly she pulled her.22 from her purse and reached for a knife in the block.

One missing, she thought, fighting panic. A knife already out of the block. Gripping hers, she spun back toward the living room just as Quinn opened the bathroom door. Cybil put her finger to her lips, pushed the knife into Quinn's hand. She gestured toward the bedroom door.

"Go get help," Cybil whispered.

"Not leaving you. Not leaving either one of you." Instead, Quinn pulled out her phone.

Inside, Layla stared at the boy who delivered the pizza, who liked to talk with Fox about sports. Keep his eyes on yours, she told herself while her heart made odd piping sounds in her chest. Talk. Keep talking to him. "Kaz, something's happened to you. It's not your fault."

"Blood and fire," he said, still grinning.

She took another backward step as he jabbed out with the knife, nicked her arm. And the hand fumbling in her purse behind her back finally clamped on its target. She did scream now, and so did he, as she spewed the