“We need another way out of the stone,” I said.
“We need the stone to be in Ordinary,” Rossi said. He was leaning against the wall. He’d used a pile of the wet wipes we’d packed to clean the blood and gore off his face and hands, but a thin coating of red clung to his lips and throat.
“Hogan can do it,” Jean said.
“If someone makes a wish,” Hogan said.
“We just need to wish ourselves to Ordinary?” Ryder asked.
“I’d be more specific than that,” Hogan said. “The demon stone has some limits. It’s made to respond to Bathin’s magic more than any other.”
“Can you tell us what we should wish?” Jean asked, tipping her head back to look at him.
“That’s a little bit against the rules.”
“Can you tell us if our wish will do what we want?” I asked.
“Yeah, I can,” he said. “Pretty sure.”
“Super idea,” Jean said. “Let’s rely on Sir Concussion here.”
“I bumped my head,” he said. “I didn’t lose my hearing.”
Bumped his head, Jean mouthed.
“We want to wish the stone to Ordinary,” Myra said. “That should avoid messing with the boundaries and protections of Bathin’s magic.”
“We’ll ask him to move the stone, with us in it,” I added, “to Ordinary.”
“But not in the ocean,” Jean said. “Not in the sewer system. Not in the rock quarry, concrete trucks, bags of dog food.”
“Let’s be specific,” Ryder suggested. “Say exactly where in Ordinary we want to be taken to.”
“The station?” Jean asked.
“Too busy,” Myra said. “Bertie’s office?”
“I don’t know what Bertie would do if a demon stone showed up on her desk,” I said. “My house?”
“Or ours,” Jean said. “The gnomes would probably guard it like treasure, and Hogan knows the interior of our house best.”
“Does that matter?” Ryder asked.
She made a face. “I don’t want to end up in a wall. Or a toilet.”
“Yep, it matters,” I decided. “Okay, Jean, make the wish.”
“Me?” she asked.
“You know the rules of wishing better than all of us,” I said.
Myra nodded, Rossi gave her a thumbs up, and Ryder grinned. “See what happens when you date a guy with powers?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Okay, hold on. I’m gonna take this slow, okay, babe?” She ran her hand down his thigh to his knee.
“Yep,” Hogan said. “I’m not gonna grant some kind of last minute thrown-together trash wish. I have standards.”
Jean grinned and relaxed. “Good. So here goes. I wish that you will grant the most positive outcome of my wish and move this stone, with all of us in it, safely and quickly to our living room, setting us down, carefully and gently onto our gaming table near the window without triggering any of Bathin’s protections that may harm us or him, or trap us or him, or otherwise make me regret not spending this wish forcing you to heal your damn concussion.”
