“We’ll work on it,” he said, then gave me a sideways hug as he laughed. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said, meaning every word. But knowing that sometimes love could be more complicated than you wanted it to be.
I started out the door, intending to let him rest while I went back to work trying to find my daughter.
“Katherine,” he said, his voice sounding deeper and a bit melodious.
I turned, confused, to find him standing and staring glassy-eyed into space. “Stuart?”
“The ruby can reveal her.”
“What?”
But he didn’t say anything else. Instead, his legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor. I rushed to his side as he opened his eyes.
“Kate?” His voice was perfectly normal. “What happened?”
“You spoke again. You don’t remember?”
He shook his head.
“You saidthe ruby can reveal her.” Do you know what that means?
“No. No idea at all.”
“Me neither,” I said, helping him up and into bed. “But I think you may have just helped again. At least, I hope so.
* * *
When I stepped out of the bedroom, Eric was standing there, leaning against the rail that overlooked the first floor.
“Don’t you have research to do?” I asked as we walked down the stairs.
“I assume you talked to Stuart.”
I paused. “No. I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just didn’t,” I snapped, continuing to the entry hall. “We can talk about this later. Right now, we have more important things.”
“The pieces of Lilith. I’ve been looking into that. So far, nothing.”
I nodded. “And what Stuart said. We didn’ttalk, but he did. He had another episode.”
“Really.” It was his turn to pause. “Was he awake?”
“Yeah. And then he was—I don’t know—reciting. He said that the ruby will reveal her. We need to know what that means.”
“If it means anything.”
“You think it doesn’t?”
Eric shook his head. “Actually, my guess is it will be important. But we need to be prepared for disappointment.”
“But you’ll research it?”
“Of course.” He paused long enough to send a text.
