“I’ve got other sources that cite the bloodstone’s use in magickal rituals, its ability to stimulate physical strength and healing.”

“Another bingo,” Quinn said.

“It’s also reputed to aid in regulating the female menstrual cycle.”

Gage turned at that. “Do you mind?”

“Not a bit,” Cybil said easily. “But more to our purposes, the bloodstone is, by all accounts, a healing stone.”

“We already knew that. Cal and Fox and I did our homework on the stone years ago.”

“All of this comes to blood,” Cybil went on. “We know that, too. Blood sacrifice, blood ties, bloodstone. And also fire. Fire’s played a role in many of the incidents, and was a major factor the night Dent and Twisse tangled, and the night you and Cal and Fox first camped at the Pagan Stone. Certainly on the night the six of us fused the stone back into one whole. So think about this-what do you get when you strike stones together? A spark, and sparks lead to fire. The creation of fire was, arguably, the first magickal act of man. Bloodstone-fire and blood. Fire not only burns, it purifies. Maybe it’s fire that will kill it.”

“What, you want to stand around banging stones together and hope a magic spark lands on Twisse?”

“Aren’t you in a cheery mood?”

“If fire could kill it, it would already be dead. I’ve seen it ride on flames like they were a damn surfboard.”

“Its fire, not ours,” Cybil pointed out. “Fire created from the Alpha Stone, from the fragment of that stone passed to you, through Dent, by the gods. Fusing it that night made one hell of a blaze.”

“How do you propose to light a magic fire with a single stone?”

“I’m working on it. How about you?” Cybil countered. “Any better ideas?”

This wasn’t why he was here, Gage reminded himself. He hadn’t come to debate magic stones and conjuring the fire of gods. He wasn’t even sure why he was baiting her. She’d come through, he reminded himself, all the way through in fusing the three parts of the stone into one.