The Stone Demon by Karen Mahoney Read Free Book Online Page A

from being under my control that, most days, I feel like screaming.” Donna’s voice was rising in pitch. “Don’t start lecturing me, okay? Please. I … I don’t think I can take it.”
    He pressed his lips together for a moment, pushing down on his rising temper. “Sorry.”
    There was silence between them for a moment.
    Donna said, “Let’s not talk about that anymore. How are things with you? Seriously, I’ve hardly heard from you, and when I do … I don’t know, Xan. I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”
    “Everything’s fine,” he replied. It was an automatic response. A response he’d learned in childhood.
    “I wish you’d tell me about how things are going with Maker.”
    “There’s not much to tell.”
    “Xan … ”
    He shoved his hair back from his face and looked out the window at the busy freeway. “The only reason I don’t say much is because I know how you feel about it. About what I want Maker to do for me.”
    “You mean, helping you to get your wings back? If he can.”
    “Exactly. If he can. That’s the point. There aren’t any guarantees at all.”
    She paused. Then, “It’s not that I don’t want you to get his help. You know that, right?”
    “I know.”
    “I just don’t want the Order to use you,” she continued. “The way they wanted to use me.”
    “I get it,” he said. And he did. He understood that her concern was totally for him—that she was afraid that if he took Maker’s help, it would only come with a huge price. Debts to be paid. All of that. “You don’t trust Maker.”
    “I don’t trust anyone,” Donna said. “God, I sound totally paranoid.”
    “It’s not like I can blame you.”
    “I guess.”
    He cleared his throat, curious. “Why don’t you trust Maker? He seems the most okay out of all of them to me.”
    “ He’s the one who bound my powers.” Donna sounded annoyed that he’d even asked. But before he could say something, apologize or whatever, she was speaking again. “Maybe he was telling the truth when he told me how dangerous my powers would have been while I was so young. I was only seven when my abilities began to manifest—that’s what it said in Mom’s journal. But that doesn’t mean I can trust him again. Not just like that.”
    “I know.”
    “And they’re still all trying to hide the truth about me. About what I might be able to do with this power inside me.”
    “They’re afraid,” he said. “That’s all.”
    “It hurts, Xan,” she admitted quietly, and he had to struggle to hear. “Sometimes, it felt like Maker was the only one in the Order of the Dragon who was truly on my side.”
    “What about Quentin?”
    “I don’t know.” She sighed, and he could almost swear he felt it vibrate through the cell phone pressed against his ear. “Sometimes. Maybe. I love Quentin, sort of like a grandfather, there’s no doubt about that. But he’s with Simon.”
    “The guy clearly has excellent taste,” Xan said, totally deadpan.
    She laughed. “Right.”
    Xan thought about Simon Gaunt and felt his whole body tense with dislike. The guy was a fucking snake. A man who summoned and trapped demons , then blamed Donna for the current threat posed by her mistake in opening the door to Hell. How many of the alchemists knew that the Magus had the essence of a minor demon trapped inside a bronze statue in his laboratory?
    He leaned forward and checked the time on the dashboard. “Hey, I have to go.”
    “It’s okay. This is probably costing you a fortune.”
    “Rich dad, remember? He still helps me out.”
    “I didn’t think you guys talked much.”
    He thought about that for a moment. His adoptive father was a distant man—which was putting it kindly. Sometimes he wondered why his human parents had even adopted him, what with his mother being back in England since the divorce. They really didn’t talk much. None of them did.
    “We don’t,” he said. “But he must feel guilty on some level,