They both look at me.
“Sorry. Wormwood are very bad people. Like evil-Terminator bad.”
“Okay,” says Ray. Then, “You know, if you wanted, you could stay here while I research your condition. That way, if I find anything, we can get started immediately.”
“Thanks. How about I go talk to Howard and text you when I’m done?”
“That sounds fine.”
Ray gives me his number. I look at them awkwardly.
“I don’t have anything to pay you back with. No money for sure. I don’t even have time to help you clean up the mess I made.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” says Carlos.
“He’s right,” says Ray. “I’m happy that I could help at all.”
I stand there feeling stupid. Like an anxious kid. I’m out of practice with gratitude these days. I put my hands in my pockets and feel the scroll. Take it out and look at it.
“Let me ask you one last thing. How are you with old languages?”
Ray thinks about it.
“Some of the spells in the old books are in pretty obscure languages. I guess I’m passable at them. Why?”
“I’m going to ask you to do one last thing and then I’m going to get out of your hair. Can you read this?”
I hand him the scroll. Ray unrolls it and a small smile comes to his lips.
“Wow. I haven’t seen this since I was a kid. It’s Tammixlin, a pretty obscure dialect of Enochian script.”
“Then you can read it?”
“Sure,” he says. “It’s pretty simple, really. It’s just a list of names.”
“Can you write them down for me?”
He unrolls the scroll all the way.
“All of them? That’s going to take some time.”
“That fucking word again.” I think for a minute. “Is my name on there anywhere?”
Ray scans the scroll.
“No.”
“Damn.”
I think for another minute.
“How about Pieter Holden or Megan Bradbury?”
Ray runs his finger down the scroll.
“Yes,” he says. “They’re both here.”
“In that order?”