Roth stammered out a series of phrases, his eyes searching Gil’s face, and then mine.
“Whoa, whoa. Sterling knows me. I’m the electrician. It’s me, the guy who restored the power in your cabin. You must be Gil. You called me about the job at the Everett House. Nice to meet you.”
I narrowed my eyes at Roth. It was weird seeing him so disarmed, so different from the day I met him. “He’s not lying about the electrician bit, Gil. But I don’t know why he was watching us. That part’s definitely fishy.”
Roth’s eyes flitted between us nervously. “I wasn’t spying. Honest.”
I sniffed at the air near him, exaggerating the inhalation. “You smell that, Gil? Guilt.”
Gil’s lips drew farther back. “I smell something, all right. A lying rat.”
Roth took a tentative step back, carefully disentangling his collar from Gil’s grip. He was wearing flannel this time, with sleeves. Good. Not quite as distracting. The smell of fear, sweat, and skin, though, those were still there. And under the skin –
“Listen,” he said, holding his hands up, like he wanted us to very clearly know he meant no harm. “I was walking through the woods, okay? Just a nice evening stroll, and then the wind picked up, and I heard these flutes playing in the distance. That’s something you never hear out in the woods. I mean, flutes?”
“Fucking Pan,” I grumbled. “Him and his phone.”
“Pan?” Roth blinked innocently. “As in Peter Pan?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Gil said. “Peter Pan doesn’t exist.”
“And neither do weird shirtless guys with goat legs and horns,” Roth said. “But here we are.”
Gil grabbed Roth’s collar again. Roth threw his hands up in surrender, shutting his eyes as a reflex.
“There were no goat legs and horns,” Gil said. “All you saw was a man with very, very hairy legs.”
I rubbed my forehead, tugging at the front of my hair in frustration. “This is a fucking mess. Also, we left our buddy back there with the man with the hairy legs. We should head back.”
“And I should get going,” Roth said.
Gil tugged on his collar. “Like hell you are. You’re coming back with us. We’re not done with you.”
Roth shook his head in defeat. “Fuck’s sake. Should’ve stayed in and watched a movie.”
We flanked him on the way back to the summoning circle, Gil makin
g the unconventional decision to hold onto him by the belt loops. It was unnecessary, really, given the fact that the two of us could easily hunt him down again if he tried to run, but the gesture was more a reinforcement of an unspoken warning than anything. So we frogmarched our prisoner, who was a very obedient prisoner, indeed. The problem was that he was really talkative, too.
“You guys are really fast,” Roth said, more relaxed, his mouth lifting into an easy grin as he tried to make conversation. “Like, inhumanly fast.”
“We ran track and field in college,” Gil said. “No more questions.”
“That wasn’t a question, though.”
“No more talking,” Gil said. “We’re here anyway.”
I was surprised to find Asher sitting alone in the circle, the ground in front of him a messy pile of smashed fruit and scattered forest flowers. He got to his feet when he saw us coming, his eyes going wide when he noticed Roth.
“Holy crap. Isn’t that the electrician? Why are you here, dude? What did you see?”
Roth looked to either side of him, as if checking for our approval, then answered. “All I saw was a man with very, very hairy legs.” He beamed at Gil, his chest puffed out in pride. Gil rolled his eyes.
“This guy was snooping, wasn’t he?” Asher said. “Why were you even walking around the woods this late at night?”
“My question exactly,” I said. “Who the hell goes out for a walk alone in the woods?”
Roth groaned in exasperation. “I was bored at home, okay? I needed to stretch my legs. The forest calms me down. I take a nice, quiet hike to clear my head when work gets to be too much, then I go home and get to relax again.”