“Maybe,” said Stone. “I mean, he might also just be busy or he might respect your privacy. All kinds of reasons. But it might also mean that somehow Danny is keeping the Belmage from getting access to his gates.”

“I thought when the Belmage gets you, you’re, like, gotten,” said Sin. “Possessed. Owned.”

“Exactly,” said Stone. “So if Danny found a way to keep the Belmage away from his gates—”

“Then he’s beating the devil,” said Wheeler. “Cool.”

“Semi-cool,” said Stone. “It’s excellent because otherwise, the Belmage could just whip up a new Great Gate and go to Westil and that’s it, he takes all his followers, the Sutahites, and Westil is lost. They won’t even know what hit them.”

“And we do?” said Laurette.

“The human race at least knows what possession is,” said Stone. “Or movies like The Exorcist would never have been made.”

“So does that work?” asked Wheeler. “Exorcism? Do we need to find a priest and—”

“No,” said Stone.

“But how do you know that?” asked Wheeler. “Maybe some exorcists actually know what they’re doing, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, only with demons.”

“Shut up, Wheeler,” said Hal.

“If exorcism never works, then why are there exorcists?” asked Wheeler.

“Bleeding never worked and yet doctors carried leeches around for centuries,” said Hal. “And Stone knows.”

“Thank you,” said Stone. “Exorcism might work or it might not, against the lesser Belmages, the Sutahites. But we’re talking about the Belmage. Set himself. And there’s only one way to get him out of a person if he doesn’t want to go.”

“So whatever it is, let’s do it,” said Wheeler.

“Let’s not,” said Pat.

“If Danny’s being controlled by this Belmage guy, I’m pretty sure he wants him gone,” said Wheeler.

“Wheeler,” said Sin, “get a brain. The only way to get rid of this Set guy is to kill the host.”

“Stone?” asked Wheeler.

“Not the host of this party—which doesn’t even have refreshments,” said Xena. “The host body where the Belmage is living.”

“We’re not killing Danny,” said Laurette.

“Danny told us more than once,” said Stone, “that if he was ever possessed, we should kill him without a qualm, if that’s what it took to stop Set from using a Great Gate.”

“Never,” said Hal.

“So you’d leave him a slave forever?” asked Laurette.

“It’s about saving the world,” said Pat.

“I thought you said you loved him,” said Xena.

“If it was necessary,” said Stone, “then we couldn’t do it anyway. Gatemages are hard to kill, and Gatefathers are the hardest. They don’t stay put long enough to die.”

“In his sleep?” asked Hal. “I mean, if Nicki could get his clothes off without—”