“No, not even if you were in your normal state. The summoner probably put a lock on it—a seal. That’ll keep a lesser immortal out. The seal’s used in the binding, then it’s broken into two pieces that are kept separated for safekeeping. The practitioner most certainly keeps one. If he or she had a demon’s help, I’m guessing the demon has the other. Or else the practitioner would hide it.”

“Do you think another demon was involved?”

He swallowed. “Most definitely. If you can recover the pieces of the seal, though, then you could unlock the object and set Jerome free.”

When I’d first seen Carter standing over my table, I’d been filled with hope, convinced this miserable situation was going to resolve soon and we’d get Jerome back. Now? I was more pessimistic than before.

“So, let me get this straight. All I have to do is find this mystical object that Jerome’s locked in, an object I have no way of even sensing. Once I have it, I then simply have to force the pieces of the lock away from the summoner and a demon.”

“Yup,” said Carter, licking his fork. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“Fuck.”

“Yup.”

“Well, the info’s good, but I can’t do anything. I have no leads on any part of this, nowhere to start.”

His gray eyes twinkled. “The seal has to be made of quartz.”

“Okay . . .”

“Hand-carved by human hands.”

I raised an eyebrow, curious as to where this was going.

“By someone familiar with magic and runes.” He looked at me expectantly.

“So?”

“How many people do you think that describes in the Seattle area?” He didn’t wait for me to finish. “Not many.”

Carter and his riddles. “You’re saying I should find who made the seal, in the hopes they can tell me who commissioned it.”

“Right. And they can also tell you what the seal’s specifics are. It’s almost always a disc about this big.” He used the fingers of one hand to make a circle about the size of a quarter. “But the color and designs will be different and provide clues as to what kind of place it’s been hidden in.”

“God, this is complicated.”

“You’re trying to find a demon that’s been captured and bound as part of a larger political power play, Georgina,” Carter said. “What do you expect?”

“Fair point,” I murmured. “I have one more question, though. It has nothing to do with the seal, though.”

“Shoot.”

“Why’d the stove at Greg’s blow up?”

“Because of a gas leak.”

“One that came on out of nowhere?”

He shrugged. “Compared to what we see every day? A lot stranger things happen.”