Chapter Song: I Can't Go for That – Hall & Oates

Chapter 53: No Can Do

"I'm sorry," Mokuba said. "I don't know if I can take it back. Should I try?"

Joan stared into the depths of Mokuba's amethyst eyes and found fear there. "You don't want to take it back. Why even suggest it?"

The sharpness of Joan's words terrified Mokuba even more. "I . . . I don't want to force you to have it if you don't want it."

"But that's the evolutionary heritage of our species. Until recently, males could never be entirely sure if a given child was theirs, so they took every opportunity to impregnate a female. I know you didn't think this through, but I'm not angry at you for taking advantage of the ring like this. Just don't deny how you feel."

Mokuba took a deep breath. "All right, I want it, but are you really OK with this?"

"I was OK with this before the IUD came out. I know condoms aren't infallible. Besides, do you really think the ring could have acted without my implicit consent?"

"I guess not." A thousand questions still floated in the nebula of Mokuba's mind. "But it still scares me. I know the psychic gave us a picture of happy things to come, but what if there's a price to pay? What if the ring manipulated the cards so we would let our guard down?"

They began walking again. "I know you and Seto have had some shitty run-ins with magic, but this isn't some cursed ancient artifact. This is new. This is ours, and all four of you want the same thing, so all four of you are getting what you want."

"I hope you're right." They walked in silence for a few moments. "When are you going to tell the others?"

"As soon as possible, but ideally face-to-face in case they panic and try to take it back like you just offered."

"I've never known Marc to panic, but then again I've never seen him face anything like this. The stuff we deal with at work is all digital. Seto might be thrilled to find out he's going to be a father, but he's still going to blow a gasket over the magic. As for Michael, I keep thinking about how he reacted the morning after you got assaulted. Do you want help breaking it to them?"

"I'll be fine," Joan assured him.

They crossed a road, passed some one-story buildings, and their path opened upon a creek lined with trees and bushes of every description. Many of them bore flowers. Mokuba's eyes widened. "You went to university next to this?"

"It's part of the university, actually. Didn't you know we're a huge agricultural school?"

"No. Just . . . wow."

They strolled the path alongside the creek, passing other couples and families along the way. "I forgot how busy this place gets on a Saturday. We'll never get away with fucking in the bushes," Joan lamented.

Mokuba saw her point. Children darted off the main path, finding colorful bugs and bringing them back to show their parents. "Yeah, I'd rather not risk it."

They came upon an enormous wooden gazebo surrounded by plants that only produced white flowers. Joan led Mokuba to the middle and held both his hands as she gazed into his deep, violet eyes. "I always thought this would be a great place for a wedding."

Mokuba thought back to the one shrine wedding his adoptive father had dragged him and Seto to as children for the purposes of making and maintaining business connections. Most elites favored Western-style weddings that turned out to be stuffy affairs, but that one shrine wedding, surrounded by the beauty of nature, had filled him with a sense of awe like no other. This place, though less grandiose, reminded Mokuba of that shrine. "I'll see about reserving it."

Joan counted months on her fingers. "It's going to be the rainy season six months from now. I'm not sure an outdoor wedding is the best idea, unless you're willing to wait."

"I could, but Seto doesn't have that kind of patience." Mokuba nodded at the ring. "Any chance you can control the weather with that thing?"

"Lol, I doubt it."

"Try," Mokuba urged.

Joan turned to gaze at the clear sky, and Mokuba held her from behind. They watched for two minutes while stars exploded inside Mokuba's head. Finally, a small cloud rolled into view. Joan dropped her concentration and let out a victory holler.

Text messages rolled in, this time all to Mokuba's phone.

Michael: Please tell me you're doing that on purpose.

Marc: Cut that out or I won't be able to finish your upgrades on time.

Roland: Something is wrong with Seto. Removing the neural implants didn't help. It's getting worse. He wants you and Joan on the next flight to Domino in case he doesn't make it.

Mokuba sighed heavily. He sat down on one of the benches and took his time replying to the texts while Joan watched from the seat beside him. He paused and looked up at Joan. "Roland has no clue what's going on, but if I tell him now, he's going to tell Seto before we get the chance. And I don't want to go back to Japan right now after spending so much time away from my office for the Summit. But if I don't go, Seto will think I don't care."

"Then tell him. You don't have to drop everything on him at once. Just let him know you've been going through the same thing and that it's related to the ring. It will give him some time to digest things before I get there and tell him the rest."

Mokuba chewed on his lower lip before pulling himself together. "OK, let's get this over with." He dialed.

Seto picked up without delay. "Mokuba, listen closely. I love you. I love Joan. Now that the important part's out of the way, something is fucking with my head. Maybe aliens. I hope it's aliens, like those Neo Space monsters that one kid made for our contest a few years ago."

Mokuba's stomach twisted. He'd never, in all his life, heard Seto babble like this. Seto must truly think this could be the end, and Mokuba knew the last thing Seto wanted was to go out quietly with some sort of rare medical condition before thirty. Mokuba decided against putting Seto on speakerphone in case a passerby caught wind of the CEO rambling like a lunatic. "Seto, what drugs did they give you?"

Joan pressed her ear close to Mokuba's so she could hear Seto. "It's not the drugs. This shit was happening before they opened my skull. Nobody can figure it out. Nobody."

"Relax," Mokuba ordered, "I know what it is."

Joan worried that Mokuba would chicken out, so she spoke for him. "It's my ring. Turns out it's magic. The other guys feel it too."

"Fuck," came Seto's reply.

"At least now you know you're not dying," Joan pointed out.

"Whore, nothing good ever comes of magic. That's why I looked into other explanations even after Sartorius made his accusation. I need you to take that ring off now."

"We tried that already. No can do," Joan said.

"Then we'll have to take your finger off. I'll get the best surgeons on it. You'll have a prosthetic replacement even better than the original. I'll engineer it myself."

Coming from a genius who'd designed his own neural implants, Joan had no doubts about his sincerity, but she still had to set him straight. "It's done more good than harm. That Sartorius guy was really creeping me out, trying to get me to join some cult. The ring defended me."

"That's how it starts, by luring you into a false sense of security. Just wait until that thing reveals its true purpose."

"Seto, this is ours. We decided on it together. It has lab-created gems, not ancient stones that used to belong to some ancient hooligan. Its true purpose is to serve us. I'll tell you more when I see you. Just don't panic if that head thing happens again, OK? We've got control over this thing."

"What were you doing with it before you called?"

"Moving a cloud," Mokuba answered.

"A cloud? A fucking cloud? Why?"

"To see if we could. In case it rains on our wedding day," Mokuba said.

Seto paused before speaking. "Well, can you?"

"Yes, but the power is weak. It might grow stronger with practice," Joan said.

"Do me a favor and stop fucking around with it."

"For now," Joan agreed.

"I'll see you tomorrow, whore." Seto hung up.

Joan drew back and faced Mokuba. "See? That wasn't so bad."

"He wanted to remove your finger," Mokuba reminded her.

"And he probably would have if I'd told him in Japan. Now he can calm down before the next big piece of news hits him."

"I hope you're right."