"Do you know this house?" Ben asked.

Tony shook his head.

Both of us had calmed down from our initial shock, and now that Tony had a general idea of where I was in the room, he was staring at me. Sometimes over my head, to my sides, but sometimes right at me. It was painful to know that he couldn't see my face. Wasn't there some way that he could? This was so unfair!

"I've never seen this house before in my life," Tony said. "Why is Alissa here?"

"We don't know," Ben answered. "I found her here five years ago. She has no idea why she's here either. Could this be where the police found her body?"

He said the word 'body' so easily, but both Tony and I flinched slightly at it. I could tell it made him uncomfortable. Heck, it made me uncomfortable.

"No," Tony shook his head. "They found her in Acheron, two towns over, in an abandoned dry dock. Nowhere close to here."

Ben thought about that for a moment. He looked a little bit paler to me.

To my right, Red was starting to get antsy again. Another Berserker swing. How many was she going to have?

I knew she wanted to get to the whole point Tony was here, so that we could go get Ryland back. Believe me, so did I. Every moment that Ryland wasn't here freaked me out. And after hearing what Tony said about the Snakes and my tortured death, I was even more scared for Ryland. I hoped with all my might that he was alright. He just had to be. He was Ryland.

"Ben," I said quietly. "The amulet."

The demon finally looked over at me for the first time in quite a while. "But we're still talking about you, Alissa."

"You brought him here to talk about the amulet, remember? Don't worry about me; I can talk with Tony later." I answered. Red noticeably relaxed a little at that. I guess her mood swings made it hard to focus on one thing for very long.

"Alright." Ben shrugged.

"What? What's she saying?" Tony asked curiously, staring a yard over my head. He didn't know I was still sitting on the floor.

"Tony, I have something else I need to talk to you about," Ben continued. "Do you remember that amulet I gave you?"

The confused man nodded. "Yeah. I'm wearing it right now."

He fished a cord around his neck above his collar, and a silver and ruby rectangle slid into sight.

It was a gorgeous amulet; I could tell it from here. It definitely looked like an antique.

As I stared at this silver plated amulet, I found that I just couldn't look away. It was almost as if it were forcing me to look at it. It demanded attention. I felt a little bit numb.

"Alissa," Ben snapped me out of my trance. I blinked a few times, looking up at him.

"Don't look directly at it," He warned, his face stern. "Ghosts aren't good around hexes."

"But it's so pretty…" I muttered. I felt guilty for not looking at it; the amulet wanted me to look at it, after all!

"Alissa." Ben said sharply.

I shut my eyes and covered them with my hands. I wondered if hexes were dark magic.

"Hexes?" Tony echoed. "What do you mean—are you saying this thing I've been wearing for years is hexed?"

"Relax," Ben said in his usual, authoritative voice. I was glad that he was in charge of the conversation again. "I'm the only one who can rehex it. It's completely harmless to you. But Others, not so much. I gave it to you specifically so that Others would leave you be."

"So you kind of saved me with this thing," Tony slowly put together. "So no Others could hurt me?"

"Yes."

"Uh…thanks, then."

Ben cleared his throat. I was getting tired of covering my eyes, so I opened them. I just had to make sure I didn't look at the amulet.

But geez, was it demanding!

Focus. Focus.

"I need to rehex it—just for a little while—so I can help pay a debt." Ben explained.

"What?" Tony gave him a puzzled face. "How does rehexing it help you pay a debt? Is it like an ATM or something?"

"No," Ben replied, a bit annoyed. "It's complicated. You can't use it for this purpose, though, so don't even think about it. It's like a one man horse."

"Fine," Tony muttered, lifting the amulet over his head. He gently pulled the cord onto his hand and leaned forward on the couch, handing it to Ben.

The demon hesitated for a split second, but took back his amulet nevertheless. He cupped it in his hand protectively so that I couldn't see it.

"I'll be right back." Ben said to all of us, suddenly caught up in his amulet. That was strange.

He stood silently and walked swiftly into the kitchen. I could hear soft rustling, but I didn't move. I didn't want to leave Tony.

"What's Alissa doing now?" Tony asked carefully to Red, clasping his hands together.

Red glanced over at me. "She's just sitting there, staring at you. Did you want to say anything?"

I shook my head. I wasn't sure what to say to Tony, if anything. Besides, he couldn't even hear me. So what was the point of it?

Ben reappeared in the doorway what felt like moments later. His hand was dripping a little blood, and there was what looked like a golden piece of jagged pottery in his hand.

"What's that?" Red asked.

The demon sat down in his chair again, making sure not to drip blood onto the upholstery. He was holding the amulet tightly in his other hand, but he unraveled it and handed it to Tony again.

"That's it?" Tony questioned. "You needed it to get a piece of pottery?"

Ben snorted lightly in amusement. "No. This was a piece of glass from my window when I was attacked. I turned it into gold."

"Wait—what?" Tony demanded, holding the amulet up in new found shock. "This thing turns stuff to gold?"

"Yes," Ben said, turning the golden glass carefully in his already cut hand. "It's the Midas curse. I had to pick some curse to bestow onto it."

"But how is this a curse?" Tony interrupted. "This is amazing—you'd never have to work again with this! Think of all the things that you could have—"

"Exactly." Ben snapped coldly. "It's the curse of ultimate greed. That's why I had to give it up to you. Even though that amulet meant the world to me…but it doesn't, anymore."

He glanced over at me out of the corner of his eye. Just enough that Tony wouldn't notice.

I swallowed.