Chapter 1

I opened my eyes with a violent gasp, my shirt soaked through with cold sweat.

Above me was the familiar ceiling of my medical-school dorm. Sunlight slipped through the curtains onto my desk, where my anatomy textbook still lay open to the page I'd studied the night before.

I wasn't dead. I'd come back.

With shaking hands I grabbed the phone vibrating across my desk. Dad flashed on the screen.

The instant I answered, my father's panicked voice crashed through the speaker.

"Nate, your uncle has kidney stones, but he's not making any sense anymore.

"Can you get emergency leave from Dr. Parker and come home? The doctors want to do lithotripsy or put him on medication to pass the stone, but he won't agree to anything. He's smashing things in the emergency department and the nurses can't hold him down."

My father's voice trembled with helplessness.

Then my uncle's shrill, hysterical scream tore through the background.

"Let go of me! What would the uninitiated know? This isn't a kidney stone. It's the Stone. It's my Philosopher's Stone!

"Nobody is ruining this for me a second time. Anyone who lays a hand on my Stone, I'll kill his whole family!"

The moment I heard him, I knew Raymond had come back too.

My fingers tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white.

"Dad, don't panic. Listen to me." I forced myself to breathe and made my voice sound anxious but helpless.

"I can't get away right now. The department chair just added a major pathology quiz this afternoon. It's worth thirty percent of the course grade. If I miss it, I fail the course and lose my place in the honors clinical-research track."

Dad adored his younger brother, but he loved me too, and he cared about my future.

The mention of the research track stopped his panic cold. His tone turned hesitant.

"It's that important? Then you can't miss it. You've worked toward that placement since you were a kid. Your uncle's problem shouldn't cost you your future."

"But look at the state he's in, and I'm here on my own. I don't know what to do." My father's voice was full of despair.

I hardened my heart. "Dad, Raymond's almost forty. He's a grown man and he gets to make his own calls. He's refusing treatment, and the hospital isn't going to strap him to an operating table. If you force him, he'll only hate you more. Go along with him for now. Don't fight him. If it comes to it, take him home. Let me finish the quiz and I'll figure something out."

"All right. All right, I'll stop arguing with him. You focus on your exam and don't let this distract you. I'll keep an eye on him."