Chapter 39
39
A ll the blood rushes from Roma’s head at once. “I’m sorry. What?”
Micah looks taken aback at her reaction. “We weren’t hiding anything. We just didn’t realize we had everything we needed until now.”
Gregorio nods at Obie. “Back when the mega-rifts first started opening, you made memoryscapes of all the places where they appeared, right? Analyzed the memories of the stones and the wind and all that mumbo-jumbo?”
Obie gives him a long-suffering look. “Yes. I did ‘all that mumbo-jumbo.’ And I already told you that I didn’t find anything suspicious?—no unfamiliar energy signatures, no suggestions of foul play. And the only repeated faces were Ez and Roma, who obviously didn’t open the mega-rifts.”
“Unless the spellcasters were disguised,” Micah says. “Specifically, disguised with magic.”
Cass’s eyes narrow. “We already considered that the spellcaster might’ve used a glamour or an invisibility spell. The theory didn’t hold up.”
Gregorio raises his eyebrows. “And you didn’t think about cloaking spells because…?”
“Because it’s highly unlikely that a human spellcaster could withstand offensives from Ez or Roma.” JJ’s voice is quiet but firm. “And even more unlikely that they could hold out against both of them together.”
“Very true,” Micah agrees. “But how about dual human spellcasters?”
Roma’s stomach plummets. Instantly, the atmosphere in the room shifts. “That… makes sense, actually,” Obie says, and his eyes cut to Cass. “Dual spellcasters are rare, but you said the Sanctum used them down in the prison, right? So there’s clearly a precedent for it.”
Cass’s jaw tightens. “Yeah, and the Sanctum being responsible for this mess makes a lot more sense than our other theories. Why the hell didn’t we think of dual spellcasters sooner?”
“To be fair, we have been a bit preoccupied with everything else,” Ez says. Her eyes are gleaming with interest, and hard dread snakes through Roma’s stomach.
They shouldn’t be this close to the truth. They shouldn’t even still be investigating this, not when Roma and Ez already have their counterspell locked and loaded. Not when digging too deeply could lead them straight back to Roma and her friends.
Not when part of Roma has already made up her mind to leave the Sanctum for good. She can’t let them know how close she came to betraying them again. “I mean, does it matter?” she hedges, trying to project a casual disinterest that she definitely doesn’t feel. “Ez and I already have our counterspell scheduled for sunrise. Do we really want to jump down another rabbit hole right now?”
Naomi looks surprised. “But knowing the exact circumstances that started the epidemic might help you and Ez triple-check your spell work,” she says, her eyes narrowing. “Maybe even refine it. You, of all people, know how dangerous untested spells can be.”
Oh, does she ever. “Yes, but since neither of us died from our first attempt, that’s basically tacit confirmation that our reversal is correct,” Roma counters, praying that her voice doesn’t sound too desperate. “We don’t really need more evidence at this point.”
Gregorio looks startled. “You already cast it?”
“Yeah, you’re a bit late to the party,” Ez confirms. “Roma’s Sanctum enchantments got in the way the first time, so I already deactivated them for our repeat performance tomorrow. Second time’s the charm, right?”
“And I’m not saying that we shouldn’t investigate what destabilized the Deep and triggered the epidemic,” Roma adds, hoping the words will smooth over any lingering suspicions. “I’m just saying that it might not be the best use of our time right now. And, no offense, but it’s already way past my bedtime. If we’re accessing the Deep again, then I want to be well rested.”
Cass’s lips press together, but to Roma’s surprise, he nods in agreement. “She has a point. I’ve… recently become very aware of why sleep is non-negotiable for humans, so if Ez and Roma are going to be tapping into the Deep at sunrise, then they should definitely head home and get some rest.”
Relief floods through Roma. “Thank you,” she says, and she attempts a smile. “I need my beauty sleep.”
Ez scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Oh, please. You’re pretty enough already.”
Roma’s heart twirls embarrassingly. “Thanks,” she mumbles, ducking her head to hide the blush creeping up her neck.
Micah doesn’t smile back. “You all seem convinced that this counterspell is the right one just because the Deep didn’t kill Ez and Roma. That might not be the best assumption to make.”
Ez’s eyes narrow. “What do you mean? We built it directly from the original spell, we got multiple demons and humans to check it, and the Deep didn’t reject it until the very end. That might not be hard proof that the reversal is correct, but I’d say it builds a pretty strong case.”
Micah hesitates, glancing at Gregorio.
Gregorio takes a deep breath, crossing his arms over his chest. “That spell the Sanctum found? The one they claimed started the epidemic? Micah and I were late coming here because we just finished testing it out.”
Ez stiffens. “What do you mean, ‘testing it out’?” she demands. “Don’t tell me you cast it.”
Micah lifts his chin, meeting her scowl head-on. “We did. In several different locations, actually?—including over a few magic reservoirs.”
Obie goes rigid. “You cast a pre-WMSA spell over other magic reservoirs after seeing what it did here? Are you out of your damn minds?”
“Sure,” Gregorio says dismissively. “Except for the fact that nothing happened, Smith. I opened the mega-rifts, Micah closed them, and life went on as usual. No destabilization, no epidemic.”
The words throw Roma for a loop. “What? But how is that possible? It definitely destabilized the Deep?—Ez and I checked it ourselves.”
“Statistically speaking,” Micah says, “there’s only a two percent chance that any given spell will react badly with a magic reservoir. That meant our entire premise was on thin ice from the start. Now, it’s fully possible that the Deep just went haywire because it’s quirkier than your standard magic reservoir, but it’s equally likely that there are some pieces we aren’t seeing clearly yet?—pieces that could have a dramatic effect on the counterspell.”
Gregorio’s smile is faintly mocking. “Still think it’s not worth our time to investigate?”
“All right, all right,” Cass snaps. “We would’ve agreed from the start if you’d led with that. You don’t need to be a dick about it.”
Fear clamps around Roma’s lungs. “But??—?”
“This will only take a minute,” Micah cuts in. “If we find nothing, then everyone can head home and go to bed and forget this ever happened. But if we find something suspicious, then it might be worthwhile to postpone the counterspell until we know more.”
“And it really only requires Obie and Ez,” Gregorio adds, nodding at Obie. “Smith, could you project your memories of the first few mega-rift sites? The ones from before it became an epidemic?”
Obie doesn’t look happy, but he nods. “Sure,” he says, and he closes his eyes, raising a hand in a practiced motion.
All at once, a dozen memoryscapes flare to life around the room, playing out like movies on a screen. Memories of mega-rifts in the Courtyard, at Lakeside, in other nooks and crannies around Redwater??—
Roma can pick herself out of most of them. Ez, too. And, to her overwhelming relief, Bryant and Chester are nowhere to be found?—or, at least, nowhere to be found under the cover of their ever-present cloaking spells. “Well, uh,” she says, and she clears her throat, dutifully peering at each image in turn. “I don’t see any repeated faces so far?—none besides me and Ez, at least. So if there are spellcasters with cloaking spells or invisibility spells or glamours, we aren’t going to find them like this.”
“Well, obviously not,” Micah says. “We have to cast an anti-cloaking spell over the memoryscapes first.”
Horror slams through Roma. “What? You can?—?” She turns to Ez, panic rising in her throat. “You can do that?”
Ez looks intrigued. “Well, I’ve never tried to counter someone else’s spell work inside a memoryscape before,” she says slowly, but her eyes are alight in a way that makes Roma’s heart sink. That’s her curious expression, her intellectual expression??—
The expression she wears when she’s about to take up a challenge and see if she can conquer it. Roma’s heart hammers against her ribcage. “Ez??—?”
“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” Ez says, and she throws Roma a smirk before snapping her fingers. Instantly, a cool rush of magic swirls around the room, breezing through the memoryscapes, shivering over every scene??—
Bryant’s and Chester’s cloaking spells evaporate like the morning fog, leaving them recognizable to everyone in the room.
Or to everyone who knows them well enough, at least. And when JJ jerks away from Roma like she burned him, his eyes wide with betrayal, Roma knows that her streak of goodwill just ran out.
“Again?” JJ snarls, glaring at Roma with a cross between fury and devastation in his eyes. “Goddamn again?”
Roma takes a quick step back. Away from JJ, away from Ez, away from everybody? ? —
And Ez doesn’t need special powers to interpret Roma’s guilty expression. Her stomach bottoms out. “No.”
“I can explain,” Roma stammers, her hands flying to shoulder height in surrender. Her eyes find Ez’s, cracked and desperate. “It’s not what it looks like. I can?—I can explain??—?”
Obie’s laugh is bitter. “Famous last words.”
Gregorio’s eyes narrow. “I’m confused. You recognize someone?”
Silently, Cass points at the nearest memoryscape. “Chester Locke and Bryant Nehemiah,” he says flatly, and Gregorio goes still. “JJ’s old friends.” This time, when he smiles at Roma, it’s sharp and biting and full of teeth. “Gutierrez’s current friends, apparently.”
“Listen,” Roma says, and she’s speaking directly to Ez now, fast and pressurized and frantic. “Things changed, okay? Things changed, and everything is different now, and??—?”
“Different how?” There’s a roaring in Ez’s ears, loud and demanding enough to drown out every other thought. “Roma, what did you do?”
Roma’s face crumples. “It was?—I was under orders,” she says, and the words hit Ez like a punch in the gut. “The Council, they?—they wanted me to get close to JJ again, and??—?”
“So you manufactured a way to do that.” Obie’s voice is hard. “Clever. You got the idea from Lakeside, didn’t you? When you and Ez had to close that first mega-rift together?”
Roma flinches. “Yes,” she says reluctantly. “And then Bryant and Chester opened the others, so?—so I could close them.”
“So you and Ez could close them.” JJ’s words are as sharp as a knife. “You knew that you couldn’t target me again, not like last time, so you targeted Ez.” His hands ball into fists. “You targeted my friend.”
“It wasn’t?—?!” Roma cuts herself off, shaking her head. “It’s not like that, okay? Not anymore.”
“Is that what you said last time, too?” Sawyer asks bitingly, and she turns to Naomi. “We need a new safe house. This one is probably compromised.”
Naomi glares at Roma for a long, hard moment before nodding. “Agreed.”
“I didn’t?—I wouldn’t do that!” Roma protests, her voice coming higher and faster. “I didn’t tell the Sanctum anything, all right? Not about you two, and not about the conspiracy, and??—?”
One after another, the pieces are slotting into place in Ez’s mind, taut and merciless. “You switched the spell.”
Roma goes still. “Ez?”
Ez jabs a finger at one of the memoryscapes. “Locke and Nehemiah weren’t casting the spell from The Magic-Weaver’s Companion at first. If this was your operation from the start, then that means you were the one who chose that pre-WMSA spell for them to use. The one that started the epidemic.”
Naomi stiffens. “Avoiding those spells was the first lesson in spellcasting class, Roma!” she hisses. “Why would you even??—??”
“You only have to avoid them if you don’t understand them!” Roma snaps back. “But I did understand it, and I checked all the nuances, and it was less taxing for Bryant and Chester, and??—?”
Obie’s laugh is biting. “You understood it? Really? So you knew that you were about to spark a monthlong epidemic that would exhaust half of Redwater’s resources?”
“I?—?” Roma snaps her mouth shut, trembling. “No. No, that was an accident, and we didn’t realize it would destabilize the Deep, and??—?”
“But you knew.” The roaring in Ez’s ears is louder now, louder and angrier? ? —
And this time, it sounds more like words. More like accusations.
Stupid, stupid, stupid?—did you really think you could trust a Sanctum hunter? Did you really think you could trust the same person who already betrayed you once before? How could you put your friends at risk like this? How could you? ? —??
“You’ve known what actually started this epidemic for weeks,” Ez says, hating how her voice shakes. “You knew the exact spell we needed long before you actually told us about it, and you knew about the dual spellcasters from the start, and?—and we could’ve died! We could’ve died casting that untested counterspell, and you would’ve let us? ? —?”
Gregorio sneers. “Oh, please. She probably would’ve gotten a commendation for taking out Redwater’s most powerful demon spellcaster.”
“What?” Roma’s eyes widen. “No! No, that wasn’t it at all! I never wanted to put Ez at risk, never wanted her to get hurt??—?”
“So what was the plan here, Gutierrez?” Cass bites out. “Just keep lying and hope we never found out?”
Roma cringes. “I don’t?—I don’t know what the plan was anymore,” she admits, her voice strained. “Because things changed, okay? Things changed with all of you, and with you, Ez, because I??—?”
Ez laughs. It sounds hollow in her own ears. “Don’t say you started falling for me. That’s just tacky.”
Roma jerks back like Ez slapped her. “But?—but I think I did,” she whispers, and the words are like a knife in Ez’s chest. “I think I did, and??—?”
Abruptly, Obie steps forward. “Ez. With sufficient time and practice, do you think JJ could cast this counterspell with you?”
Cass twitches. And Ez knows that Cass hates anything that could put JJ in danger?—frankly, Ez hates it, too?—but right now??—
Right now, it looks like JJ is their only option. The only one Ez can trust, at least. “We have a solid chance,” she says curtly. “Especially because we already have reasonable evidence that our counterspell is correct.”
“JJ, are you comfortable with that?”
JJ glares at Roma for a hard moment before looking away. “I guess I have to be.”
“Great,” Obie says, and he snaps open a rift, grabs Roma’s arm, and shoves her unceremoniously through it.
Roma stumbles on the last step, whirling around like she’s trying to reach back. “Wait?— Ez? ? —?!”
Before Ez can react, Obie flicks his wrist, snapping the rift shut.
Cutting Roma Gutierrez out of Ez’s life as ruthlessly as she wormed her way into it.