Chapter 41
41
F or a long moment after Obie’s rift closes, the living room shudders into tense silence. Ez’s pulse is still screaming in her ears, and her heart still feels like it’s been scraped raw, and everyone just looks numb and hollow and dejected. And then??—
“Well,” Obie says, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s over with.”
The words are so abrupt that Ez chokes down a shocked laugh. Cass looks torn between impressed and appalled. “Obie.”
“Where did you send her?” Micah asks, morbidly fascinated.
“Back to the Sanctum,” Obie says flatly. “Where she belongs.”
“We could’ve just killed her,” Gregorio says.
Ez’s stomach drops. “No, we?—?” she begins, but her voice comes out too cracked and too shaky. She cuts herself off, looking away.
Sawyer shoots Ez an unreadable look before turning back to Gregorio. “No, we couldn’t have. That’s how wars start, and we can’t afford a war right now. Not until we end the epidemic.”
“Right,” Micah says, and his eyes flicker to JJ. “You feel confident that you can cast this counterspell with Ez, Jackson?”
To Ez’s dismay, JJ doesn’t seem nearly as sure of himself as before. “Not really,” he admits softly, and his eyes meet hers. “You still think I’m human enough to be your human spellcaster?”
“Human enough?” Naomi repeats blankly. “Why wouldn’t you be human enough?”
“Long story,” Cass says curtly, and Ez winces. Looks like that’s one secret they’re going to have to share with their allies sooner rather than later. “We’ll explain another time. Ez? Can he still do it?”
Bile rises in Ez’s throat. She swallows it down hard. “I don’t know. But?—but we’re not risking you, JJ. We’ll check how our magic combines with some basic spells before we even think about touching the Deep. After all, you already survived one thing that should’ve killed you. We’re not breaking that streak now.”
JJ’s shoulders relax, and Cass flashes Ez a grateful look. And much as Ez loves JJ, much as she appreciates his willingness to help, much as she respects his work ethic and determination??—
She doesn’t think he’ll be able to cast this counterspell with her, no matter how much he practices. After all, the Deep rejected Roma just for having Sanctum enchantments; Ez doesn’t even want to think about how it might react to JJ’s half-demon soul. And there’s no way Cass would let JJ do anything that could hurt him.
And neither would Ez, honestly. JJ might’ve been a human interloper at the beginning, but now, he’s their human interloper.
Just like Roma was. Ez forces the thought away. “For now, though, we have bigger problems,” she says, and she turns to Naomi and Sawyer. “I had my phone on speaker when Obie gave me your address, so Roma could definitely find it again. And she could probably track down two of my properties?—including my actual home?—if she wanted to.” Fleetingly, Ez remembers the softness of earlier this evening, remembers dreaming with Roma about a day in their lives together and pulling a laughing Roma into her lap on the couch; viciously, she shoves the memories down. “We need new safe houses.”
Sawyer purses her lips. “Would Roma risk it, though?” she asks, casting a calculating glance at Naomi. “If she tells the Sanctum about us, she’ll be revealing that she knows about the conspiracy, too. I doubt she’d be bold enough to imply that to the Council.”
Naomi’s jaw works. “I don’t think she’d risk telling the Council about us, no. But she could always make up another reason to send a strike team here. We have to leave.” She looks around, regret flitting over her face. “Six years of safety here, and it only took ten minutes to bring it all crashing down.”
“And this place is still in my name,” Gregorio says grimly. “Thought it would keep the Chain and the Sanctum from scrutinizing it too closely. I’ll have to figure out how cover our tracks.”
Ez’s heart hurts. She still doesn’t trust Naomi and Sawyer, not completely, but??—
But she does trust their conclusions about the conspiracy. She trusts that they’re trying to do what’s right, even if it’s sometimes been in the worst way possible.
And she trusts that this loss is hitting them just as hard as it’s hitting Ez. “Do you need any help packing?” she asks tentatively. “I know you’ve been fugitives before, but…”
Micah steps forward, shaking his head. “Gregorio and I can help them. We know this place like the back of our hand. But?—but could you guys find a new safe house for them?”
He sounds unsure, like he doesn’t know if it’s too much to ask. To Ez’s relief, Obie is already scrolling through his phone. “Done,” he says. “I’ll ward the location and send you the coordinates within an hour. And Ez?—?” His eyes flicker to her. “I have a safe house available for you, too. Do you want it? Or do you want to stick with one of your own for now?”
“Or you could stay with me and JJ,” Cass adds quietly. “Just temporarily. I?—I know this must be particularly rough on you, so it might help to not be alone.”
I was never alone, obviously. I always had you and Obie.
Ez’s throat feels tight. “That would be really nice, actually,” she says haltingly. “Just for a few days. And if the Sanctum starts closing in, then it might help to have safety in numbers.”
JJ shoots her a small smile. “We’d love to have you. And Desi will be ecstatic to have some sleepovers with her Auntie Ez, of course.”
“So we’re all settled?” Gregorio asks. He looks threadbare and exhausted, a far cry from his usual stoicism, and with a pang, Ez realizes just how much expanding their circle of trust?—and watching it break so quickly?—must be weighing on him. “Micah and I will help Sawyer and Naomi move to their new safe house, and Ez will post up with Cass and JJ until the danger passes?”
And Ez??—
Ez hates this. She hates that they’re in danger, hates that she has to abandon her home, hates that they’re all reeling from Roma’s betrayal??—
Hates that it’s entirely her fault. After all, Ez was the one who insisted on including Roma in the conspiracy. Ez was the one who brought her here today. Ez was the one who was stupid enough to trust a hunter with her friends, her family? ? —
Her heart.
Ruthlessly, she shoves the thoughts away. “Sounds like a plan,” she says neutrally, and as they all part ways to deal with the fallout of the past hour, Ez takes a deep breath and steels herself for a long few days.
Councilwoman Nasir’s lips are pressed into a thin line. “Well,” she says. “That isn’t ideal.”
Roma’s face burns. She’s standing alone in front of Nasir’s desk, feeling shaky and clammy and faintly nauseous. Even though all she wanted to do after last night’s disaster was curl up under her blankets and hide from the world for as long as possible, she knew that she needed to face the music eventually.
And avoiding the Council now would only make it worse when they inevitably asked for a status update. That’s why Roma knocked on the councilwoman’s door long before breakfast, resigned to accepting her punishment before the anticipation ate her alive. “It isn’t, ma’am,” she agrees quietly, not looking up from the floor. “And?—and I apologize for Bryant and Chester’s involvement. The mission’s failure wasn’t their fault?—it was mine, for not fully understanding the extent of Smith’s powers.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Nasir says crisply, and Roma fights back a flinch. “Your leadership role in this operation meant that you should have researched your opponents thoroughly before enacting your plan, but clearly, you’ve been skipping steps from the start.” Her jaw twitches. “But that’s a moot point now. Circling back to the counterspell you attempted with Esmeralda Laguerre to stabilize the Deep?—you said that you believed it had a chance of working?”
Roma nods once. “Yes, ma’am. Ez?—I mean, Laguerre speculated that my Sanctum enchantments were the primary reason why the Deep rejected our counterspell, and I agree with her. Therefore, a civilian human spellcaster and a demon spellcaster would probably be able to perform the spell?—as long as their combined magic overcomes the current power threshold for the Deep.”
“Hm.” Councilwoman Nasir laces her fingers together underneath her chin, her shrewd eyes fixed on Roma. “That could be arranged. It’ll require some input from our allies in other jurisdictions, but it’s certainly possible.”
Roma’s heart thuds unsteadily. She bites back the urge to ask how they’ll get a demon spellcaster to help them.
Now, more than ever, she knows that the Sanctum will just reach out to their contacts in the Chain. And Nasir would lie to Roma’s face about it without a second thought. “That’s good to hear,” she says instead, and she clears her throat. “You already have all my notes about the counterspell, but if your spellcasters need anything else, I’d be happy to provide more context.”
“I’m sure you would be.” Nasir’s eyes narrow. “And Jackson? Were you able to make contact with him before the demons discovered your deception?”
“I?—?” Roma frantically races through potential answers. She can’t tell Nasir anything about Naomi or Sawyer, of course, and she wants to say as little about JJ and Ez as possible, but??—
But, right now, Roma is on incredibly thin ice with the Council. She needs to give them something, even if it’s small. “Only briefly. Since he’s friendly with Laguerre, he was there when she cast the anti-cloaking spell over the memoryscapes. He was, um. He was the one who identified Bryant and Chester.”
Councilwoman Nasir’s gaze sharpens. “I see. And this meeting was at a neutral location, you said?”
Roma’s throat feels dry. She wouldn’t exactly call Naomi and Sawyer’s living room “neutral,” but Nasir doesn’t need to know that. “Yes,” she says warily. “But Laguerre rifted me straight there and Smith forcibly rifted me out, so I never got the address.”
For a long moment, Nasir considers Roma.
And then she holds out a hand. “Your cell phone, please.”
Unease trickles down Roma’s spine. “Uh, sure,” she says, digging it out of her pocket and stepping forward to pass it over the councilwoman’s desk. “Do you, um, need my passcode?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Nasir says, and with a few quick taps, she manages to bypass Roma’s passcode-protected lock screen entirely. Roma swallows hard, eternally grateful that she doesn’t keep anything incriminating on her phone?—and that she never used it to contact Ez or JJ.
Although Naomi did text Roma that one time. But she didn’t attach her older sister’s name to the phone number, so hopefully, Nasir won’t look too closely at her messaging history.
The councilwoman pulls a USB cable out of her desk, connects Roma’s phone to her computer, and starts typing. “Approximately what time were you in this meeting location?”
“Um.” Roma swallows hard. “Around nine p.m., I think. Why?”
Nasir effortlessly clicks a few more buttons. “According to your phone’s GPS, you were at 48 Cardinal Lane at that time last night,” she says, and Roma’s stomach plummets. “Does that sound correct?”
It’s the exact address that Obie gave her and Ez. Desperately, Roma flies through her options. “I?—I’m really not sure, ma’am. All I know is that it was a residential house. Two stories. The interior walls were, uh, beige.”
“Hm.” Councilwoman Nasir’s frown deepens as she skims over the information on her screen. “Records indicate that the house belongs to one Gregorio Ricci, demon.”
Roma almost chokes. Gregorio owns that house? And he didn’t make any attempt to hide it? “That’s, um, possible,” she says, thinking fast. “Smith said it was an?—an unused house that belonged to a friend of his. Maybe Ricci was that friend.”
Councilwoman Nasir scrutinizes Roma closely. Roma does her best not to fidget, keeping her expression neutral and her breathing even, because??—
Because she’s almost certain that Nasir already knows Roma is lying, at least a little bit.
“Very well,” Nasir says at last, and she unplugs Roma’s phone from the cable, holding it out. Cautiously, Roma steps forward to take it. “For now, we’ll search that property and any others connected with Ricci and Smith.”
Roma’s shoulders almost slump with relief. She doesn’t like putting Gregorio and especially Obie at risk, but Naomi and Sawyer already said that they needed to switch safe houses. Hopefully, they had more than enough time to move out?—and cover their tracks?—overnight. “Understood, ma’am,” Roma says, nodding. “Is there anything you need me to do?”
Nasir’s smile is chilling. “You’ve done enough,” she says, and the words hit Roma like a slap in the face. “For now, I imagine it goes without saying that you’re to stay away from the mega-rifts until further notice. If Laguerre and her ilk are out for revenge, we wouldn’t want there to be any… incidents.”
Roma’s heart sinks. Much as she was expecting the restriction, part of her was futilely hoping that Nasir would just neglect to mention it, giving Roma plausible deniability to track down Ez at the nearest mega-rift and beg for forgiveness.
Looks like that’s not in the cards, though. “Understood, Councilwoman,” she says quietly.
“In addition,” Nasir continues, “now that your assignment is over, I’ll be expecting your full analysis on the Deep by the end of the month. In fact, since that report is of particular interest to the Council?—and since it’s the one remaining way for you to salvage something useful out of this failure?—I’d advise you to remain in the Sanctum until you’ve completed it.”
So Roma is on lockdown until further notice. Figures. Especially if Nasir suspects that Roma is hiding something, she’ll want to keep Roma close until she knows how to handle her. Roma nods stiffly. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll contact you if we need further clarification about anything we’ve discussed today,” Councilwoman Nasir says, and she turns back to her computer. “For now, you’re dismissed.”
Finally. “Yes, ma’am,” Roma repeats, and she turns around, striding quickly towards the door.
“And Gutierrez?”
Roma pauses with one hand on the doorknob, reluctantly looking over her shoulder. “Yes?”
Nasir’s eyes are as hard and cold as steel. “Don’t misunderstand me. There will be consequences for failing your mission so spectacularly?—not to mention starting the mega-rift epidemic in the first place. However, I’ll have to consult with the rest of the Council to decide whether the knowledge you’ve gained outweighs your errors in judgment.”
Roma flinches. “Understood,” she says weakly, and with a hard knot in her stomach, she pushes open the door, closes it behind her, and hurries straight back to her bedroom, any thoughts of breakfast forgotten. At this point, she’s barely eaten anything since yesterday’s lunch, but right now??—
Right now, all she wants is to bury herself under her covers, sob out the last of the emotions spiraling in her chest, and pray to whatever gods are listening that Ez and JJ and Naomi and everyone they care about gets out of this alive.