Chapter 42
42
E z wrinkles her nose as the latest mega-rift shudders into nonexistence, casting a sidelong glance at her spellcasting partner. “Wow. Your spellcasting really does suck.”
“Bite me, Laguerre,” Naomi says, letting her arms drop back by her sides. She looks just as frustrated as she’s looked all morning, frustrated at stumbling over the blocking spell’s incantation and fumbling the gesture and generally just not having the strongest grasp of magic in general. “Do these stupid things ever stop opening?”
Right on cue, there’s a warm brush of air against the back of Ez’s neck. “Nope,” she says, popping the “p,” and she snaps open a transport rift. “That’s why we call it an ‘epidemic,’ you see.”
“You’re particularly pissy today,” Sawyer observes, following Ez and Naomi through the rift. Her appearance is glamoured, just like Naomi’s, but Ez is rapidly starting to learn that her sardonic smile looks the same no matter what face she’s wearing.
“I’d be less pissy if either of you paid attention in spellcasting class,” Ez says pointedly, and she motions for Naomi to step up next to her at their next mega-rift. “One, two, three?—in the name of Nostringvadha??—?”
“Ages upon ages??—?”
Ez flows through her incantation, fighting back a flinch whenever Naomi’s cadence falters or her intonation wobbles. Neither of those will technically affect the blocking spell’s effectiveness?—after all, they’re just closing regular mega-rifts here, not reaching down into the Deep?—but they definitely make Ez’s blood pressure rise.
It’s not that Naomi and Sawyer are bad people. Ez is reserving judgment on that front, at least until she knows them a little better. But they’re both decidedly subpar spellcasters, and Ez isn’t used to working with subpar spellcasters. She’s used to working with someone who knows what they’re doing, used to working with someone who understands the intricacies of magic??—
Used to working with someone who’s intimately familiar with Ez’s spellcasting style. Determinedly, Ez shoves the thoughts away. “?—?close what once was opened!”
“?—?command you to close!” Naomi adds, a few beats late.
The mega-rift evaporates in a shimmer of purple-gold. Ez lets out her breath slowly, bracing herself for the next rush of power.
None is forthcoming. After a few seconds, Sawyer jumps in. “Break time? It’s almost noon, after all. We should grab some lunch.”
Ez shakes her head. “This break is only going to last for two or three minutes. We have at least another hour before our next long one.”
Naomi looks appalled. “Seriously? I’m starving.”
“Maybe we should get some food anyway,” Sawyer says, stepping subtly closer to her girlfriend. “I can take over spellcasting for Naomi while she eats, and then she can take over for me while I eat. Yeah?”
Ez scowls back at her. “So when am I supposed to eat?”
“You don’t need to eat.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” Ez says waspishly, but she waves open a rift to the Courtyard. “Here. Go nuts.”
Naomi gives her a tight smile as she steps through, and Sawyer’s polite nod is just as distant. Ez resists the urge to heave a sigh as she follows them, snapping the rift shut behind her.
It’s only been three days since her sunset counterspell attempt with Roma?—and everything that happened afterward?—but it already feels like a different lifetime. Unfortunately, despite Ez’s most fervent prayers that the universe should be giving her some kind of break by now, the universe hasn’t been forthcoming.
Namely because the mega-rift epidemic is still in full swing. The attempted reversal didn’t affect it at all, and since Ez is the primary demon in charge of closing said mega-rifts, she wasn’t about to call out sick.
Even if she was sorely tempted the day after everything went south.
Instead, though, she left Desi in Cass’s care, threw a glamour on JJ, and dragged him out to take a shift with her. Despite JJ’s long history with Roma?—or maybe because of it?—he didn’t mention her name once, for which Ez was eternally grateful.
And she was pleased to see that JJ’s spellcasting wasn’t as terrible as she expected. There was definitely a learning curve with the blocking spell, and timing his incantation with Ez’s didn’t come easily to him, but by their second day together, they’d fallen into a surprisingly smooth rhythm.
It was almost enough to let Ez forget about Roma for a few minutes. Almost.
But Ez doesn’t want to rely on JJ for the counterspell. He might be a competent spellcaster for basic and intermediate magic, but to stabilize the Deep, she wants to have options?—specifically, options with fully human souls.
So, much to Cass’s relief, she left JJ at home today and commandeered Naomi and Sawyer, instead. It’s a decision that she’s been mostly regretting ever since. It’s not that they’re bad at spellcasting?—Ez would describe them more as inexperienced than anything else?—but??—
But, if she’s being honest with herself, she’s snappish and irritable with them for reasons beyond their control. Reasons relating to Roma, and Roma’s complicated feelings towards them, and Ez’s instinctive protectiveness over Roma’s feelings.
Which makes Ez even more snappish and irritable, because she shouldn’t care about Roma’s stupid feelings anymore. Fighting back a scowl, she follows Naomi and Sawyer to Tacos Near Me, where she notes with some satisfaction that Esteban is deep in conversation with Falafel Nick.
Maybe someone’s love story has a chance of working out, after all.
Esteban beams when he notices them approaching. “Hello, new friends! Welcome to our humble taco truck!”
Naomi and Sawyer look visibly startled before schooling their expressions into careful neutrality, and Ez almost facepalms. That’s the problem with convincing glamours: even the people wearing them forget about them sometimes. JJ had a similar reaction when they got falafel nachos yesterday.
A reaction that Nick clearly remembers. He squints suspiciously at Sawyer. “Hm… Julian? Is that you, bud?”
Naomi whistles quietly. “Yikes.”
Sawyer looks affronted. “Ex cuse you?”
“No, no,” Esteban says earnestly to Nick. “Julian walks differently, you see. It’s the walk that gives him away.”
“How does he walk differently?” Nick demands. “Does he do something like?—??” He sashays away from Tacos Near Me, swinging his hips and expertly putting his skinny jean–clad butt on full display, before raising his eyebrows over his shoulder at Esteban. “Like that?”
Esteban opens and closes his mouth a few times without any words coming out. No matter how much he claims that his feelings for Nick are strictly platonic, it’s clear that he’s got it down bad for him.
Decisively, Ez takes pity on him. “No, of course not. It’s more like?—?” She struts up next to Nick on her tiptoes, lifting her knees high and lining up her feet like she’s on a catwalk. “Like that.”
“Ah, of course,” Nick says, grinning. “How could I forget? He would look fabulous in stilettos.” He waggles his eyebrows. “I know I do.”
“Anyway,” Esteban cuts in, looking flustered as he turns back to Naomi and Sawyer. “What can I get for you two today?”
As Naomi and Sawyer set about placing their orders, Ez raises her eyebrows at Nick. “So? Have you seduced him with your dogged persistence yet?”
Nick sighs dramatically, crossing his arms over his chest. “No. No, my good buddy over there continues to be my good buddy. No matter how badly I want him to introduce me to his mattress.”
Ez snorts out a laugh. “Patience, Nicholas. I’m sure you’ll get there eventually.”
Nick smirks. “Oh, I know I will. And I already have some skimpy crop tops lined up for the summer, so I like my chances,” he says, and he nods at Naomi and Sawyer. “By the way, who are the newbies?”
Ez waves a hand dismissively. “Just some human spellcasters I’m showing the ropes to. Nothing major.”
Nick looks confused. “Is Roma sick or something?”
Pain lances through Ez’s chest. “No,” she says curtly. “No, Gutierrez and I aren’t working together anymore.”
Nick’s eyes widen. “You broke up? I’m so sorry, Ez.”
Ez’s mood sours even further. “We weren’t dating, Nick.”
To Ez’s indignation, Nick looks even more flabbergasted at this reply. “You weren’t? Since when?”
Luckily, Ez is saved from having to respond by Naomi and Sawyer appearing with their bag of food in tow. “Here,” Sawyer says, extending a churro in Ez’s direction. “A peace offering for you.”
A pang twists through Ez. She knew that her frustration was obvious, but she didn’t realize it was that obvious. “Thanks,” she says, taking a huge bite of the churro and waving at Nick’s still-bewildered face. “Later, Nick.”
“Ciao, Ez,” he says faintly, speed-walking back to Tacos Near Me and immediately engaging Esteban in a rapid-fire conversation.
She probably just gave the Redwater Food Truck Association its gossip fodder for the next week. Letting out her breath in a hiss, she snaps open a rift. “Come on. I sensed another mega-rift a minute ago. Let’s get it closed.”
Naomi and Sawyer follow her without complaint, Naomi already digging around in the bag for her plunder. “You’re up, babe,” she says, gesturing at the mega-rift with a burrito.
“Unfortunately,” Sawyer sighs, striding forward to join Ez.
Ez eyes Sawyer warily as she shifts into her stance. “So, on a scale from zero to ten, how’s your spellcasting?”
“Probably in the negatives,” Sawyer says flatly, and she extends her arms. “Ages upon ages??—?”
Hastily, Ez jumps in to join her. “In the name of Nostringvadha??—?”
Ez flows through her incantation, keeping one eye on Sawyer. Her intonation and cadence are completely off, the words jumbling together and fighting with Ez’s, and at the end, her blocking gesture is so off-center that the mega-rift only wobbles once before restabilizing.
Ez gapes at her, almost impressed. “Wow. You’re even worse than Naomi.”
“Shut it, Laguerre,” Sawyer snaps. She looks irritated. “One more time?”
“One more time,” Ez says, and warily, she demonstrates the proper hand gesture. “Here. Think of it less like a palm strike and more like a stop signal.”
Sawyer’s jaw works. “Okay. Ages upon ages??—?”
And would it kill you to let one of us count off? “In the name of Nostringvadha??—?”
Sawyer’s incantation still sounds shaky, but her intonation is noticeably better, and with the improved gesture, the mega-rift fizzles into nothingness. Ez arches an eyebrow as she homes in on their next location and snaps open a transport rift. “So what gives? I thought all Sanctum hunters learned the basics of spellcasting.”
“The basics,” Sawyer repeats emphatically, stalking through the rift and moving aside to let Naomi pass. “Just enough to be functional with general-purpose spellcasting.”
“You’re not all that functional, Solomon.”
“Piss off, Laguerre!”
Hurriedly, Naomi steps in to defuse the tension. “The basic spellcasting classes only focus on a small subset of spells, and they only have enough theory to explain those particular spells. They’re mainly just for drilling the incantations that hunters use most often?—tracking spells, healing spells, offensive and defensive spells. Most hunters don’t continue their studies beyond that.”
“And I was a purebred.” Bitterness creeps into Sawyer’s voice. “I would’ve passed the class no matter what I did, so I spent all my time on combat skills, instead. That didn’t help.”
“Yeah.” Naomi’s eyes drift over to Redwater’s southern hillside. “There aren’t many Romas in the Redwater Sanctum.”
Ez’s frayed nerves jangle at the mention of Roma. She takes a deep breath to clear out the sensation. “All right,” she says, trying to keep her voice even as she leads them to their next mega-rift. “After today’s shift, I want you two to walk me through the spells you do know. That’ll give me a sense of which magic bases you’re familiar with, and then I might be able to help you more with the blocking spell from there. Yeah?”
“That’d be great,” Naomi says, nodding. “Thanks, Ez.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer mumbles, glaring down at her sneakers. “Thanks.”
She sounds less annoyed with Ez and more annoyed with the entire situation. Ez gets the distinct sensation that she’s not used to being bad at things, and that she probably just avoided spellcasting altogether when it didn’t come naturally to her.
And, like she said, she was a purebred. No one was going to call her out on it. They would just praise her strong points and sweep her weak ones under the rug.
Not like Roma, who had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of respect she got. Ez shoves the memories away. “Good,” she says briskly, and she shifts into her spellcasting stance. “On three this time, okay? One, two, three?—in the name of Nostringvadha…”
And, as she and Sawyer struggle through their joint rift-closing spells together, Ez tries not to think about how JJ isn’t the only human in their group who isn’t prepared for the challenge of the Deep.