Chapter 46
46
E z whistles appreciatively, turning in a slow circle to survey the lavish living room around her. “Obie, my man, you have fine taste in safe houses.”
“Right?” Naomi agrees, sprawled across one of the couches like she owns the place. Technically, she doesn’t, but since she and Sawyer have been living here for just over a week and will likely continue living here for the foreseeable future, it seems fitting. “Gregorio could never.”
“Because I’m not as ostentatious as Obie,” Gregorio says bluntly. “And I’m not as old as him, either. Haven’t had sufficient time to become a billionaire.”
JJ’s eyebrows rocket up. “Are you a billionaire, Obie?”
“It’s impolite to ask,” Obie says, and he glances around the room. “So how’s everyone feel about our counterspell?”
Ez’s mood immediately sours. Ever since last week, she’s spent most of her rift-closing shifts in the company of Sawyer, Naomi, or JJ, and so far, she hasn’t been impressed by any of them.
Sawyer is out. Although she’s competent enough by now to cast the Sanctum’s blocking spell together with Ez’s disconnecting spell, her incantations are still shaky and her gestures are still imprecise. Functional, but nowhere near good enough to tap into the Deep.
Naomi isn’t much better, but to her credit, she’s been practicing on her own time and taking Ez’s feedback seriously. Her skills are decidedly rusty?—after all, she hasn’t had to use anything beyond basic spells since she defected?—but she’s clearly trying to polish them up, and she’s getting incrementally better every day.
Actually, Naomi’s aggressive determination reminds Ez of Roma. She’s trying her hardest not to entertain that comparison for too long, though?—and, persistence aside, Naomi is still leaps and bounds away from what Ez needs in a spellcasting partner.
Their best human spellcaster right now is Julian Jackson. It makes sense, since he only defected from the Sanctum a few months ago and has been practicing magic with Cass ever since, but that just brings JJ’s other issues?—namely, his half-demon soul?—into sharp relief.
Ez doesn’t know if “human enough” will cut it for a brush with the Deep, and she’s not about to take that risk with both of their lives at stake. She’s been fairly vocal about that fact, which Cass seems to greatly appreciate.
Not that it helps their current predicament. “It’s not great,” Ez says flatly. “Out of the three humans in this room, precisely zero are capable of pulling off this counterspell with me.”
JJ looks chagrined. Sawyer looks annoyed. Naomi, though, just considers Ez with narrowed eyes. “Are you sure about that? Because JJ’s skills would’ve made our old spellcasting instructors proud.”
Ez’s hackles rise. “He’s passable,” she stresses, “and with sufficient preparation, I would be confident enough in his abilities to let him try?— if he were still one hundred percent human. We don’t know if the Deep would be offended by a half-demon’s soul, and I’d rather not find out the hard way.”
“And you really don’t think Naomi or Sawyer could handle it?” Micah asks, his eyebrows furrowing. “They definitely need practice, but Naomi in particular has been improving a lot.”
“Not so much with Sawyer, though,” Gregorio says.
“Piss off, Ricci.”
“Love you, too, Solomon.”
Ez shakes her head. “It would take at least two months to get Naomi close to the level where I’d be comfortable accessing the Deep with her. Not happening.”
Cass presses his lips together. “So we’re back to square one?”
The thought is even more depressing out loud than it was in Ez’s head. “Yep. Looks like it.”
For a long moment, silence reigns. Naomi is picking at a stray thread on the couch, avoiding everyone’s eyes; Sawyer is sitting on the adjacent armrest, her body angled in Naomi’s direction; Cass and JJ are sharing the loveseat, matching dejected expressions on their faces; Gregorio and Micah are hovering near the hallway, clearly disappointed by the news; and Obie??—
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Obie says, scrutinizing Ez from his spot by the window.
Ez fights back a groan. “Take what the wrong way?”
“Is the problem really that they’re not capable of casting the counterspell?” he asks. “Or is the problem just that they’re not Roma Gutierrez?”
All the blood rushes from Ez’s head at once. The entire room snaps to attention, seven pairs of eyes trained directly on her. “I’m very aware that no one here is Roma Gutierrez, thanks,” she says through gritted teeth.
Obie doesn’t back down. “Look, I’ll readily admit that tapping into the Deep for an unproven spell requires an abundance of caution, and I agree about not letting JJ or Sawyer do it. But I’m pretty sure Naomi could reach the baseline you need within two weeks, not two months. She might not be at Roma’s level, but??—?”
“Will you stop?” Ez snaps. “I’m not just comparing everyone to Roma, okay?”
“It would make sense if you were, though,” Cass says carefully, and Ez turns her glare on him. “After all, she’s Redwater’s most powerful human spellcaster, and you’re used to that caliber of spellcasting. But Roma’s capabilities are the ceiling, not the floor.”
“I?—?” Ez fights down the anger festering behind her sternum. “Listen, if this spell goes wrong, it’s not just going to affect the human spellcaster. It’s going to affect both of us. I’m just making sure that no one ends up dead on the other side, and??—?”
JJ’s eyebrows pull together. “But I thought it only affected Roma when it went wrong last time?”
“Will everyone stop bringing up Roma?”
JJ jerks back like she slapped him, eyes wide. Cass shifts protectively towards him, glaring back at Ez, and the rest of the room watches with tense expressions, bracing themselves for the fallout.
Ez’s face burns. “Sorry,” she mumbles to JJ. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
JJ’s shoulders hunch. “It’s fine. I?—I know you’ve had a really rough few weeks.”
“Still not an excuse,” she says, and she takes a deep breath, meeting JJ’s eyes. “And you’re right. When the spell went wrong last time, it only affected Roma. But that was because we did both halves of the incantation perfectly, and we were perfectly in sync the whole time, and our power levels were perfectly matched, and?—?” Ez’s throat feels tight. She looks away. “There were a lot of other factors involved.”
After a moment, Obie says, “So, basically, the answer to my question is ‘yes.’ The problem is that they’re not Roma.”
Ez’s temper spikes. “You know what? Sure. Let’s go with that. The problem is that I spent two months straight finding a seamless spellcasting rhythm with her, and the problem is that we knew each other’s styles well enough to correct our cadences mid-spell, and the problem is that our skill levels were so similar that we could distribute the workload evenly.” She nods at Naomi. “Sure, Naomi could get to a baseline where she’s technically able to cast the counterspell. But our power levels would be so mismatched that I’d be shouldering more of the risks myself. Couple that with the fact that no one in this room is skilled enough to modulate an incantation on the fly, not even Obie, and you can see why I’m not exactly keen to utilize another spellcaster for this.” She glances at Cass. “So yes. We are back to square one. Any other ideas?”
Sawyer shakes her head. “Nothing on our end. We’ve tried researching the original spell that Roma?—or Bryant and Chester, I guess?—used to spark the epidemic, but we couldn’t find another way to reverse it without tapping into the Deep.”
“Nothing from us, either,” Cass says, and when Ez throws him a surprised look, he scowls. “What? Just because spellcasting isn’t my specialty doesn’t mean I’m useless. JJ and I have been diving into everything we know about magic reservoirs in general and the Deep in particular, trying to see if we missed anything relevant. So far, though, no dice.”
Obie’s jaw works. “You said that the power imbalance between you and Naomi would make the spell more dangerous,” he says, shooting Ez a calculating glance. “So what if we used a demon spellcaster who was closer to Naomi’s level? Even if they’re both weaker than you, would it matter as long as they hit the power threshold for the Deep?”
Ez lets out her breath in a hiss, unconvinced. “That could be an option, but I still don’t like it. Having less power overall means that the counterspell itself would have to be flawless, and??—?”
Suddenly, Ez is cut off by a loud banging echoing through the room, almost like a flat palm pounding against the front door. Sawyer bolts to her feet, swearing under her breath. “What the hell?” she demands, her eyes cutting to Naomi.
Naomi shrugs hopelessly in response. “Any of you expecting someone?” she asks, her gaze sweeping around the room.
“Nope,” Obie says curtly, a shimmer of black smoke swirling around him. Preparing for a true form transformation. “And no one else should even know this safe house exists, let alone that it’s occupied now.”
The knocking is louder this time. Without warning, it’s paired with a voice that makes Ez’s heart leap and her blood run cold in the same moment.
“Naomi! Sawyer! I know you’re in there. Open up. This is important.”
Roma? “What’s she doing here?” Ez hisses, her pulse hammering against her temples. “How did she even find this place?”
JJ’s face is bloodless and his escrima sticks are already in his hands. “Not sure,” he says tightly. “Could she have tracked us?”
“Not with all the warding Ez and Obie put up,” Cass says, “but??—?”
And now the banging just sounds annoyed. “Naomi! Sawyer! Come on? ? —?”
All at once, fury blazes through Ez.
No. No, Roma Gutierrez doesn’t just get to waltz in here and ruin their lives again. Not after last time.
Not after the first time, for that matter. “I’ve got this,” she says shortly, and before anyone else can respond, she strides across the room, casts a quick shield spell over herself, and yanks open the door. “What the hell do you want, Gutierrez?”