Chapter 48
48
R oma glances at the timer on her phone for what feels like the thousandth time, her knee jumping up and down with anxiety.
It’s been precisely nineteen minutes since Ez and Obie rifted out of Redwater, and Roma has spent most of those nineteen minutes wishing the Sanctum would just hurry up and get here already. She knows she should be grateful?—the longer it takes for them to show up, the easier it’ll be for Ez and her friends to escape?—but part of her is just itching for the strike force to barrel in and put her out of her misery.
The anticipation is always worse than the battle.
But she’s been utilizing her nervous energy well so far, she thinks. She’s analyzed the house itself from every angle, dragging furniture in front of points of entry and putting up cursory magic blocks along the interior?—nothing the Sanctum’s spellcasters can’t hack through, but just enough to buy her friends a few extra minutes. After that, she reviewed multiple variations on offensive and defensive spells in her head, Naomi’s memorization drills coming in handy now, and sharpened her ax for good measure.
Now, though, all that’s left to do is wait. Wait until the strike force arrives and she fights for her life, or wait until her timer hits twenty-eight minutes and she can try to make a run for it.
Until she’s sure that Ez and JJ and Naomi are safe.
Idly, she wonders if this is how JJ felt when he stayed behind to let Cass and Desi escape all those months ago. Did he feel this same potent combination of mind-numbing fear and inexplicable peace? Did the adrenaline sing through his veins, preparing him to fight for the people he loved?
Did he feel free of doubts for the first time in his entire life?
All at once, Roma hears a familiar sound?—the low rumble of several Sanctum-issued trucks approaching. Stomach lurching, she pushes herself to her feet as three utility vehicles round the corner and slow to a stop, two of them blocking the street on either side and the third pausing right across from the safe house.
And Roma suspected who the Council was going to choose to lead the mission in her stead, but that doesn’t make it any less of a blow when a familiar figure steps out of the passenger side. Shakily, Roma nods at her. “Hey, Bry.”
Bryant strides across the road to stand right at the bottom of the driveway, staring back at Roma with a perfectly blank expression. She doesn’t smile. “Please tell me you have Jackson tied up inside that house. Preferably Chin and the kid, too.”
Roma shakes her head. The rest of the hunters are streaming out of their vehicles now, arranging themselves around Bryant to cut off every escape route. At a glance, Roma counts seventeen hunters from six separate strike teams, and she knows there are probably more settling into position around the back of the house. “You knew I wouldn’t.”
Bryant’s face crumples the slightest bit before smoothing back into its hard mask. “Damn it, Roma, what are you doing? Don’t tell me you defected. Not you. Not after?—not after everything we’ve been through together.”
Roma’s heart hurts. Much as she knows that siding with Ez and JJ and Naomi is the right thing to do, much as she doesn’t have any doubts about abandoning the Sanctum to protect them??—
Her only regret, she thinks, is leaving Bryant and Chester behind. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. “But there’s a lot going on here that you don’t understand, Bryant.”
Bryant spreads her arms out wide, frustrated. “Then explain it to me! What happened to you? Is one of the demons blackmailing you? Is Jackson blackmailing you?”
“Of course not,” Roma says, and she squares her shoulders, meeting Bryant’s eyes. “And the only crime JJ ever committed was loving Cass and their daughter. That’s not a reason for him to be targeted, Nehemiah. That’s not a reason for him to be killed.”
Bryant’s hands twitch into fists. “And what about you, Gutierrez? Did one of the demons get in your head, too?”
For a split second, Roma considers whether to answer honestly.
Did one of the demons get in her head? Yes. Actually, one of the demons has been living rent-free in Roma’s head for a while now. She slipped past Roma’s defenses without Roma even realizing she was there, stood by Roma whenever their path got rocky, treated Roma as an equal whenever they worked together??—
Never made Roma feel broken or inferior. Not like the Sanctum always did.
But there’s no reason for Bryant to know that. Cass and Desi are being targeted mostly because of their connection to JJ, and Roma isn’t about to put Ez in that same danger. “Nope,” she says. “I just found something that mattered more than maintaining the status quo. And this? This is it.”
“Nehemiah,” one of the other hunters?—Hawthorne, Roma thinks?—says quietly. “Our people in the back can’t detect any movement from inside the house.”
Bryant’s eyes narrow. “How long ago did they leave, Roma?”
Roma’s heart stutters. As casually as possible, she checks her phone. Only twenty-two minutes in. “Twenty-seven minutes and forty-two seconds ago,” she lies, and she makes it a point to casually stretch her arms above her head. “So my job here is pretty much done. Do you still wanna fight? Or should we just call this one a draw?”
Bryant’s eyes flicker. “You know,” she says, “you’ve always been a terrible liar.”
Roma’s heart jumps into her throat. “What?”
“Move in,” Bryant orders, and adrenaline spikes through Roma’s veins. “We’re still within our time frame to reopen the demons’ rifts. Get past Gutierrez and into the house. If possible, take her alive; if not?—?” She cuts herself off, jaw tightening. “Just?—just try to take her alive.”
Damn it. Roma snatches her throwing knives out of their gap in spacetime, dropping into her fight stance. “Last chance to walk away.”
Bryant scoffs. “Like your aim is even good enough to??—?”
Abruptly, a ripple of purple-gold dances through the air next to Roma. Startled, she scrambles away, nearly fumbling her knives as she gapes at the rift.
And when Esmeralda Laguerre steps out of it, glancing around imperiously, Roma feels like she can finally breathe again. “Well,” Ez says, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is cozy.”
Roma’s heart twirls behind her ribcage, light and buoyant after the heaviness of the past few weeks. “You came back,” she says stupidly.
Ez’s eyes flicker over to her, dark and fathomless. “This doesn’t mean that I trust you again.”
A little bit of Roma’s happiness wavers. “Duly noted,” she says haltingly.
“But it does mean that I want you to survive long enough for us to try again,” Ez says, and she wrinkles her nose at the strike force in front of them. “Oof. Bryant Nehemiah? You’re down a full strike team, girl. Might want to head on back to the Sanctum and let them know.”
Confidence surges through Roma. Despite their issues, despite the threat, despite the fact that it’s two of them versus dozens of hunters??—
Despite everything, Ez is still standing here beside Roma. As long as they have each other, they can take on the world. “Yeah, you can consider this my official resignation from the Sanctum,” she says, nodding at Bryant. “Do me a favor and let Nasir know. I’m sure she’ll be glad to have both Gutierrez sisters off of her hands.”
Bryant’s eyes darken. “Hawthorne, Massimo, you’re on Roma,” she orders, and next to Roma, Ez tenses visibly. “Yu, Amani, get into the house and start tracking those rifts. Everyone else, we take the demon.”
Ez shifts closer to Roma as the strike force advances?—not putting herself in front of Roma, but keeping them side by side, just like they always are. Roma snaps back into her fight stance, swaps out her throwing knives for her favorite ax??—
Without warning, another burst of purple-gold rips through the air. “Hope you didn’t start the party without us,” JJ says, stepping briskly through the rift with his escrima sticks in hand.
Roma’s stomach plummets. “JJ?—JJ, no? ? —?”
“Jackson, I told you to stay,” Ez says, exasperated. “Sit. Stay. Basic commands, hunter.”
“I can assure you that JJ has never once in his life done what he’s told,” Cass says, striding out of the rift with Obie by his side. His eyes sweep around as he analyzes their opponents. “Five against eighteen? We can take them.”
“More in the back,” Obie says, tipping his head to one side to listen. “Sounds like at least another dozen.”
“We can still take them,” Cass says dismissively.
Roma’s pulse is pounding in her temples. “Guys??—?”
“JJ.” They all look over when Bryant steps forward, her hands held out placatingly. “JJ, I can give you one last chance here, okay? Just?—just come back with us. Please. Roma?—?” Her eyes flash to Roma, and for just a moment, Roma sees the pain behind them. “Come on. Come on, guys. Don’t make me lose you. We can fix this, okay? I promise we can fix this, and??—?”
And this time, when another snatch of purple-gold sparks on Roma’s other side, she actually jerks away on instinct. “Who the hell is that?” she demands, glancing at Ez.
Ez looks equally bewildered. “It’s definitely a transport rift, not a mega-rift,” she says, taking a cautious step towards it, “but??—?”
“Stand down. All of you.”
Roma’s blood runs cold. Bryant stiffens, her eyes widening, and the rest of the hunters jerk to attention, naked shock on their faces.
And Sawyer Solomon, famous purebred defector, steps out of the rift with her shoulders pulled back and her head held high in a way that screams hunter. “Stand down,” she repeats, her eyes narrowing as the rift evaporates behind her. “That’s an order.”
Bryant’s face is bloodless. “Sawyer,” she says hoarsely. “Sawyer, what??—??”
Sawyer scoffs. “You never kicked that habit of talking back to your superiors, did you?” she asks, and Bryant’s mouth snaps shut. “I’m on special assignment from the United States Sanctum. Have been for the past six years. And, not for nothing, but all of you are seriously putting my mission in jeopardy right now.”
The words slice through Roma. “What?” she manages, and her eyes dart to Ez. “Ez??—?”
Ez, though, isn’t looking at Roma. Instead, she’s squinting at the space just behind Sawyer, like she’s looking at something that isn’t quite there.
Roma follows her gaze and sees the faintest of shimmers in the air?—three shimmers, to be exact.
Almost like the subtle spacetime warping of three half-baked invisibility spells. Realization jolts through Roma.
Even six years later, Sawyer still remembers how to play the Sanctum’s games.
“I?—?” Bryant swallows hard. “We were never told that.”
Sawyer massages her temples like she’s praying for patience. “There’s a reason for that, Nehemiah. You have a smartphone, right? Do me a favor and look up the definition of ‘undercover.’” She arches an eyebrow. “Better yet, call the U.S. Council directly. They’ll be able to validate my story.”
Roma almost starts with surprise. That’s a bold gamble, but it buys them time?—and room for doubt. Bypassing the chain of command to go directly to the United States Sanctum is nearly unthinkable for a rank-and-file hunter?—and, even if they did try it, the U.S. Council’s phone lines are always busy.
It’s a con that might actually work. For a long moment, Sawyer and Bryant stare each other down.
And then Bryant shakes her head. “Nice try,” she says, “but no deal. Or did you forget that you’re the one who taught me how to pick a liar out of a crowd?”
There’s an explosive sigh from the empty space near Sawyer. “Told you it wouldn’t work, babe,” Naomi’s voice says, and in the blink of an eye, she appears next to Sawyer, Gregorio and Micah flanking them on either side.
A grin twitches on Sawyer’s lips. “Worth a shot, though. And it was sexy, right?”
Naomi gives Sawyer a look that kind of makes Roma want to gag. “Very.”
Obie looks like he’s ready to rift back out just to spite all of them. “So are we going to fight or just stand here slinging one-liners? Because I have better things to do with my day.”
“Nine against thirty,” Cass says, smirking. “I like these odds even more.”
Roma’s heart swells. She has Ez next to her, clearly braced to blast everyone away with magic; JJ, Cass, and Obie are on her left, all of them trusting JJ’s opinion of Roma; on her right, Naomi, Sawyer, Micah, and Gregorio are all prepared to throw down for Naomi’s sister??—
They came back for her. Even though she gave them the chance to leave her behind, even though she told them to leave her behind, they still came back for her.
And that’s worth everything. Roma steps forward, holding her ax at the ready. “Like I said,” she says, and she lights up a magic strike in her opposite hand. “Last chance to walk away.”
Hawthorne sneers. “You’re way out of your depth here, Gutierrez,” he says, and his eyes cut to Bryant. “Nehemiah, orders?”
The rest of the hunters fall into place behind him, dropping into their fight stances, and around Roma, her new family does the same. Naomi plucks her bow and arrow out of a gap in spacetime, aiming a shot directly at Hawthorne; Sawyer whips out her escrima sticks, mirroring JJ precisely; the demons all start shifting into their true forms, power rippling through the air??—
Except for Ez, who shifts instead into her spellcasting stance, her eyes focused and her hands glowing with magic. Ready to cast spells right by Roma’s side, just like she always is. Roma takes a deep breath, braces herself for the battle ahead??—
“Fall back,” Bryant says suddenly.
Roma jerks around to stare at her, stunned. Hawthorne looks just as incredulous. “Fall back?” he repeats, outraged. “Nehemiah??—?”
“That’s an order,” Bryant snaps, and her considering eyes slide slowly over Roma’s allies. “I think we have more than enough to report to the Council for one day.”
Out of the corner of Roma’s eye, she sees Sawyer’s eyebrows lift in silent surprise. It’s a good tactical call?—facing down five powerful demons and four trained ex-hunters is far more than this strike force prepared for?—but it still sends unease twining down Roma’s spine.
Roma loves Bryant like a sister, but she’s notoriously hotheaded. Frankly, the only reason she’s survived so long on a strike team is because her purebred status insulates her from the consequences of all but her most egregious blunders. If even she is choosing to retreat rather than attack??—
Well. Roma doesn’t think that bodes well for any of them.
Her new friends subtly close ranks around her as the strike force slowly disappears, one row at a time, slinking back to their Sanctum trucks and vanishing like they were never there in the first place. Bryant is the last to leave, her calculating eyes making Roma’s stomach twist, until she steps into her own utility vehicle. Even after the last one disappears from sight and the sound of its engine fades, none of them truly breathe easy until Obie nods. “The ones in the back are gone, too. We’re alone.”
The atmosphere visibly relaxes. Roma finally lets her shoulders slump and her ax drop back into its gap in spacetime, unspent adrenaline making her jittery and tired all at once. “So what now?”
“Now,” Cass says, grabbing JJ’s arm, “my boyfriend and I are taking a circuitous route around the world back to our house, where our daughter is waiting for us. You should all take equally circuitous routes and meet us there. We’ll order tacos.”
And, without waiting for a response, he slices open a rift, drags JJ through it, and disappears from sight.
Obie grimaces after them. “I feel like they’re about to have a very long conversation about JJ putting himself in danger again.”
“But you both signed off on it, apparently,” Ez says. She looks almost impressed. “He’s just that convincing, huh?”
“It was an easier sell once you were back here, too. Couldn’t leave your dumb ass alone,” Obie says, and his eyes slide to Roma. “Gutierrez, you come with me and Ez. Micah, Gregorio, take Sawyer and Naomi and meet us at Cass’s place in about thirty minutes.”
“He had us at ‘tacos,’” Micah says, and in the blink of an eye, he opens a rift for them. “Naomi? Sawyer?”
Naomi briefly meets Roma’s eyes, her lips twitching. “Good job, kiddo,” she says, and Sawyer gives Roma the ghost of a smile before they disappear through the rift, Gregorio snapping it shut behind them.
Obie turns back to Roma and Ez. “You two ready?”
Ez gives Roma a small smile, holding out a hand. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m ready.”
Roma is just starting to reach back when she realizes it. Wincing, she pulls away. “Sorry. Sanctum enchantments. I can’t??—?”
An indecipherable expression flashes across Ez’s face before smoothing over. “Right,” she says, and she just stands close next to Roma as Obie peels open a rift. “One problem at a time.”
And, as they leave the empty street behind, Roma feels a happiness settle into her bones that she never thought she’d feel again.
She has Ez by her side, and right now, that’s all that matters.