JJ looks away. “Fine.”
“JJ—”
“I’mliterallyfine.” JJ’s voice sounds strained. “That’s part of the problem. I feel like being half-demon should be scary or at leaststrange,but…” He shakes his head. “It’s just like having Sanctum enchantments again. Like—like they were never all that different from a demon’s powers in the first place. And Idostill need to eat and sleep, just less often. It’s new, but I’m okay.” His lips curve downward. “I know you got the short end of the stick, though.”
Cass waves a hand dismissively. “You’re a wonderful coach in how to be human. I’m adjusting.”
“Cass, you’re going to die someday.”
The last dregs of Cass’s banter die in his throat. “I know,” he admits. “Comes with being half-human. But we don’t know when ‘someday’ will be, right? For all we know, it could be another hundred years. Same with you—now that you’re half-demon, I’ll be shocked if youdon’tsurvive for another eighty years. Hopefully, we’ll both make it that long.” He brushes his thumb over JJ’s cheek. “I’m okay with a shorter life as long as you’re in it.”
JJ ducks his head, trying to hide a smile. “You’re such a sap.”
“You love it.”
In truth, though, Cassisworried—not just about his potentially shortened lifespan, but about everything with the soul exchange. Obie has apparently never seen it in his thousands of years on Earth, and Ez is currently on a research binge to find any record of it, but?—
But they just don’t know yet. Cass and JJ could die in a millennium or next week.
For now, though, Cass is trying to take each day as it comes. “But enough of that,” he says, kissing JJ’s cheek again. He’s become a huge fan of cheek kisses recently, andespeciallyof the way JJ blushes every time he does it. “Ez and Obie will be bringing Desi home from the library soon. We should probably?—”
He’s interrupted by the purple-gold of a rift blossoming to life in the middle of the living room. Desi quickly bounds through it, leaping into Cass’s arms. “Cass! Hi!”
“Desi!” He sweeps her up into a hug. “How was story time?”
“Great! It was great! AndJJ!”Desi makes grabby hands at JJ; obediently, Cass drops her into JJ’s waiting arms. “JJ, they havemore dragon books!Auntie Ez found them for me!”
JJ’s eyes widen.“Moredragon books? But I thought we read all of them already!”
“You read all thepicturebooks,” Ez corrects, and she holds up a small stack of chapter books. “Luckily, elementary schoolers also love dragons. You won’t run out of stories anytime soon.”
“I’m going to miss the pictures,” Desi tells JJ seriously. “But Uncle Obie says these books are longer and have more characters, so you and Cass can do more voices!”
“We all know how JJ loves his voices,” Cass teases, nudging his shoulder against JJ’s. JJ instinctively leans back against him, pressing into Cass’s space like it’s the most natural place for him to be. “I think chapter books will be a wonderful addition to our collection.”
“And Desi can start learning more words, too,” Obie adds. “Cass, you helped her age herself up a few months, right? Her reading skills have really improved. Spelling, too.”
“I can spell ‘Mississippi’ now!” Desi says proudly. “Uncle Obie taught me! Want to hear it?”
“Of course I do,” JJ says.
As Desi immediately starts singing the letters, Cass slips closer to Ez and Obie. “Any news?” he asks quietly.
Ez grimaces. “The Chain is still scandalized that you’re harboring a fugitive hunter, but they’re not even bothering to question us anymore—they know we’re not about to snitch. The Sanctum seems less active than usual, too.”
“Probably still licking their wounds from the jailbreak,” Obie says, his jaw set in a grim line. “They’ll be back to their usual machinations soon enough. And speaking of machinations…” He lowers his voice even further. “Micah and Gregorio?”
Cass winces. “We haven’t talked much since I told them about Gutierrez. And that conversation was just the weird icing on top of the entire weirdness cake—they seemed to take it almostpersonallythat she was a double agent all along.”
And they were obviously disappointed, too. Cass still doesn’t know what to make of it. Their clear interest in Roma and JJ, their counterintuitive loyalty to Cass, the way Micah so easily referred to JJ by his nickname and Roma as “Gutierrez the Younger”—
The list goes on and on. But that’s a mystery for another day. “Micah has checked in once or twice,” Cass continues, “but he’s been fairly civil. No more pointed questions or bizarre requests. No asking me to ‘trust’ them again, either.”
Obie smiles bitterly. “Trust is in short supply nowadays. I think they understand that.”
“Seems like it.”
“Ooh, ooh, ooh!” Desi says excitedly, making grabby hands at Cass this time. JJ dutifully places her back in Cass’s arms, and Cass suppresses a smile. “Auntie Ez and Uncle Obie said we can go out forchurros,Cass! And Auntie Ez said she can glamour all of us!”
