“Hello, Desi! I’m Nikolai,” he says, smiling fondly as Desi starts telling him all about the adventures she’s going to have with her new dragons and grilling him on his knowledge ofWyvern Academy.
Cass wavers briefly before admitting defeat. “Sorry,” he says, pitching his voice as low as possible. “Won’t happen again.”
JJ glowers down at the floor. “Okay,” he says, and he walks over to join Desi without another word. Letting out his breath in a hiss, Cass follows.
Hopefully, JJ’s plans for his next visit won’t require glamours. Somehow, Cass feels like he and his co-parent might just get along better at a distance.
7
Despite his best efforts, JJ can’t figure out any plans that don’t require glamours.
It’s not his fault! Redwater is just too small of a town for its own good, and its citizens are just too nosy and friendly for their own good, and Sanctum hunters are just too recognizable for their own good. JJ can’t so much as walk along Lakeside without attracting at least a few stares and whispers; he doesn’t even want to imagine how people would react if they saw him with a small child in tow.
That means he and Desi need disguises. He’d cast the spell for the glamours himself if he could, but that’s regrettably impossible—both glamours and invisibility spells are demon magic that can’t be accessed by humans. And while human magicdoesinclude cloaking spells that make people’s eyes slide over him like he’s not even there, he doesn’t think he could maintain them for both him and Desi for longer than half an hour.
Admittedly, that last partisa little bit JJ’s fault. While he didn’t sleep through spellcasting class like Bryant and Chester did, he certainly could’ve applied himself more. But he doubts that even Roma, one of the Redwater Sanctum’s best spellcasters, could maintain multiple cloaking spells for more than two or three hours.
All of the above factors, unfortunately, lead to JJ stiffly asking Cass if he can keep coming on their twice-weekly field trips, and Cass just as stiffly agreeing. It makes JJ feel uncomfortably like his visits with Desi are being supervised, like he’s done somethingwrong.
For Desi, though, the humiliation is worth it. “Crepes!” she cheers, holding her strawberries-and-cream crepe above her head like a trophy. “Ilovecrepes!”
JJ’s heart melts a little bit. “I really like crepes, too,” he says, carefully guiding her towards an empty table across the Courtyard. “Have you had them from Crêperie before?”
“Yeah!” Desi says, giggling when Cass sweeps her into the air before placing her gently on the table’s bench seat. “Cass takes me here all the time!”
The words bring JJ up short. He knows that Cass cooks meals for Desi, but he brings her to the Courtyard, too? “Really?” JJ asks, his eyes darting to Cass.
Cass scowls back. “Why is that so surprising?”
“I—” Fighting back a wince, JJ settles himself on the bench next to Desi, putting his caprese crepe on the table. “Never mind. It’s not.”
Cass gives him a suspicious look before picking up his plastic knife and fork to cut into his blueberry crepe. Letting out his breath in a hiss, JJ grabs Desi’s plate and starts to do the same, dividing her crepe into neat pieces for her.
It’s been almost two weeks since they started going on these field trips together, and JJ would be hard-pressed to say how they’re actually going. Sometimes, he and Cass are surprisingly cordial with each other, chatting about the finer points of blanket forts for Desi’s dragon plushies; sometimes, they ignore each other completely, focusing on Desi and barely speaking to each other?—
And sometimes—like today, apparently—JJ just can’t say anything without drawing Cass’s ire. Forcing down his irritation, he finishes cutting Desi’s crepe and slides it back in front of her. “How’s that look, Desi?”
“It looks great!” she says brightly, picking up her fork. “Do you want a piece, JJ?”
“Sure,” he says, and he takes the tiniest corner piece for himself. “Do you want a piece of mine, too?”
Desi wrinkles her nose at his plate. “Yuck.”
“Yuck?”JJ repeats incredulously. “What do you mean, ‘yuck’?”
Desi jabs her fork accusingly at the crepe. “It hasgreen stuffin it.”
“That’s spinach! It’s yummy and healthy!”
“Yuck!” Desi insists.
Deciding to try his luck, JJ turns to Cass. “Cass, back me up here. Spinach is good, right?”
“Generally, yes,” Cass says. “But not oncrepes,lackey.”
“Traitor.”
“Yay!” Desi says, and she gifts Cass a piece of her crepe as a reward. “For you!”
