Ez smacks his arm. “Shut up. Wouldyourun away from everything you’d ever known for someone who wasn’t your love interest?”
“Yes,” Obie says. “Case in point: I follow your dumb asses into danger all the time, and I’m certainly not attracted to either of you.”
Cass shudders dramatically. “Good. You’re too old for us.”
Obie scoffs. “You’re both pushing two hundred fifty.”
Ez arches an eyebrow. “And you’re…?”
After a moment, Obie smiles wryly. “It’s impolite to ask.”
“Spoilsport,” Ez says.
“In any case,” Cass cuts in, “the hunter is tolerable. And I will concede that he’s amazing with Desi, which is basically his only redeeming quality.”
“And the fact that he buys you food,” Obie says.
“And that he’s a sexy beast,” Ez adds.
“Actually, it looks like Jackson has quite a few redeeming qualities,” Obie says. “Maybe we should join you three on your field trip today.”
Cass jabs a finger at him. “Absolutely not. You’re lucky I’m even letting you twomeethim today.”
“Aw, butwhy?”Ez asks, smirking. “Afraid we’ll embarrass you, Cass?”
“No, it’s just—” Cass bites back a grimace. “Look, Desi adores this human, okay? So I’m—I’m trying to do right by her, and thatalsomeans doing right by him. I want him to have his time with her. Honestly, if he and Desi didn’t need me for the glamours, I wouldn’t even intrude.”
That makes Ez and Obie go quiet. “Do you really think this could work?” Obie asks cautiously. “The custody arrangement, I mean?”
Cass lets out his breath slowly, looking away. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not sure how sustainable it’ll be over the long term, but…”
But JJ clearly takes his role seriously. Cass has noticed that he uses a cloaking spell to get between the Sanctum and Cass’s safe house, trying to cover his tracks as much as possible, and that he takes particular care with covering all his exposed skin so he doesn’t accidentally burn Desi. He listens intently to all of Desi’s stories, he’s unerringly friendly with the food truck operators in the Courtyard and at Lakeside, he’s reasonably cordial with Cass?—
Maybe theydohave a shot at raising this kid. Co-parenting her. Whatever.
And Cass is just about to tip back down the rabbit hole of the fact that he’sco-parentingachildwith aSanctum hunterwhen there’s a knock on the door. Letting out an explosive sigh, he shoves himself to his feet. “Behave,” he warns Ez and Obie, and he strolls over to pull it open. “Right on time, Jackson.”
“Hey,” JJ says, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. “Where’s Des?—?”
And then his eyes lock on a point over Cass’s shoulder, and he stops dead. Before Cass can react, JJ grabs the front of Cass’s shirt and yanks him around, bursting forward to swap their positions, summoning an escrima stick out of thin air?—
Putting himself in front of Cass. Putting himself, Cass realizes with a jolt, between Cass and thethreat.
In this case, though, the “threat” is just Ez and Obie, who are both on their feet and clearly ready to throw down at JJ’s sudden offensive. The purple-gold of a magic strike crackling around Ez’s hands, the shadow of black smoke around Obie as the first sign of a true form transformation?—
MaybeCass should’ve mentioned to JJ that he was having company over today. “Settle down, lackey,” he orders, trying to edge past him. “It’s just Ez and Obie.”
JJ’s fingers tighten in the front of Cass’s shirt like a warning to stay back, and Cass swallows hard past the sudden dryness in his throat. Despite all the research he’s done on Julian Jackson, he’s never actually seen the man in hunting mode before—never seen that hard mask slide into place, never seen how his entire posture shifts with his fight stance, never seen how he wields his escrima like an extension of his arm.
Never seen how quickly he could snap into action if he detected the slightest hint of a threat against Desi—or Cass. The thought makes Cass’s heart shiver, and he takes a deep breath, trying to force it down. “JJ?”
The nickname seems to snap JJ out of his adrenaline-fueled headspace. “Oh,” he says weakly, easing out of his fight stance and dropping his escrima stick. It vanishes back to parts unknown like it was never there in the first place. “Um. Hello.”
“Oh, don’t mind us,” Ez says lightly, letting her burgeoning magic attack fade. “We’re just here to watch the trainwreck.”
“Ez,”Cass says, exasperated.
Rolling his eyes, Obie strides forward. “I’m Obie,” he says gruffly, extending a hand. “Nice to meet Desi’s other parent.”
