Their days generally pass in a blur of playing dragons, reading picture books together, and chasing each other around the backyard. Cass is valiantly trying to teach her some of the principles of spellcasting—just little exercises to help her control and strengthen her powers—but Desi’s attention usually wanes within ten minutes, so he tries to sprinkle a few smaller lessons throughout the day.
By the time bedtime rolls around, Desi’s eyelids are usually starting to droop. Cass typically carries her into her bedroom, tucks her in to cuddle with Hana the Wyvern, and reads her one last story before turning out the lights.
Clearly, it’s not a schedule that leaves Cass much time for himself. He’s surprised to find that he doesn’t really mind, though. After over two hundred years of living on his own, he thought that having another person in his house would be a constant irritation, but he genuinely loves how Desi’s shaken up his schedule. At this point, he can barely remember how he used to fill his days before she exploded into his life.
Still, he’s grateful that she’s also embraced the time-honored human tradition of napping, usually curling up on the couch to doze for an hour before lunch and an hour before dinner. And she obviously cuddles with Kira during those naps, because Hana is hernighttimecuddle-wyvern, not herdaytimecuddle-wyvern. Those precious few hours give Cass all the time he needs to do little chores around the house, scroll through his phone, and take a few minutes to just relax.
It’s a good schedule, Cass thinks.
Or, at the very least, it’s a good schedule until the day Desi wakes up screaming.
“No!”she shrieks, nearly making Cass jump out of his skin as she thrashes herself awake. “No, no, no,no, no?—!”
“Desi—Desi!”Cass lunges across the living room to pull her into his arms, whipping his head around to find what could’ve hurt her. The only thing in sight is Kira the Wyvern, currently squashed between Desi’s chest and Cass’s belly, and the layers of spell work Ez wove around Cass’s property prevent any remote magic attacks, so?—
So there’s nothing. Nothing that Cass can fight, at least.
But Desi, apparently, disagrees. “I don’twantto!” she screams, pounding her little fists against Cass’s chest. “I don’t want to do that anymore, don’t make me do that anymore,don’t?—!”
All at once, realization jolts through Cass.
She had a nightmare. A nightmare about being controlled by her summoner in that derelict barn in the forest, from the sound of it.
Instantly, Cass feels nauseous. Demons don’t dream in the human sense, of course—even when they “sleep,” it’s really just a profound level of relaxation, not a different physiological state. Dreams aren’t part of that, but?—
But nightmares can be. Nightmares are generally a sign that a demon feels secure enough to start facing the trauma of their past, to start coming to terms with being dragged away from Tamaros and compelled to do their summoner’s bidding and realizing they could never go home. That subconscious push off the ledge is what forces most demons to reckon with what was done to them, find some kind of meaning in the chaos of Earth, and come out stronger on the other side.
Cass didn’t think to warn Desi about nightmares because it took himdecadesto have his first one,decadesto feel safe enough to start processing that trauma. It took running far away from the place where he was summoned, and finding Ez and Obie in that bar right before the War of 1812, and learning every fighting style known to humankind to protect himself, and?—
And Desi got to that point amonthafter being freed from her summoner?
Based on the strength of her crying, it looks like the answer is a resounding yes. “I wanna gohome,”she sobs. “I wanna go back with Cass and JJ. I want?—”
Cass’s heart cracks along the seams. “Desi, sweetheart,” he whispers, hugging her tightly, “youarehome, okay? None of that was real. It was just your mind playing tricks on you.Thisis real, okay? You’re here, and you’re home, and youneverhave to go back there, and?—”
Cass keeps rocking her and whispering soothing words, struggling to figure out his next moves. His first instinct is to call Ez and Obie, but a sharp pang of guilt holds him back. They’ve been on call ever since Cass took Desi in, always ready to rift to his side to babysit or help him run errands around town, and he doesn’t want to bug them on one of the few days they’ve had to themselves this month.
But the only other person who even knows Desi exists is Julian Jackson, and despite their tentative steps from active enemies to cautious allies, Cass sure as hell doesn’t want to beg the stupid hunter for help.
Slowly, Desi’s screams choke off to quieter sobs, but her tears don’t show any signs of slowing down. Cass thinks she might have realized her nightmare wasn’t real, but he knows that doesn’t make it any less upsetting.
And Cass’s efforts to comfort her clearly aren’t enough. Time to call in the big guns. Either he’ll have to bite the bullet and interrupt his friends’ free time, or?—
Or swallow his pride and reach out to the one person who has a proven track record of laying Desi’s real-life nightmares to rest. Taking a deep breath, he carefully adjusts Desi in his arms, tilting her chin up to meet her eyes. “Desi?”
She sniffles in reply, wiping her nose on her sleeve.
“Desi, sweetheart, do you—do you want JJ?”
For a long moment, she blinks up at him, her lower lip trembling.
And then she nods and throws her arms around his neck, crying even harder.
“Okay,” Cass whispers, easing himself to his feet and carrying her down the hall to her bedroom. “Okay, Desi, I’ll get JJ for you. You just—” Hopelessly, he sets her down on her bed, grabs Hana from the blanket fort, and presses her into Desi’s arms next to Kira. “You juststay hereand keep your wyverns close, okay? They’ll keep you safe.”
“Okay,” Desi croaks, and she buries her face in Kira’s side and continues to sob.
Reluctantly, Cass backs out of her room and shuts the door behind him, snapping his fingers to lock it from the inside. Even if Desi is a powerful demon, she also has the mind of a four-year-old, and the idea of leaving her alone in the house makes his skin crawl—even if Ez’s defensive spell work is unparalleled.
