Is he thinking, maybe, about what it would take for him to leave the Sanctum for them?
At long last, JJ looks away. “I…”
But Cass never gets to hear the rest of his sentence, because right then, JJ’s expression shifts.
Not his expression, Cass realizes with a start. Hisappearance.The lines of his jaw and his cheekbones and his nose are shifting back to their normal shapes, his locs are lengthening back to his shoulders, his skin tone is deepening the slightest bit?—
That’s JJ. That’show JJ looks.
The glamour is gone.
When JJ jerks away, eyes widening, Cass knows that JJ’s appearance wasn’t the only one that faded back to normal.“Cass,”he hisses frantically. “The glamours!”
Dread coils down Cass’s spine. “I didn’t take them off,” he says, and his eyes snap to Desi. She’s sitting in the same spot, digging in the sand without a care in the world, but her glamour has disappeared, too. “And I didn’t feel the spell stretch like it was about to break, either. They just—they justvanished.Like?—”
Like an outside force interfered with his magic. Like an outside force ispreventingCass from maintaining the glamours.
Cass’s blood runs cold. “Anti-glamour spell,” he says, and JJ sucks in a sharp breath. “But who’s using an anti-glamour spell in the middle ofLakeside?Who?—?”
“The Sanctum,” JJ says, and he bolts to his feet, turning in a quick circle to survey the area. “Roma must’ve perfected her soul-tracking spell and gone straight to the Council with it. I don’t see any strike teams yet, but—but we need to get out of here. Can you—?” Suddenly, his face pales. “Can you rift us out?”
Cass’s stomach drops. Hastily, he snaps his fingers a few times, tries to peel open a rift?—
“Nothing,” he says numbly, horror flooding through him. “Anti-rifting spell.”
JJ’s eyes are sweeping around. He’s clearly searching the space around Desi, making sure she’s safe, but not running to her to avoid drawing attention. “I still don’t see any hunters,” he says, frustration winding through his voice. “No strike teams, no spellcasters, no?—”
Abruptly, his shoulders stiffen. Cass is just about to ask what’s wrong when JJ starts whispering an incantation under his breath, something fast and pressurized. Spellcasting isn’t Cass’s strongest point, but it only takes him a few seconds to recognize it.
An anti-cloaking spell. Because if the strike teams cloaked themselves, Cass realizes with a jolt, then his and JJ’s eyes would slide over them without even registering their existence. It’s only one step down from an invisibility spell.
And when JJ finishes the incantation with a sharp gesture and the magic washes over the shore, Cass suddenly spotsfiveseparate strike teams, moving fast and closing in on Desi.
No time for subtlety now.“Run!”he snarls, and he takes off towards Desi at a sprint.
20
Cass might be faster and stronger than a regular human, but JJ has his Sanctum enchantments and raw adrenaline on his side. He reaches Desi a split second before Cass does and sweeps her into his arms, whirling around to calculate their odds. Five strike teams, fifteen trained hunters, multiple escape routes cut off by the lake?—
It’s a damn good trap. JJ prays they can get out of it. “Cass,” he says sharply, tightening his grip on Desi as she wriggles confusedly in his arms, “cut us a path?”
Cass’s eyes gleam. “With pleasure,” he says, and he drops into a fight stance, throwing a hard palm strike. Purple-gold magic roars out from his hand in a wide arc, forcing a few hunters to dive out of the way, knocking others down entirely?—
“Come on!” Cass grabs JJ’s jacket sleeve and yanks him through the gap, their sneakers pounding from springy grass to solid pavement. As they race past the strike teams, JJ catches a blur of expressions—shock, confusion, anger?—
Dawning realization.
They recognize him. JJ’s stomach plummets. “Looks like I just defected,” he manages to gasp.
Cass’s grin is feral.“Good,”he says, and he snaps his fingers impatiently. “Come on,come on—how wide is this anti-rifting zone?”
“Standard is a mile.”
“Amile?”Cass tightens his fingers in JJ’s sleeve, urging him on. “How fast can you run?”
“This—” JJ’s record is a four-minute mile, but his baseline is closer to six minutes—and even though Desi is thankfully still and silent in his arms, she’s still extra weight for him to carry. “This is all I’ve got, Cass.”
Cass bites out a curse, picking up his pace and pulling JJ along with him. Side streets pass in a blur as they bolt down the main road, sprinting due east towards the center of town. Under any other circumstances, a straight path like this would be their worst possible route, but right now, they just need to get out of this anti-rifting zone.
