But, for now, all of those worries can wait. For now, his only concern is watching the next few episodes ofWyvern Academywith Desi while they munch on tacos. Smiling just a bit, he pulls out his bedroom key, twists it in the lock, and shoulders open his door. “Desi, I brought tacos! I think you’re really going to like?—”
There’s a blur of motion from inside his room. JJ jolts to attention, drops the two lunch bags, summons his escrima sticks into his hands?—
The man next to his desk chair arches an eyebrow. Straight black hair, bronze-gold skin,ancientbrown eyes?—
Demon.
And he’s holding Desi in his arms.
Fear spikes through JJ. “Let hergo,”he snarls, taking a sharp step forward.
The demon’s smirk widens. Without warning, without even amovement,a purple-gold rift suddenly splits open on the wall behind him, and JJ almost jerks away on instinct.
Opening a rift without so much as a gesture is a sign of a powerful demon. And opening a riftinside the Sanctum,where there are layers upon layers of anti-rifting spell work to prevent any security breaches?—
Who the hellisthis thing?
“Later, Jackson,” the demon says, and he steps through the rift.
JJ’s stomach drops. He bolts forward, reaching out, trying to grab the demon before he gets away. “No—Desi?—!”
The rift disappears. JJ’s fingers close on empty air, his knuckles slamming into the wall. Heart pounding, he stumbles backward, frantically looks around, tries to find any hint of who the demon was, of where he could’ve taken Desi?—
Nothing. Just JJ’s barebones room with its carefully made bed, meticulously organized closet, and pristine desk, the stack of picture books on the rolling chair the only sign that Desi was ever here at all.
She’s officially gone.
Dazedly, JJ realizes he should probably feel relieved. After all, the situation is officially out of his hands. Desi is with another demon, with her own kind, and in the long run, that’s probably the best thing for her.
And for JJ, too. Realistically, how long would he have been able to keep her hidden? Bryant and Roma were already getting suspicious, and his back has already been hurting from letting Desi take the bed, and the chefs in the dining hall were already starting to give him strange looks.
It’s better this way. Really, it is. And he should probably feel relieved, but instead, he just feels guilt and anxiety eating away at his insides. Stomach roiling, he sits down heavily on his bed, burying his head in his hands.
What is he supposed to do now?
“Why won’t she stop crying?” Cass asks Ez desperately, rocking the sobbing demon toddler in his arms in what he hopes is a soothing rhythm.“Pleasemake her stop crying.”
Ez shoots him a sour look. Personally, Cass thinks it’s entirely unwarranted. After all, it’s nothisfault that December started bawling the moment he carried her through the rift from the hunter’s room to Cass’s house.
“No!”December yells, and she smacks him in the chest a few times. She’s surprisingly strong for such a tiny child, and Cass cranes his neck back to keep his face out of range, wincing. “No, no, no, no,no?—!”
“What did youdoto her?” Ez demands, eyes narrowed.
Cass sputters indignantly back. “Isavedher, Ez! I risked life and limb breaking her out of that hellhole! I didn’t—” He ducks out of the way of a particularly well-aimed slap. “I didn’t expect the hardest part of the rescue mission to happenafterthe actual rescue!”
Honestly, avoiding December’s tantrum has been the most unforeseen complication so far. The Redwater Sanctum still hasn’t patched the loophole in their anti-rifting spell work that Cass used the last time he broke in, so it was child’s play to open a rift into the imposing building, cast a quick tracking spell to locate the neophyte demon in question, convince her to put down her picture book long enough to come with him?—
He didn’t even have to pick a fight with Jackson, which was almost anticlimactic. If the stupid hunter had come back to his roomjusta few minutes earlier, Cass would’ve welcomed the opportunity to break his nose.
Right now, though, Julian Jackson isn’t his problem. Right now, his problem is the sobbing four-year-old and the fact that his supposed best friend is juststanding therewatching the trainwreck.“Help me,”he begs.
Ez looks apprehensive. Cass doesn’t really blame her. Neither of them has any appreciable experience with children in general, much less inconsolable toddlers who apparently dislike being saved from their kidnappers.
“How about—how about a lullaby?” Ez asks hopelessly, and she carefully cups one of December’s tiny fists between her hands, singing a soft melody in Haitian Creole, one that Cass is pretty sure hasn’t been sung since the nineteenth century?—
“I don’t know what you’resaying!”December bawls, and she immediately goes back to crying.
Cass grimaces. Right. Demons don’t learn languages the same way humans do, but they do still need to be exposed repeatedly to one before they can understand it. “Any chance you know some English lullabies?”
