“Did you, um.” JJ fidgets uncomfortably. “Did you know that the spellcaster who summoned Desi gave her the human façade of his late daughter?”
“It makes sense,” Cass says, nodding. “Most summoners do that.”
“Yeah, but—but his daughter actually looked completely different. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes. But once I killed the summoner and Desi shifted from her true form back to her human façade, she…” He takes a deep breath. “She looked like she does now. Like—like me.”
For a split second, Cass is confused.
And then realization dawns on him. A smile tugs at his lips. “Oh, that’s adorable.”
JJ looks taken aback. “What?”
“She wanted to look like you.” Cass’s grin widens. “She liked you, so she wanted to look like you. The spell is fairly intuitive for neophyte demons—most magic is, especially with their higher soul energy—so she probably just wished for it and made it happen.”
For a long moment, JJ stares at him, eyes wide.
And then, abruptly, he turns away. “Right.Right.That makes sense. Ofcoursethat—” To Cass’s surprise, JJ swears under his breath. “Yeah. Thanks, Cass.”
“Hey,hey—”Cass grabs his arm, concerned. “Why are you upset?”
JJ shrugs Cass off. “I’m not.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” Cass frowns. “Does it bother you that she wanted to look like you? Or that she has that amount of power in the first place?”
“Neither.” JJ’s spine is rigid. “Don’t worry about it, Cass. Don’t?—”
All at once, Cass realizes it. An old tendril of bitterness curls through him. “Oh. You… thought she did it to manipulate you.”
“No,” JJ snaps, but his shoulders hunch. “I don’t—I don’t know. I—” He scrubs a hand down his face, frustrated. “I didn’t believe it. Not… really. But one of the interrogators told me that, and it got in my head, and I?—”
Cass’s heart hurts. “You thought they were telling the truth,” he says evenly.
“Not—” Suddenly, JJ turns to face Cass directly, something open and vulnerable behind his eyes. “I didn’t think she did it maliciously, okay? I thought she might’ve been scared, and she didn’t want me to hurt her, so—so she decided to look like my little sister.”
Cass fights back a flinch. “She looks like Lucy? You never mentioned that.”
“Yeah,” JJ says, but unexpectedly, his eyes go distant. “At least, I’m pretty sure. It’s been over a decade since I last saw Lucy, and I don’t have any pictures, so—so sometimes, I have trouble remembering what she and my parents looked like. But Desi looks similar enough to her that I noticed immediately.”
Pain slices through Cass’s chest. JJ doesn’t even have apictureof his family? Were there none left in his childhood home after the demons tore through it?
Or did the Sanctum not let him keep any?
Apparently, JJ misinterprets Cass’s devastated expression. “I didn’t think it was malicious,” he repeats, a hint of desperation to his voice. “Cass, Ineverthought she was evil, okay? I just thought she was doing what she had to do to survive. I just?—”
Impulsively, Cass reaches out, laying his palm flat across JJ’s chest.
JJ goes still. “Cass?”
“Hate is learned. It’s not innate,” Cass says softly, and he taps a finger gently against JJ’s ribs. Right over his heart. “I think both of us still have some unlearning to do, lackey. But that doesn’t mean we’re not trying. It just means we need a little more time.”
JJ’s breath shudders out of him. “Yeah,” he whispers. “Thank you, Cass. For—for not judging me.”
Cass’s heart cracks. “Of course. And if one of the interrogators said it, then you were starving and sleep-deprived at a minimum. You couldn’t exactly think critically about what they told you.”
JJ gives him a wan smile. “Yeah. I guess. And—and Chester has always known how to get in my head.”
The words jolt through Cass. “Wait. Chester? ChesterLocke?”
JJ’s expression shifts. “Cass?—”
