“Hey.” JJ frowns at Cass as he finishes wrapping his sandwich in aluminum foil, holding out a second piece for Cass. “You good?”
Swallowing hard, Cass takes it. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good,” he says, and he quickly covers his sandwich with the foil, shoves both lunches in an insulated bag, and pulls it over his shoulder. “We ready for action?”
JJ’s lips twitch. “Ready,” he confirms, and Cass squares his shoulders, snaps open a rift, and guides JJ through to what will hopefully be a new beginning.
JJ squints against the bright sunlight, raising one hand to shield his eyes from the glare. “This… looks familiar,” he says, turning in a slow circle to survey the clearing. Bright blue sky above them, ancient trees standing sentry all around. A rainbow of wildflowers determined to poke their heads out just days after the official start of spring. “Isn’t this where you brought me after we escaped the Sanctum?”
The place where I had a full breakdown?he adds silently, embarrassment curling through him. The fact that JJ’s hopeless crush saw him at his most pitiful is something he really didn’t want to think about on the day that same crush invited JJ on a cute picnic date—or, more likely, a perfectly platonic field trip.
Cass, though, looks unperturbed. “Good eye,” he says, setting their bag down and stepping up next to JJ. “You like it?”
Firmly, JJ forces down the memory of choking back his sobs in Cass’s arms. He knows that Cass doesn’t judge him for it, so he probably shouldn’t judge himself for it, either. “I do. I’ve always loved nature—my mom took me on hikes a lot, and my dad and I went camping a few times. Where are we?”
“Just outside of Redwater, actually,” Cass says. “We’re technically still within its borders, but we’re a few miles southwest of the town itself. It’s not close to any trails or marked on any maps, so almost no one knows about it.”
A secret clearing, just for them. JJ smiles. “That’s really cool. Definitely a great spot for a picnic. How’d you find this place? Exploring with Ez and Obie?”
Cass’s eyes flicker. “Actually,” he says, “I found it the day I was summoned from Tamaros.”
JJ’s heart stutters. “What?”
“This is—” Cass sweeps an arm around, his expression unreadable. “This is the place where I was summoned.”
JJ’s throat feels dry. He swallows hard, turning around to look at the area in a new light. He knows that most demons have a complicated relationship with the place they were summoned, that being scraped through a rift to Earth is painful, that severing their connection with Tamaros is traumatic, that being powerless to disobey their summoner’s commands can leave psychological wounds that last for centuries?—
“It’s beautiful,” JJ whispers, and he knows it was the right thing to say when Cass’s shoulders relax. “You like it here?”
“I do.” Cass looks up towards the sky, towards the soft white clouds and the treetops rustling in the breeze. “I didn’t at first, though. Actually, I hated this place for years—almost a century. But demons usually feel called back to where they were summoned, feel it like an itch in their bones and a splinter in their veins, and I had to rift here every few years to ease the ache. It was…” He hesitates. “Exhausting. Mentally and emotionally. Like my soul wanted to grieve for everything it lost here, but just didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate it.”
JJ’s chest hurts. “What changed your mind?”
Cass smiles. “Ez and Obie.”
JJ frowns. “How so?”
“They did for me what we did for Desi,” Cass says. “They made me feel safe. Ez has always been an inspiration, constantly leveling up her spellcasting and improving her technique and never letting anyone forget it. Eternally ready to stand up and fight for what she believes in. And I know we all joke about how Obie is a senior citizen, but JJ, he’sancient.Calm, unflappable, and always in control—not to mention obscenely powerful. Standing next to them, I felt invincible. Standing next to them, I feltwhole.”He meets JJ’s eyes. “I make it a point to protect my friends because they protected me first. I owe them everything.”
Vividly, JJ thinks about Roma and Chester and Bryant. “I can relate,” he says quietly. “We’re only as strong as the people who hold us up when we can’t stand.”
Cass’s eyes soften. “Exactly. You get it,” he says. “A few decades after we became friends, I just—I just realized I didn’t have to fear this place anymore. I didn’t have to fear my past, or my memories, or the things that were outside of my control. Ez and Obie fought away all my nightmares, and I like to think that I did the same for them.” His gaze drifts back towards the sky. “The next time I came here, I just curled up on the grass in my true form and watched the clouds for hours. It was the first time I really felt like Ibelongedon Earth. Like it was really my home.”
JJ’s heart squeezes. “I’m glad,” he whispers. “Because Earth would be a hell of a lot less without you.”
Cass smiles back. “And I’d be a hell of a lot less without Earth. Earth, and—and everything it’s given me.”
“Do you want to do that again?” JJ searches Cass’s face, trying to gauge if the question is appropriate. “Change into your true form and watch the clouds?”
Cass’s expression shifts. “Would you—would you want to do that with me?”
“Sure. It sounds relaxing. I—” JJ cuts himself off. Tries again. “I like how everything is so much… slower… with you and Desi. It’s?—”
It’s soft. It’s sweet. It’s quiet and gentle and peaceful. It’s everything I ever wanted, everything I thought I could never have. Everything I never thought I deserved.
You make me feel safe, too.
“I know it’s not how you usually operate,” he finishes instead. “So I really appreciate it.”
“It wasn’t how I used to operate,” Cass agrees softly. “But I think I might want to take life a little slower from now on.”
