But, right now, it’s their only option. Everyone waits with bated breath, watching as Roma and Ez try to summon the demon, until?—
“Shut it down,” Ez says suddenly, and Chester’s heart plummets. “We can’t compel her until she’s in this dimension—no interdimensional communication method. Let her go.”
With a hiss, Roma drops her arms. The rift evaporates into nothing. “So what now?”
No one answers. For a long moment, tense silence reigns.
And then Ez lets out a sharp breath. “Okay, screw it,” she says,and with a snap, she reopens the rift—a self-sustaining one, this time. “The Fount of Blessings isright there.I canliterallysee it. If I can just reach through, just for a second?—”
She extends a hand towards the rift. In a flash, Cass bolts to her side and grabs her arm, yanking her back.“Ez—Ez, what are you doing? We can’t go back there! Demons can’t go back to Tamaros once they’ve been on Earth—that’s the entire point!”
Ez’s eyes gleam. “Yeah, but what if that’s just because no one’s ever tried?” she asks, and without waiting for a response, she reaches forward, slips her hand through the rift?—
And stumbles back with a strangled scream, clutching her arm to her chest. Chester’s eyes widen when he sees ragged, blackened burns engulfing her entire hand andtravelinghalfway up her forearm before shuddering to a halt.
A warning of what could’ve happened if she kept going.
Swearing, Roma huddles close in front of her, gently taking Ez’s charred arm in her hands. “Hey,hey,you’re okay, let me see, let me heal you, let me?—”
Tears of pain are streaming down Ez’s face. “Okay, so,” she croaks, hastily wiping her eyes with her other hand. “Wedefinitelycan’t go back.”
Micah looks stricken. Gregorio steps up next to Roma, holding out a hand. “Here, let me help. You can use your neutral-base healing spell, and I’ll use the usual demon-magic one—we’ll hit it from two directions. Ready?”
Panic gnaws at Chester as Obie shakes violently in his arms. Both of their best spellcasters are on the sidelines, Gregorio and Micah clearly don’t have any other ideas, all the humans in the room look lost, and Maggie?—
Maggie narrows her eyes at Cass. “Chin. You’re half-human now, right? And—and so am I?”
Cass’s gaze flickers to her. “Something like that, yeah. Why?”
Maggie nods at the rift. “Can we…?”
Cass’s eyes widen. “That’s—maybe,”he says, and Chester’s heart leaps. “That’s ahardmaybe, and—” After a split second of hesitation, he nods to himself, extends a hand towards the rift, brushes his fingertips against it?—
And snatches his hand back with a cry of pain, lurching away. The burns spread halfway up his palm before stopping, and Cass outrightwhimpers,squeezing his eyes shut.
“Cass—!”JJ is at his side immediately, wrapping Cass in a tight hug and pulling him close. “Just breathe, okay, Cass? You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re?—”
JJ meets Chester’s eyes over Cass’s shoulder, dread in his expression. On the other side of the room, Roma looks up at Chester before jumping into her spell, guilt and anxiety warring across her face.
Numb horror settles into Chester’s bones.
That was it. That was their last shot at saving Obie. The only thing that could break the curse, the only thing that could heal him?—
Close enough to touch, but completely out of reach. Chester hugs Obie closer to his chest, trying to breathe past the fear choking up his throat. This can’t be the end, can it? Obie can’t die just because he chose to save Chester’s life. He can’t?—
There has to be another way. There’s always another way, right? Even if it takes a little bit of finesse. Across the room, Roma and Gregorio are quickly healing Ez’s burns while JJ and Micah work on Cass’s, all of them preoccupied; Sawyer, Naomi, and Maggie are engrossed in a rapid-fire conversation, debating their next moves; Bryant is standing by herself in the corner, her eyes flitting around in the calculating way that tells Chester that—even though this wasn’t her battle until a few hours ago—she’s still ready to fight it. In the middle of the room, the self-sustaining rift is still shimmering softly,mocking them with the knowledge that none of the demons can go back to access the Fount of Blessings, and?—
All at once, the gears in Chester’s head grind to a halt.
None of the demons can go back.
None of thedemonscan go back.
Chester stares at the rift, craning his neck to try and catch a glimpse of Tamaros. Color and light and sound is how he’s always heard neophyte demons describe it—the utter freedom of not having a physical form, of simplyexistingas energy and vibration.
Right now, Chester can see a blur of colors through the rift. Hell, he even catches a flash of crimson that might be the fountain itself. It’s so damnclosethat he can almost taste it, but?—
But humans can’t go there, either.
