“No, that’s fine,” Obie says. “You four are perpetually closer to overstaying your welcome, anyway.”
“Rude,” Micah says.
Sawyer’s eyes find Chester’s. “You good, bud?”
The words are so reminiscent of his years as her student that Chester’s eyes sting. “Yeah,” he says hoarsely. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Her lips twitch. “I’m proud of you, kiddo. All of you,” she adds, her eyes sweeping around to find JJ, Roma, and Bryant in turn. “You all grew up to be incredible hunters and even better people.”
“That’s really all Sawyer and I ever wanted,” Naomi says softly. “Especially after we defected. We hoped you’d grow up well, and—and you did. You really did.”
Roma gives her a small smile. “Thanks for your help today. It’s good to have you back around.”
“Keep practicing that human-magic rift,” Gregorio orders, snapping open his own demon-magic rift. “I have a feeling we’ll be needing it.”
“I will,” she says, and with one last wave, the four members of the Conspiracy Fam disappear in a whirl of purple-gold mist.
Without further ado, JJ carries Desi back into the living room and plops her directly in Bryant’s lap. “Bryant, this is my daughter, Desi,” he says. “Desi, this is Miss Bryant.”
“Hi, Miss Bryant!” Desi chirps, and she immediately sets about climbing up onto Bryant’s shoulders.
Bryant looks faintly unnerved. “Hi, um, Desi,” she says, scrunching her nose unsurely as Desi snuggles herself into place. “Is this, uh, normal behavior?”
“It is,” Cass confirms wearily, and his eyebrows pull together. “So how areyou,Nehemiah? After—” He gestures vaguely. “After everything.”
“I…” Bryant looks disconcerted. Chester doesn’t blame her. He knows that, in Bryant’s mind, every decision she made today was for Chester and Strike Team Kappa, no one else.
To Obie, Cass, and Ez, though, she’s the hunter who barreled headfirst into another dimension to make sure Chester didn’t get killed and returned with a backpack full of Blessings to save Obie. The demons have probably mentally adopted her as one of their own already.
Bryant will just have to figure out how to deal with that. “Fine, I guess,” she says eventually. “No idea how I’ll be once the adrenaline wears off, though. I sense at least a few pending breakdowns over the next forty-eight hours. And I’m just, you know.” She winces. “Confused. About… about everything. Especially with the soul exchange—I mean, what was even the point of that?”
The words slam through Chester. He sits bolt upright, ignoring Obie’s grumble of protest. “Actually, I—I think I might know the Sanctum’s endgame. I might know what Operation Thirteen is.”
The entire room snaps to attention. Bryant gapes at him. “You do?”
“Yeah, you do?” Obie repeats, surprised. “We’ve had dozens of conversations about this, Chester. You never said anything.”
“Because I didn’t put the pieces together until I saw Bryant and JJ in Tamaros.” Chester takes a deep breath, looking over at Maggie. “You once said that the upper echelons of the Chain mostly want to go back to Tamaros, right? To return to their home dimension?”
Maggie’s eyebrows furrow. “Yes. But Cass wasn’t able to go back with his half-human soul, and I doubt I could, either.”
“Because the gods—thethirteengods, since they banished Obie—put a curse over Earth,” Chestersays. “As long as they’re alive, no demon can return to Tamaros once they’ve set foot in this dimension. Right?”
“Right,” Ez says slowly, leaning forward to rest her forearms on her knees. “What are you getting at, Locke?”
Chester looks at Obie. “What if theyweren’talive?”
Suddenly, Obie’s eyes widen. “If someonekilledthe gods, you mean?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, then—” Obie shakes his head sharply. “Then the curse would disappear. Hypothetically, demons could come and go from Tamaros as they pleased.”
JJ holds up his hands to stop them. “Wait. Are you saying that the Sanctum is working with the Chain to kill Tamaros’sgods?”
“I think so,” Chester says. “The Council has always had interrogators ask neophyte demons about the gods—strengths, weaknesses, where they live, how they function—but I always thought they were just easy questions to get them talking. Now, though, I—I think the Sanctum has been gathering data all along, trying to figure out how to take the gods out permanently. That’s the one thing the Sanctum and the Chain agree on, after all: the Sanctum wants demons off of Earth, and the Chain wants demons back in Tamaros. Everyone wins.”
“Everyone except the hundreds of demons they’ve tortured to death to make that happen,” Roma says bitterly.
