Desi hugs her arms around Bryant’s forehead, concerned. “So they’re all the same bad guys?”
“All the same bad guys,” Bryant agrees warily, squinting at Chester. “But what does that have to do with the soul exchange? Like Khan said, it’s not like half-human demons can go back there to, like, commit deicide or wherever.”
“Because it’s not the half-human demons who’d be killing the gods. It’s the half-demonhumans,”Chester says, and Bryant and JJboth go rigid. “Roma, do you remember how desperate they were to get JJ back? They literally offered you a match with a purebred—and let you take me and Bryant with you—to bring him back, but not untilafterwe reported that the corrosion spell affected him.”
“Not until after they realized he was half-demon,” Roma whispers, horrified. “Until they realized they—they couldusehim.”
“Exactly,” Chester says. “And we all saw how well JJ and Bryant managed in Tamaros compared to me and Roma. They implicitly understood the dimension in a way that we couldn’t. So the Sanctum can’t sendhumanhunters into Tamaros, but—but if they sent a strike force of highly skilled half-demons, ones who’ve been killing demons for their whole lives? They’d have a solid chance. The gods would never know what hit them.”
“And with them gone,” JJ says, “the curse would disappear. All the demons on Earth could potentially… go home. Just like that.”
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Obie says, “because I specifically said ‘hypothetically.’Hypothetically,demons could come and go from Tamaros as they pleased. The reality would beverydifferent.”
Chester frowns at him. “How so?”
Obie looks visibly nauseous. “Earth and Tamaros aren’t the only two dimensions in the universe,” he says. “There are millions of them—probably even billions. I don’t have personal experience with many of them, but I know for a fact that there are dimensions with inhabitants alotmore dangerous than demons and humans combined. The only reason human spellcasters summon demons exclusively from Tamaros—hell, the only reason why the gods banished me to Earth in the first place—is because Earth and Tamaros are directly adjacent. Actually, they’re almost touching—the only thing keeping them separate is the gods’ inner realm itself.”
All at once, Cass stiffens. “So if the Sanctum killed the gods?—”
“—then there’d be no one to hold the inner realm in place,”Maggie finishes, her eyes widening. “And without that inner realm, Earth and Tamaros would collide.”
Chester’s stomach drops. “They’dcollide?What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.” Ez’s face is noticeably paler than usual. “Everything you saw in Tamaros? All of that would crash into Earth. The streets and the sky would be filled with all those dizzying colors and flickering lights and spontaneous rifts. It would be pandemonium.Chaos.”
“I don’t think it would be an extinction-level event,” Obie says, “but it would be damn close. Billions of humans would die. Probably millions of demons, too—they’re not used to having corporeal forms, so they’d crash into trees and buildings andplanesby the dozen over the first few days alone.”
Bryant looks lost. “Then why would the Sanctum do that? None of you seemed surprised that killing the gods would destroy life as we know it, so our interrogators must’ve learned it from at least a few neophyte demons.”
“Because…” A chill runs down Chester’s spine. “Because they’ll know it’s coming. The rest of the world will be lost, but the Sanctum is probably already preparing for the fallout. And what better way to consolidate power than by being one of the few people who survive the actual apocalypse?”
“That…” Cass slumps back in his chair, looking shell-shocked. “That might just make sense. We’ll need to run it by the Conspiracy Fam, of course, but—but it all seems to fit.”
“The Conspiracy Fam?” Bryant repeats blankly.
“Naomi, Sawyer, Micah, and Gregorio,” Roma rattles off, reaching over to squeeze Bryant’s wrist. “Don’t worry. We’ll explain all the lingo and nonsensical inside jokes to you. You’ll be a bona fide defector in no time.”
Bryant flinches, her smile turning forced. Chester’s heart sinks. Heknows that she didn’t have a choice about leaving the Sanctum, not like the rest of them did, and that it’s probably going to take her a long time to come to terms with how deeply they betrayed her.
Both the Sanctum and her closest friends.
But she’s safe. She and JJ and Roma are all safe. In the end, that’s all Chester ever wanted.
Unbidden, Obie’s voice slips into Chester’s head.So the idea of the Sanctum killing the gods and high-key destroying the world in the process is genuinely horrifying,he says,but at least we have a shot at stopping them now. Fantastic job, puppy.
Well.Almostall Chester ever wanted. He grins stupidly back.Thanks, baby.
“But let’s maybe save the Conspiracy Fam explanations for another day,” Bryant says diplomatically, pulling Chester back to the present. “Preferably after those multiple breakdowns I mentioned.”
“And after all the humans, half-humans, half-demons,anddemons in this room get some sleep,” Ez orders, narrowing her eyes at Chester and Obie. “Especially you two.”
“No complaints here,” Chester says, resting his temple back on Obie’s shoulder. “I’m exhausted.”
Obie touches a kiss to the crown of Chester’s head. “Let’s get some food in you, yeah? I’ll cook. And then we can go to bed and sleep for twelve hours.”
“You’ll cook for me?” Chester asks, hugging Obie’s arm again. “Best boyfriendever.”
Obie’s lips twitch. “I try,” he says, and his eyes flicker over to Maggie. “Before that, though, do you want to move into one of my safe houses? Just so it can’t be connected back to you?”
