Page 19

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Y ou’re late,” Ez says without preamble, raising her eyebrows at Roma as she jogs into the Courtyard.

Roma scowls, slowing to a stop in front of her. “I’m late? What do you mean, ‘late’? We’re meeting here coincidentally, Laguerre. Neither of us planned this.”

“Uh-huh,” Ez says dismissively. “Just like we’ve met here ‘coincidentally’ for all of our shifts this week.”

Roma bites back her instinctive retort. Much as she would never admit it to the Council, Ez is right. When Roma first tracked down a mega-rift at eight a.m. sharp the morning after her fateful conversation with Bryant and Chester, it was to find Ez and a Sanctum hunter glaring at each other while they struggled through their dual rift-closing spells.

Ez took one look at Roma, ordered the other hunter to get lost, and commandeered her for the rest of the day. They haven’t gone so far as to exchange phone numbers yet?—Roma thinks that would be a bit much for both of them?—but they’ve been meeting in the Courtyard every morning like clockwork since then.

The Council definitely doesn’t approve of Roma working so closely with a demon, but they’re letting it slide. Partly because managing the mega-rift epidemic takes priority, partly because Roma’s and Ez’s spellcasting have already proven to be complementary??—

And partly because they know that Roma’s secondary mission is to gain Ez’s trust and locate JJ. Roma forces that last thought down, just like she has for the past week. “We ready?” she asks briskly, turning in a slow circle to survey the Courtyard. “Honestly, I’m shocked that we don’t have a mega-rift here yet. They seem to show up preferentially in open spaces.”

Ez lets out a slow breath, her eyelids fluttering shut. “I’m sensing something powerful at the north end of Redwater. That’s probably our first one of the day.” Cavalierly, she snaps open a purple-gold rift in the air next to them. “So are we going to do this the easy way? Or are you gonna wimp out on me again?”

Roma takes a decisive step away. “I’ll walk, thanks.”

“Coward.” Ez leans forward. “Come on, Gutierrez. Are you seriously going to keep running to every mega-rift? It was funny the first day, but now, it’s just annoying.”

“I don’t like rifts,” Roma argues, eyeing the swirling magic suspiciously. Truthfully, she’s starting to get tired of chasing the mega-rifts on foot, too?—just because she can cover Redwater’s two-mile diameter in fifteen minutes flat doesn’t mean she wants to do it repeatedly?—but there’s no way she’s telling Ez that.

And, above all, Roma doubts the Council would approve of her strolling through rifts with Esmeralda Laguerre.

Ez scoffs. “You’ve never even been through a rift before.”

“Yes, I have,” Roma fires back. “Zero out of ten, would not recommend.”

Ez’s eyes narrow. “Oh, yeah? When?”

“A few times with Cass, remember? He rifted us to the Sanctum when we broke JJ out, and??—?”

And he rifted me to his house the day I double-crossed them. Roma bites back the words. Considering the dawning realization on Ez’s face, Roma figures that she remembers just as well as Roma does. “And?—and you know,” she finishes weakly.

Ez’s jaw twitches, but she lets it slide. “Listen, Cass is my best friend and I love him, but his spellcasting technique leaves a lot to be desired. His rifts are functional, but he doesn’t pay attention to little details like transitional stability. I do.” She extends a hand in Roma’s direction. “Come on. It’ll be faster.”

Roma’s stomach does something funny. It’s the same annoying sensation she’s been getting every time Ez toes that fragile line they’ve drawn between professional and personal, coworkers and companions??—

Allies and friends. “Fine,” Roma says reluctantly, placing her gloved hand into Ez’s and letting the demon tug her forward. “I’ll end you if you try any funny business.”

“Sure you will,” Ez says, and she pulls Roma through the rift.

To Roma’s surprise, she doesn’t feel the lurch of nausea and dizziness that she always associated with Cass’s rifts. In fact, it feels just like taking a regular step, except her step happens to land a mile away near the regional highway instead of on the Courtyard’s cobblestones. She blinks down at the ground, faintly impressed. “Huh.”

“Told you,” Ez says smugly, and she strolls towards the mega-rift just down the block. A Sanctum hunter and a Public Safety demon are standing as far away from each other as logistically possible while they attempt to close it, and Ez lets out a sharp whistle to get their attention. “Yo, Katja! Get out of here, girl. I’ve got this.”

The demon throws Ez a grateful look. “Laguerre, I could kiss you right now,” she says, and before Roma can blink, she peels open a rift and disappears from sight, not even sparing a glance at her human counterpart.

Roma approaches more slowly, making sure to stay between Ez and the hunter. “You can head home, Massimo,” she says quietly. “I’m taking the next shift.”

Massimo grunts. He’s not one of the mixed breeds who were originally enlisted to help with Roma’s mission, but he was ordered by the Sanctum to apply his spellcasting abilities to the mega-rift epidemic.

Needless to say, he’s not the biggest fan of Roma right now. Besides Bryant and Chester, she doesn’t think she has any allies left in the Sanctum?—no one wants to associate with the mixed hunter who plunged Redwater into chaos and made all of their jobs that much harder.

It’s a precarious position, but somehow, Roma doesn’t care about the censure as much as she thought she would.

And she certainly doesn’t care what Massimo thinks of her. “Better you than me,” he says now, and he jogs away without a backwards glance.

“What a charming lad,” Ez drawls, and she raises her hands. “One, two, three??—?”

Roma and Ez jump into closing the mega-rift with their usual efficiency, their spells blending together in a deliberate dance. At this point, they’ve been progressively trying to speed up their incantations, aiming to cast their spells as quickly as possible without sacrificing enunciation and effectiveness.

Not that it matters. Within a few seconds of the mega-rift shuddering into nonexistence, Roma feels the warm breeze of another one opening nearby. She groans, massaging her temples. “Really? I haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

“Sucks to suck, Gutierrez,” Ez says, and she snaps open another rift. Roma tentatively follows her through, pleased that it’s just as smooth and effortless as before. She could get used to this kind of convenience in her life. “So do you find it strange that the mega-rifts only open one at a time?”

Roma frowns back as they stride forward. “Actually, I find it more convenient than anything else. One, two, three?—ages upon ages…”

By the time they finish their incantations, the mega-rift is collapsing in on itself. Ez picks up where they left off like they were never even interrupted. “It’s definitely convenient?—frankly, I don’t think any of us could handle more than one mega-rift at once, not at this rate?—but hypothetically, there’s nothing preventing them from opening in multiple places at the same time.”

There’s another telltale surge of magic. Roma lets out a slow breath as Ez peels open a rift, considering the words. “Well,” she says, stepping neatly through it and straight back into the Courtyard, “maybe whoever?—or what ever?—is opening them doesn’t have enough power to maintain more than one at a time.”

“And yet they have enough juice to open them in rapid succession?” Ez leads the way towards the mega-rift that blossomed a few yards away from Tacos Near Me, raising her hands. “One, two, three?—in the name of Nostringvadha??—?”

“Ages upon ages??—?”

Within a minute, the mega-rift vanishes into mist. “I don’t know, Ez,” Roma says, crossing her arms over her chest and bracing herself for the next warm rush of magic. “I really don’t.”

The words are perfectly true, but they still leave guilt churning in her stomach. Ever since the epidemic started, Roma has been relentlessly researching how to stop it: analyzing the spell Bryant and Chester cast from every angle, comparing it with all the other rift-opening spells she can find, poring over every page The Magic-Weaver’s Companion for hints??—

So far, she’s coming up empty. Bryant and Chester have been making good on their promise to help her, scouring through library books and talking with other spellcasters, but they’re not having any more luck than Roma.

There’s a piece of the puzzle missing?—she knows there is?—but she just can’t see it yet.

And it’s not like she can tell Ez any of this. Even if she thought Ez could help, even if she thought Ez had the answer, it would mean admitting that Bryant and Chester were the ones opening the mega-rifts in the first place.

Opening them under Roma’s orders, for the express purpose of earning Ez’s trust and bringing JJ back to the Sanctum. Roma doesn’t need to read minds?—or memories?—like Obie to know that Ez wouldn’t take that well.

She and Ez both stand in silence for a few seconds, tense and ready for the next mega-rift, but apparently, they hit a break. Those have happened on occasion?—gaps of a few minutes or even a few hours when nothing happens, followed by another barrage of mega-rifts popping open all over Redwater. Gradually, Roma lets her shoulders relax, enjoying the reprieve while it lasts.

Ez, though, seems to be on a mission. She jogs up to Tacos Near Me, tapping gently on the side of the food truck. “Esteban? Esteban, are you there?”

“Yes!” Esteban peeks out from his hiding spot under the register before jumping up to his full height. “Esmeralda, amor de mi vida! That must’ve been the closest one yet. Nothing came out of it, right?”

“Nope,” Ez confirms. “Roma and I shut it down in time.”

Esteban shoots Roma a tentative smile, and she smiles just as tentatively back. While some of the food truck operators?—Esteban and Falafel Nick notably included?—are comfortable with hunters, that politeness doesn’t usually extend beyond idle small talk, and most of the others are decidedly standoffish with anyone from “the cult on the hill.”

They’ve all been a little more friendly since Roma started closing these mega-rifts with Ez, though. She wonders if it’s her visible service to Redwater or just Ez’s presence that’s smoothing over the tension.

“Gracias, senorita,” Esteban says now, giving Roma a small bow.

Roma bows awkwardly back. “Just doing my job, sir.”

“And, on that note,” Ez says, peering at the menu on the side of the truck, “our job requires sustenance. Is Lucia hiding back there, too?”

Esteban shakes his head. “She has jury duty. I’ll be working the truck alone until she returns.”

“Oh.” Ez frowns. “Maybe we should go somewhere else for breakfast, then.”

Esteban looks affronted. “I’m perfectly capable of cooking your breakfast burritos, Esmeralda!”

“I mean, I’m sure you are,” Ez says, and she looks pointedly at Falafel Express. “But I’m sure Falafel Nick is also perfectly capable of making us falafel bagels.”

Esteban’s eyes widen. “You would betray me for falafel bagels? But they’re just regular bagels with cream cheese! The only difference is that they crumble falafel on top! I don’t even think it’s fresh falafel!”

“Well, you see,” Ez says seriously, “if we get falafel bagels, then we can gossip with Nick about you.”

Esteban’s face flushes. “There is no gossip about me!”

“I heard him say he would climb you like a tree,” Roma offers.

Ez looks smug. Esteban huffs indignantly. “English is my second language. I do not know what that phrase means.”

Ez opens her mouth.

“And I do not want to know!” Esteban adds, wagging a flustered finger in her direction.

Obediently, Ez closes her mouth. “Well, I suppose we can forgive Lucia for not being here this morning. Can we please get two coffees, two churros, and two breakfast burritos, one vegetarian and one…” She raises her eyebrows at Roma. “Gutierrez?”

Roma’s heart does something fluttery. “One with sausage, please,” she says, and as Ez expertly teases Esteban about Falafel Nick and pays for both of their meals, Roma can’t help but think that hanging around Ez might just be good for her.