He rolled his eyes at that.

Petra cleared her throat. “We also need to update Roger.”

“Not it,” Theo and I said simultaneously.

“Well, I’m not talking to him alone. We’re all Ombuds. We’ll be Ombudding together.”

* * *

I updated my parents and Uncle Malik, advised them we were facing a very specific enemy, and gave them their assignment and Petra’s contact information. Then we Ombudded together and called Roger at the office. He looked and sounded as baffled as we were.

“A demon,” Roger said. He kept repeating that word over and over, as if the repetition would cause it to make sense. “Surely we’d have known if she were working with demons. If she’d been in league with someone that powerful—who posed such a danger to her—she’d have told us.”

Connor cleared his throat. Petra, Theo, and I looked at each other. And they both said, “Not it,” first. I mouthed a silent curse, and steeled my courage.

“Roger,” I said, “the only people who got close to the gate were me, Theo, and Rose.”

“Right.”

“And Theo and I aren’t demons. So it is possible . . .”

I trailed off because his face went wan. And then bright with anger. “No. It’s not possible. I’ve known her for several years. I checked my records—the information she’s given us has led to multiple arrests. That’s not demonic.”

But maybe she’s a chaos demon, I thought, who might enjoy throwing her competitors behind bars.

“She deserves more than our suspicion,” Roger said. “It’s only right. The Cadogan House library—”

“They’re on it,” I assured him. “I’ll let you know if they find anything. We’re all working to figure out what we can as soon as we can.”

And hopefully we’d be fast enough.

* * *

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Theo said, when we’d ended the call. “I’m not interested in people being secretive about their big plans to protect the city. For god’s sake, write that mess down. People die. They forget. Years pass, and demons tell sob stories and end up walking back into the damned city, and we have no idea how to work the security system.”

“I think Patience was spelled,” Petra said.

“Spelled?” he asked.

“Some kind of memory spell, which would make her forget everything she knew about the demon, the wards, the magic.”

“Except for the information specific to her job,” I guessed. “She’s the Chronicler, so she’s supposed to tell people—in very general terms—the story of the demon’s ouster.”

Petra nodded. “Yep. That’s probably why she’s the one Ariel was able to contact. It was probably built into the spell as a security measure. No single Guardian knows the entire system, so a demon can’t dismantle it by manipulating a single human.”

“So no one Guardian has too much power or knowledge,” Connor said.

Theo nodded. “I get it. Still think they should have left a handbook.”

“Could someone undo the memory spell?” I glanced at Petra. “Would that be possible?”