“I know you think you’re totally independent but you need support,” Saskia told him. “Both of you. Please, Parisa, just stop there for an hour, maybe two. You’ve been gone for months. I know you think your cousin hates you but you barely see him. I see him every day. You won’t believe how much he misses you.”

“Feo,” she sighed. “I don’t…”

Pari looked at him oddly. "You want the details?"
Sparrow looked like she really wanted them too, but wisely, did not say anything.

Pari watched him shove furniture aside, a hint of warmth pooling in her stomach despite the chill in the air. It was just that she was woozy, that was all. Feo and and the tautness of his muscles had nothing to do with it. "You trapped them in there?"
But before he could answer, a thin, keening noise sounded from the staircase. Pari whipped around, her eyes flashing with alarm.

Pari grabbed his hand while moving past him, dragging him along into the room, which was unnervingly empty. As he closed and latched the door, she glanced around. "You said you left the kids here--"

She gave him a half-hearted shrug (after all, was anyone really ready for a demon?) and pushed the door open with her shoulder. Almost immediately, they were met with a low, keening wail that rose sharply in pitch as light cascaded into the house. Roo cringed, stepping aside to allow Giovanni the full length of the doorway.
The demon stood on the stairway, seeming to have just made its way to the top. It turned around at the interference and from its breast glistened a blade, now caked in tar-like viscera, which also probably accounted for its loudly-proclaimed rage. It bristled at Giovanni's presence, as demons were wont to do, and stalked down the stairs in a mockery of a normal, human gait.

"It's me," she confirmed again, "Open the door please. We need to get you out of here."

“Yeah,” her jaw tensed before she continued, “… not because of me. One of the Lumanliscs’ boyfriends chopped it up, and then they used the blood to draw wards around the house to keep more demons from breaking in.”

But a glimpse at the window revealed that it was still sealed shut, which Pari knew they couldn't have done from the outside. "I don't think so. I don't know. We can't really help them now..." she closed her eyes, dread taking the place of the warmth from before. "Shit."

Meanwhile, Roo and Giovanni were plodding through the blankets of snow, squinting through the steady swirl of winter and making their way as quickly as they could. Roo had stumbled through the cottage that she and Gio had taken refuge in during the storm, a small placed owned by Behzefur, the local apothecarist. "They're in trouble," she'd panted, and then they'd been off.
She pressed against his back now, more for security than for the cold, because he was also cold, but also because she could since they were riding. It wasn't out of the question that she might feel unsteady on the back of an Altirian goat. "I hope they're okay."

"I'm sorry for dragging you out here in... all of this." she said. "And... that you have to do this in general. I imagine it's not fun being part of Altair's demon clean up crew. And it's not really fun being in Altair in general. Especially for you, you've been working since you decided to stay. I'm not sure why you did that -- though, that's not to say that I don't appreciate your staying. Well, I mean, not just me, personally, but everyone here is lucky to have you. Because you're very good at what you do, even if it's a bit... bloody. But I guess that's what you have to be when you're in Altair," she finished sadly, and, seeming to have realized that she'd started rambling and her teeth were chattering, finished off her monologue with, "Anyways, I'm glad you're here, even if I wish you didn't have to be, not because I don't like that you're around but because being here isn't exactly anyone's idea of a good vacation."