“And one who isn’t the most powerful spellcaster on the East Coast,” Trevor says.
“Cass?”
“He—he started World War I, too, Obie.”
“Um.” Obie squints at them. “JJ? Roma? Desi?”
“How about a nice, regular human?” Trevor asks hopefully. “Do you have any nice, regular human friends?”
“Well, there’s always you two,” Obie says.
Sasha’s eyes light up. “Perfect! We’ll use Trevor.”
“Hey!” Trevor protests. “Why doIhave to be the teachable moment?”
“Because you’re in a minimum-wage job and a maximum-wage apartment.”
“Fair enough,” Trevor says. “Obie, you’re me.”
“I don’t want to be you,” Obie says. “Also, why are you overpaying for an apartment when I own a third of Redwater?”
“You’re me,”Trevor insists. “So you’re a human, right? You’re a human, and you’ve been alive for twenty-odd years, and you’re basically at the beginning of the rest of your life. Still no clue what you’re doing, of course, but you’re working on it.”
“And you’re a normal, middle-class human,” Sasha continues, “so you’ve had to work for everything you’ve gotten. Sure, your job sucks and your apartment sucks and your life sucks, but you got that job and rented that apartment and created this life yourself, and that’s important!”
“Objection,” Trevor says. “My job doesn’t suck. I get to hang out with the otters.”
“He does get to hang out with the otters,” Obie agrees.
“You’re both ruining the picture that we’re trying to paint,” Sasha complains.
“Anyway,”Trevor finishes grandly, “once you’ve imagined all that, I want you to picture that this sexy, obscenely wealthy silver fox of a demon saunters into your life and tries to sweep you off your feet.”
Obie stares at him. “Did you just call me a silver fox?”
Trevor nods sagely. “You might not have gray hair, but you’re hella old, man. I think it counts.”
Sasha hits his arm before turning back to Obie. “So what do you think about that? About this silver fox swooping in and telling you that he’s going to make all your problems go away?”
Obie sighs. Unfortunately, he’s been in this dimension long enough to know exactly where they’re leading him. “Red flag.Undermining someone’s financial independence is a common abuse tactic. I, um. I didn’t think of it like that.”
Partly because he doesn’t need to, of course. Chester isn’t exactly a “nice, regular human,” and his situation is about as far from normal as it gets, but?—
But the twins do bring up a valid point. If and when Chester permanently defects from the Sanctum, he’s most likely going to be completely dependent on Obie for essentials like food and housing.
That’s a scary position for anyone. He thinks Cass worked around it by gifting JJ an obscene amount of money and Ez straight-up handed Roma the deed to a new house, but Obie will have to find a way to make sure Chester doesn’t feel trapped.
“Standard human–demon failure to communicate,” Trevor says solemnly, patting Obie’s arm. “So you might want to have another conversation with him. He’s probably just operating on a different timeline than you.” His eyebrows furrow. “Potentially averydifferent timeline. You’ve only been dating for a month or so, right? Why do you want him to move in with you so soon?”
“Well, I—” What is Obie supposed to say? That he wants Chester to leave the Sanctum that’s slowly been killing him for years so they can focus on dismantling it together? “Like I said, he hates his job and his apartment. I just thought it, uh, made sense.”
Trevor and Sasha both squint at him. Even though they’re not identical, their expressions are eerily similar.
“We—” Screw it. Obie isn’t one to kiss and tell, but it’s not like he’s going to give them details. “We spent the night together for the first time. That… may have been part of it.”
Sasha crows with delight, smacking his arm a few times. “Fox alert! Fox alert!”
“Congrats on the sex, man!” Trevor cheers, holding up his hand for a high five.
