Obie’s heart feels raw. “She didn’t. I—I heard it from my contact in the Sanctum. He?—”
“Inthe Sanctum?” Ez repeats, her eyes narrowing. “I thought yourcontact was just adjacent to the Sanctum. Is he a hunter? Obie, are you sure we can trust him?”
And Obie?—
Obie never should’ve kept any of this from his friends. Not the binding spell, not his intel from the Sanctum, not Chester.
This is probably the worst possible way for them to find out, but right now, he doesn’t have any other options. “I’ve been lying to all of you for a while,” he blurts out. “A little over two months ago, Chester Locke tracked me down and tried to put a binding spell on me.”
JJ stiffens, his eyes widening.“Chester?But?—”
“Just—” Obie raises his hands, futilely trying to stem the waves of shock and betrayal radiating off JJ and Roma. “Just let me finish, okay? Hetriedto put a binding spell on me, but he screwed up the pre-casting process. Instead of binding me to him, it bound both of ustogether.We’ve been stuck within a twenty-foot radius of each other, and—and I’ve basically been living with him at the Sanctum.”
This time, no one interrupts. They all just stare at him with appalled eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Obie meets JJ’s gaze. “Chester defected a month ago. Not physically, butdefinitelymentally. We’ve been getting all of our evidence together, with Chester using his access codes and Bryant’s connections to print out documents for the Conspiracy Fam.Chesteris my inside man.”
JJ lets out a pained noise. “Obie.”
“So the binding spell was you and Chester all along?” Roma’s fingers are twitching, like she’s itching to just whip out her magic and somehow fix this. “Not Kyle’s friend and his partner? But you said they—you—needed to stay within twenty feet of each other, and?—”
“The spell has been giving us more slack as we—” Obie’s vision blurs. “As we, um, got closer. Trusted each other more. Hated each other less. And before that, I kept him invisible or glamouredwhenever we left the Sanctum.” He winces, already dreading this next revelation. “He’s Kyle. I don’t actually have a boyfriend. It was just the easiest way for me to bring Chester along.”
Cass chokes.“Obie!”
“I didn’t have a choice, okay?” Obie says desperately. “It was either that or make him invisible, and the one time I had him invisible around Sawyer, she revealed way too much that I didn’t want him to know yet. I was trying to keep us safe!”
“Why didn’t you justtell usabout all this?” Ez demands. “Roma and I would’ve dropped everything to work on your counterspell if we knew it was you and not just Kyle’s dumbass friend!”
“Because—”
Because Chester only targeted me because I’m Nostringvadha.
Obie bites back the words. “I had reasons, okay? Reasons that aren’t relevant right now. Not to our current situation. Not to the jailbreak. I—I need you guys to trust me on this. Please, I need?—”
Cass gestures impatiently. “Shut up. Of course we trust you, and like you said, time is of the essence right now. So Chester told you that Maggie is in the Sanctum’s prison—where’s Chester?”
“He’s—” Obie’s chest tightens. “I think he’s in danger, too. I think the Sanctum finally realized he’s the traitor.”
JJ goes rigid. “No. Obie?—”
“I tried to call Maggie’s cell phone,” Obie cuts in, “and Chester picked up. And—and all he said was that we needed to put together a jailbreak as quickly as possible.”And that he loves me. Helovesme. He—“And then I heard what sounded like a fight before the line disconnected. I’m not sure if Chester made it out, but?—”
“He didn’t.” The hollow resignation in Roma’s eyes makes fear flood through Obie’s veins. “JJ, prisoners’ belongings are kept in the interrogators’ break room, right?”
“Yeah.” JJ’s face is ashen. “Frankly, I’m surprised Maggie’s phonewasn’t already in a lockbox. So Chester must’ve heard it and picked it up right there in the break room, and if he didn’t give you any more details, it probably means someone else was around.”
“So he outed himself as the traitor,” Roma continues, “because that was the only way to give Obie the message. And he would’ve tried to escape after that, but?—”
“—but if one of the interrogators activated the alarm spell network—well, they’ve gotten alotof practice responding to jailbreaks lately,” JJ finishes, looking nauseous at the very thought. “There’s almost no chance that Chester made it out. If he’s—if he’s still alive, then he’s still in the prison. And they’re probably going to interrogate him as a dissident.”
“Torture.” Cass’s expression is stony. “They’re going totorturehim as a dissident, JJ.” His eyes snap back to Obie. “When did he call you?”
“About five minutes ago,” Obie says, “but I can’t rift back in. They must’ve finally closed that loophole in their anti-rifting spell work when they brought Maggie in. The only way to get in now is through the front door.”
Roma’s jaw tightens. “If they revamped their anti-rifting spell work, then they might have done the same with their anti-magicspell work. I’ll want to stop back at our house to fill a backpack with weapons—if anything compromises our pocket dimensions or gaps in spacetime, it’ll be good to have a backup armory.”
“And we’ll need to get the Conspiracy Fam involved, too,” Ez adds, drumming her fingers against her leg as she thinks. “Two teams for two rescues. We can grab Maggie, and they can?—”
