But he can’t let anything happen to Bryant. He can’t.
Not when he’s the reason she’s in this mess. “Sawyer and Naomi,” he croaks. “And—and Gregorio Ricci and Micah Devereux.”
Bryant’s eyes are wide and betrayed. “Chester,” she repeats, horror threading through her voice, “what did youdo?”
Chester’s heart cracks. “I’m so sorry,” he croaks. “You—you weren’t supposed to get hurt. You were supposed to staysafe.You?—”
“This is what happens to those who oppose us.” Nasir’s voice is even. Measured. The pinnacle of steely neutrality, as always. “You don’t just fall, Locke. You drag everyone else down with you. Just like Jackson did to Gutierrez, and just like Solomon and the elder Gutierrez did before them.” This time, when her eyes meet Chester’s, he sees cold triumph in them. “And now, you’ve done the very same thing to your last remaining friend.”
“Councilwoman.” There’s the barest hint of a tremor in Bryant’svoice. “Councilwoman, please reconsider. Please consider giving Chester another chance. You told us how badly the demons got into Jackson’s and Gutierrez’s heads, and they clearly targeted Chester next because he was isolated, but that’sourfault for putting him in that position, and?—”
Chester’s eyes burn. “Bryant, it’s true,” he whispers. “Everything the demons have been saying about the Sanctum working with the Chain, it’s—it’s true. I promise.”
Bryant’s gaze shoots back to Nasir.“See?He’s not thinking straight! The Chester that I know—the Chester thatallof us know, the one who’s spent the past twelve years upholding the Sanctum’s values—would never say things like that! They must’ve brainwashed him, and?—”
“While this display is quite touching,” Nasir interrupts, “it’s misguided and unfounded. Chester Locke is a dissident and will be treated as such.” She sighs. “As will you. You’ve unfortunately seen too much already—and, in your own words, Locke was at risk because he was isolated. Don’t think we’re ignorant of the love you still hold for your friends, Nehemiah. I always warned you it would be your downfall.”
Chester’s chest hurts. He’s always known that Bryant was a bit of an outcast with her fellow purebreds for being best friends with a mixed breed and two neophytes, but he didn’t realize that even the Council was telling her to abandon them.
And she never wavered. Not even once. Not even when two of her friends—three of her friends, now—abandoned her instead. “Please,” Chester begs, looking up at Nasir. “Please, just—just tell me what you want to know. Leave Bryant alone, and I’ll tell you what you want to know. You can—you can just restation her, yeah? To a different Sanctum? Somewhere she can start over? She?—”
“Oh, you’re going to tell us exactly what we want to know, Locke.Never doubt that.” Nasir’s cold eyes slide back to Bryant. “It’s rare that we have any dissidents to experiment on, but it appears that fate has dropped two into our laps today—along with one of the most powerful demons on Earth.” She nods at Hawthorne. “Tell Amani to tear apart her soul. Khan’s, too. We’ll test the soul bond between them.”
All at once, Chester’s thoughts screech to a halt. “Soul bond?” he repeats blankly. “Why would you?—?”
Abruptly, Nasir’s fingers fist in Chester’s hair, so tight and fast that Chester bites back a gasp. “And you,” she says, her voice neat and precise, “will be tortured to within an inch of your life, and then tortured some more. You said you know how this game is played? That means you know exactly what we’re going to do to you—and that, when you die, it’s going to be right here on this table, after you’ve told us everything we want to know.”
And maybe?—
Maybe itisfate that Chester ended up on this interrogation table. It’s where he’s going to make his last stand against the Sanctum, where he’s going to get the vengeance of withholding everything they want to know.
His love language. “You’d better pray that your gods have mercy on you,” he says, “because Nostringvadha definitely won’t.”
Her lip curls. “You know nothing of Nostringvadha,” she says, and she turns back to Hawthorne and Massimo. “Take her away. Brief Amani on her assignment, and send Locke’s interrogator in.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hawthorne says, and he and Massimo start to drag Bryant out of the room.
Bryant fights them every step of the way, trying to wrestle out of their grip. Trying to get back to Chester. “No—no,Chester?—!”
Chester’s vision blurs. “I’m sorry,” he manages. “I’m—I’m so sorry, Bryant.”
The door slams shut behind them. Nasir straightens to her full height, looking down at Chester distastefully. Like he’s a particularly nasty bug on the bottom of her shoe. “You’ll break,” she repeats, and she raises her voice once again. “Adrian, come in.”
And Chester’s stomach drops when Adrian Nostrand walks through the door. There’s no sign of this morning’s altercation on his face—courtesy of the infirmary’s spellcasters, probably—but the murderous gleam in his eyes tells Chester that he hasn’t forgotten a second of it. “Councilwoman, are we ready to begin?”
“We are,” she says, striding towards the door. “You have about an hour before the spellcasters are ready for him. Get the information we need, but beyond that, do whatever you want with him. Once the spellcasters are finished, you can interrogate him as long as you like. And I promise that we’ll let you kill him at the end.”
“I look forward to it,” he says, turning a savage smile on Chester as the door clicks shut behind her. “Honestly? I always hoped we’d end up here.”
Chester’s pulse is pounding in his ears. He doesn’t answer.
“And Ireallyhope you know how much I’m going to enjoy this,” he says, and he pulls out a hammer.
40
The Sanctum is expecting a jailbreak.
That much is clear from the moment Obie and his friends rift to the bottom of the hill—the very edge of the Sanctum’s new and improved anti-rifting spell work—and see that the path leading up to the building is swarming with hunters on guard duty. They quickly split up to opposite ends of the property, Cass and JJ following Ez and Roma to the far side as they search for a new loophole and the Conspiracy Fam hovering with Obie near the trail while he impatiently presses against the spell work with his god powers, trying to find a weak spot.
