Nothing. Actually, it feels like the same magic from the prison’s purebred-only wing, the type that Obie’s already spent hours investigating.
They’ll have to find another way to get inside.
It’s not impossible, of course. Since they’re all invisible, they can always sneak past the hunters, wait to follow one of them through the main entrance, do the same thing at the prison door?—
It’ll just take longer, that’s all. Hours, potentially.
Hours that they don’t have. “New plan,” Obie says, glaring up at the hunters milling around like evil little ants. “I’m going to go in hot and slaughter everyone in my path.”
Gregorio’s curt voice arises from just next to him. “That’s how wars start, Smith.”
“Not if I start it and finish it in the same day.” And, personally, Obie is going to enjoy cutting down all the hunters who treated Chester like garbage. He’s actually been keeping a casual list of all the worst offenders.
He just didn’t think he’d have to use it nearly this soon.
“I have to agree with Gregorio, Obie,” Micah says.
“You would.”
“Because he’sright,Smith,” Sawyer says, an edge creeping into her voice. “A full-scale assault on the Sanctum will give them exactly the pretext they need to launch a genocide. Are you really willing to subject all of Redwater’s demons to that?”
“And the human collateral damage would be enormous,” Naomi adds quietly. “No one wants that. Least of all Chester.”
Pain lances through Obie’s chest. “Don’t pretend you know him anymore,” he bites out, and his voice comes out lower and more vicious than he intended. “You two left him there. You knew what he was going through, knew exactly what the Council was going to force him to do for his final exam, and youleft him there.”
“Obie,”Micah says, a little harder this time. “Don’t go there.”
“He’s not wrong,” Sawyer cuts in, “but we can argue about it later. Preferably when Chester is here to arguewithus.”
Obie’s hands are shaking. He clenches them into fists to hide it.
It’s already been too damn long. It’s been over two hours since Chester answered Maggie’s phone, over two hours since the last time Obie had any contact with him?—
Over two hours since Chester signed his death warrant to tell Obie that his worst nightmares had come true.
But two hours is far too long. When Cass was kidnapped by the Sanctum back in March, they didn’t even need half that time to rip his soul to pieces. Even though they likely wouldn’t do that to a human dissident like Chester, two hours is still more than enough time for them to cut him open.
Maybe even kill him. Obie has to think that the binding spell would react if Chester died, would give Obie some indication that his spellbound partner was gone, but he isn’t sure.
And, right now, their connection is so eerily silent that Obie is afraid Chester might be dead already. He forces the thought from his mind. “All right,” he says, snapping open an invisible rift. “Come on. I’m not finding any workarounds, and I doubt Ez and Roma have anything, either. We need to regroup and figure out our next moves.”
Silently, the four co-conspirators slip through the rift. Obie brings up the rear, waving it closed behind them once they’re on solid ground, and almost immediately, there’s a shimmer of renewed magic around him.
Within seconds, all nine of them come back into view. “Modified the invisibility spell,” Ez says without preamble, scowling down at the Sanctum’s twelve-foot boundary wall. “So we can see each other, but they can’t see us.”
“I’ve just learned to stop asking when it comes to you and spellcasting,” Sawyer says, stepping up next to her. Her glower is almost a perfect match for Ez’s. “Any brilliant ideas on this side of the property?”
“Nope,” Cass says flatly.
“Figured.”
“I still think we should try reaching out to Bryant,” JJ says, drumming his fingers anxiously against his leg. “There’s not agreatchancethat she’ll help us, but—but with Chester in danger? It’s a better chance than usual.”
Roma shakes her head, fidgeting with her backpack’s straps. “She thinks we’re being manipulated, remember? If anything, she’s probably furious with us for ‘brainwashing’ Chester on her watch. She could easily tell the Council that we’re at the gates, and then—” Her voice catches. “And then we’ll lose any chance we might have had.”
Everyone lapses into tense silence. Obie swallows hard past the panic threatening to rise up his throat.
If they have to wait to follow a hunter into the building and then wait for another one to open the prison door, it could take hours. Chester will be as good as dead. There’s a slightly larger chance that Maggie might still be alive, but if they tear apart her soul like they did to Cass, even that’s not guaranteed.
