“Oh. Well,” Ez says, sounding both very taken aback andveryturned on. “Guess we didn’t need interdimensionality, after all.”
Roma looks somewhat disbelieving herself, but she dutifully turns to the rest of the group. “So, uh,” she says, gesturing vaguely at the rift. “Who wants to go first?”
JJ immediately strides forward, grinning. “I knew you could do it,” he says, walking through the rift without the slightest hesitation.
Hastily, Cass hustles after him. “Not that I don’t trust you,” he tells Roma, “but I just want to make sure my fiancé survived testing the experimental magic.”
“Understandable.” Roma waits until Cass sticks an arm back through the rift, giving them a thumbs-up from the other side, before motioning the rest of them forward. “Let’s move.”
A smirking Gregorio and a fondly exasperated Micah jog through next, followed by Naomi and Sawyer looking like proud parents. Obie slips through just before Ez, squinting as his eyes adjust to the dim indoor lighting.
And, even though he’s only been in this particular location once, a spark of recognition flashes through him. They’re in the Sanctum’s restricted spellcasting library—the one that can only be accessed from within the prison itself.
Roma rifted themdirectlyinto the prison, something that not even Obie could do without his god powers before today. He waits until she carefully closes the rift behind them before clapping a hand on her shoulder. “Great work, Gutierrez.”
She gives him a shaky smile. “Thanks, Obie.”
Ez wraps an arm around Roma’s shoulders, squeezing lightly. “So myincrediblysexy girlfriend got us through Phase One of our rescue mission. What’s Phase Two?”
“Figuring out where they are,” JJ says, stepping forward. “There are forty-two interrogation rooms in this prison, and Chester and Maggie could be in any one of them. Should we split up to check them all, or?—?”
If they’re setting up the spare interrogation rooms, they reallyareshort-staffed—we only use those when we literally don’t have any other space.
Obie tastes bile. “Actually, there were only two unoccupied roomsleft last night. Odds are good that Chester and Maggie will be in those.”
“Let’s go, then,” Sawyer says, and she leads the way out of the specialty library.
The nine of them slip down the labyrinthine hallways, heading towards the break room. An interrogator strides out just as they’re creeping up, and Obie supposes the universe just owes them the sheer dumb luck of her not even noticing that the door takes noticeably longer to click shut behind her than usual.
“All right,” JJ whispers, his shoulders tense and his eyes sweeping over the eight identical hallways leading off from the break room. “Where are we going, Obie?”
Obie’s throat feels dry. “The seventh and eighth hallways—all the way at the end. I’m not sure who’s in which one, but…”
He’s praying that Chester isn’t in the spare room at the end of the eighth hallway. Not under these circumstances.
Not after everything they shared there last night.
“Either way, we’ll get both of them out,” Ez says, subtly bracing a hand on Obie’s arm. “I know you wanted to go after Chester, but?—”
Abruptly, a scream cuts through the air. It’s high and panicked andexcruciating,and even though it’s muffled by the prison’s soundproofing, Obie’s heart still stops with recognition.
Chester.
Obie is sprinting down the eighth hallway before his conscious mind even processes it, his god powers instinctively flaring out and sending the spare interrogation room’s door flying. He registers the details in front of him like they’re in slow motion—Chester strapped down to the table and thrashing in pain, Nostrand with a blowtorch singeing the side of Chester’s face?—
In a flash, Nostrand’s back is crashing into the wall and Obie’s hands are around his throat. He drops his human façade entirely,horns spiraling out from his head and wings whipping out to either side.
Letting Nostrand know that he just pissed off the wrong god.
Nostrand’s eyes bug out as he paws at Obie’s arms, staring at him in undisguised horror.“What—the?—?”
Obie slams a hand over Nostrand’s mouth to muffle his inevitable screams and slices his way into Nostrand’s mind, ripping out the memories of the past few hours. Being assigned to interrogate Maggie, fighting with Chester in the break room, beingreassignedto interrogate Chester?—
Relishing every second of pain he got to inflict on his former student. “Ireallyhope you know how much I’m going to enjoy this,” Obie informs Nostrand, smiling with all his teeth.
And then he harnesses all of the godly wrath within him, lets his offensive magic tear into Nostrand’s body, and burns him alive from the inside out.
Not as slowly and painfully as Obie would’ve liked, but quickly and painfully will just have to suffice.
