Roma reaches out and grabs her hand, squeezing lightly. “They didn’t get to keep you, though. For now, that’s all that matters.”
“But it might be another idea,” Micah says, glancing at Ez. “If we can’t do a soul bond between a human and a demon, then can we try one between two humans? JJ and Bryant are both… weird now, but how about Roma or Sawyer or Naomi?”
Ez shakes her head. “It would carry the same risks. The power imbalance wouldn’t be quite as large as with a demon, but it wouldstill be extraordinarily dangerous with an incredibly low probability of success.”
Obie.Chester’s voice ghosts through Obie’s head again, and dread coils in Obie’s stomach when he realizes that it sounds even weaker than before.It’s okay. You can let me go, I promise. It’s okay.
Obie’s heart feels raw.No, it’s not.
You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I need you to know that, okay? I?—
“No,”Obie snarls out loud. The entire room jerks to attention at the outburst. “Shut up, Locke. Stop saying goodbye. I’m not letting you die.”
Chester’s faint, affectionate voice twines through Obie’s mind.Asshole.
“Obie?” Naomi says cautiously. “You good, man?”
Abruptly, Ez’s eyes widen. “Wait. You’re communicating with him through that telepathic link right now? The one the binding spell created?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry,” Bryant says. “Binding spell?Telepathic link?”
“Trust me, we’re only marginally less confused than you are,” Sawyer says.
Ez chews on her bottom lip, glancing at Roma. “Can we… use that? The fact that they’re spellbound together? Would that stabilize a potential soul exchange?”
Roma looks just as unsure. “I—I don’t know. Considering how haywire the binding spell itself went, I wouldn’t want to risk it—not without knowing the exact parameters. If the telepathic link were created through normal means, we could hypothetically use it, but since it’s a side effect of the binding, I don’t know if…”
The room devolves into half a dozen conversations, everyone desperately trying to brainstorm a way to save Chester, and panicrises in Obie’s throat. Chester’s face is so pale, paler than Obie has ever seen it, and his skin is clammy and his breathing is shallow and his eyes are barely fluttering open and?—
And how can it end like this? They got him out. They’re safe. They should be able tosave him.
Obie shouldn’t have to sit here and watch someone he loves dieagain,leaving him just as powerless to stop it as he was fifteen thousand years ago. After all these months, after all the hatred and mistrust turned into fondness and devotion, after everything they’ve lost and everything they’ve gained?—
What was the point of it? What was the point ofanyof it? Everything Chester has been through, everything he and Obie worked towards, everything he meant to Obie?—
And what’s the point of being a fuckinggodif he can’t even protect the people he cares about?
Suddenly, the gears in Obie’s head grind to a halt.“Oh.”
Cass cuts himself off. “What? You have something?”
“Yeah,” Obie says slowly, turning over the option in his mind. Can it really be that simple? Can it actually be that easy to fix Chester? “Yeah, I have something.”
Bryant gestures impatiently. “Care to share with the class?”
And Obie?—
Obie looks at Cass and Ez.
He looks at the two demons who have had his back for over two hundred years, who have walked through life with him during the exciting times and the boring ones, who gave him their friendship without asking for anything in return and never once wavered from it.
The two people he should’ve told the truth to a long time ago. “With half the class, at least,” Obie says. “Cass and Ez, you can stay. JJ and Roma, too. I need the rest of you to wait outside.”
Gregorio stops dead. “Excuse me?”
“Obie,” Micah says, looking a little hurt.
