“Not happening,” Maggie says flatly.
“This isn’t a trust thing, okay?” Obie says, trying not to let too much impatience creep into his voice. “But we need to work fast, and I’ll have to explain a lot less to them than I’d have to explain to the rest of you. Give me five minutes to stabilize Chester, and then I’ll tell you all how I did it, okay? I promise.”
Micah opens his mouth to argue. Sawyer cuts in before he can. “That’s all right, then,” she says, and she shoulders open the door. “Let’s go.”
After a few tense seconds, Micah and Gregorio start towards her. Maggie turns away even more reluctantly, watching Obie with wary eyes, and Bryant?—
Bryant doesn’t move at all.
“Nehemiah?” Naomi asks, reaching out to touch her arm.
Bryant doesn’t even spare her a glance. “Piss off. I’m not leaving.”
“Bryant,”Sawyer snaps, a tinge of purebred authority in her voice. “Come on.”
“Piss.Off,”Bryant repeats, slowly and clearly. “Chester Locke is the only person in this building I even halfway trust right now, and considering that he just got me tortured as a dissident, that’sreallysaying something. I’m not leaving him behind.” She leans forward, meeting Obie’s gaze head-on. “So are we going to waste more time arguing about this? Or are we going to get on with your brilliant plan?”
Micah’s mouth is hanging slightly open, like he didn’t expect a good little hunter to blatantly disrespect her superiors—even if the superiors in question have long since defected. Gregorio’s eyes are narrowed, like he’s not sure if he’s more annoyed with Bryant or Obie himself right now, and Maggie?—
Maggie is watching the entire scene with raised eyebrows, like she still doesn’t know what to make of the hunter who has half of her soul.
Chester’s weak laugh threads through Obie’s head.Yeah, that’s Bryant for you.
Obie doesn’t have to ask if Chester trusts her. Obie already knows he does. Out loud, he says, “You can stay. This won’t mean very much to you, anyway.” He glances over at Maggie and the Conspiracy Fam, meeting Maggie’s eyes. “Please. Just for a few minutes.”
At long last, Maggie nods once, turns on her heel, and strides out the door without a word. Still the same soldier she’s been for over three thousand years. Sawyer and Naomi follow her, shooting Micah and Gregorio pointed looks, and eventually, Micah takes Gregorio’s hand and tugs him outside, closing the door gently behind them.
Taking a deep breath, Obie turns to face the five remaining people standing around the bed. Cass and JJ, the two soldiers who found a cause worth fighting for where they least expected it; Ez and Roma, the spellcasters who loved their town so fiercely that they were willing to work with their worst enemy to save it?—
His family. Plus Bryant, but Bryant is Chester’s family, so Obie supposes it still counts. “Right,” he says, meeting Cass’s and Ez’s eyes. “You two always ask me how old I am.”
Ez looks thrown. “Yeah, but ‘it’s impolite to ask,’” she says, sketching air quotes around the words. “Why doesthatmatter?”
“Because…” Obie’s throat feels like sandpaper. “Because the answer is ‘fifteen thousand years.’ Or, at least, that’s how long I’ve been on Earth. Back in Tamaros, I—I was there before time existed. And I wasn’tsummonedto Earth. I was banished here.”
All at once, Cass’s face goes blank. “What?”
“I’m sorry I never told you,” Obie whispers, and deliberately, helets a pulse of energy—ofNostringvadha’senergy, the type they’d recognize from Tamaros—ripple through the room.
All five of them jerk backward. But while JJ, Roma, and Bryant just look tense and wary, like they’re only reacting to the power surge itself, Cass’s and Ez’s stunned expressions tell Obie that they remember the sensation.
“Nostringvadha,” Ez whispers, her eyes wide.
“You’reNostringvadha?”Cass sputters, his voice strained. “But that’s?—”
“Like, the god?” Bryant asks, wrinkling her nose. “The one that Chester is high-key obsessed wi—?” Visibly, she pauses. “Oh. So I guess certain things are starting to make sense now.”
Steeling himself, Obie turns to Ez’s bloodless face. “You’re right about my soul. It would devour Chester’s in a heartbeat. I can’t give him my soul energy, but I—I think I can give him the part of me that’s a god. I can give him Nostringvadha. And then I’ll just… be Obie.” He laughs shakily. “Honestly, that’s all I’ve ever wanted since I came to Earth. I just wanted to be Obie. Just wanted to—to be your friend. Gods don’t get to have friends. Not like you two have always been.”
“Wait.” JJ holds up his hands to stop Obie, his eyes wide. “Are you saying that you’re going to make Chester into a god?”
Obie shakes his head. “No. It’s just going to be a rush of energy—of power. But it’ll be nonspecific, so Chester’s soul can absorb it.”
Roma’s eyes narrow. “Can his soul handle that amount of strain? I don’t know much about gods, but that sounds like a lot of energy to absorb.”
Obie’s throat tightens. “Right now, it might be his only shot.”
“It…” Ez’s eyes are flitting back and forth, like she’s reading an invisible textbook in midair. “It could work. There’s absolutely no precedent for it, obviously, because magic involving a god isn’t standard by any means, but—but if it’s a distinct part of you that you can control, a part of you that doesn’t crave energy like a regular soul does?” Slowly, she nods. “It could work.”
