Obie grimaces down at the screen, debating how to respond. Ez might be slightly overdramatic at baseline, but she’s also not wrong—Obie hasn’t seen his friends since just before Chester cast hisill-fated binding spell nine days ago. Considering that they usually make it a point to hang out at least twice a week, it feels like a lifetime.
Obviously, he still can’t go tomorrow. Even if Chester was off duty, there’s no way Obie would bring him anywhere near his friends.
Especially if the Conspiracy Fam is going to be there. If they have “things” to discuss, as Ez so eloquently put it, then it’s definitely intel about the conspiracy that Obie doesn’t want to risk Chester leaking to the Sanctum. Reluctantly, Obie types out his reply.
OBADIAH:Sorry, but I can’t make it tomorrow, either. I’m having some permitting issues with my rental properties, but they’ll hopefully be resolved soon. Call you afterward to recap?
Ez sends him a barfing emoji, her usual method of communication when she’s displeased with him, followed by an“Okay yeah call me whenever.”Stomach churning, Obie shoves his phone back in his pocket, hugging his arms across his chest.
This feels wrong. It’s rare that he hides anything from Cass and Ez, much less something this serious. Granted, he’s been hiding his identity as Nostringvadha since the moment he met them, but in his mind, that’s different.
It’s not lying. It’s just avoiding certain topics that might bring up inconvenient questions.
This is a whole other ball game, though. Under normal circumstances, if Obie was accosted by—and spellbound to—a Sanctum lackey, contacting Cass and Ez would’ve been his very first course of action. Ez would’ve broken the binding spell with her usual practiced efficiency, Cass would’ve murdered Chester Locke in cold blood. The usual.
But these aren’t normal circumstances. Obie can’t figure out a way to explain the binding spell to them without admitting the full circumstances surrounding it—namely, why Chester chose that particularspell fromThe Magic-Weaver’s Companionand why he specifically targeted Obie in the first place.
Cass and Ez haven’t figured out that Obie is Nostringvadha because he’s careful, not because they’re stupid. Even if he left Chester’s name out of it and begged them to trust him, it wouldn’t take them long to put the pieces together.
If worst comes to worst, he would rather tell them himself than have them discover it on their own, but he’s hoping to avoid both of those situations entirely.
Plus, Cass and Ez are both dating former hunters now. And if JJ or Roma got even the slightest hint that Chester was the one who did this, Obie knows it would destroy both of them. He may have threatened to tell the Sanctum’s most infamous dissidents that Chester isn’t worth saving, but honestly, that was more to spite Chester than anything else.
No matter how much Chester deserves it, Obie wouldn’t want to hurt JJ and Roma that badly.
Although hewilladmit that watching Bryant repeatedly knock Chester on his ass out on the training grounds this morning was supremely cathartic. He tunes back into the hunters’ conversation just in time for Chester to lean forward, his eyebrows furrowed. “So what was the deal? Were they eclipse chasers?”
Bryant wrinkles her nose. “Probably. They seemed altogether too surprised that we were able to beat them so easily, so they were probably expecting some kind of eclipse-level power boost.” She snorts. “Needless to say, they didn’t get it. Morons.”
Eclipse chasers.Obie vaguely remembers JJ and Roma mentioning those. While it’s true that the total solar eclipse passing over Redwater in December—combined with the seemingly limitless power of the Deep—will make the town a hotbed of raw magical potential, there’s apparently a rumor going around that spellcasters can use theadmittedly quirky magic reservoir to tap into the power of totality before it even happens.
It’s a bizarre rumor. Idly, Obie wonders who started it.
“That’s a hassle. Hopefully, we’ll only have to deal with the uptick in summoners until December, and then—” Chester cuts himself off abruptly, his shoulders tensing. “Sylvia Long incoming.”
Bryant’s eyes widen. “Oh,pleaseno,” she says, and she slaps an astoundingly fake smile on her face before twisting around in her seat. “Hey, Long.”
Frowning, Obie follows her gaze to see an unfamiliar hunter striding towards them. “Nehemiah,” she says, stopping just shy of the table and ignoring Chester entirely. “The Council assigned us another mission. Didn’t you get the notification?”
Bryant’s jaw twitches before her expression smooths out. “Um, not sure. I was training with Locke this morning, and then we came right in here to grab breakfast, so…” She trails off. “I, uh, haven’t checked my phone since I woke up.”
“Hm.” Long glances briefly at Chester before refocusing on Bryant. “Well, it looks like another long haul, so we’re moving out within the hour. Meet me and Pedrosa down in the garage after you grab your gear. And take your phone off silent, would you?”
Bryant’s shoulders are stiff and her face is neutral. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” Long nods once at her before walking away, not even acknowledging Chester, and Obie fights back the urge to whistle.
Looks like some purebreds outrank other purebreds—or, at the very least, Sylvia Long outranks the Nehemiah whose former teammates defected.
Bryant waits until Long is out of eyeshot before letting her head fall to the table with athud.“Really?Again?We just got back from the last one!”
Chester pats her arm sympathetically. “Sorry, Bry. Them’s the breaks, at least until the eclipse is over.”
“Yeah, I guess. Only five months left,” Bryant sighs, and she peels her forehead off the table, looking up at him. “Although I will admit that the constant missions are helpful for, you know. Distraction purposes.”
For a split second, Chester’s guarded expression vanishes. An unexpected pang twists through Obie at the sight.
JJ and Roma. They’re talking about distracting themselves from JJ and Roma. Probably from the reemergence of Sawyer and Naomi, too.
