“He’s not wrong, babe,” Ez says imperiously, and she turns back to Obie before Roma can argue. “Do we have a copy of the spell?”
“I actually requested a copy from the Deep,” Obie says, snapping open a pocket dimensionand pulling out the incantation in question. “It looks like he got the spell itself correct—I checked it against the original text—but he must’ve done something wrong during the pre-casting process. And we’re not entirely sure what that ‘something’ is.”
Roma sighs. “Figures.”
Ez skims over the neatly printed lines. “I mean, it would be pretty easy to build a counterspell from this,” she says, passing the spell to Roma. “The only problem is figuring out how the pre-casting process changed it. Any idea what the error might have been?”
“I know that he somehow made it bidirectional instead of unidirectional,” Obie says.
Roma stops reading halfway down the page, staring at him. “Abidirectionalbinding spell? So they can both control each other, you mean?”
“They actually can’t control each other at all,” Chester says, “but they also can’t be more than twenty feet apart, which obviously makes their lives a lot more difficult.”
Ez tilts her head to one side, intrigued. “That’s a fascinating side effect. Any chance you could bring them here to meet us?”
“Uh…” Chester’s shoulders hunch. “I kind of doubt it. He’s a… very private person. And I think he’s embarrassed about the whole situation.”
“I mean, he should be,” Roma says. “Like, no shame about the BDSM, but pre-casting a complicated spell like this is just idiotic. Any other side effects?”
Obie cuts in before Chester can answer. “Not that they’ve told us.”
Surreptitiously, Chester presses the side of his sneaker against Obie’s ankle.How about this?
If they can’t figure it out from what we’ve given them, then I’ll let them know. I don’t want them to go down a telepathy rabbit hole too quickly.Out loud, Obie continues, “Kyle’s friend also walked me through what he remembered of the pre-casting process, so I wrote some notes about that on the back of the incantation.”
Ez frowns. “Couldn’t you have just looked through his memories to get the full story?”
Obie presses his knee against Chester’s.Yeah, Locke. Couldn’t I have?
Shut up.Out loud, Chester says, “My friend was really creeped out by the idea, so he said no. And Obie didn’t want to hurt him by doing it without his consent.”
Roma pauses. “You can do it without people’s consent?”
Damn it.Obie kicks Chester’s shin as hard as the binding spell will let him before answering. “Sometimes. It’s a very finicky and context-dependent ability. I don’t like to use it too often.”
“He’s right,” Ez tells Roma. “I’d never even seen him do it until we broke Cass out of the Sanctum’s prison, and I’ve known him for over two hundred years.”
Roma looks even more bewildered. “You used it during the jailbreak? Why?”
Obie bites back a grimace. “To figure out where Cass was.”
“Yeah, he hacked into Chester Locke’s brain to find him,” Ez adds.
Next to Obie, Chester twitches. Abruptly, Roma’s expression hardens. “Wait.Thatwas how you gave him the concussion?”
Obie’s hackles rise. “No, I gave him the concussion by slamming his head into a wall. I looked through his memories beforehand. What’s your point?”
“Roma,” Ez says, her voice low and serious. “Don’t.”
Roma ignores her, leaning forward with narrowed eyes. “You really scared him, you know that? He wasn’t the same after that. He was obsessed with researching your memory powers—hell, he was so obsessed that he even tried to researchNostringvadha’smemory powers. He lost sleep over it, and?—”
Obie matches her pose, glaring straight back at her. “And I woulddo it again,Gutierrez. You’re very well aware of what those interrogators did to Cass, and I wasn’t about to let them torture him for a second longer than necessary. Anyone who got in our way was collateral damage. The only reason I didn’t outright kill Locke—or you and Nehemiah—was because JJ wouldn’t have taken it well. You’re lucky you even lived long enough to betray us a second time.”
“Obie!”Ez snaps, and then, to Obie’s surprise, she turns to Chester. “I promise he’s not usually like this, Kyle.”
Wincing, Obie glances at Chester. He doesn’t look scared, not exactly, but?—
But Obie can see why Ez would think an admission like that might frighten a regular human. “Sorry, puppy,” he says quietly.
