After all that, Ez and Roma managed to create a counterspell in less than two months. It would be insulting if it weren’t so impressive.
And now, Obie and Chester can break their binding spell. They won’t have to worry about counting the miles or hours when they’re apart, and they’ll be able to go wherever they want anddowhatever they want without fear.
The idea is much less appealing than Obie thought it would be. Scowling, he crumples up the counterspell, shoves it into his pocket, and snaps open a rift back to the Sanctum.
Chester hates testing the limits of the binding spell.
Part of the reason, of course, is because of the looming threat of risking the bond’s wrath. He’s been lounging across his bed and poring over records for the entire day, but every time his stomach so much as rumbles, his entire body tenses with memories of excruciating pain and nausea.
Not that Obie would let it get that far. Even at the beginning, thebond did give them some advance notice before traumatizing them, and nowadays, it’s much gentler with its early warnings. Logically, Chester knows that Obie will rift back here the moment he gets even a hint of a headache, but he’s had absolutely no luck convincing his brain of that.
But the larger and more embarrassing reason why he hates testing the binding spell is because these tests, by definition, involve separating him from Obie. And his current preoccupation with Obadiah Smith means that every second he’s not with his demon god is a second that he’sthinkingabout his demon god, which obviously isn’t conducive to getting any work done.
Chester flips over onto his back, scowling up at the ceiling. Right now, he’s supposed to be scouring through documents from around the time of Strike Team Kappa’s final exam, but it’s a slow and painful process. Slow, because Sawyer already found all the obvious discrepancies back when she defected, and?—
And painful, because reading about Kappa’s final exam brings back a lot of memories. Memories of Sawyer and Naomi starting to train him and his friends together instead of separately, and of Chester being their “demon” adversary during drills, and of the anticipation in the air as they waited for their assignments.
Memories of wishing Kappa well before their exam, and of JJ pulling Chester aside afterward to tell him that he’d gotten their revenge, and of how proud Chester was of his friends during their commencement ceremony.
Memories of Sawyer and Naomi vanishing without a trace, and of Chester torturing JJ for his own final exam, and of everything that came afterward.
Even the fondest memories have gotten darker in hindsight. And it doesn’t help that today is one of Chester’s precious few days off, so he’s had nothing else to distract him. He understands why Obie wanted to test the time limit today—he doesn’t like leaving Chesteralone for long stretches at work, not when Nostrand or another interrogator could corner him—but that doesn’t mean Chester has to like it. And also?—
Well. Itisone of his precious few days off.
He really would’ve liked to spend it with Obie.
Abruptly, there’s a flash of purple-gold in the middle of the room. Moments later, Obie himself strides through the rift, snaps it shut behind him with that casual grace Chester can’t get enough of, and squints over at Chester. “Wow. You haven’t moved an inch since I left this morning. I hope you at least took bathroom breaks.”
Instantly, Chester’s bad mood starts to lift. “Obie! Hey!” he says, pushing himself to his feet. “I wasn’t expecting to see you yet. Were you starting to get a headache?”
Obie arches an eyebrow. “I can leave for another few hours, if you want.”
“No, that’s fine,” Chester says quickly. Probably too quickly, but Obie doesn’t seem to notice. “Were you, um, keeping track of the time? What’s our new record?”
“Nine hours, fifteen minutes, and five seconds,” Obie says immediately, and then he awkwardly taps his watch. “I, uh, checked right before I opened the rift. So that’ll be more than enough time for me to snoop around the purebred-only wing, and it’ll also be more than enough time for me to take an actual shower in a place with actual water pressure and actualprivacy.”
Chester scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Communal showering isn’t that bad once you get used to it. If you get there early enough, there’s barely anyone else there.”
“Yeah, you see,” Obie says, “I feel like you’re going to change your tune once I introduce you tomyshower. It’s glorious.”
“It’s cute how you keep trying to get me into your shower,” Chester drawls.
In a flash, mortification jolts through him. Just because he wouldn’t mind sharing a shower with a naked and dripping-wet Obadiah Smith doesn’t mean that he actually wants Obie toknowthat—or that he has any delusions of Obie feeling the same way. “I—I didn’t mean it like that,” Chester stammers, heat flaming into his face. “I didn’t?—”
“I know you didn’t,” Obie cuts in. He looks a little flustered, too, and Chester curses himself for making him uncomfortable. “But, um, the shower in question ended a while ago. I actually just came from Ez and Roma’s place.”
A smile jumps onto Chester’s face. “Awesome. How are they?”
“They’re good. Still creating new spells and accidentally burning off their eyebrows. The usual.” He hesitates. “And they also figured out how to break our binding spell.”
All the blood rushes from Chester’s head at once. “What?”
“Yeah.” Obie pulls a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, tilting it in Chester’s direction; reluctantly, Chester steps forward to read the incantation, his shoulder just brushing Obie’s. “This particular reversal needs to be performed by the people who are bound together—namely, us—but the power and skill demands aren’t too extreme. Should be a fairly simple spell.”
Chester’s chest feels tight. He takes a deep breath to try and clear it out. “All right. So do we, uh, want to do it? Now, I mean?”
“I guess.” Obie’s face is unusually subdued. “No reason to wait, right?”
