Page 129 of Take You Home

“We’ll talk about how pissed I am at you later, Locke.” Bryant’s voice is tight, but her gaze flickers over to meet his, just for a moment. “You should’ve talked to me. We could’ve figured it out.”

Chester’s eyes burn. “They’ve been lying to us,” he whispers. “They killed my family. JJ’s, too. They‍?—‍”

“Yeah, and you didn’t think totell me that?”Bryant snaps. “I told you I wasn’t losing another friend this year, remember?”

And Chester‍?—

Chester doesn’t know what would’ve happened if he’d rolled the dice and tried to tell Bryant without concrete evidence. He doesn’t know if she would’ve believed him, doesn’t know if she would’ve defected with him.

But he suddenly realizes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she would’ve at least heard him out. “I won’t doubt you again,” he says haltingly. “I promise.”

“You’d better not.”

“While this is all very heartwarming,” Sawyer says curtly, edging between them with her escrima sticks bared, “can wepleaseget a move on?”

“You’re on thin goddamn ice right now, too,” Bryant bites out, shoving past Sawyer to take her place at Chester’s side and loop his other arm over her shoulders. “Come on, Locke. Let’s get you fixed up so I can yell at you some more.”

Chester manages a weak smile. “I look forward to it.”

And, with JJ and Bryant on either side of him and Roma leading the way with magic dancing around her fingers, Chester feels safer than he has in a very long time.

The band is finally back together.

Chester isn’t getting better.

“Why isn’t he getting better?” Obie mumbles, his eyes darting up to Ez. “Why isn’t he‍?—‍?”

“They tore apart his soul even worse than Cass’s.” Ez’s voice is tight. “I don’t‍—I don’t know where we go from here, Obie.”

Fear claws at Obie’s insides. Swallowing hard, he looks down at where Chester is lying across the bed with his head in Obie’s lap, gently smoothing his hair back.

Right now, they’re in one of Obie’s many safe houses‍—the largest one, in fact, one that he’s been gradually outfitting for a gathering like this since June. Honestly, the number of people in this bedroom alone is nearly overwhelming: Cass, Ez, JJ, Roma, Micah, Gregorio, Sawyer, Naomi, Maggie,Bryant‍?—

So many demons and humans from so many different backgrounds, and yet none of them know how to save Chester.

“Okay, let’s take it from the top,” Roma says. She’s standing right next to the mattress with her hand half-extended like she wants to rest it on Chester’s shoulder, but her eyes are fixed on Ez. “Soul bond. It worked with Cass and JJ, right?”

Ez shakes her head. “JJ only survived by chance. If Desi hadn’t gone in to reset the memory, we would’ve lost him. And that wasCass’ssoul that was damaged, remember? Even ripped apart, his soul was more powerful than JJ’s. Pairing up an injured human soul with a healthy demonic one would be a death sentence.”

Obie swallows hard. “And‍—and how about a soul exchange? Like Cass did with JJ?”

He doesn’t think about the headaches and the nausea and the other symptoms Cass and JJ have slowly started developing. Right now, those don’t matter.

As long as Chester makes it through today, they can figure out the rest tomorrow.

“It’s… unlikely,” Cass says quietly. “I almost drained JJ’s soul dry, remember? And I’m still not surehowI reversed the connection, so I couldn’t walk you through it. You’d run the risk of swallowing Chester whole.”

Chester’s voice, weak but solid, floats through Obie’s head.Sounds sexy.

Obie is almost startled into laughing.You have the worst comedic timing, puppy.

Lies and slander. Someone needs to lighten the mood while I’m dying dramatically in your arms.

Obie’s chest tightens.You’re not dying,he pushes back through the link, and he pointedly doesn’t wait to see whether the words transmitted to Chester or not. Instead, he looks up at Maggie and Bryant‍—the last two pieces to a puzzle that still doesn’t quite fit together. “What about you two? Didn’t the Sanctum force a soul exchange between you?”

It hasn’t escaped his notice that the two women are standing as far apart from each other as physically possible. Whatever happened in their interrogation room, it clearly didn’t go well for them. “Yes,” Maggie says curtly, “but they tore apartbothof our souls first‍—mine worse than Nehemiah’s. It was almost like they were trying to match their strengths, so there wasn’t as much of a power imbalance.”

Bryant’s shoulders hunch. She looks like she can feel something deeply unpleasant crawling around behind her sternum. “And they did something to my soul beforehand, too‍—something to make it stronger, allegedly. I‍—I think the Sanctum has been doing this for a long time. Khan and I were just the latest lab rats.”