Page 44 of Take You Home

Obie’s expression shifts. “Well, I’m sure Nehemiah is looking out for him,” he says briskly, pushing himself to his feet. “And thanks for the info about the Sanctum. The more we know about their particular brand of psychological warfare, the better.”

Sawyer smiles bitterly. “Unfortunately. And I’ll send you the dates and times for those power signatures later today. Take care of yourself, okay, Smith?”

“You, too, Solomon.” Obie waves once before grabbing his Tacos Near Me bag and striding towards the north end of town, leaving Chester scrambling to catch up.

“Where‍—‍?” Chester’s voice comes out hoarser than usual. He swallows hard and tries again. “Where are we going?”

Obie glances around before letting his hand drift to the side, his wrist just barely touching Chester’s. His voice wafts through Chester’s head.Back to the Sanctum. I’m just taking a detour so she doesn’t get suspicious.

Chester lets out a slow breath, wrapping his hand around Obie’s forearm to make the telepathic connection stronger.Okay.

Hey.Obie’s voice is cautious.You good?

Bitterness snakes through Chester. Bitterness at Sawyer, bitterness at Obie, bitterness at this entire situation‍?—

Bitterness at himself, most of all.What doyouthink, Smith?

Obie scoffs, pulling his arm out of Chester’s grip. They fall into frosty silence as they wind their way around town, making a long circle back towards the Sanctum.

And Chester still has a lot of questions. He wants to know more about why Sawyer thinks Chester shouldn’t have been an interrogator, about her theories regarding his and JJ’s jobs, about how long she was truly questioning the Council before she defected.

Wants to know about that human-magic glamour spell and those magical power signatures from the Sanctum.

Wants to know why Obie pushed so hard to get more information about Chester, but backed off the instant Chester asked him to.

For now, though, Chester just focuses on his footsteps, stays close enough to Obie to keep the binding spell happy, and tries to remember how to breathe.

15

Obie gapes at Ez, appalled. “What do youmean,you and Roma haven’t said ‘I love you’ to each other yet?”

Ez wrinkles her nose back at him, unrepentant. “Exactly what I said, Obie. It just hasn’t seemed necessary.”

Obie buries his face in his hands, groaning. Right now, he’s sitting across from Ez at a picnic table at Lakeside, enjoying the early-August warmth and waiting for a human-magic glamoured Roma‍—and a Kyle-glamoured Chester‍—to bring back their churros con chocolate from Churrería.

Obie wrestled hard with whether to make Chester invisible for today’s meetup before reluctantly deciding on the glamour, instead. Honestly, he doesn’t want to bring out the Boyfriend Kyle cameos too often. Knowing the food truck operators, they’ve probably already voted him in as Redwater’s hottest new cryptid.

But Obie can’t risk Ez or Roma blabbing about any sensitive conspiracy secrets with an invisible Chester nearby, not like Sawyerinadvertently did three days ago. While Chester hasn’t mentioned the human-magic glamours or the power signatures since then, Obie can’t guarantee that he won’t tell the Sanctum’s Council in the future.

And, more importantly, Obie saw how badly Sawyer’s words about Chester not being suited for his job hurt him. Obie fights back a pang at the thought. Over the past few days, Chester has thrown himself into his auxiliary duties in the prison with renewed vigor, going above and beyond to be even more precise and efficient than before‍—like he’s actively trying to prove Sawyer wrong.

Obie hasn’t had the heart to point out that Sawyer was specifically talking about interrogation duty, not auxiliary duty.

And, frankly, he doesn’t have the heart to let Ez and Roma potentially get into Chester’s head again now. So Obie supposes he’ll just have to deal with Ez’s leers and the knowing looks from every food truck operator‍—despite the fact that he is, once again, glamoured beyond recognition.

But he has more pressing matters to attend to right now. “It just hasn’t seemed necessary,” Obie repeats miserably. “How has she not broken up with you yet?”

Ez sputters indignantly. “It’s not like it’s been years and years! It hasn’t even been two months!”

“That woman defected from the Sanctum for you, Esmeralda! You damn well better love her!”

“Ido,”Ez stresses. “I do, okay? I just haven’t, you know, said it in so many words at this juncture. Do I really have to? Ishowthat I love her in plenty of ways. I cook for her and research spells with her and do lots of very spicy things in the bedroom and‍?—‍”

“I don’t need examples, thanks.” Obie squints at her. “Wait. Roma hasn’t said it yet, either?”

Ez shakes her head. “So it’s probably fine, right?”

“I…” Obie rakes his teeth over his bottom lip. Romantic relationships ingeneral have never been his strong suit, especially not romantic relationships between his belligerent best friend and an equally belligerent ex-hunter. “I guess? But you might want to ask a human about that. Like JJ.”