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“That’s what you came here to do?” Leo asked.

“No,” Caleb said quickly. “I came to help you cross. That was what Walt hired me for. I hadn’t planned any of this.”

“But you knew what you were doing,” Nate said. “You knew we don’t use spirits like that. How could you even consider it?”

“I thought I could get him out of the house.”

“And keep him for yourself?”

“Walt wouldn’t have had to worry about him being alone here. And I would have been able to help people I couldn’t help before.”

“What was I supposed to get out of that?” Leo asked.

Caleb’s attention shifted toward him, but he didn’t answer.

“You don’t know,” Leo said.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

Leo folded his hands on the table. His fingers pressed through the wood before he noticed and drew them back.

Nate wanted to reach for him. He didn’t know whether the tea would still let him, and he hated having to consider that before trying.

“You knew what my mother would say,” he told Caleb. “You knew what your father would say. Don’t sit there explaining it to me like you thought this was a reasonable thing to try.”

“I didn’t think that.”

“Then why do it?”

Caleb looked directly at him. “Because I was tired of telling people I couldn’t help them. I studied. I practiced. I went wherever they sent me, and half the time I had to tell people there was nothing I could do. Do you know what that was like?”

Nate didn’t answer.

“Of course you don’t. You barely listened during lessons, and then you’d get up and do something I’d been failing to manage for weeks.” Caleb huffed. “And then you left, just like that. You had all this talent and you didn’t even want it. We were supposed to do this together.”

“I never asked you to take my place.”

“Maybe not you.” Caleb scoffed. “My dad sure did. Every time I couldn’t manage a job, he’d start talking about you. What a waste it was. What you could have done if you’d only applied yourself. I was right there, applying myself as hard as I fucking could.”

Caleb turned toward Leo. “Then I came here, and you had so much power. I could feel it everywhere. I thought if I could use even some of it, I could finally do what everyone needed me to do.” He looked back at Nate. “If you’d stayed, I wouldn’t have needed to.”

“You didn’t need to do this. You could have left. You could have told Walt you couldn’t do it.”

“And failed again.”

“Yes. You could have failed.”

Caleb looked away. “You don’t understand.”

“No, I really don’t.” Nate wanted to argue further, but Leo spoke up.

“What happened when you tried to bind me?”

Caleb licked his lips. “You resisted. The house wouldn’t release you, and you kept trying to break the binding. I thought I could finish it if I could just hold on a little longer. But…” He hesitated. “Something tore. I felt it happen, but by then I couldn’t stop it. Part of you stayed here. Part of you came with me.”

“Came with you,” Leo repeated.

“Into the vessel.”