"Can you exorcise asshole out of someone?" Nate asks him with a grimace. Marcus is used to fighting demons and Nate knows a little about that, maybe, but this is something different. There's nothing spiritual or demonic about this, just a guy with an attitude problem and Nate being too easy to bait.

He almost wishes it had been something closer to Marcus's expertise. Nate's dealt with curses and magic both here and back home, and maybe it's harder to understand but it's also less likely to sneer at him like Cassius had. Maybe then he'd feel less sheepish about the fact that he got his ass handed to him.

"I'm pretty sure I have a bottle of whiskey," he says with a shrug. It's somewhere in his cupboard, being saved for an emergency. Nate's pretty sure this counts. It'll be enough to take the edge off, both the pain and the desire to turn around and find Cassius instead of going home.