Page 34 of Two Who Live On

The blocks hovered above Tara’s fingertips, delicately twirling. I’d given her the lowest weighted ones because her telekinesis wasn’t something I wanted her to focus on with these items, unlike Caleb, who’d amplified the max weight. Still, she wiggled her fingertips like she was running them through her blonde locks as opposed to juggling the four support tools.

“I know you have the sphere which allows you to conjure all three branches simultaneously as a defensive support measure. I also know you’ve been working on ways to optimize and transition that into an offensive attack.”

“Which is going awful according to Gael constantly professing the best offense is a good defense among other sports analogies.” Tara rolled her eyes, briefly lost in her time spent with the most audacious person she knew. “Yep. One tiny step at a time.”

At this point, she had to know I’d heard that commentary. And while there was a lot of baggage to unpack in her taste in friendships, I was happy the self-appointed captain of cocks was helping her train.

“These weights are designed to handle any and all impact from root magics; however, a simple alteration of the enchantment, and now they’re capable of handling your branches.”

“How’d you have these specified to my branches?”

“You’re not the first person to use sealing, intangibility, or shadows—probably the first person to use them all together, but there are apparently easy-to-follow blueprints online.” I left out the part where I’d offered Katherine extra credit for a class she already hadan A in to alter the sigils. She liked testing her own enchantment magic, and it was a lot quicker than filing for an official supplemental tool to support a student’s needs. Basically, I was assisting two students with one casting project.

I explained how the enchanted blocks would assist Tara. Sigils covered all six sides of the cubes, allowing them to properly absorb, contain, and reflect Tara’s three branch magics. Due to her branch overlap, it was impossible for Tara to cast one of her branches independently. Three powerful branches that unfortunately didn’t collaborate well with each other aside from a sphere Caleb had hypothesized last semester.

It’d be difficult pinpointing two of her branches onto the weighted blocks while exercising one in a different direction, but it wouldn’t be impossible. If anyone could master this technique, Tara could. Her proficiency with her root magics rivaled most second- and third-year students. With these support tools, she could alternate channeling sealing or unsealing techniques, intangibility, and shadows interchangeably.

“Although it’s easy to theorize, you’re the one who has to put it into practice.”

Shadows coiled around the blocks covering a golden glow of her sealing magic that pinged along the sigils. Tara took a step toward the auxiliary gym door, running her fingers intangibly through the metallic bar. Simply amazing. In a few seconds, she’d already shifted the precision of two branches onto the items. The blocks collapsed onto the ground, all the channeled magic in the air quelled. Tara knelt to pick them up, stuffing them into her book bag.

“Definitely something to work on,” she said. “Later.”

“Of course.”

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

I stood outside the academy bus heading for the South Side, wishing I had time for a cigarette. Instead of slipping away for a few minutes, I wiggled the pen for my clipboard with a roster between my index and middle finger. It didn’t help settle the cravings. Thankfully, Chanelle had already arranged for the bus and the driver since she figured I’d forget to fill out the forms. I had. It wasn’t my volunteer program, and I had a lot on my plate. Also, I was pretty lazy.

Students arrived, gave me their names and filed onto the bus. A lot of the second- and third-year students were kids I’d taught. A few of my former third-year homeroom coven students averted their gaze. We hadn’t spoken really at all this year since they were thrown to the industry wolves without a lifejacket, and I spent the bulk of last semester prioritizing the void vision. They probably all assumed I didn’t care about them or their struggles.

Chester paused before getting on, wry smile and humming a pleasant country song in his head, a technique he’d learned after a few years as my student.

“Hey, Mr. Frost,” he said with a strong southern drawl. “I was wondering if you’d had a chance to reconsider that internship recommendation.”

I blinked at him, tilting my head and staring at the growing line of students.

“It’s like Kraken Guild is great and all, and I thought it’d be everything I wanted.” He sighed, singing louder in his head. “It’s just I didn’t realize how truly compatible with certain enchanters at Cerberus Guild I’d be. I thought—”

“No,” I said, having already told him no the last time he stopped by my classroom to ‘just say hello’ and conveniently switched the topic to how ‘perhaps maybe by chance I could possibly’ put in a good word for him to Enchanter Evergreen since he believed his magic would be more compatible with Enchanter Zion’s at Cerberus. Zion had an amazing alteration branch and was quite skillful, but he wasn’t the best instructor, which was why after studying countless student interns he had who’d flounder and fail, I refused to send any of mine.

“Just maybe try listening and hear out my reasoning on why this would probably definitely be a good—”

“No.” I glared. “Get on the bus, Chester. You’re holding up the line and boring me.”

“Well, fuck you, too, you angry raccoon-eyed jackass.” Chester stormed onto the bus.

I huffed, biting back a chuckle. A few of my current homeroom coven students arrived together. Tara, Caleb, Katherine, Gael, and Kenzo. Though, Kenzo kept distancing himself until a smiley Gael nudged him back in line, carefully given his spikes.

Caleb stood close to Katherine, floating weighted blocks as they discussed something surprisingly not from her grimoire but a textbook from one of their classes. Caleb had taken our conversation to heart, but it didn’t weigh him down. He knew the odds were stacked against him, yet he’d planned to do everything in his power and outside of it to increase his chances at success, including over-studying for a test. It all started by getting into the Spring Showcase, which he believed every extracurricular and successful academic score would improve. They would, but it was unlikely they’d outweigh the most important factor—his branchless status.

“Where’s Gael and K…the rooster?” I asked, noticing them missing from my otherwise full roster.

“He said he had a side hustle to handle.” Caleb shrugged, filing in line behind Tara.

“Code for something perverted.” Katherine giggled.

---