Page 76 of Two Who Live On

Milo guided me to a table covered in stacks and stacks of blank papers. “These are either old, unlikely, or randomly unnecessary. Some are impossible given other variables that already occurred, or my interference would be questionable, possibly unethical. A few will simply resolve themselves, so why bother?”

“I want to put a pin in what you consider questionable for a later discussion.” I grabbed a blank piece of paper. “But I’m assuming there’s something written here?”

“Oh, right.” Milo smacked his forehead. “It’s all blankety blank blank for you since it’s conjured by my magic. Yeah, mostly words, but some are images, too. Depends on the depth of the vision and how my brain sorts the info. Man, brains and magic are so wild and awesome. Like they very much know what they’re doing.”

“And you sort them? Why?”

“They pile up. It gets distracting.” Milo grabbed a stack of papers and shoved them into a filing cabinet. “They don’t fade from my Fateful Viewing of Infinite Possibilities or my Dispatch Board of Destiny unless I file them away in here.”

“You named the screens and that board of colorful strings?” I shook my head. “Yeah, I’m not calling them that.”

“Buzzkill.” Milo grinned. “Point is, once my magic has experienced a vision, it remains tangible, which becomes difficult to navigate even for fates that’ll never happen.”

“So, instead of sleeping, you stay up all night sorting visions?” I scrunched my face, likely frowning but feeling more inquisitive. How did Milo function?

“I am sleeping. Working here while my subconscious sorts whatever the hell I’m worried about at the moment. Plus, I usually only pull these semi all-nighters once a week.”

“About your current worries…” I bit my lip. “Do you want to talk about it? Not work wise, just so you don’t have to hold onto it so closely?”

“You’re sweet,” Milo said, organizing papers into stacks. “It’s bad. Really bad or semi bad or the baddest of bad. I’m not entirely sure because demons fuck up my clairvoyance and make all this murkier.”

“Is that why you’re here? Trying to lighten the burden of so many potentials?”

Milo kissed me, gentle and endearing, not a long-lasting kiss or a kiss worth savoring, yet I did. Our bodies outside his mind’s core shifted—hard to say how, but I thought they drew closer, yearning the physical affection of expressed emotion. “That’s why I keep you around. You’re more than your good looks, Dorian. Got quite the big head, and your brain is nice, too.”

Milo winked, casting suggestive innuendos at the head he meant, and my cheeks burned. Taking full advantage of my flustered response, Milo smirked and went back to working on sorting papers for filing. I lingered in this space, ignoring the call of his nearby nightmare that made his body shudder in my grasp outside his mind, watching him work to lessen the burden of endless visions so he could prioritize the most important ones as the world around burned.

I couldn’t go to sleep. It was important to maintain boundaries and not involve myself with Enchanter Evergreen’s career. But I could be a part of his world so long as I remembered to respect that professional distance. He didn’t have to remind me, but I constantly had to remind myself.

“Do you need help?” I asked, feigning assistance while knowing full well there was nothing I had to offer here in his deepest core, which likely had another silly name.

“Really?” Milo handed me a stack of papers. “Put these in filing cabinet C-R-S 142.”

“Okay.” I took the papers and strolled through the filing cabinets, reading over the labels on each one.

“Oh, the third drawer,” Milo shouted. “Please and thank you.”

I smiled, here in Milo’s deepest depths, doing my little part to help with the demon threat he worried about.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gemini boomed with thoughts on the Spring Showcase. Even the second- and third-year students in the building gossiped.

A Novak was defeated by a branchless student.

The kid ranked dead last managed a perfected root cast.

Voucher students took the top two slots.

These were the same students who stopped the warlock incursion.

One even told off the entire guild industry during his speech.

I sulked, realizing that when it came to Kenzo’s third year, I’d have incredible difficulty landing him an internship. And he still had so much more time to burn more bridges in the industry hewanted to join.

“You did fan-fucking-tastic, and you need to own it.” Katherine strolled toward the classroom, her arm linked with Caleb’s. “And if one more person questions it, I will gladly remind them of where their roots lack and where their ranking got them.”

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