Page 17 of Two Who Live On

Kenzo rolled his eyes, observing as Gael made the fire worse. I channeled telekinesis around the edges of the flames, preparing to lift the magic entirely. Gray static circled the flames nullifying the magic, including mine, until all that remained was a tiny, cooled pebble melted onto his sandal.

“Thanks.” Gael’s sharklike teeth filled his happy face.

“Whatever.” Kenzo huffed.

I groaned because while Kenzo had handled that problem with a quick disruption, I didn’t focus my attention where it should’ve been. Another flaming pebble had hit one of Jamius’ copies square in the head, knocking him onto the ground.

“I’m on it,” a second Jamius copy on the left shouted, rushing to resuscitate his fallen ally.

“No, I’m the one trained in first aid.” The third copy shoved the second and began examining the faint welt on the fallen copy’s forehead. The struck copy sat up, rubbing his head. The third copy grabbed the injured copy’s shoulders and shook him furiously. “Don’t die on me. You’ve got such a long life ahead of you. Easily twenty to thirty more minutes. Think about your family. Think about your friends. Think about your future, man.”

“Shut up.” The fallen copy smacked the not-so-helpfulduplicate.

And they began rolling on the ground in an argument that washed away any anxiety my homeroom coven had from the barrage of miniature comets and created a kerfuffle of laughter. So irritating.

Jamius’ copies were a lot more outgoing than him, hiding his insecurities because in a matter of moments, they’d cease to exist, and he’d be the only one left to endure whatever embarrassment he felt from their extroverted presence. A tradeoff to get out of his shell that never seemed to work since the original refused to make the same efforts his copies did. To a degree, I understood that struggle, considering my psychic manifestations. Frustrating duplicates who believed they knew best but in reality, they didn’t have to live with the consequences of their thoughts, actions, or impulses.

Speaking of impulses… Yaritza faked concern, barely hiding her smile behind her knuckles covering her face. “Oops. Guess I’m too flashy for some of y’all.”

“If you’re participating in this training, it’ll be without your branch.”

“What?” Yaritza descended to the ground, stunned. “But how am I—”

“You need to show me you can handle a fiend without the razzle, dazzle, and explosives.”

“It’s not razzle dazzle.” Yaritza crossed her arms. “It’s majestic fireworks of fame and glory.”

“This ought to be good.” Layla nudged Melanie in the ribs. “Looks like Mr. Frost picked a team of duds so we could learn from their screw ups.”

“At least Yaritza did something against the fiends. Jamius just played decoy the entire time.” Melanie snickered. “And Carter and Jennifer just…”

I glared at her, and Melanie gulped, lowering her head and hiding behind her red curls.

“She only managed to be that efficient because she was teamed with Tara, who’s awesome,” Layla continued, ignoring my gaze. “If she’d gotten stuck with asshat over there”—Layla nodded at Kenzo—“he would’ve killed her for her annoying nonsense.”

“Maybe you two should talk less about your classmates,” I said. “If I recall, your only involvement with fiends was running for your lives.”

“Yeah, but that one was super huge,” Layla snapped.

“That’s what she said!” Gael shouted.

“Cluck.” The damn rooster fluttered.

Layla rolled her eyes, hairs prickly across her face in frustration before shifting her eyes back to me. “You barely banished it.”

“I was half dead. What’s your excuse?”

Layla snarled, and hairs on her face sprouted further, but she shook away the shift and remained in her tiny human form.

“That’s why I didn’t change up our coven setups,” Caleb thought, reaching for his notebook. “We already had a solid base for each other’s magics. Plus, Kenny definitely wasn’t about to work with anyone else, and Tara needed Gael’s support. Still not sure why she holds back so much with her branches. We’ve been working on the overlap for weeks. Hopefully she’ll share a bit today.”

Caleb glanced at the team I’d assembled to go first, jotting notes and theorizing their compatibility based on hunches he had for my choice in partnering them together.

I had chosen this team specifically because of their lack of fiend involvement. Jennifer had the best sensory in the group but had yet to encounter a fiend; Carter possessed thestrongest banishment yet fixated on his vitality since my incident; Jamius and Yaritza each needed to prove their root magics were more than add-ons to their powerful branch magics. But his thoughts created a valid point.

“Actually, Melanie, why don’t you change places with Yaritza?” I waved a hand calling Yaritza over. “You’ll have to wait a bit.”

“Oh, man. I so wanted to show off. Everyone always remembers the opening act.” Yaritza skipped back to her classmates with a pep in her step and a smile on her face. “Thank God. I was so not ready to make a total idiot out of myself going first without using my branch.”

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