Page 30 of Two Who Live On

“Wait.” I grazed my teeth against his neck, wanting nothing more than to finish at the same time.

I pounded him harder, swept away by the euphoric delight he took in each stroke of my cock burying into him, the grunts of authority that sent his mind whirling, and the feel of my skin slapping against his. My entire body warmed, feeling Milo’s every sensation—the pleasure I brought him, the intoxication he gave me—and I grunted, taking light, twitchy thrusts as we came together.

ChapterEleven

Chapter Eleven

I stood in the hallway, sipping coffee and more exhausted than usual. When Milo spent the night, I typically slept better, but we didn’t exactly sleep. Not a fucking wink because of, well, all the fucking. The pent-up stamina between the two of us, combined with the anticipation of finding a minute together, was wonderful and came with screwing late into the night; however, the roar of students parading through the hallways bright and early was the fallout for choosing sex over sleep. How Milo managed to spring up at dawn and rush to his office with a smile on his face, I had no idea.

The minds of students and staff drummed inside my head, exasperating my sleep-deprivation headache. Whether from my confession to Milo or his willingness to invite my strange telepathic tether, the synced link hadn’t hit yet. Maybe my magic was too tired, or more likely, I didn’t know a thing about my evolving branch, andit’d strike a chord when it damn well pleased and not based on my guessing games.

Katherine and Caleb walked toward the classroom. Katherine had her grimoire out, scribbling notes to a spell she planned on tweaking. Caleb balanced the weighted blocks above his head, the only student in the hallway training his four root magics first thing in the morning. The only one possibly training his magics at all times.

“Quick question.” I stopped the pair before they entered the classroom. “Do you like using those support tools?”

“Yeah,” Caleb said. “I know they’re kind of kiddish, but I’ve made some tweaks to the weight limit, so that’s been helping.”

He wasn’t wrong. Few witches used these tools; the academy didn’t even provide them because, while useful, they were considered most effective during elementary years. It was fascinating he’d increased the weight limit.

“Do you mind?” I reached out telekinetically, grabbing hold of one of the small, cubed weights. The sigil immediately recognized the hint of two telekinetic holds and dimly glowed.

“Sure.” Caleb released his telekinesis from the one I had.

The weighted block nearly fell from my grasp. I furrowed my brow, ignoring the sharp tug on my muscles. This wasn’t a slight modified increase to the weight limit.

“What’d you put in this tiny cube, an anvil?” I was only half joking. Though it would easily fit in the palm of my hand, it felt closer to carrying both my cats. Not a tremendous weight, but enough to make a small continuous effort applied all day exhausting.

“Oh, that was me.” Katherine beamed. “Took a spell I had, altered the sigils on Caleb’s weighted blocks, and bam. An easy three-step process.”

Interesting. A three-step process that involved a half dozen prerequisites, each based on Katherine’s capabilities and understanding of enchantments.

“Could you modify these to respond to any magic?” I continued keeping the heavy cube afloat and passed it back to Caleb, who circulated it with the others he used for practicing.

His Cast-8-Watch beeped, passing through another marker of registered magical practice. Confidence brimmed alongside anxiety as he dwelled on whether this would be enough to impact his ranking for the Spring Showcase.

“Definitely. What’d you have in mind?” Katherine’s smile filled her face, eagerly awaiting an opportunity to tinker with more magics.

I eyed Tara and Gael, who walked into homeroom.

“Just a little project that might help someone. We can talk about it after class, Katherine.”

Milo’s mind returned, calling out as I taught. The duality of standing in my classroom, fully present, while another part remained connected to Milo, hovering in his thoughts, proved difficult to navigate. Though, I’d found a trick by latching onto nearby minds. None of my homeroom coven students were in this particular history class, so I latched onto a student from Chanelle’s homeroom.

He buzzed with recipes and ingredients that blended into his two passions in life—a love for cooking and for crafting.Potion crafting usually involved making tonics, elixirs, and remedies of all kinds, but how beneficial they were solely depended on the witchcreating them. It was similar to Katherine’s spell craft branch, except Harrison used potions instead of pages.

“Today, we’re going to discuss demon classifications and the tonics—er, types—which present themselves when a demon fully ascends.”

Harrison’s bubbling thoughts caused more confusion than clarity as I taught the history behind demonic incursions.

Considering the explosive spells teeming along his surface thoughts, I was grateful he had to keep his cauldron at home. The fanny pack strapped to his waist—such an ironic throwback—had enough dangerous concoctions to create a Yaritza-level firework show.

I bounced from Harrison’s mind to another, hopeful the students would keep me firmly planted here while I pushed Milo’s actions to the back burner of my mind, a technique I hadn’t used since my branch first developed. Like with cooking—or at least I assumed from how those who cooked described it—I was able to move it out of the way, but I couldn’t ignore it either.

If I didn’t tend to the constant flux of Milo’s mind when the chord struck and the tether linked us, I’d end up with the pot overflowing. Or, in this case, Milo’s thoughts bombarding me so much I’d pass out like I’d nearly done when he took the demon case.

I ground my teeth. Maybe I was mixing metaphors. Whatever. I missed being able to summon a manifestation, something to create a buffer for all this psychic energy. Despite my blossoming telepathy growing rampant and more invasive, I couldn’t steady my mind enough to summon a manifestation.

Honestly, this trick for latching onto nearby minds would probably work best on familiar ones. Another reminder I barely knew the hundred and twenty-six students on my rosters.

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