Page 31 of Zero Happily Ever Afters

I understood.

While Layla focused on peers who posed a threat, she wasn’t gaining many points for banishing wisps. That became Gael’s main goal in the group, ensuring each member of the coven maintained similar scoring. His spikes were seeped in magic that drew the attention of wisps, and since he’d gotten better at channeling his root magics, Gael also soaked his spikes in banishment magic. Gael’s precision aim allowed him to take out a vast number of wisps from a great distance and in nearly every direction.

Layla slashed the wisps Gael drew toward her, channeling banishment into her claws almost as proficiently as Gael had with his spikes.

This strategy also allowed Gael the opportunity to avoid attacking his peers, which remained his biggest weakness in the field. Gael was definitely too nice for someone with a combative branch and build. He stood taller than nearly everyone in our homeroom and had a broad, muscular jock build.

Flames engulfed Gael, consuming all the wisps drawn toward him.

“¡Caliente! ¿Estás intentando matarme?” Gael spun around, shaking the fire away with no effect since they only obeyed his teammate, who spent more time snickering at Gael’s flailing than she did securing their position.

“Melanie, pay attention!” Layla snarled.

“Right.” Melanie straightened her posture and returned the flames to their distant position as her tracker beeped, and the numbers shot up from the wisps she’d taken out.

The versatility of her fire made her the best long-distance member of their team, controlling her flames in a spiral serpent shape that circled her coven mates and forced nearby students to hesitate over the threat of burning up or claiming points.

Their coven worked together like a machine, each focusing on one specific function to ensure their collective force overwhelmed the competition.

“Woohoo!” Yaritza tore through the flames, fanning them with the powerful swimmer’s kick of her legs. The massive outpour of telekinesis spread the blaze and almost hid her fiery comets aimed for the cluster of nearby wisps. “Thanks for clearing the path, Mel.”

“She’s so damn irritating.” Melanie waved her arms, resecuring the flamed barrier meant to shield her team.

Wisps exploded into shimmery light when Yaritza’s comets struck them, revealing the banishment she’d laced throughout her branch magic, similar to how Gael used his projectile spikes.

Yaritza’s movements through the air were chaotic, but the technique held the same finesse that her coven mate Tara used when flying through levitation and telekinesis, which I took some pride in. After all, the best instruction often came from peers, and I enjoyed seeing how much my homeroom coven had grown in two years. They took the lessons I’d given them and fine-tuned their skills. They leaned on each other, offering techniques and support. They trusted each other implicitly.

Yaritza cackled, unleashing a flurry of comets in every direction. No method behind her surface thoughts aside from pure chaos meant to confuse and frighten those who’d moved in to take her out of the competition.

“Look out.” Jamius spun in circles, holding a copy of himself by the arm before flinging the duplicate toward Yaritza.

The copy tackled the incoming student, nosediving into the lava pit as Jamius summoned a barrage of copies to sweep the area clear.

His copies shielded the original from magic and knocked a few students into the lava. Most of all, he selectively distributed his roots. Each clone held either telekinesis or levitation based on how the copies paired off to work together, which left Jamius enough control to keep from faltering while he used sensory to pinpoint wisps and banish them from the area. His Cast-8-Watch glowed, beeping again and again as his points shot up.

“You two are good.” Gael hovered between Yaritza and Jamius, near a cluster of wisps the pair had lured with comets and clones. “But you can’t outshine the glory of my cock.”

“CLUCK!” The damned rooster extended his wings and flapped furiously, sending a breeze laced with banishment which gave Gael all the points.

“Ugh.” Yaritza frowned. “The duo of dumbassary is going off script.”

I snorted.

King Clucks remained perched between Gael’s shoulder blades, looping telekinesis to hold himself in place while keeping his human partner secured in his grip. Gael fixated on levitation and sensory, while King Clucks prioritized telekinesis and banishment.

Gael and King Clucks dominated with their flying duet, something they learned from Jamie’s lesson. Jamie still stirred in Gael’s mind, grateful for the technique and holding a tiny piece of regret for the fact he’d never made things right with Jamie.

Tara unleashed a scream laced with telekinesis that knocked back a dozen students. It ate away at their sadness in a way only a Banshee’s Wail could, which almost made the devastation of being eliminated from the competition bearable.

With so much magic at her disposal, she put it all on display. She hurled icicles fused with banishment to strike wisps. It was nice seeing so many students take our lessons on fusing branch casting with particular root magics seriously. It wouldn’t work for everyone, but this was perfect long-range precision practice for those with projectile branches.

Tara kept her other three branches held together in shadowy spheres. The overlap of her shadows, sealing, and intangibility didn’t immobilize or deter her like it had in the past. Now, Tara kept a flow of magic coursing into each of her branches and roots, ensuring those protective spheres stayed close to her coven mates, shielding them from surprise strikes.

I took deep pride in my homeroom coven, chest swelling so much I had to double-check I hadn’t triggered my levitation root. I floated on a high as scouts observed each of my students, showing an interest in reporting back to their enchanters. Their notes were furiously swift, keeping up with hundreds of competing students simultaneously, but I fixated on their comments for twelve.

“Look at how succinctly she wields all those branches simultaneously. Breathtaking.”

“Almost certain the Martinez kid will end up at his parents’ guild, but he’d be perfect for Pegasus.”

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