Page 41 of Zero Happily Ever Afters

“Sweetie, no.” Katherine leaned close and whispered into Caleb’s ear, making his smile crumble away as his face fell into dismayed horror and turned as red as Gael’s.

I smacked a hand over my forehead, hiding the exasperation Caleb’s comment provoked. The room roared with laughter, everyone aware Caleb had no idea why fapping was funny and how much pride he took in his practice FAP tests.

“Enough,” I snapped. “You’re not little kids. Some of you are almost adults. It’s time to act like it.”

The fact was, almost everyone here was seventeen years old, with a few waiting on their summer birthdays to hit that marker.

“In just over a year, you’ll be graduating from Gemini Academy. You’ll be diving headfirst into the real world. Guild life. College. Workforce. Military. Your parents’ basement. Lots of options. So, you will treat the FAP with maturity. You will not laugh about fapping. You will not make fapping gestures. You will not make any more fapping puns in this class.” I flicked a hand and shook several empty desks before a single giggle escaped the lips of a student. “The next person who so much as smiles over the idea of fapping will take their test upside down.”

I lifted every empty desk into the air and slammed them against the ceiling.

“Cool.” Caleb eyed the desks, mind whirling with calculations. “Bet the level of endurance that’d help improve… Hmm. Would it affect my overall score, though? This is just a practice, so maybe I could extrapolate the—”

“Caleb.” I scowled until he sank into the desk chair and quieted his mind.

Each class was spent reviewing one subject of the FAP test or taking a practice exam on that section. Since it ate up the bulk of instruction time and no one had an ounce of concentration left over anyway, I usually allowed everyone to relax and unwind for the last fifteen minutes of class.

Katherine abandoned her grimoire at her desk and stood beside Tara’s seat.

“Yes?” Tara looked up to Katherine, straining to offer a polite half-smile.

“Do you have a date for the unveiling event?”

“Huh?” Tara’s blue eyes widened.

“Not like a date date. Obviously, you’re not looking for an actual date. Not that you need to look for any type of date. Or that you’d need to look if you were interested in a date. Everyone would be lining up for a date. I’m sure they’re already lining up, which is probably annoying. Not that you find dates annoying, just that everyone wants to be on a Whitlock’s arm.” Katherine scrunched her face, believing every thought that twisted into her head led to another bumbling comment. It didn’t.

Her thoughts merely moved faster than her realization and her mouth moved nearly as quickly when spouting out her next comment. I stifled a snicker. The epitome of think before you speak.

“Okay. Factory reset on this convo,” Katherine said with a giggle, clearing her mind of the millions of pressing thoughts that weaved around every subject in her busy head. “The unveiling between Harris Enchant Tech and Whitlock Industries. It’s coming up. I thought if you didn’t have a date, we could go together. Caleb’s got work, and it’s not that I mindgoing stag, just seemed like it’d be fun for us… And you’re not a second choice. Caleb was never a choice. I mean, he’s obviously a choice. He’s my first choice. For everything. Except this. Because his work schedule has been keeping him busy this season. Not the winter season, but the…”

Event season. Galas. Balls. Parties of all kinds for only the best of the best at Gemini Academy. Even with so many of our students connected to the guild industry through family, only about a third of them held the privilege of attending seasonal events.

Naturally, Tara held an invitation to everything on Chicago’s social calendar; it seemed the Whitlocks had weathered their storm as pariahs and now found themselves leading the pack once again. Katherine’s family found themselves thrust into the world of elite prestige thanks to the technological enchantment advancements their company had created, not only finding new and inventive ways to harness tech and magic but for streamlining accessibility and affordability. Basically, the Harris family had gone from average unknowns to brushing shoulders with the top one percent of the state.

“So, the unveiling? Yay or nay?” Katherine asked with a tight grin.

Tara had barely registered the comment, her mind lost in the ocean of thought, enduring the storm that’d recently come to haunt her.

Theodore’s impending trial.

My muscles tightened, and pin prickles of anxiety traveled down the back of my neck.

I’d done my best to put Theodore Whitlock out of my mind. His trial was supposed to start months ago, but then there was an incident—an incident my rogue persona indirectly caused. Theodore slaughtered several correctional officers in the MDC, threatened the integrity of their warding system, and nearlyescaped. But then he simply surrendered and accepted solitary confinement while the state determined how to move forward with his charges and with his trial.

The Doppler had caused shifts in potential futures, by holding onto Finn, by allowing the chimera another foothold into this world, by causing Peter Graham’s possession, and by sending off a message for Theodore Whitlock.

This had shaken loose possibilities in Theodore’s future, helped push him back onto the path of destruction, but Milo wouldn’t discuss it. Mostly, he claimed it was too improbable, too unlikely, as it’d require the perfect alignment of the stars while rolling a Nat 20 and getting the big-ticket lotto scratch off right when being struck by lightning. Aside from that obnoxious metaphor, Milo didn’t elaborate on the subject. All he said was working with the Global Guild would ensure that if that glimmer of horror found a way to wreak havoc on the city again, Enchanter Evergreen would have the backing of the most powerful witches in the nation at his side.

I didn’t press the topic with Milo. I wanted to keep Theodore out of my mind. My chest ached, realizing how desperately Tara sought the same thing but couldn’t cut the final threads of love in her heart, love for a brother who understood the pain of being a Whitlock, love for the boy who consoled her every time their father berated her, love for the man who’d convinced her that being worthless was okay. That stung.

“That’s gonna be a nay, darling.” Gael slung an arm over Tara’s shoulder, reeling her away from the ocean of sorrow in a way only he ever did. “We’ve already put a deposit on the hottest bird vest, and obviously, King Clucks has to show it off to the entire world.”

The rooster bawked at Katherine. Images of bird attire flashed in Gael’s mind, revealing the duo had tried so many matching suits on that a literal dress-up montage played in hismind. He even had a musical backdrop in his thoughts as he reminisced on the outing, finally settling on an emerald-green vest since it’d pair well with the lime dress that some up-and-coming designer had gifted to Tara.

With Milo out of the city, I hadn’t stayed in the loop on nearly as many events, but seeing how Tobias Whitlock positioned himself with Harris Enchant Tech as a way to buy back his public favor left a sour taste in my mouth. Then again, that might’ve come from Tara, who held equal irritation for how her father had manipulated the masses once again, a true Whitlock.

I had so much here at home keeping me occupied between my students, school events, classroom instruction, and the dreams of my past that I didn’t have time to dwell on Milo’s case. Though, I still hoped he was doing well. The natural pull of my magic didn’t distract me because the manifestation offered balance. Perhaps it was time I checked in on Milo, observed my other half.

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