Page 85 of Zero Happily Ever Afters

She studied the activated enchantments lining the auxiliary gym. Not activated. So much more according to the growing concern in Katherine’s thoughts as she shouted at everyone around her to brace for an attack.

What?

Each sigil lining the academy glowed brighter, fueled and filled with explosive magics that The True Witch left behind as she escaped.

I swallowed hard, lost in the sea of frantic minds without a life raft to help. There was so much terror. I couldn’t turn it off. My telepathy couldn’t help here. I couldn’t stop this explosion.

One by one, the enchantments detonated, carrying a powerful burst of fire and debris. Industry pros followed Gladiatrix and Enchanter Diaz’s leads as they created telekinetic barriers over as many people as they could.

Those with branches like Melanie used their control over the elements to block or redirect the fiery destruction, while others with branches like Yaritza used the sheer destructive power of their magic to stop the explosions in their path.

Jamius summoned so many duplicates that he became his own explosion of protective copies meant to shield stragglers.

King Clucks and Gael shouted with a furious duet that carried their telekinesis in waves of early morning crows, bombarding and smothering the rampant fire.

Caleb channeled telekinesis to shield those nearby, and Katherine flew behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest and syncing their casting frequency. This enhanced Caleb’s range and control, allowing for stronger barriers of telekinetic energy.

Layla leapt to her cousin’s side, shielding them from the destruction, only for Vik to finally master Jamie Novak’s whirlpool magic. They summoned the swirl of teleporting water with Tia beside them, signing an invocation meant to reinforce the copy of Jamie’s arcane branch. Emmanuel, the final member of their trio, held each of his coven mates by the shoulder and poured every ounce of luck he had into them. As a team, they dragged damn near fifty people through a watery portal to safety.

Kenzo and Gael hugged, creating a telekinetic barrier enhanced by the hexed disruption that shielded them and everyone in their vicinity.

Tara lashed out with shadowed whips in every direction, sealing people with protective golden hues or transforming them into momentarily intangible beings.

Carter pulled Jennifer into an embrace, pressing his hands to her face and whispering something I couldn’t hear, something my telepathy had waned during, missing the brief exchange.

Jennifer nodded, anxiously standing closer to Carter. Their heartbeats thrummed so loudly in their minds that it became the only sound in the scattered explosions across campus. Seconds of nervous heartbeats until Carter leaned forward and pressed his lips against Jennifer’s.

The two shared their first kiss amidst the devastation. Their connection, their understanding of each other’s frequencies, their emotional bond synced their casting. Actually, it did so much more. It harmonized their branch magics, allowing Jennifer to absorb Carter’s vitality and cast it outward in waves of emotional radiance meant to empower everyone in the auxiliary gym with confidence and belief and hope.

It seemed nearly every person unleashed their magics, protecting themselves and others around them from the rapid explosions that leveled the entire academy.

I stood alone, lost in the confusion, and so damn tired. The continuous channeling of so much magic made me drowsy. Making a barrier to protect myself seemed pointless. It was work I didn’t have the strength or focus for.

My breathing hitched. I wasn’t the only one up here on the stage.Milo!I needed to find the will to create a barrier and shield him. I needed to… My knees buckled, and I wobbled forward.

“Dorian.” Milo leapt toward me, sweeping me into his embrace as we spun round and round. “I won’t let anything ever happen to you.”

He hugged me tightly, ignoring the pain of the beating he’d taken while unconscious. Ignoring the still delicate inner core that held his broken psychic magic. Ignoring the fates of everyone else that he worried deeply about. In this moment, he didn’t care about any of that as much as he cared about me. His love boomed so loudly that it drowned out the world of thoughts, offering me a reprieve from the chaos.

Milo was my life jacket in the storm. I loved him with every breath I took.

I squeezed Milo in return, holding his back gently to avoid the bruising and resting my head on his shoulder as we twirled in the fiery destruction, shielded by telekinesis.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“That’s right, Trish, the Global Guild already called Enchanter Evergreen away again,” Guild Master Campbell said with a sweet, playful laughter. The type of giddy bullshit her PR team expressed would improve her numbers with audience polls since some still questioned her leadership at Cerberus Guild.

She was on the other side of the fucking city, and yet her aggravation for this sweetheart attitude she adopted despite finally sitting at the top reached out and squeezed my chest. It spread like heat, furious and ready to explode.

I wanted to explode, too. Then I grimaced at my thoughts—tacky considering what’d just happened to the academy. My telepathy reached far and wide, so I quelled my branch as I drove to Milo’s place. Listening to this station might’ve been a bad choice, but music grated my eardrums, and silence made the thoughts of strangers easier to absorb.

Guild Master Campbell continued her interview, addressing the great Enchanter Evergreen’s absence from the public eye as he worked on a new, secret case. There wasn’t a secret case. Unless privately recovering from an assault was the case. That was why I’d grabbed some extra clothes, a few creature comforts, some groceries, and headed back to Milo’s place.

I refused to let him recover alone, refused to leave him alone. In the days that followed the attack on the city, I’d spent them with Milo. And it was an attack on the city. Sure, the Celestial Coven and Theodore Whitlock only landed their strikes on the MDC and Gemini Academy, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on their part. Part of me worried that any second, the pair would swoop in and finish what they’d started.

Squeezing the steering wheel firmly, I reminded myself there wasn’t a single place in Chicago they could creep through without my telepathy catching sight. Yes, I couldn’t keep exact insight of the millions of minds in the city, couldn’t hear them clearly, but the familiar ones, the ones I cared about, the ones I knew personally, the ones I hated, they rang louder among the crowd.

It actually helped zeroing in on someone like Campbell halfway across the city. Sure, my telepathy stretched everywhere, but stepping in close to a singular person was like dropping a psychic pin that steadied the erratic onslaught of thoughts buzzing throughout the city.

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