Page 84 of Zero Happily Ever Afters

“How’d you…” The True Witch cast another pointless ocean that I shriveled to nothingness the moment the water dared touch my mind.

“You’re gonna have to do so much better than that.” I cracked my neck and released the last bit of tension I carried in my shoulders.

Since pulling all my magic back together, out of the subconscious, I’d found every thought pounded against my skull from across the city. It hadn’t been very long, and yet millions of minds each going about their day whispered. Was this why I created Nico? A child’s delusional way of filtering out the world. Was this why I snapped off pieces of my branch to begin with? There was so much power. Despite the pain, I rose above it, feeling impossibly strong.

Thousands lay here at the academy, sinking in the water conjured by The True Witch’s Oceanic Collapse. I unleashed every thread of my psychic energy, knowing Amara wouldn’t attempt a third cast of her branch.

“What would be the point?” I tilted my head toward her, a mockingly wicked smile on my face and a glint in my eyes that said I’d kill her. “And if you don’t grasp that expression, know that once I’ve saved everyone here, I’m going to kill you. Going to break you the same way I did your silly little bone staff.”

Her bright green eyes shot open with shock at how easily I linked to her mind. A mind guarded by the many magical tattoos covering her skin.

I broke Milo out of his ocean first, pulling together the shattered memories of his happiest times. He was too exhausted to continue fighting, but honestly, there were only a few fiends left to contend with, thanks to the amazing Gladiatrix, Enchanter Diaz, and Priscilla, who’d wiped out Theodore’s demons.

As I worked to remove the oceans from mind after mind, I worked to stitch together Milo’s thoughts. He slept on the ground, covered in blood and bruises, and I desperately wanted to hold him, hug him, hear his voice. But he slept. Even in his mind, he slumbered in a deep silence unlike any I’d experienced with him before.

Milo always worked, even when resting. The Sisters Three, The True Witch, and Theodore had broken his mind and left him too exhausted to function.

I clenched my fists, dropping Amara to her fucking knees.

“Did I say you could leave?” I scowled at her continued attempt to break loose and flee.

She pressed her hands against the stage floor, resisting the telekinesis I hit her with. Desperation seethed from her surface thoughts, twisting and twirling between a dozen different languages, but the feelings, the intent, the truth painted the air above her with obvious plots. Fatigue oozed out of her pores. It seemed wielding her staff took a lot of channeling efforts, and losing it hurt even more.

I wanted to savor the deep-seated sorrow that ate away at her. So much power, so much history, and some pathetic nameless telepath destroyed it. Venom dripped from her mind when picturing my face, unaware of who I was and how I held such magic at my disposal.

“You’ll carry my name with you to Hell.” I turned away from her. “I promise you that.”

I’d kill her. I’d kill Theodore. But first, I had to repair their damage, I had to save everyone here, I had to wake Milo. God, how I had to wake him and return The Inevitable Future, the happiest guy I knew, the reason I looked forward to living each new day.

It took a lot of work, effort, and streaming telepathy in every direction, but I managed to slowly piece together Milo’s brokenmind and remove the oceans drowning everyone in the nearby vicinity. And I did mean everyone nearby. Amara’s magic had started to extend beyond the campus grounds, inching toward the businesses and neighborhoods, locking unaware people in a magical ocean.

The relief in every mind struck with this euphoric calm. I’d done it. I’d removed every single drop of arcane magic from The True Witch. I’d saved everyone’s life. I’d stopped the worst possible outcome from coming to be. An unknown outcome. A horrible possibility created by the Celestial Coven and Theodore Whitlock.

I turned back to him, to Amara, and prepared myself for the next necessary evil. Taking a life shouldn’t feel this easy. Snuffing out someone wicked shouldn’t come with such a righteous high. Yet I couldn’t hide the satisfaction radiating off my thoughts. I wanted them dead. For what they’d done, what they still wanted to do with each ticking second, and what they’d continue doing if someone showed mercy.

“I’ll carry the burden of taking justice into my own hands.” I balled my fists, wrapping telekinesis around each of their throats so I could steal the breath of their lives.

Theodore cackled. “How gracious of you.”

“I won’t die here.” Amara’s thoughts held the same French accent she used everywhere but slipped into a different dialect with a deeper and darker tone.

I wanted to unravel her secrets, learn who The True Witch really was behind the mask she’d worn over the centuries, but The Sisters Three didn’t hold the answers in their memories, not the ones I’d glossed over, and I sincerely doubted they managed to withhold pertinent intel after my demands.

“Looks like you get to carry those secrets to your grave,” I whispered, tightening the grip of my telekinesis.

“Too bad,” Theodore gasped, struggling to speak but struggling even more to think with the gnarled tree of his inner core fractured. “It’s…a…good…secret.”

Amara triggered her tattoos, protective sigils which interacted with the broken enchantments across Gemini Academy.

“Time to go, Theodore.” Several of Amara’s tattoos flickered in this erratic but rhythmic pattern before purple smoke whirled around her and Theodore, stealing the two of them away from my grasp and out of range of my telepathy.

“No,” I shouted.

Had they left the city? Left this plane of reality?

I turned to Gladiatrix, who’d begun helping people to their feet. I wanted to call out to her, demand she break through the smoky portal door The True Witch must’ve accessed in her escape. Gladiatrix had done something similar when bursting through Ernesto’s warp portal. Speaking of Ernesto, his mind had vanished, too. All of Theodore’s warlock crew members had disappeared. I scanned the crowd as everyone slowly collected their bearings.Nowhere.Darla, Vincent, and Ernesto were nowhere to be found.

“The enchantments…” Katherine’s mind soared above the others. “How do I stop this?”

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