Chapter Twenty-Four

Doppler

“Come along, puppet.” The chimera snatched me from the depths of darkness once again.

His telepathy echoed inside the inner core of what had once been Peter Graham’s mind, yet every memory belonging to the man had been scraped out and replaced with acidic tar. A scalding rot that ate away at the body almost as quickly as it had eaten Peter’s mind.

Using my magic, I skimmed the images floating around the devil’s thoughts. We stood outside a house party, hidden in the backyard behind a shed and trees and shadows, concealed by some glamour casting the chimera utilized—one of the branches he kept veiled from me during our months together, an unwanted reminder of my utter incompetence. Steam seeped through his host body’s pores while the chimera cast telepathy that scanned the dwellings inside.

Even with Peter’s entropy branch mending damage, his body wasn’t durable enough to contain a devil for an extended amount of time, especially not with the chimera casting multiple branches in tandem. I could exploit that; I just needed to push him harder, too hard.

“ There’s well over a hundred witches inside. ” The chimera chuckled, his presence seemingly coming from every direction. “ Baby witches, but I’m wiser than to simply shrug off their training. ”

His mind slithered around the empty pocket of the backyard, skirting a hidden trail of a lush garden walkway and the off-limits caution tape Gael had placed. The curious musings of guests in the backyard indicated that much—his moms would kill him if their garden was ruined. They’d kill him if they learned he’d thrown a party flooded with people, too.

“ Lucky for him, we’ll save him the hassle and kill him first. ” The chimera’s grating words echoed in his mind while he continued searching further, proving his telepathy was masterful, precise, potent, and capable of the complexities that came with maintaining duality so few telepaths could master. Dorian and myself included. We only endured the sensation while working together, though he never saw it that way. He saw me as a manifestation without identity, a tool, a piece of magic.

“About time you showed up,” Gael said, loudly greeting Carter and Jennifer at the front door as the chimera’s sleuthing thoughts slinked around the side of the house and toward the entrance.

There were a few cars on the street, carefully scattered, which, given the attendance, was a kudos to Gael’s forethought. He must’ve warned his guests of the potential of being busted by neighbors, meaning more carpooled, took the L, or flew here with the intention of maintaining a low enough profile to not get a noise complaint. The sigils lining the walls of his house had Katherine’s touch, most likely something to buffer and muffle noise. Everything was so well thought out, I’d be proud, except it meant there surely was no chance of authorities showing.

“ What could a few police do that a hundred enchanters were barely capable of? ” the devil boasted.

But as strong as he was, as impossible as the odds were, he wasn’t as powerful as when Milo first defeated him. I quelled all thoughts, focusing on the party alongside the curious chimera so I didn’t tip my hand.

We hovered inside alongside Carter and Jennifer as Gael gave them a quick rundown.

“Alrighty, so we’re pretty stocked.” Gael pointed to a beaver levitating in the kitchen as she telekinetically distributed beers, mixed drinks, waters, and pretty much everything one could imagine. “Duchess is running the bar scene, but she’s got her dam up and ready to collect those keys.”

“We didn’t drive,” Jennifer said.

“And fledgling permits.” Gael mouthed some silly commercial about friends not letting friends drink and fly, then slammed his hands together to indicate the heavy-handed warning every young witch saw on looped advertisements. “Splat!”

“I’m not drinking.” Carter smiled.

“Fantastic, another designated bud.” Gael grinned, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “You can join Caleb at the goodie-two-shoes table, where we’ll all celebrate your valiant efforts to keep us safe.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes, spotting Caleb on a couch reading a book while sitting beside his girlfriend, Katherine, who cast her spell craft on a round of Jell-O shots with Tia and Harrison, the three using their unique enchantment branches to alter the colors, add a hint of mist, and heighten the booze while sweetening the flavor.

I’d attended enough academy parties—correction, observed Dorian attend—with Milo and Finn to recognize the same magic party tricks had survived the test of time for a new generation of teenagers.

The high-pitched scream Katherine let out as she downed a shot and giggled bubbles annoyed Jennifer to no end. She grumbled, resigned to “enjoy” herself at another party Carter declared would be fun. Even though everything about this party felt more grueling than death itself.

“ If she only knew, ” the chimera hissed, sending a quiver down my spine.

Jennifer stared at the empty air where the chimera and I hovered. The crinkle in her face as our emotional energy wafted toward her empathy made her bite back the urge to gag.

“Point me to the beer,” Jennifer said, hoping a drink would make the night bearable.

Gael slung an arm over Carter’s shoulder, pulling him into a tight side-hug by the boy’s neck and preventing him from following after Jennifer.

“You gotta tell me,” Gael whispered, sultry and delighted. “Have you finally made a move?”

Carter’s eyes practically popped out of his head, they bulged so big. “Huh?”

“On gothic Barbie.” Gael waggled his eyebrows.

“Uh, um, well…” Carter blushed. “We’re just friends.”

“Friends who shoot each other I-wanna-bang-you glances.”

Carter’s entire face turned bright red, and Gael couldn’t determine if he’d gripped his pal with too much of a chokehold or had struck a nerve. Either way, Gael didn’t relent. He liked Carter, and he found Jennifer more bearable when with her preppy prince since she didn’t tell him to “go fuck himself” half as much when she was lost in Carter’s pining. If there was one thing Gael understood more than any of his peers, it was hormones, who had the hots for who, and when he could play Cupid for a friend or Casanova for himself.

Gael finally released Carter, slapping his back in the process. “Make a move.”

Carter straightened his jacket as he joined Jennifer.

The chimera kept close to the party host, Gael, who did a quick lap from the kitchen where Duchess remained, using her wide beaver tail to smack anyone overindulging on booze, to the dining room where King Clucks had set up a card game in an attempt to fleece drunk teens, all the way to the den where Gael had rearranged the furniture to accommodate a dance floor. One no one used since Layla and Amani stood propped on the wall, eyeing anyone so gauche as to enjoy themselves in such a juvenile manner.

“ Buzz kills! ” Gael thought so loudly it cut through the music playing. He planned to swing back around and liven up this scene, but first, he wanted to find the only guest in attendance that mattered. His heart thumped faster, rhythmic and matching the bass, as he searched for Tiffany.

Gael strolled from one crowded room to another, further revealing the state of inebriated teens that’d make for easy targets if the devil dared to spring into action and slaughter everyone inside.

“ Oh, I dare. ” His mocking voice weighed heavy on my chest, making my heart lurch. A false sensation sparked by guilt over my inaction, my inability to make the ultimate sacrifice Finn hoped I would.

Gael quirked a brow at Jamie and Tara, who stood against a wall, avoiding the party scene. Each had their first drink in hand, though neither sipped. Tara was antsy, mind locked in her ocean of sorrow as she contemplated breaking the ice and speaking to Jamie. His vacant stare at the party was as empty and hollow as his mind that’d been broken by the chimera.

“ Not enough, it seems. ” Contempt seethed from the chimera as he kept his rage in check. Despite his efforts, it bubbled and boiled the rot of his inner core, revealing the disgust he dwelled on for the weakness of Jamie’s body. A body incapable of manifesting the full glory of the chimera’s cultivated magics, his unmatched strength. He blamed his failures against Enchanter Evergreen on Jamie, the flaw of an imperfect host body.

Tara turned to talk, to speak, to utter words, but her face grew hot, and her thoughts swirled more chaotically than they did from her usual somber touch. “I have to pee.”

She stormed off, embarrassed and completely confused about why or what she hoped to gain by burying the past with Jamie. It ate away at her the same way the darkness in Jamie’s mind ate away at his future hopes.

“ Ugh, painful. ” Gael downed his drink, quickly considering ways to help offer a solution. None of his ideas seemed good, yet I’d learned that every impulsive action from Gael had a tendency of working out for the best.

“Guess who.” Delicate hands covered Gael’s eyes and brought a smile to his face.

He spun around to take in Tiffany, captivated by her little black dress. “Here I thought you’d never show.”

“Duchess said the party had a decent turnout, so I decided to give it a shot.” Tiffany timed the comment perfectly by downing a fiery shot with so much cinnamon that it left an aftertaste that weighed on her thoughts heavily enough to make my tastebuds yak.

“Sent your familiar to scope out the scene.” Gael squinted, imitating his own feathery familiar, and then his very serious expression fell back into his trademark grin. “Love it.”

“Gonna show me around or what?” Tiffany eyed the staircase, the crowd, and then Gael’s goofy face. “Was hoping for a private tour to the real hotspots at the so-called party of the century.”

Gael practically levitated as his heart surged.

“ I doubt his tour will continue now that he’s found a witch he’d like to explore, ” the chimera whispered with a bitter note toward the hormones wafting between Gael and Tiffany. “ Not that it matters. Despite the numbers, their current state will make them easy to eviscerate. ”

His mind slowly reeled back into himself. Layer after layer of the telepathic cord he’d weaved throughout the party while safely evaluating the scene returned to his host body that stood stiff and lifeless, hidden in the backyard.

I needed to act. Needed to do something before he unveiled the full extent of his magics and slaughtered everyone here.

“Figured I’d find you here,” Gael’s voice stirred in the ears of the chimera’s body; the stiff muscles flexed of their own accord, filled with venom toward the young witch.

His sharklike teeth shimmered against the light of Kenzo’s electrical hex that danced atop the petals of flowers in the garden. The sparkling string lights adorned throughout the backyard highlighted Gael’s revealing spikes in his matching pink tank and baggy joggers. A total opposite to Kenzo’s black tank and slim-fitting joggers, which were soaked in sweat from an intense workout.

“You know the garden is off limits. Gael will flip if he catches you.”

“As if I care.” Kenzo curled his fingers into a fist, watching his disruption magic strangle the life out of a flower that curdled inward as the vibrant pinks of its petals blackened.

The chimera wiggled his fingers, amplifying his glamour as Kenzo’s disruption nearly revealed his hidden body a mere five feet away. Peter towered over the boys, a beast in the shadows cloaked by magic and ready to devour them in an instant.

“Why’d you have to kill the flower?” Gael frowned.

“Practicing.” Kenzo’s disruption had expanded, distorting and breaking apart all the magical energy in the air to the point it could snap and crack organic material nearby.

“ That could be a useful branch to add to my collection. ” The chimera turned back, facing me in the shadows of his inner core, thoughts reminiscing how the darkness once shimmered when he’d stored several thousand branches together.

He mused over the idea as his body, Peter’s body, flexed and stretched, extending the circulation of his entropy branch and absorbing the trickled casting that made the muscles of the body swell.

“ Then again, I’d rather not bring in the consciousness of Dorian’s students. It’s best to strip away their lives, leaving him in shambles. ” He smirked, unaware of the synapsis firing off as his host body took in the young witches standing before us.

“You know, you don’t have to push yourself so hard,” Gael said, attempting to grab Kenzo’s hand.

Kenzo pulled his hand away, coiling gray static around his fingers. “You’ve known since day one that I refuse to compromise my future, my success, my training.”

His words were meant to sting, to push back, to give Gael an out that Kenzo secretly hoped Gael wouldn’t take. All the same, holding his rank at number one and entering his second year had left him feeling stagnant, mainly because Kenzo still didn’t have a solution to besting Acolyte Novak’s magic. Failure and weakness loomed along his surface, yet his disruption cracked the words away before they echoed aloud, almost as if he feared someone would hear them, know them, feel the same concern that ate away at him. Most of all, he hated the idea Mr. Frost had a point about compatibility, a lack thereof, but he refused to believe there wasn’t a solution to any problem he faced, knowing he could master any threat.

“ That’ll make him easy pickings. ” The chimera prepared to take full control of his body.

“I give you my all. Every time I want to take a break, I push forward and train, study, put my big social butterfly wings away.” Gael playfully leaned, almost nudging Kenzo but careful not to, given the protruding spikes on his shoulders. “All I ask is you give me something every now and then.”

The smile on Gael’s face, his sharklike teeth, the joy in his eyes strummed in the fragmented memories of the chimera’s host body. Peter was dead and gone, devoured by the chimera’s insatiable lust for carnage, yet a glimmer of his broken psyche remained intact. The body tensed, furious and fueled with hate toward Gael. It seemed even a shattered mind could formulate orders, willpower, desire when faced with something the person wanted. Peter had always wanted vengeance against Basilisk Guild, the Martinez family, and Enchanter Evergreen. When looking at Gael, the kid became a beacon of Peter’s rage. Rage that overwhelmed and overpowered the chimera’s control.

“ What’s going on here? ” The chimera searched the fragments, unable to stitch anything together and grasp Peter’s hatred.

I kept quiet. There might be a way to exploit this, seize control, but I needed to figure out how.

Kenzo huffed. “I’m here, right?”

“But you’re training, being pouty and bratty.”

“I’m not a brat.” Kenzo glared.

“I like brats.” Gael giggled. “The dolls mostly. I had a few—”

“You could literally be here with anyone else, everyone else.”

“I don’t wanna be here with anyone else. I like you. I like the way you challenge me. I like the way you push me harder. I like how strict your regiments are, even if they’re super fucking annoying. I like talking with you. I like listening to you teach—well, lecture.” Gael’s effervescent happiness shattered the chimera’s hold almost entirely on his host body, severing the devil’s control. “I like that underneath that tough exterior is a slightly less mean interior, and then the gooey center just past that is like a squishy sweet, but also grumpy, guy.”

Kenzo scowled; everything about this moment, this cute conversation, reminded me of the hundreds Dorian had had with Finn and Milo, reminded me how he never took full advantage and lost the best potential future of all, and how these two wouldn’t have any future at all if I didn’t act soon.

With the devil distracted, settling the rattling nerves of his body, I channeled my telepathy in search of the tether that linked me to Dorian. I’d shake him awake, give him every missing moment, and warn him to send all the guild enchanters he could muster to my location.

“You know, speaking of brats, I can be a bit of one when I don’t get my way.” Gael extended his spiky hand. “And do you know what I want right now?”

Kenzo groaned. “Attention?”

“To show off my boyfriend, even if he won’t let me call him a boyfriend.”

“Labels are limiting.” Kenzo stared at Gael’s hand, longing to hold it, to take solace in the simplicity of happiness, yet the harrowing shades of black and white from his inner core bellowed that he didn’t have time for simple joys. “And I don’t do PDA, affection, looking cute in front of others for the sake of, what…flaunting our romance?”

Gael pouted. The type of expression that seemed to always make Kenzo crumble into pieces no matter how hard he resisted.

Without a word, without a thought of hesitation, Kenzo grabbed Gael by the collar of his tank and pulled him in close for a kiss. Passion blossomed so brightly their auras nearly turned the night sky into a sunset. The world faded away in this moment and Kenzo knew pure happiness.

“So, where’d we land on the hand holding?” Gael grinned.

“ I’ll hold your hand. ” The chimera shuddered, lumbering forward and revealing his presence even though the body continued resisting him.

The terror in Gael’s wide eyes stole my focus, but I needed to act fast—reach Dorian before I lost my conviction, before every student here was killed.

Taking in Peter Graham’s appearance, Kenzo quickly formed a plan. Gears of calculated thoughts already whirled far louder than those of confusion at the sudden arrival of someone lurking in the shadows with a threatening expression and magic radiating out of their pores.

“ Get Gael out of here. ”

“ Who the hell is this dude? ”

“ What type of magic is this? ”

“ Gael’s face—he’s terrified. ”

“ His muscles are growing like an alteration branch… ”

“ But that reveal…clearly a glamour or teleportation or… ”

“ I need to fall back for maneuverability. ”

“ Multi-branched? Rare. ”

“ Too many dumbasses outside. ”

“ Drunken stupors that’ll get them hurt if I cast carelessly. ”

“ Think, dammit! ”

Kenzo’s frantic thoughts searched for answers, forming correct answers in fractions of seconds to things that’d take professional enchanters minutes to unravel. But the gears of Kenzo’s mind at work paled in comparison to the blossoming memory from Gael’s mind as he locked eyes with Peter Graham, the warlock who nearly killed him and his family a lifetime ago.

“Aaaah,” the chimera said through his uncompliant host’s body, his voice echoing in layers. “Vengeance truly is at the core of all actions.”

The chimera fell back into the shadows of his inner core, swimming in the fragments of memories he couldn’t piece together. Sparks of lightning sizzled and popped inside his head, fueling the fury further and turning those sour recollections into a haunting shade of crimson.

“ If this broken body seeks retribution, so be it. We can kill the little spiked witch. I’ll turn his boned appendages into a crown. ”

I blocked out the chimera’s unhinged cackling; it boomed through every angry cell of his body, feeding more demonic energy to enhance the already tremendously overpowered entropy branch.

I needed to reach Dorian now!