Chapter Nine

Milo was gone by the time I woke up and staggered into the bathroom to get ready for work. Damn. I couldn’t walk straight this morning. Today was going to be a long one between replaying the lust of last night and attempting to figure out a segue from my intended lesson to the bombshell I had to drop on my students. Ugh. How exactly would I connect failure and growth to the upcoming news of the trial? I could simply not tell them. Wait for the news to announce it. Wait for the prosecution team to reach out to them. I gulped. Christ, would they be expected to testify?

I rushed to get dressed and ready, eager for the wind to whip some sense through me on the flight to the academy.

The flight hadn’t offered much insight, so I guess I’d just wing it.

“ Love that pun. ”

“ Huh? ” I spun around my classroom. “ Milo? ”

“ You’re the one who linked to me. ”

“ Not on purpose. ” I quelled my telepathy. “ Talk later. ”

“ Kisses… ”

I severed the link connecting us before Milo could send a flurry of dirty images my way. My damn branch really just did its own thing some days.

“Good morning, Mr. Frost.” Gael was the first to arrive, sharklike teeth beaming even if his usual aura was less luminescent.

Maybe that came from dimming my branch, or maybe it came from his experience yesterday. A few other students trailed in this morning, each carrying thoughts on their combat against an acolyte. Some surface thoughts fixated on how sore they were, others preparing for whatever written follow-up I might require of them, a few proud of the role they played, and one in particular fueled by anger so fiery it almost hid the embarrassment that buzzed at his core.

Kenzo stormed past Katherine, cutting in front of her and into the classroom where he sat in his usual seat, front and center, despite yesterday.

“ Ass. ” Katherine rolled her eyes. “How is he not suspended?”

That was an easy enough answer I wouldn’t be providing. Headmaster Dower, in her infinite wisdom, handled the situation amicably. According to the write-up, she’d conferenced with the students and resolved all conflicts. I scoffed. Anything to keep from adding a suspension to the academy’s end-of-year report. Those numbers never looked good. Guess that meant I’d have to actually conference with Kenzo and Gael sooner or later.

“Gael told his moms it happened during training,” Tara explained to Katherine, curt and aggravated. With Kenzo. With me. With Gael. Even with King Clucks, who apparently supported the choice of lying to Gael’s moms.

“It’s not a lie.” Gael winced when he grinned. The swollen bruising around his face was hardly covered by the bandage over his nose.

“Ba-ba-bawk!”

Seemed the only thing that came close to embarrassing him during the ordeal was the idea of his overprotective mom barreling into the headmaster’s office demanding an explanation. He’d already devised a plan to tell his mother what had happened when his mom wasn’t around.

Christ. I was a shitty instructor, allowing him to skirt the truth and hide the incident by pointing out to his parents how they’d signed the waivers to attend Gemini, which naturally came with a few bumps and bruises. Taking a deep breath, I added contacting Gael’s moms to my mental to-do list; I would explain the situation and hope they limited the full extent of chewing me out to my planning period.

When the bell rang, I invited everyone into an open conversation, leaning against my desk. “How’s everyone doing today?”

“Sore,” Jamius said, filling the silence in the classroom.

“The lock has left my muscles tired, too,” Tara added.

“Oh no.” Jamius stretched, finding his desk unbearably stiff. “It’s my magic. I overdid it yesterday, so I’m all tapped out on duplicates.”

“And?” Yaritza scrunched her face, visibly confused. “How does no copies make you sore? You don’t make them massage you or anything, do you?”

“What? No!” Jamius’ cheeks puffed. “I just sort of put off a few things around the house, and without them…it was a long night.”

I stifled a chuckle at the flashes of chores swirling in Jamius’ mind. Apparently, he’d ‘put off’ more than a few things, and his parents decided with his branch completely drained, it’d be a valuable lesson on procrastination.

Yaritza and Jamius went back and forth for a bit, leading the conversation from awkward silence to random rambling.

“Question.” Gael jumped into the conversation. “If you make a copy of yourself and that copy gives you a handy, is it gay or a really awesome form of masturbation?”

What. The. Fuck.

“Because if I had your branch, I’d make a copy of myself and have him on his knees—”

“Stop!” I glared, waiting for the snickers in the classroom to simmer.

“What?” Gael tilted his head, a mischievous grin on his face. “It’s a valid question on magic. Maybe even on the ethics of magic, which—”

“You can save for another class with another teacher,” I interjected.

Despite being vulgar as ever, Gael’s comment had eased the tension in the air, finally calming the nerves of yesterday, so I steered the discussion back on course.

“I want to talk to all of you about failure. Losing is a difficult lesson to learn,” I said, wincing at the especially sharp chord of anger coming from Kenzo.

“ Between pissy pants and the fuck boy, I can’t catch a break on hormones. ” Jennifer huffed, glaring at a particularly boastful Gael who wore the bandage over his broken nose like a little badge of bruised honor.

“Some of you may already have an understanding of falling short of an achievement, but since attending Gemini, I’ve seen all of you demonstrate success after success, from the first semester where each of you persevered in the most frightening of situations.” I took a breath, easing the tension, sending pin prickles up the back of my neck, raising the hairs. Whether this was my nerves or the students’, broaching the topic of the warlock incursion wasn’t going to be an easy one. “Even during the Spring Showcase, you all defied expectations. Each of you rose to the challenge, ranking among the top students, and you all passed the first round.”

Pride blossomed around the room, many recalling their role in the tournament.

“And while there was only one winner, none of you failed during that event.”

“Not that the top title does any good.” Gael snickered.

Kenzo’s embarrassment collided with his rage, and a swirl of mixed emotions burst from the thoughts of everyone in the room.

“Enough,” I snapped.

Gael grinned. “Just saying…”

“No. You’re taunting. You’re picking a fight for no reason other than to get a laugh.” I paused, letting that sink in. “Is that who you are, Gael? A jokester, sure. But one who pokes fun at someone else’s expense? Pouring salt in the wound just to stoke the fire.”

Gael got quiet; the entire class stared, silent even in their thoughts, except for Kenzo, who made it clear he didn’t need my meddling.

“That metaphor might’ve gotten away from me.” I cleared my throat, waiting for the awkward silence to pass.

“No, it made sense.” Gael and his familiar sighed. “You’re not incompetent, Kenzo. You’re irritatingly good at everything. And you’re an asshat, so it was just nice seeing you fuck up for a change.”

“None of you fucked up,” I said, watching a few eyes widen at my word choice. “The acolytes I picked were specifically pitted against your covens because your magics were vulnerable to them. Your fighting styles weren’t suited. Your tactical approach wasn’t ready. I wanted you to lose.”

“ ?Apoyándonos para que fracasemos? No genial. ” Gael frowned and gave me a thumbs down, which was quite possibly the meanest thing I’d ever expected from him.

That disapproval stung, but I shrugged it off and continued. “Understanding failure, sitting with it, and moving forward is the only way to be successful in this industry.”

“ I’ve got the failure part covered, ” Jamius thought. “ Was really hoping to learn the success part for a change. ”

Ugh. That tugged at me.

“You know I was part of the industry, right?” I asked. A few nodded. “In fact, every teacher at Gemini has been affiliated with one guild or another. They all have their own reasons for leaving, walking away, but do you know why I did?”

Silence met with curious thoughts, but none were bold enough to ask.

“I failed a mission. Not one. Several. I wasn’t the best enchanter; I was part of the best team of young enchanters. Even so, I didn’t have the constitution for the guild industry. I didn’t learn from my mistakes. Eventually, I was put on a mission I was nowhere near ready for and lost someone. Someone very close to me. It wasn’t only Fi… A lot of people died that day. I didn’t learn from that failure. Instead, I dwelled on it until I couldn’t function as a guild witch any longer. I couldn’t do much of anything. Not even teach. Still learning that one.”

It took everything I had to keep my composure. My skin buzzed, and my telepathy lashed about, searching through the sea of the city for Milo, my eternal life jacket. But I remained here, taking uneasy breaths until I settled the tremble that came from speaking about my greatest failure. I couldn’t say Finn’s name in front of my students. Perhaps I still carried too much pain for his loss, even if I ignored the grief that’d hollowed me out for more than a decade already.

“I’m not saying this lesson will teach you the big values of what it means to fail with grace and learn to do better, but I am saying the more you resist being imperfect and accepting that you have room to grow and improve, the more this industry is going to eat you alive.”

“ Some of us don’t need a lesson on failure. We already know it. ” Kenzo turned his head to the window, staring at the brewing storm clouds. “ Some of us also understand the sting of death too, Frost. ”

I ignored the other buzzing minds in the room, focusing on Kenzo’s mellow words, something that rarely pierced through his sharp surface thoughts. His mind shied away from surfacing memories of his parents, but their deaths, the loss that ate away at him, the broken friendship with Caleb, and the vow he made to be the strongest enchanter the world has ever known blossomed in thoughts.

Allowing Kenzo to sit with his past, a past he usually kept buried, I continued my discussion with the class. “I do want to let you all know we’ll be working closely with these acolytes throughout the semester. Expect many more pro lessons this year.”

“So, are we going to have to fight against them every time?” Katherine asked.

“ I won’t underestimate Novak next time. ” He clenched his fists, and static popped across the room, so light it hardly registered, but the subtle sizzle sliced thoughts, making minds muffled momentarily.

“ Like getting our asses handed… ”

“ How much failure… ”

“ …a lot…for the… ” “ ?Qué más…decir? ”

“ …maybe… ”

Impressive. Kenzo had already taken note of Lena’s technique of maintaining her branch in constant flux, adapting his disruption for the same method.

“Not exactly. There won’t be more sparring. Not until your midterm finals, where I’ll be evaluating what you learned from this failure, how you showed growth over the course of the semester, and finally determining your overall grade based on whether your coven can win in a rematch.”

Before their curiosity and concern swarmed me, I pushed on because I had bigger news to share. Information they deserved here and now. While I didn’t look forward to the bombardment of thoughts or emotional reactions, I had to tell them what Milo had revealed.

“There’s one more thing I need to tell you.” I cleared my throat.

“Oh, man. Mr. Frosty, you’ve already dropped one bomb for the day. Let’s save whatever evil class lesson you’ve got up your sleeve for another day.”

How I wished to follow Gael’s advice.

“I’ve been informed the warlock incursion on Gemini Academy, on our homeroom, will be moving forward with a trial.” Everyone’s eyes widened at the news, thoughts streaming while some actively worked to simmer their internalized questions, waiting for me to continue. “It’s not released yet, but I imagine it will be soon. Some of you may be approached.”

“ Some of us already have. ” Tara averted her gaze from her classmates. A tidal wave of guilt crashed onto her, sweeping away all the work she’d done to improve herself last year. Of course she’d be approached early on since her brother was the ringleader of so much devastation.

“The academy will have an official stance; your counselor will be there for anyone who needs to talk. But I want you all to know that if you need anything, I am here for you. Here to talk, to listen, to offer support in any way possible. What happened that day was unlike anything you should’ve experienced in the halls of Gemini Academy. Each of you carried yourselves exceptionally during that ordeal, afterward, and into this new school year. I want to ensure that you continue carrying yourselves this successfully well into your careers, whatever they may be.”

Kenzo raised his hand, thoughts stirring so quietly I wondered if the events of the warlock incursion weighed on him more than I realized. On that day, he blamed himself both times I’d nearly died at Theodore Whitlock’s hands. He also harbored so much hatred for the man who slaughtered his parents during their time at Phoenix Guild. It was something that rarely surfaced beyond the depths of his rage, but I worried about how he handled those emotions, those regrets.

“Yes.” I gestured to him to ask his question.

“Are we gonna actually do something productive in homeroom or just sit here talking about our feelings all class?”

“ Ass. ” Katherine strummed her fingers against the cover of her grimoire.

She wasn’t the only one who found the question grating. Some saw the sharpness in Kenzo’s tone as taunting, as if he would mock them for dwelling on the events. But in truth, all Kenzo fixated on was what he could control. There was something meticulous about his thought process when it came to coping with things out of his control—he’d prioritize what he could change, compartmentalize what he couldn’t, and make himself ready for a future where he could.

His determination was admirable, even if he was an ass.