Chapter 4 #2
“Your boss isn’t here,” Yaritza said, rolling her eyes.
“You’re not getting any bonus points for sucking up.
Besides, the only ones worth being jealous of are the people interning with actual Global Guild members.
But, like, Hellrazer is close enough. He was offered a spot and turned it down. We’re going to learn so much!”
While I wanted to believe Enchanter Ortiz’s fire magic would be great for Melanie and okay for Yaritza, I didn’t see any reason for Jamius to be teamed up with the enchanter.
Unless, of course, he had stipulated he wanted interns who shared familiarity with one another, which was common practice among lazy enchanters.
If I had it my way, Ortiz wouldn’t have even made the cut to the ‘desperate last resort’ list of suitable enchanters.
It had nothing to do with the fact that he was Milo’s ex and everything to do with the fact that the fool lived life based on all of Milo’s bad qualities with none of the charm or good intentions to balance them out.
Hellrazer was Chicago’s bad boy who didn’t bend the rules so much as burn them to cinders in order to make his cases.
To be clear, he didn’t reject an offer from the Global Guild ranks.
According to Milo, they rescinded the offer because of his cavalier behavior.
Ugh. I needed to have a word with Chanelle about this placement. Clearly, she was overworked and just slapping assignments together.
“Is there a reason you didn’t mention signing a waiver?” Kenzo asked. His agitation reeled my attention back to him and Gael instead of wandering through the sea of students processing their internships.
“Well, when you didn’t get one, I worried you might be a little jealous.” Gael grimaced. “Not that you’d need to be jealous. I mean, I was worried I’d be jealous of how not jealous you’d be about the whole thing.”
Gael gulped, mind swirling in Spanish thoughts.
Kenzo scoffed. “As if I care. Just don’t let that arrogant fool ruin your success with tacky lessons on how to be a fuckboy instead of helping you harness your magic.”
I glared. Milo wasn’t a fuckboy. Well, not anymore. And that was mostly just his image during the early days of his fame.
“At least my enchanter is somewhat competent.” Kenzo eyed his mentor, Enchanter Novak, who, along with Milo’s other acolytes, had recently been promoted. As such, the three of them would each only have one intern. “Branchless and Whitlock are screwed.”
I turned to find their names all grouped together.
Mentor: Enchanter Novak
Intern: Kenzo Ito
Mentor: Enchanter Russo
Intern: Caleb Huxley
Mentor: Enchanter Reed
Intern: Tara Whitlock
While I found Milo’s former acolytes mostly competent, I didn’t believe any of them were ready for interns quite yet.
Especially the students they’d been assigned.
I mean, granted, Lena Novak was probably the only person who could handle Kenzo’s beratement and dish it back in equal measure.
But Caleb being assigned to Hayden? The ditzy witch who was never on time for his life and possessed two branches.
What was he going to teach Caleb? How unfair life was, and how to be late to literally every event?
Ellie’s personality was nice enough for a pushover, but even with her lock capability, I didn’t know how suitable a match she’d be for Tara.
Sure, she’d identified some of Tara’s branch threads in the past, but like the rest of us, she couldn’t make much sense of it.
Personally, Tara should be assigned one of the Global Guild witches.
Maybe Wadsworth. Actually, considering his history with her mother, that was a bad idea.
Just the thought of Tara’s mother out there, roaming the world, eluding the Global Guild, and seeking to steal Tara away to fulfill some mad agenda.
It made me queasy. When would she make her move?
I continued searching names, noticing how conveniently Wadsworth’s name was missing from the list of mentors despite Gladiatrix and Diaz both taking on interns since their mission had relocated them to the city.
Wadsworth wasn’t the only name missing from the board. I scoured every single mentor, mostly from Cerberus Guild, a few from other guilds, but I couldn’t find my name anywhere.
Chanelle used the high-pitched blare of the microphone to cut through the conversations. Once she’d settled some of the idle chat, she quickly returned to the podium.
“Now that everyone’s had a chance to check out who their mentor is, I’d like you all to meet up with them,” Chanelle announced. “Those of you working with other guilds have transportation awaiting you downstairs. Your mentors are eagerly awaiting your arrival.”
I cut through the thick crowd of students, making my way toward Campbell to have a word with her about her oversight in leaving me off the mentor list. Seemingly, I was the only person at Cerberus Guild not mentoring a student.
Yaritza and Melanie brushed past me, each trying to quickly make their way to the elevator without being spotted. It didn’t work. Minds perked up at their discreet exit.
“Have fun on your little bus ride.” Layla smirked, gathering a laugh from her friends.
Ugh. How quickly she turned to mock Melanie now that she’d been grouped with Yaritza.
“Have fun with your Girl Boss secretary gig,” Yaritza quickly retorted. “Bet you’ll learn all the best ways to file paperwork.”
It was a strong clapback that actually managed to irritate Layla, not that she let it show as she rolled her eyes and directed her friends to find their mentors.
Truthfully, every intern would be learning the joys of paperwork.
It was a nice break for enchanters to pass off their administrative to-dos off to rookies and lighten their caseloads.
They’d get field experience, too, but not as much as in years past. Too much red tape for injuries and an angry public.
Most enchanters played it safe and kept their interns in the wings for observational tasks.
Students continued funneling through the room in search of their enchanters, clogging up space as everyone tried to have introductions here.
Enchanters really were such fucking morons.
They had no understanding of learning. Hundreds of students in one setting were not going to pay attention, comprehend, or even hear half the introductory directives.
“Where’s the cowboy dude?” Gael asked with a pouty huff, joining several others who’d been assigned a Global Guild mentor over by Chanelle.
“Those of you working with Enchanter Diaz will be meeting with him in the lobby,” she explained. “He’s not big on crowds.”
I rolled my eyes. Based on Diaz’s distant thoughts, he wasn’t big on punctuality either.
“What about those assigned to Gladiatrix?” Carter asked eagerly. “I mean, to Enchanter Lawrence.”