Chapter 35
Milo read Ben his seventh story for the night, declaring this would be the final story. It would. But not because of Milo’s adamant declarations. He made that same statement every time, and somehow, Ben still managed to con Milo into picking up another book.
Fortunately, Ben’s eyes weighed heavy, and I knew his sleepy expression better than anyone else. He was seconds from dozing off.
I stood in the doorway, quietly observing.
Ben preferred Milo’s storytelling over mine, mainly because he did all the silly voices. As Milo read, Ben rolled onto his side, using the light of his lamp to keep his focus. All it did was force his eyes to shut tighter. Still, he tried to listen intently.
Meanwhile, as Ben’s thoughts drifted into a dreamland, his dog lay at the foot of the bed, pretending to be asleep. We all knew the dog would end up next to Ben the moment we closed his door.
Seeing them all together brought me joy, and I couldn’t help but smile. Milo’s terrible impressions nearly made me laugh. But the more I stayed, the more a twinge of guilt stabbed at me. It came with pressure against my chest, making it harder to breathe.
I couldn’t stay and watch them any longer. It hurt too much to smile. I walked down the hallway, each step becoming heavier and heavier as my legs filled with lead.
I wasn’t sure if it was having Milo home and safe for the last few days, if it was the lingering sadness of the funerals, or if I finally had enough time to sit with my sorrow.
But it hit me like a fucking avalanche, crushing me beneath the weight of guilt I carried. Guilt for failing Tara and Caleb.
Every happy moment I shared… It haunted me. They were out there, petrified, trapped. And I had the audacity to enjoy small family moments.
Milo met me at the end of the hallway, kindness in his thoughts, and a calm sincerity in his expression. “Are you okay?”
My lip trembled, making it impossible to speak without breaking, so I nodded. Hopefully that’d suffice.
“It’s okay not to be okay.” Milo placed his hands on my shoulders, a gentle embrace coupled with a soft touch as he ran his hands along my neck and cradled my head. “Don’t push me away.”
“I’m not…” My voice cracked. “I just feel so responsible for everything.”
“You feel responsible? You put in more work than anyone at the Global Guild. We were the ones who were supposed to—”
“I don’t even care that the Celestial Coven got away,” I said, knowing where this conversation led. “I care that they took Tara. They took Caleb. They hijacked Katherine’s mind. They nearly killed several of my students. They did kill…”
Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my face burned. Each breath I took carried a thick phlegm in my throat, making it difficult to speak.
“We’ll get them back, I promise.”
“How?”
“I don’t know…yet, but I can see pathways leading to possibilities. They’re faint.”
“They’re always faint, always changing,” I said, pulling away from him. “Those possibilities could be gone in a week, in a day, in minutes. Admit it.”
“True, under normal circumstances, but these possibilities are cemented by bonds of fate.”
“What?”
“Your connection to your homeroom coven, their connection to each other, it has created this continuous spark,” Milo said. “Sometimes, when lives interact with each other, they’re bonded. Sometimes, when a clairvoyant interferes with the future, it can create some semblance of those bonds.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning they were always going to be connected in one form or another, as classmates, as peers, perhaps as survivors to a terrible event,” Milo explained. “But then that horrible event, that awful fate, was averted, and all their futures were set on a different path.”
“The day I saved Caleb from the void vision.” I didn’t even need to read Milo’s thoughts to know that. “Well, the day they saved themselves, really.”
Looking back on that assault, each of my students carried themselves with grace.
“Your interference saved Caleb’s life. It painted a new future, and little by little, I began to realize your students’ lives, possibilities, and potentials were all syncing up together.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
“As a psychic, as a clairvoyant, I don’t put much stock in Fate or Destiny,” Milo said with a coy smile. “They’re both rather fickle.”
“And yet, here you are speaking of fate.”
“I’ve seen her work.” Milo’s mind flitted with flashes of him, Finn, and me all together; memories of Milo and I finding our way back to each other; images of Ben entering our lives after I liberated him from an impossible magical trap.
“Fate might be fickle, but she has rules. I just haven’t learned them all yet. ”
Milo spoke of this Fate as an actual being, something he’d never really expressed with me, but there was a reverence he held for her in his mind. Like some kind of psychic deity floating in the abyss of possible futures. Perhaps a side effect of his branch magic, some mythical oddity.
Hell, maybe Fate was merely a projection of Milo’s inner thoughts, perceiving his magic with consciousness to some degree.
I didn’t need him to elaborate on this being of Fate so much as what he meant by my students’ role in this.
“Your students’ futures are tangled together, walking down the same roads,” Milo continued. “Twelve bound by fate, so to speak.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning their connection to each other can solidify possibilities,” Milo explained. “I can steer things, navigate paths, and ensure Caleb and Tara aren’t swept away by some horrible ploy The True Witch has planned.”
I took a shaky breath, trying and failing to exhale my anxiety.
“I do believe it’s going to rely on your students, though.”
“No,” I said firmly. Not that I had much say in their lives. I wasn’t even their teacher anymore. “Don’t drag them into this.”
“Dorian, they have a right to take control of their futures, too.” Milo stared with soft, pleading eyes. “Don’t you think they’ll want the best possibility?”
“And if the best possibility puts their entire future at risk?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time all their lives were at risk in order to rescue one of them.”
Oh, that hit fucking hard. Yes, I unintentionally endangered my entire homeroom coven to rescue Caleb from his fate, from that horrible void vision. But I had no idea I was walking them all into a battle for survival.
“I didn’t know I’d be dragging them all into this the last time,” I said. “It wouldn’t be fair to do that again, to put them in unknowing danger.”
“Who said it’d be unknowing?”
“Does knowing a possibility prevent it?”
“Not always. Sometimes knowing a possibility makes it happen. Self-fulfilling and all that,” Milo said. “Besides, the details aren’t important, merely understanding their role in stepping down that path.”
“A path that would put them in direct conflict with the Celestial Coven, with Theodore Whitlock, again.”
“A path that would ensure Caleb and Tara survive, escape whatever destiny The True Witch has prophesied for them.”
I reflected on Milo’s words, on the spinning visions obscured by his magic, by the confidence of his thoughts, a working mind planning the best outcome for everyone.
“So, what do you propose?”
“Let’s talk to your homeroom, explain the situation.”
“Fine.” I released my first calm breath of the night. “But if we’re telling them, I want them to know it all. Know how their fates became intertwined.”
Milo stared at me, stunned.
“I should’ve told them years ago how I meddled with their fate.” I sighed. “If I’m going to drag them into danger yet again, I owe them that much.”