Chapter 36
Chanelle let me borrow an empty classroom to meet with all my students. They didn’t spend much time on the new Gemini Academy campus. This was technically my first time here.
Not exactly how I expected my first visit to go. I sort of expected to return to Gemini after resolving the Celestial Coven problem, yet here I was instead bringing my students into this.
One by one, they trickled into the classroom, reminding me of so many homeroom mornings. Right down to the fact that Kenzo and Gael showed up first. Even attending an impromptu evening meeting regarding Caleb and Tara, Kenzo fought for punctuality.
Though that might have had to do more with the fact that Kenzo’s heart ached with Caleb’s absence. He still blamed himself for his best friend’s abduction. Soon, he would blame me. Perhaps they all would.
“Still a puppet?” Kenzo asked, glaring with hatred as Katherine shamefully walked past him. “What? No witty retort, know-it-all?”
“Stop, Kenzo.” Gael nudged his boyfriend, deliberately bumping him with a few spikes. “She feels bad enough.”
Kenzo growled. “Good.”
I didn’t know how much Katherine had divulged, but it was clear she’d shared the possession with others. Kenzo had more acute awareness than he should, based on what he’d seen the day Moire struck while holding Katherine’s body captive.
“Just wondering if she can share where Caleb went.” Kenzo pressed on, ready to tear Katherine down with cruel words.
“Fuck off, prick,” Layla hissed, claws drawn as she sauntered by Kenzo.
She held no love for Katherine, but something about Campbell’s loss had changed her.
Not much, but it made her cherish the bonds she had with her fellow interns.
Mostly, she hurt, realizing how unaware of Katherine’s possession she’d been.
It reminded her of Jamie’s possession, and Layla began to wonder if her snide, self-absorbed attitude made her oblivious to the pain of others.
Who knew how she’d grow from this event, but she held Campbell close in her heart, opening herself up to the feelings of those around her in a way I never anticipated from Layla.
“What are we all doing here, Frost?” Kenzo asked, leaning against a student desk.
“I think I can explain that,” Milo said, taking on the initial burden of discussion for me.
I needed to step up and speak, but despite making this choice, I hadn’t fully figured out how to explain this truth to them. A truth they all deserved.
“Fate is funny. Sometimes, without realizing it, our lives become intertwined with the people around us.” Milo led the discussion, giving me a chance to work up the nerve to speak. “You twelve have been through so many harrowing events, it’s bonded you all.”
“How unfortunate.” Layla eyed Gael up and down.
“This bond could be the very thing that helps us in recovering Caleb and Tara,” Milo continued.
“But this connection you all share is partly my fault,” I blurted.
“What?” Gael’s sharklike teeth formed into his trademark smile. “Not at all.”
“It is,” I continued. “My interference has dragged you all into danger.”
“It’s not like you made our schedules,” Gael said, smile not wavering.
“Yeah, that’s on our guidance counselor,” Gael added.
“Ba-bawk.”
“Exactly.” Gael slammed a fist into his palm. “Damn her.”
“I’ve been interfering with your lives since your first day at Gemini Academy.”
No one knew what to make of that. Even their thoughts whispered with quiet rationalizations. Obviously, I interfered with their lives, as any teacher did. But they didn’t realize the full extent of my role. My part in changing their fates.
“The first semester you all arrived at Gemini, Milo had a vision of Caleb’s death,” I explained. “There was almost no information surrounding the event. Not a cause, a time, a method. All I knew was that at some point, Caleb Huxley was going to die.”
“And you think this is that vision coming to fruition?” Kenzo blurted, standing to his feet.
“No, I already prevented the vision,” I clarified. “Theodore’s first attack on our homeroom was when that vision was meant to unfold.”
Kenzo trembled. It took everything he had not to explode with anger.
Theodore had slain Kenzo’s parents, had mocked their deaths, had slaughtered countless more, all in the name of fun.
Now, he had Caleb. Kenzo wondered if things would be different right now if he’d killed Theodore the first time he attacked Gemini Academy.
I also wondered the same thing. But changing the past was impossible. I had a Finn-shaped hole in my heart offering proof enough of that.
“When I set out to prevent Milo’s vision…” I paused, looking at Milo. “When we set out to change events, it had many unforeseen ramifications. For starters, I inadvertently bound each of you to each other.”
Minds percolated over that comment, faces scrunched, and a few eyebrows raised suspiciously.
“Fates are often overlapped by our decisions,” Milo elaborated, giving them a similar explanation to how futures and fortunes intertwined, especially when someone meddled with potential outcomes.
“So, saving Caleb bound our lives together?” Jennifer asked, genuinely curious.
“How lucky for you.” Gael blew a sassy kiss her way.
Jennifer rolled her eyes and flipped him off.
“It’s complicated and cosmic,” Milo said. “Sometimes the connections remain subtle, almost six degrees of separation. Other times, whole lives are linked.”
“Which is ours?” Carter asked.
“I believe the latter,” Milo said. “I’m certain that the choices you all make will play a role in the outcome of Caleb and Tara’s future.”
“Leave it to branchless to require additional rescue,” Kenzo said, thoughts calming. “So, that’s your big speech, Frost? You saved Caleb once upon a time, and now we all have to play a part in saving him. Fine by me.”
“Yeah,” Gael added, raising a spiked hand. “I would’ve been down for a rescue even if we weren’t bound by fate or whatever.”
“A fated rescue,” Jamius said with a nod.
“Think we can add that to our intern resumes?” Melanie asked, completely oblivious to the stakes at play.
“Rude.” Yaritza nudged her, then turned to whisper. “But we should ask Enchanter Ortiz just in case.”
“It’s more than that,” I said. “The fallout of rescuing Caleb from the vision… It lured the chimera to Chicago.”
That confused my students. They didn’t know anything about the chimera. The specifics of the devil attacking Chicago had never been publicly released.
“The demon that possessed Jamie Novak,” I clarified. “It came to the city because of my actions.”
That shocked them all. Some thought back to Jamie’s antagonistic nature, the way he—or the devil—assaulted Tara during the Spring Showcase, the demons that stalked witches and warlocks alike on the streets of Chicago.
“There’s more,” I continued.
“Dorian, you don’t have to explain everything.” Milo pressed his hand against my shoulder.
“I do, I owe them the truth,” I said softly, turning my gaze onto them. “I owe you all answers.”
I went on to explain how the chimera sought to possess me and how he only found me after my actions during Theodore’s attack alerted the demon to my presence. It hurt, explaining even vaguely the role Finn played in shielding my magic from the chimera. Explaining how I lost Finn years earlier.
It wasn’t just the arrival of the chimera I had to confess, I divulged how a piece of my magic broke free and acted of its own accord. How it stalked students and tried to kill some of them.
“Wait…it attacked us?” Gael asked, mind spiraling with the same fear he had the night he almost died at Peter Graham’s hands. Only now, he knew it wasn’t Peter at all, but in fact, a demon possessing the warlock.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I never intended to interfere with your lives in such a way. I only wanted to help.”
“I mean, you kind of did.” Gael shrugged as his familiar nodded.
“Always knew you were playing favorites,” Layla said, examining her clawed hand with an expression of disinterest. “Though, I suppose the whole saving his life part makes it somewhat valid.”
“You guys have been looking out for us since we started Gemini?” Gael smiled at me and his mentor, his idol, more awed by Milo’s role in matters than myself.
“Did you know how things would unfold?” Carter asked, mind flashing to my bloody body, the life he had to stitch together.
“No.” The word barely escaped my lips, still haunted by the trauma my actions put Carter through.
“None of this matters,” Kenzo stepped in, no longer caring to process. “Are we really surprised the world’s most annoying telepath is also overbearing?”
“And super protective,” Gael added.
“In a mother hen way.” Gael and King Clucks cluckled in unison.
“All I care about is that you did your part to save Caleb,” Kenzo said. “Now, it’s up to us to save him this time around.”
“Potentially,” Milo elaborated. “The possibility is higher with everyone playing their role.”
“And what exactly are our roles?” Layla asked, hands on her hips.
“To be determined.” Milo winked, wasting his efforts because Layla found his charm as nauseating as Gael’s voice.
“Why Caleb, though?” Jamius asked. “Like, is this just a wrong time, wrong place kind of thing?”
“No, because The True Witch sent Katherine back,” Carter added. “Wouldn’t she have just sent Caleb, too?”
“Why does she want Caleb?” Kenzo asked, eyes locked onto me.
I hesitated. There was so much I’d divulged about my secrets to prepare them…I hadn’t realized how many of Caleb’s secrets I’d have to reveal, too.
“She needs Caleb to open Hell,” Katherine said quite plainly, letting the secret pour out like poison that’d kept her paralyzed for weeks.
“Whoa, what?” both Gaels blurted with wide eyes.
“It’s all part of her plan to help Tara ascend to godhood,” Milo elaborated.
“What?” everyone asked in shock, except for Gael and King Clucks, who were apparently in the know since Tara shared everything with them.
“There’s a Gate to Hell?” Jennifer asked. “Like a real one or metaphoric?”
“Who cares?” Layla replied. “The bitch is psychotic. Fanatics don’t care about facts.”