Chapter Thirteen #2
He weaved between each of his attackers, dodging branch magics, countering blows, striking opponents, and thinning his enemies faster than I could take a fifteen-minute flight downtown. Hell, I hadn’t even escaped my neighborhood before he’d dropped half of those in the back alley.
“How’d you… We planned… You couldn’t see…” Gavin stumbled on the gravel, the last one standing, his flames fizzling out as I started to stand again.
“I’ve fought thousands of battles, seen millions.” Milo grabbed Gavin and dragged him toward the steel door. “Each was a learning experience and held a mistake I won’t make again. This one too, in fact, has its own learning process.”
“AH!” Gavin shouted.
“Point is, there’s not a damn thing that can shock me.”
The burst of the door off its hinges created a rattling cacophony in my skull, cascading down the columns of my spine. It made it difficult to stand, to breathe, to cast, or quell.
I needed silence. True and absolute. For just a few seconds.
Enchanter Evergreen slammed Gavin against Cassidy’s bar, leaving the unconscious man there for all to see. Everyone froze, stunned by his actions, so much so the music came to a halt.
“Explain yourself.” Cassidy rose, ignoring everyone and glaring at Milo.
“Seems you’re sharing loyalty.” Milo ripped the enchantment off Gavin’s chest, handing it to Cassidy. “Hopefully, these don’t hit the market soon. I’d hate to see it cut into your business.”
She studied it closely, examining the intricacies that likely differed from those she’d created for purchase.
Each enchantment branch had a signature, honestly too subtle for me to register, and right now, my heart pounded for Milo, wishing he’d leave this place before his luck ran out.
He stood there, waiting for Cassidy to finish her short analysis.
“They’re quite intricate, almost sophisticated.” Cassidy eyed the half-conscious Gavin. “Shame, really.”
“Why’s that?” Milo’s nonchalance made me shiver.
“I would’ve loved to meet the individual with this branch. It’s artful. Yet, I’ll be busy snuffing them out.”
“Careful.” Milo grabbed Cassidy’s wrist, gleaning unknown futures, but filled with blood that made each step I took to lift myself off this rooftop unbearable. “I’d hate to see you make a choice we’d both regret.”
“So sweet, The Inevitable Future always looking for the best outcome when the world’s shit.” Cassidy broke her grip free, snapping her fingers simultaneously. “Please, escort Gavin to my office.”
Two employees grabbed Gavin and pulled him off the bar, which Milo didn’t object to.
In fact, with the enchantment removed, he studied all the outcomes Gavin McCoy might face in this situation.
Nothing gave him pleasure, silent as the potential pathways were to me, but he prioritized the future of far more and didn’t see anything worth interjecting over.
Gavin’s fate was his own—an unfortunate one he’d have to live with; Milo’s words would have little effect on it, so he didn’t bother.
My heart pinched, synced to his own. Even a man he knew so little about, despised in the moment, it pained him.
Milo wanted to care because that was his responsibility to focus on every potential future, even those he couldn’t predict, hopeful for the best. Still, he swallowed that guilt and used the event to easily assuage Cassidy to pass along her information.
“Despite the pleasantries, I’d prefer you leave.” Cassidy slid an envelope across the bar. Turning her head away, she ran her fingers through her hair, paying Milo no attention. “I will say, your profile’s way too big to walk through the front doors.”
“That much I caught.” Milo smirked, half tempted to kiss her cheek or hug her for nostalgia and because he’d longed for a future where they each dropped business and simply enjoyed the company of the other. It was a future neither believed possible. “Thank you.”
Milo exited confident the demonic threat hadn’t blocked too much of his branch, despite his lack of focus. Demons held too much immunity to branch magics. Still, he’d called it right. Smaller industry witches would work best at resolving this problem before it escalated.
My phone buzzed. Lingering on the rooftop, I answered.
“Hello?” The gruff rasp of my voice echoed either from a glitch or the fact my mind was still linked to Milo, who was on the other end of the call.
“Thought we had an arrangement. I couldn’t take two steps into that alley without seeing potential futures of you barging into Cassidy’s club.”
“You were in danger.”
“I’m always in danger. You know this.” Milo took a heavy breath.
It hit the phone harshly, and he straightened his tie on the other end, his composure shifting.
In this brief conversation, he had a sterner expression than when faced with actual combat.
“You said you wouldn’t interfere or involve yourself, remember? ”
“That was before you were surrounded by twenty warlocks.”
“Half were warlocks at best, though a few others are certainly on the path to becoming them if they don’t change their ways.”
We sat in silence, his thoughts wandering around, avoiding topics and skirting past things he knew he shouldn’t say—shouldn’t think.
He didn’t want to scold me. The idea of me throwing myself into a fight, ill-prepared, altering fates or plans, or leaving him unguarded because he feared any outcome that would bring me there.
Then, he dwelled on the battle he had thrown me in last semester.
His hands wrapped along my bloody throat, his world falling apart, my death imminent, and he had only himself to blame.
Milo would never allow a future like that to come so close again.
“I won’t do that again. Get myself involved.” I picked myself up, brushed dirt from my pants, and walked across the cracked rooftop. “I’m sorry I worried you.”
“I’m sorry I worried you, too.”
“I should probably apologize to the owner of this house.”
“How bad is it?”
“Not terrible. I’ll exchange insurance info and watch my casting liability premium skyrocket.”
“Just go home, Dorian.”
“They have specialists for this,” I groaned.
Witches whose sole purpose was to track magical infractions.
The damage done was mild, so if I stayed, it’d be a couple questions, a few forms, and a simple fee; however, casting, damaging property, then bolting—that was something that could get my license suspended.
“Text me the address, and I’ll have an acolyte file a Cerberus incident report. It’s easy peasy, and since you caused that damage chasing me, the guild is sort of liable. Trust me, the accountants will love the write-off.”
“Liar.”
“I’ll be working late. Please, get some rest.” Milo hung up. “ I love you. ”
“ Love you, too. ” I hopped off the roof, lightly descending, and went home.