Chapter Thirty-Two #2
Milo’s mind rose high in the heat of battle, shaking away the enchanters who stood idle ahead as his predictions, his hopes, all played out according to a difficult plan.
Dominos vibrated in Milo’s surface thoughts, falling one by one into each other and leading down hundreds of different pathways—each piece representing a single witch, demon, citizen, opportunity, interaction, and held the possibility of ensuring the best outcome for everyone. The best he could hope for .
The dominos continued clanking into each other.
Some paths sounded like zippers while others held a soft chink, and a few were like change tossed together.
All these routes eventually ran together leading to one singular path.
The same path Milo had led the chimera toward.
A huge screen in Milo’s mind. All I saw was static.
This wasn’t like his other visions, though.
Demonic interference made it as difficult for him to view the variables, the potential, as it did for me.
I flew faster, reaching a locked off collection of buildings that’d been altered by magic.
Metal, brick, glass, and concrete from the high skyscrapers had merged, interwoven together, creating an encircled dome.
The chimera scanned his surroundings, grating his host’s teeth as the realization sank in.
He’d been lured into a trap—a dead end where Milo intended on banishing him, killing him.
Milo’s plan unveiled itself, revealing it’d fallen perfectly in place, leading the chimera into the clutches of more than a hundred enchanters positioned on the ground and in the sky.
Each witch channeled magic. The vibrations of their frequencies hummed a familiar note.
I’d felt this synchronized sensation many times. Too many.
Milo approached the devil, preparing his banishment. A lump grew in my throat. All these well-trained witches would overwhelm and defeat this devil, but could they properly banish him without killing the host body?
“It will take more than banishment to untether me from Jamie Novak,” the devil said, smug and still scanning for an escape. “Or have you resigned yourself to accept one more death as the cost of saving your city?”
“No one else dies because of you.” Milo’s magic swelled, interlocking with each of the channeling enchanters.
They weren’t honing their magic; they were altering their frequency to link with and magnify Milo’s casting capability.
Even with all their precision and skill, it wouldn’t last long.
They wouldn’t be able to provide Milo this boost in power for more than a few minutes, but he only required minutes at most to finish this devil.
This held a heavy price, though. One I realized Milo was all too aware of.
Having a single witch match his frequency, funneling their energy into him, and merging together would expand his casting output.
It also added to the physical exhaustion by two-fold.
Sure, the witch offering magical assistance took some of the burden when syncing to Milo, but here, he was containing the power of a hundred witches to cast banishment on a staggering level.
Those linked to his frequency took on the physical limitations for half while he felt the excruciating exhaustion fifty times over.
The fatigue weighed heavily, silencing Milo’s thoughts, amping up his survival instinct and drive to save everybody—including Jamie Novak.
Milo aimed a powerful pulse, eradicating the devil within Jamie.
Lightning surged within the boy. His ribcage glowed and sparked like a threatening thunderstorm.
Each wave of banishment burned the demon bound inside the host body.
Jamie’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth pooled with tar.
Slowly the chimera’s spirit spilled out, curdling, and fading back to the demonic plane of existence.
“ What’s this? What’s this? ” “ Where am I? ”
“ There’s color everywhere. ” “ Is this freedom? ”
“ An illusion. A delusion. ” “ I can’t believe my eyes. ”
“ Light—Mother, there’s light. ”
“ Nothing can kill that devil. ” “ Peace. ”
“ I’d forgotten how calm the world was. ”
“ I must be dreaming. ”
My eyes watered. One by one, wisps broke away from the tar, containing fragmented thoughts of witches consumed by the chimera over his extensively long existence.
Their minds buzzed, rattled, and shattered loose from the demonic energy before vanishing in the ether.
Whether they found peace in some unknown afterlife or the simple silence of a true death, I was grateful for each and every soul freed of the chimera’s horrid imprisonment.
“ Not happening. Not like this. ” The chimera roared, unleashing black tentacles of tar from his mouth. “ I will not cease to be. Not this close to perfection. ”
Tar whipped, lapping at the lost wisps, snatching them back up before the witches found their freedom.
The chimera refused to sacrifice their branches, lose his collection, but Milo didn’t relent.
Focused on keeping the witches contained, the chimera’s position faltered, and Milo took full advantage by reeling back his other fist. He slammed the collective force of a hundred witches, channeling telekinesis and binding each tendril to the ground.
The pavement beneath them cracked and crumbled under the intense weight of so much magic.
“ My body. I can feel my body again, ” Jamie’s voice echoed loudly. “ It hurts. Please. I don’t want to die. ”
I approached, hoping to link what telepathy I could without interfering. Jamie had suffered so much, still suffered, and I wanted him to understand it was almost over. Milo was seconds from saving him.
Countless witches escaped the chimera’s clutches. In mere moments the devil in Chicago would cease to exist.
“ Milo? Dorian? ” Finn called out. “ I knew you’d both find me. ”
I collapsed to the ground, awed by the sweet voice of Finn and his freedom. After so much time regretting every mistake I’d made, all that dwelling, finally moving on, and then learning he still suffered, I took a breath knowing this piece of him had finally been released from the chimera.
Finn floated in a flurry of fading wisps. Soon, he’d truly find himself free from the unfathomable horrors of twelve years bound within that devil .
I clenched my fists. Or…he could stay. I’d held a piece of his magic, his mind, inside me before unknowingly. My magic, Finn’s magic, Milo’s magic—together, we could keep Finn here, safe, and with us. I could save him for real. I could bring him back into our lives.
Milo, Finn, and me together forever.
That was the happiest ever Milo must’ve envisioned. It had to be. I wouldn’t accept any other truth that kept me from Milo and Finn, the three of us happy and perfect.