Chapter 4 #3
“She’s still traveling for business,” Chanelle explained. “She’s expected to arrive later this afternoon, so you’ll be shadowing me for the morning.”
Impressive. The fact that Gladiatrix just wrapped up a case in the UK and was going to fly across the entire ocean and half the country in a few hours. Her speed was unparalleled.
I made my way to Guild Master Campbell, who had a trail of eager interns following her.
With a quick wave of her hand, one of her three personal assistants intercepted the girls and ushered them off in a different direction.
They had a tailored orientation to attend to for their first day, and by the brief glossing on Campbell’s thoughts, it seemed her assistants would be doing the heavy lifting on the mentoring side of things.
I ground my teeth at that. She couldn’t even be bothered by the full expectations of mentoring, yet she blatantly disregarded me for the role.
And I knew she’d done it intentionally based on the buzzing irritation wafting from her surface thoughts or the frantic need consuming the other two personal assistants attempting and failing to intercept me.
“Not dealing with either of you,” I snapped as I stomped between them and barreled toward Campbell’s office door. “We need a word.”
“Based on your demeanor, I’d say several words.” Her sigh of exhaustion was feigned, but the headache my presence created was genuine. “You two can join the orientation. I’ll handle Enchanter Frost.”
“Handle me?”
“Your concerns, obviously.” Campbell huffed, then blocked the door of her office with tight steps into my space.
“No, it wasn’t a mistake. No, I don’t care that you’ve got years of education.
No, I’m not a spiteful bitch, despite the rumors.
No, you can’t change my mind. No, I don’t care whose cock you’re sucking.
No, the Global Guild doesn’t have an opinion or say in the matter.
Plus, you’re just a consultant. No, there’s literally nothing you could say or do to take on the role of a mentor.
All the spots are filled thanks to our wonderful liaison, Mrs. Whitehurst.”
Campbell’s thoughts continued spiraling through her vindictive speech again and again. The words etched into her mind, making it impossible for me to glimpse anything else.
“I have experience with—”
“With classroom instruction, yes, yes, yes. Wonderful. You’re welcome to return, if you like.” Campbell’s thoughts danced with the idea of breaking my enchanter contract early, then cycled through the same repetitive “no” speech she’d concocted to block my telepathy.
“You can’t seriously think I’m underqualified for this.”
“I think you sweet-talked our top enchanter into weaseling you into an elite position at a highly coveted guild,” Campbell said with an icy stare. “I also think you’re too inexperienced to handle the seriousness of mentoring.”
“You’ve got three enchanters who literally just got promoted a week ago,” I said in reference to Milo’s former acolytes. “They’re mentoring.”
“They’ve been working within Cerberus’ protocol for some time now, they understand my expectations, and they can handle working alongside the most demanding enchanter.
Surely, you realize just because you’re screwing Milo, it doesn’t mean you can get everything you want. You’re not ready for mentoring.”
“That so?” I glared, delving deeper into her mind.
Beyond the speech she’d looped in her thoughts lay phony insults about screwing my way into this position, about quitting guild life more than a decade ago, about being an incompetent teacher. She hurled any and every staged thought she could muster to keep me from glimpsing the truth of things.
“Milo told you not to make me a mentor?” I seethed.
Campbell stared wide-eyed and stunned. “Goddammit. Stay out of my head.”
With that, she stormed into her office and slammed the door to ignite the wards. It sealed her mind from my magic, but I’d already learned the truth.
I sent my telepathy surging through the crowd, zipping between every festering thought until I linked to Milo. He was in mid-conversation with his new intern, Gael, when I assaulted his mind with demands for an explanation.
“Why the fuck are you preventing me from mentoring?” I thought. “Who the hell gave you the right?”
Milo smirked, holding a finger up to pause his chat with Gael while rolling his eyes back slightly to fake a vision.
“You did, Dorian. You told me point-blank you didn’t want any distractions from your mission to find and eliminate the Celestial Coven.
It is because of that we’ve kept you off all Cerberus cases so you can prioritize your Global Guild work. ”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped, my voice carrying loudly to those nearby, and my thoughts slamming a bit aggressively against Milo’s mind. “You should’ve told me. Should’ve said something. Anything.”
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Too late.” I turned to leave, to escape the guild flooded with excitement and reminders of all the students I used to work with day in and day out.
I wasn’t needed here.