Page 15

Milo was back in the city. Milo had defeated The True Witch. Milo had invited me to his place. Fuck. Only one of those things seemed real. Milo’s return. No way would a witch of that caliber simply surrender. Sure, Gladiatrix was an indomitable force, but The True Witch possessed an arcane branch that could shatter a psyche. Had she really not accounted for the Global Guild retaliating?

And Milo invited me to his place. He’d missed me so much that he decided I should come see him. That was truly startling because he never invited me to his place. If anything suggested the world was about to come to an end, it was Milo hosting for a change.

I arrived at Cyrus Bay Estates, the most elegant building in downtown Chicago with marble coated wards to keep out uninvited guests and enchanted windows that promised the best views because they removed anything unwanted when peering outside. The opulence of this building made me quake. Even the door attendants dressed more sharply than I did, wearing fine suits.

I lingered outside, smoking a cigarette and contemplating ditching Milo’s invitation and telling him to just meet me at my place. I’d never been to his home. For good reason, too. Look at this elegant fucking monstrosity. It was modern, magical, historical, and expensive. So fucking expensive. I was pretty sure I’d have to pay a fee just to stand here loitering with a smoke.

It’d already been a few days since Milo had returned to the city, and I was only just now getting an invitation. He might’ve been too busy to fly over to my house. Or he had to stay home, stay close to his guild, to the MDC, to the Global Guild members likely staying in some equally fancy hotel in the heart of downtown.

One of the door attendants eyed me up, head to toe, definitely with a scrutinizing gaze.

“I’m ah, um, er, hmmm.” I backstepped, realizing I still had a cigarette in my hand that felt oddly out of place, like the mere audacity tarnished this pristine place.

“Mr. Frost, correct?” The attendant tilted their head knowingly while the other opened the door. “Enchanter Evergreen told us to expect you.”

A quick scan of their surface thoughts revealed Milo had described me in an annoyingly unflattering yet completely accurate manner. “ Keep an eye out for the grouchy guy with heavy eyeliner, wrinkled clothes, likely a smoke in hand and a frown on his face. ”

Every layer of this building was met with more attendants, more expensive tastes. I went to the elevator and took it to the top floor where Milo stayed in the penthouse.

When the elevator stopped, I tried to absorb the corridor leading to Milo’s door. It took him all of three seconds to whip open the door and greet me with a goofy grin. “You’re late.”

“Traffic.” I shrugged, shaking off the out-of-place feeling of this building.

Milo, Enchanter Evergreen, The Inevitable Future, acted like such an everyman, average guy that it was sort of easy to forget he was also one of the wealthiest people in the city. I mean, for an enchanter. He had nothing on guild masters or those who sat on the boards of guilds, but as the number one enchanter in the state, a recent member of the Global Guilds, and a huge fucking celebrity icon—Milo’s take-home income towered over my humble teacher salary.

“Get out of your head.” Milo had this knowing smirk, the kind where he studied each worry line on my face and had to remind me that it didn’t matter if I fit in this world; I fit in his world, his life, and everything else was just background noise.

“I’ve missed you.” I tried to take in the splendor of the penthouse foyer, imagining even more captivating things further inside, but truthfully, I couldn’t take my eyes off Milo.

I was drawn to him. He wore a violet silk dress shirt and light brown slacks that matched his suit jacket. The pants were tight and left little to the imagination, especially since mine currently ran wild with ideas of everything I wanted to do with that hot body. There were certainly discussions to be had, but right now, I wanted to taste Milo’s skin, feel his body pressed against mine, sync our minds and sensations into pure primal passion.

I stepped close, removing the distance between us so I could kiss him. Hell, it’d be hard not to mount him here and now, strip off that sexy suit and—

“Hold on.” Milo braced with his hands up, pressing against my chest and keeping my lips from meeting his.

“ Someone’s playing hard to get, ” I teased him, sending suggestive images when uttering the word ‘hard’ and grazing his crotch with the back of my hand.

“Dorian, I actually need to tell you something.”

I quirked a brow.

“Why hello there, Mister Dorian, sir.” The blue-haired kid Whatshisname walked into the foyer, taking a gentleman’s bow that he’d worked on with Milo. The steps played in his surface thoughts, like a game of some sort they panned out. “May I take your coat?”

“I’m not wearing a coat.”

The kid’s eyes widened, mind buzzing through a thousand contingencies and completely incapable of figuring out what to do next. He’d studied or prepared or assumed, for whatever reason, that he would greet the person at the door and take their coat.

As the anxious confusion bubbled in the suddenly cramped foyer, I found myself feeling bad. Like I’d caused this trepidation.

The fuck?

“How about the tour, Benjamin?” Milo nodded with an encouraging smile.

Oh, fuck me.

“How about a tour, Mister Dorian, sir?”

“I’m okay.” I stared, unable to match the enthusiastic smiles coming from Milo or this Benjamin kid.

“He’d love it.” Milo nodded, his expression painting a memory in Benjamin’s surface thoughts.

“ He’s a shy raccoon dragon, the kind that says one thing but really means another because he’s the type of dragon that secretly likes to be included. ” The words splattered across Benjamin’s thoughts, formed into flaming bubble letters as children had annoying imaginations that seeped out of their youthful, unformed brains.

“Right. Lemme show you around.” Benjamin gripped my hand and dragged me toward the corridor. “This is the hallway where picture paintings are kept.”

He pointed to artwork Milo had plastered on display for no one in particular since he rarely invited guests. But I knew these paintings, these masterpieces. No named artists and legends were placed on the wall side by side, each personal favorites of mine. Each were pieces I’d seen at one point or another in my youth. And Milo had acquired them, kept them in his home.

Interesting. Something I’d have liked to prod Milo’s mind about, but I found myself ushered further through the penthouse, unable to even take in the full beauty of those paintings.

“This is the living room where the TV is located.”

“Uh-huh.” I looked at the huge, mounted television that took up nearly the entire wall. “A bit excessive.”

“It is expensive.” Benjamin nodded, convinced excessive was another way to pronounce expensive, then pointed to the couch. “This is where guests can sit and relax or over there or there or there too, I guess.”

He continued pointing to the various pieces of furniture in the living room, cluttered with junk.

“And there is the consoles and the toys and the books.” He pointed to an array of gaming systems, a collection of children’s books, and a ridiculous number of toys strewn about the living room carpet. “I was supposed to pick those up. Hmmm. I will pick those up.”

“Okay.” I went to pull my hand free, but Benjamin’s grip tightened.

“After the tour.” He dragged me through the living room and toward the kitchen. “This is where the food is kept, but we’re not supposed to eat in here. Cooking and cleaning is for the kitchen and eating is for conversation and community and…”

Benjamin’s thoughts glazed over the long-winded tour of the penthouse he’d had with Milo when everything had been explained to him a few days ago. Here, I figured Milo had been keeping busy with paperwork, with the Global Guild, with Cerberus, with the bureaucratic nightmare of detaining The True Witch inside the MDC while every nation she’d ever wronged fought over the right to try her. In actuality, he’d just been helping this kid settle since having his entire life uprooted.

“That seems like a lot of work.” I huffed in response to Benjamin’s continued tangent about proper mealtimes designed for conversation and yada yada yada.

“Right?” Benjamin smiled up at me, then pulled me by the arm into the next room, where he pointed to the dining room table. “This is where we eat. But snacks are okay wherever. Oh, and toys.” Benjamin knelt and picked up a toy that almost slipped under the table.

This tour continued as Benjamin escorted me throughout the entirety of Milo’s Penthouse home. I saw every single bedroom, guest room, office space, lounging area, hobby room, home gym, and other space rarely occupied by the busy Enchanter Evergreen. Seriously. He’d spent almost all his free time at my house, cozying up to my cats and making my place his. And it turned out he had a place that could fit my entire house in it three times over. Probably more if we counted the balcony space. Not really a balcony since it had a floorplan of its very own split into several areas, from a patio to lounge, to a barbeque to host, to a pool, a hot tub, and so much more. But Benjamin couldn’t show me everything outside. He hesitated at an invisible line outside near the pool.

“I can’t go this way.” His heart raced, staring at the clear water of the pool. His sky-blue hair glowed, and his deep brown eyes turned crystal blue, the warding magic he relied on at the ready. “Enchanter Evergreen said that we can’t go this far without an adult because the balcony has a dangerous ledge.”

“Makes sense to me.” I squeezed Benjamin’s hand, pulling his attention from the pool. “It’s a shifty-looking ledge. Personally, I find balconies annoying.”

“Yes, but you need to get used to the balcony, Mister Dorian, sir.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Because you’re a smoker, and you cannot smoke in Enchanter Evergreen’s home.”

“Oh?” I glowered. “Milo said that?”

“I said that.” Benjamin had a stern, unflinching expression, then his face softened, and he dragged me inside. “Let us continue the tour of the home.”

After the tour, I finally got a chance to myself to enjoy one of my cigarettes on the cool balcony as the sun set. I savored the precious minutes alone since Benjamin talked to me nonstop since the literal second I walked back into the penthouse. He asked me why I started smoking.

“How old were you? I knew a kid at school who smoked cigarewets.”

He asked if I knew the health risks. He asked if I liked smelling weird. He asked if I really thought it made me look cool. “It doesn’t. Peer pressure isn’t cool.”

He explained the academic complexities of being in first grade.

He talked about what subjects in school he was the best at.

He explained math was boring.

He told me how mean his teacher was.

“Ms. Malmay is a bully. Was a bully.” Benjamin’s eyes stilled, locked onto a placemat, and his thoughts cycled through how he’d never see his mean teacher again, how he’d never see his classmates, his friends, his family. How every single person in his life was gone. Dead. Drowned.

It was a thought Benjamin didn’t like to dwell on, but he did, and we sat in silence for several long minutes as he quietly processed, considered, and pushed those big feelings aside for another day.

“Do you wanna see my video games?” Benjamin hopped up from his chair, then rushed back in carrying a selection of toys that he fumbled with in his grip. He tried his telekinesis but only managed to drag one doll behind him.

“After you finish your dinner,” Milo said, waving a finger and pulling away all the toys Benjamin intended to show off.

He went back to discussing video games for a minute, then shared a secret about good food. He made sure Milo didn’t hear, whispering loudly to me about the importance of hot sauce and ketchup ratios.

He talked a lot. He talked while chewing his burger. When he paused to sip his water, Milo interjected, telling a silly story I didn’t care about that worked to further fuel Benjamin’s conversation. It was never-ending between these two. When we finished eating, Milo brought me to the living room, where Benjamin talked about the games he played and the things he learned and the stuff he disliked and the things he liked and the places he’d traveled since joining the Global Guild.

“But I’m not actually a part of the guild, just a special member.”

Enchanter Evergreen had told him his part was integral, he even defined the big word, giving examples of all the possible greatness Benjamin’s assistance would offer.

After quite possibly the longest, chattiest night of my life, Ben yawned. He struggled to keep his eyes open during one of Milo’s many stories—he had talked nearly as much as Ben without the excuse of having a developing child brain and no filter. Once Ben had completely dozed off, Milo trailed off into some other story and carried the kid off to his temporary bedroom.

“What’s with the kid?” I sighed, letting out an exasperated exhale since small children were quite exhausting. Vexing. Talkative. Annoying.

“You think everyone’s irritating.” Milo strutted past me, confident that he’d read my mind by studying my face.

Admittedly, he was pretty close. Not that I’d tell him.

“True. Thankfully, my tolerance for things I find aggravating has increased since learning to deal with you on a regular basis.”

“Aw. You grumpy goof,” Milo said, making us drinks and twirling his thoughts into silly songs.

“I get why you dragged him with you,” I said in reference to Benjamin. “Dealing with this True Witch—who I have a lot of questions about—but why’s he here? Still here, I mean. There’s no residual magic leftover.” None that I could sense, even with the kid’s warding branch shielding his mind and body, I didn’t sense the presence of anything else. “And with the threat locked up, surely…”

I waited for Milo to finish my sentence, reassure me, settle the anxious tension that formed at the back of my head.

“We’ve been dragging this kid all over the country, quick stop here, short break there, new hotel, new hotel, new hotel.” Milo handed me a martini I cared nothing for and clinked my glass against his own. “I just thought he could use a real place to crash for a bit. Somewhere not so isolated. I got my acolytes taking shifts to chill with the kid until I find like proper daycare…um…attendants? People, stuff. Baby watchers but for like nonbaby people.”

I frowned, partially perplexed and mostly annoyed. Milo had the perfect ability to bring both out simultaneously. “But can’t the Global Guild take care of the kid?”

Milo’s beautiful blue eyes fluttered, momentarily wrapped in quiet futures I couldn’t gain a read on.

I downed my martini, then went to the half-bar in his kitchen and made myself a real drink. It wasn’t exactly as stocked as the two separate wet bars I’d seen on the tour. Three. Shit. I forgot about the one outside. Who needed that many bars? It was convenient, though. And truthfully, I just needed the vodka and orange juice.

“So, I’m glimpsing the kid’s still around for some whatever loose ends?”

“Yeah, ish.” Milo shrugged, truly looking for the words while diving between unknown potential futures. “It’s complicated. The Global Guild doesn’t really deal with the fallout of survivors. I mean, on paper they do. Their whole helpful cleanup act after those krakens destroyed the oil pipelines and just straight up wrecked the Atlantic. They were there with enchanters posed for every photo op, but when it comes to cases like this…” Milo scrunched his face. “Aside from a few pictures and a really nice interview with Enchanter Wadsworth, the Global Guild didn’t have anything planned to help Ben, uh, matriculate? Is that the word?”

Milo looked everywhere else in the kitchen except for at me, squinting his eyes as he tried to find the right words, believing in his heart there wasn’t a right way to broach the topic.

I sighed, then sipped my screwdriver, sort of wishing I had an actual screwdriver to scramble my head and turn off my unwanted telepathy. “The future’s annoying, huh?”

“You have no idea.” Milo groaned. “But I just see a better possible future letting it play out this way. Ben will maybe adjust better, who knows? Kids are weird. The future’s unknown. A million variables.” Milo shrugged, big grin on his face. “Plus, there are still loose ends with The True Witch, which —hardy har har—I’m certain you’re curious about.”

Wow. Immediately dodged one topic to dive into another where Milo intended to explain how a current open case might play out.

“What are you playing at?” I asked suspiciously since Milo never willingly divulged his cases.

“Sometimes sharing a potential outcome helps steer the future in the right way.”

“But only parts of it, right?” I took a big gulp of my drink, finishing the tiny martini glass—seriously, who the fuck thought tiny, rounded triangle cups were a good idea? “So, why did you lure The True Witch back to Chicago?”

“Here’s the thing, I didn’t lure her. She brought us. She only ever intended to come to Chicago. Everything else she had planned, the attack on Harmony Valley, the sole survivor, her immediate surrender, the political nightmare of fighting over who will put an international threat on trial, all of it went exactly how she expected.”

This horrifying sinking sensation threatened to consume me with dread, panic, fear I’d never shake loose, but Milo’s bright smile cut through those feelings. His confidence radiated like he didn’t care he’d played right into The True Witch’s hand. He didn’t care that she’d intended on her own escape from the very start.

“Wait. What?” I fidgeted, having trouble reading Milo’s mind as my own whirled round and round with concern. “If you were going to do everything the way she wanted from the start, why spend all those weeks chasing her false trails?”

“They weren’t false, and it wasn’t bravado of the other guild witches,” Milo explained. “They were pit stops The True Witch had mapped out. Sort of her road trip of mayhem, slaughtering people for the hell of it, fueling us, encouraging the chase, and distracting everyone from her true objective.”

“Which wasn’t Whitlock Industries?”

“Not at all.” Milo scrunched his face. “Probably. Maybably.”

“You’re not sure if she actually dislikes the Harris Enchant Tech merger with Whitlock Industries because of extremist ideology or not?”

“The lady is hard to read.” Milo shrugged. “She’s got a lotta crafty pokers in the fire. Does that make sense? Sounds menacing. And hot. Gotta be real. I see why Wadsworth is such a dick. Like he had a big ole bone for a naughty hottie, and she’s a whole lotta scary wrapped in a pretty face.”

I stared, not quite glaring but definitely giving him a disapproving expression for trying to shift his thoughts to shipping witch and warlock couples. Playful nonsense that added to Milo’s minxy expression when he realized he’d been caught.

“But to answer your earlier question, because I feel like we’re jumping all over the place: I sent Gladiatrix, Diaz, Wadsworth, and myself off to every potential destination loud and proud and making the news so that way The True Witch would know we were tracking her, know that I was aware of her, know that even though she believed only a few breadcrumbs had been spilled I fucking CSIed those crumbs and figured out her whole damn recipe book.”

“Well, that’s a weird metaphor.” I poured us each new drinks, as Milo had finished his while spilling his plan and his drink.

“That’s the thing, though. I had to show her that I knew it all. It was the only way to steer her from casually killing people to send a message, to lure us closer.”

“But if she intended on being captured, intended on being caught, what is her actual objective? What does she really want? And how are you going to actually stop her if she knows that you know? Won’t she just plan around that? Could she seriously break out of the MDC? Shouldn’t they be made aware their facility is being targeted?”

“Potentially targeted,” Milo corrected. That was the downside to clairvoyance. It never held up as evidence in a court of law. It didn’t matter that Enchanter Evergreen had never lied or deceived others about possible horrors. They were merely a possibility.

“But now that she knows you know, what can you really do?”

“She knows that I know she knows, but she doesn’t know that I planned for her to know that I know she knows so that I can truly catch her off guard with what she doesn’t know that I know.” Milo sipped his drink, holding his chest with pride.

“I have no fucking clue what you just said.”

“All part of the carefully curated plan.” Milo winked. “And I’ll explain it all to you. Explain everything you should ready yourself for. Because things are about to get royally fucked.”

I set my drink down, decidedly aware I didn’t want the comfort of a blitzed buzz. I needed to have my senses, needed to attempt to understand Milo’s plan. Whatever pieces the great Enchanter Evergreen chose to share with me.

“Come with me.” Milo led me through his penthouse and to his master bedroom. “I’m gonna tell you everything I can, but the future has eyes and ears all over the place.”

“Wait. Like actual eyes watching?” I stared around Milo’s bedroom, barely able to absorb the cheery decorative style as I wondered what looming threat his thoughts twisted toward.

“There’s psychics in the air, working with The True Witch. They’ve got an inside track on how things will play out.”

“Another clairvoyant? Like you?”

“Possibly.” Milo rifled through a drawer. “There’s more to it. She has allies. This Celestial Coven, some reboot on old lore.”

They were real. Or some incarnation of them. How did my telepathy detect the presence, the theory, the idea that the Celestial Coven was connected to Milo’s Global Guild mission? Maybe it was when I swam through the ocean Amara had left in Benjamin’s head. Maybe my telepathy caught something I missed.

“And you’re gonna tell me? Actually divulge everything?”

“You want everything?” Milo turned, grinning and holding up an enchantment. “Let’s see if you can handle all of it.”

I rolled my eyes at the innuendo pouring from his mind. Then I looked at the enchantment he held up, the special incantations it possessed to link specifically to my frequency. The piece of magic he’d bought for us, the kind that allowed him to delve deep into my inner core.

“You’re gonna use that on me again?” I made a face, the kind that gave Milo pause, but I couldn’t help it. It was different getting used to Milo inside my head, complete and total access. He’d only used the enchantment a couple of times thus far.

“I can wrangle those wiley visions bouncing around your head while whispering a few secret plans in the corridors of your mind.”

I’d spent so much time holding the visions at bay, ignoring their constant thunderous rumble, but I did like the idea of Milo tying them down and making my mind manageable again.

He moved in close, licking the paper that held this special enchantment. “May I?”

I nodded, bracing for Milo to delve deep inside me, inside my mind. He pressed the enchantment against my chest; it sparked and sent a warm wave across my torso. I shuddered at the collision of Milo’s mind burrowing into mine. It made my knees weak, my teeth chatter, my spine tingle. Every feeling hit as one.

Milo kept me steady, one hand on my waist and the other on my shoulder. While he worked to bind the visions I’d almost grown accustomed to running loose in my head, he also remained firmly planted in the room. There’d be secrets shared tonight, things he wanted me to prepare for, but right this second, the only thing either of us focused on was the presence of each other.

It’d been weeks, longer, since I’d touched Milo. Actually, held him in my arms. Tasted his lips. Caressed his muscles. Smelled his cologne and sweat.

“While I work in there”—Milo pressed his forehead against mine, pushing me backward and guiding me with his hands—“you and I can do some real work out here.”

And just like that, Milo shoved me back onto the bed. A piece of his consciousness dived into my deepest thoughts, rooting through the debris of fractured visions and whispering secrets so softly I couldn’t register the words. A hidden message to unravel after we’d parted.

The rest of him remained here with me, eyes locked onto mine and the weight of his body holding me down. I moved in to meet his lips with mine, savoring the taste of him, the sensation of being here and now with him while also looped in each other’s thoughts and dancing between a thousand different potential futures. Our magics locked together seamlessly much like our bodies.