My chest warmed, and my muscles tensed. The anxiety Vik held latched onto me, occupied by Carter and Zoya’s, too. None of them hid their identities and wore their queerness with pride, but it stung to see this reporter immediately spin their placement as nothing more than a stunt by Gladiatrix.
“And if I did?” She didn’t even dignify his absurd question with a full response.
“I understand you might feel it’s important to diversify, but if you’re picking a team of all trans interns, is that really diverse?”
“I assure you it is,” Gladiatrix replied with a smile. “I find it sad that I have to dignify this type of questioning, especially when only twelve percent of trans witches are licensed in America.”
“They’re a small community.” Johnson shrugged. “One that continues to grow based on certain influences but—”
“No, twelve percent of trans witches have a license to practice their magic,” Gladiatrix corrected. “For such a small community, it is quite disheartening to see such a discrepancy in licensing.”
“Of course, of course. You want to give back to your community, naturally,” Johnson said, his thoughts twisting to the in-depth research he’d done for this press conference. “But is this the best use of Global Guild resources?”
“Are you calling me a resource?”
“I merely mean to state that as one of the top ten witches in the world, it’s imperative that you—”
“In America,” Gladiatrix corrected. “The Global Guild doesn’t currently accept applications from witches who were born outside the United States.”
“Of course,” Johnson said through gritted teeth. “I only wish to examine if these students—and this has nothing to do with them being trans, that’s you making it an issue, not me—but I worry they may not be qualified for this internship. Surely, there are other students with better credentials.”
“I chose them specifically for their branches,” Gladiatrix answered. “They are the most adaptable to my skillset and will benefit the most from my tutelage. And yes, I am making this a trans issue. As the first trans woman to rank in the Global Guild, I don’t wish to be the last.”
“Fine, sure, okay. But none of these students even made the top fifty at their academy.” Johnson gestured to Carter, Vik, and Zoya, then kept his finger pointed at her the longest. “And this youngladywas last ranked 558 at her academy. Surely, there were better candidates for someone of your caliber.”
Gladiatrix kept her smile despite every desire to lunge forward and smack this reporter with enough force it’d quite literally send him to the moon.
“Gemini is one of the most elite academies in the country. It constantly ranks in the top one thousand and has even graced the top hundred in the nation on more than one occasion,” Gladiatrix explained. “To be ranked 558 is to be one of 600 highly qualified students at the most competitive academy in the state. I assure you, every single student at Gemini is more than qualified to work as an intern or acolyte for any Global Guild member.”
There was more to the story, to Zoya’s story, but that wasn’t Gladiatrix’s to share. Zoya might’ve only barely passedher courses at Gemini, struggling to keep up with the others, but she faced more obstacles than many of her peers. Unlike Carter, whose parents accepted him immediately, or Vik, whose family remained mostly indifferent to their identity, Zoya faced extreme challenges. When she came out to her parents, they disowned her, and in order to maintain her placement at Gemini, Zoya had to legally emancipate herself, house herself, clothe herself, and feed herself. She worked full-time and attended classes. She trained nonstop. So while her record reflected she’d barely scraped by, her mind buzzed with a thousand obstacles only a handful of other students experienced as well.
“I was once ranked pretty low in the Global Guild,” Gladiatrix said. “I sat at 427 for two years.”
The crowd quieted.
“Some called my placement a stunt. Some speculated the Global Guild only wished to diversify their rankings.” Gladiatrix glared at Johnson, recalling several articles he’d written about her, and bashing the Global Guild for pandering. “I proved them all wrong and moved up to the top ten. Some still believe it’s merely a gimmick. I don’t concern myself with their doubt. I prove them wrong every day by protecting this world from unspeakable threats.”
“One more—”
PORN. Gayfuckingporn.
It was certainly a vile abuse of my telepathy, but I absolutely sent Johnson images of naked men. It was surprisingly not that difficult to hijack his thought process with a bombardment of abs, ass, and cock. After an awkward thirty seconds of stunned silence, the reporter eased off and did everything to fixate on barely legal girls to reaffirm his masculinity. Fines be damned.I sent a psychic pulse to give him the worst migraine of his life. Definitely against the law, but it’d be worth a suspended license to shut that prick up.
The rest of the press conference went well for the most part. Few reporters wanted to pile on after the shit show demonstration Johnson had made.
“Hell of a press conference,” I said when Gladiatrix and her interns made their way inside.
“Not even close to Hell,” she replied with a half-smile. “That was kid gloves compared to some of the outlandish things I’ve had to shrug off with a perky little attitude and thank you to boot.”
“Should they be in here?” I pointed to the interns.
“Wow, Mr. Frost. You don’t think we’re qualified either?” Carter asked with an aloof attitude, even if he resented some of the comments from before. He played it off well enough. Grabbing his chest, he feigned offense. “You wound me.”
“I just mean because this facility is highly classified and even I have to get approval each time I show up.”
“They won’t be leaving the lobby,” Gladiatrix replied. “Plus, the Global Guild has wards blocking them from disclosing classified intel.”
I quirked a brow. “Is that legal?”
