As the dance came to an end, Lena and Kenzo broke apart and joined the others in two separate groups.
“Eleven years of ballet, bitches,” Lena said, taking an elegant bow and twirling away. “Did you really think your silly dance was gonna best me?”
“Learn something new every day, love.” Hayden smiled, wowed by both his girlfriends. Ellie might’ve lacked the coordination for the dance, but her free spirit didn’t stop her from having fun. Lena, on the other hand, surprised everyone by revealing a new talent that Hayden hoped they could see more of in the future.
Ellie and Hayden joined Lena back at the booth to finish their lunch while Hayden edited the video.
“I have to know how you did that,” Caleb said as Kenzo used his friend as a prop to steady himself.
Kenzo held Caleb’s shoulder with one arm and grabbed his foot, tucked behind him with his other hand. It helped him stretch his leg muscles.
“Haven’t you realized by now that I’m amazing at everything I do?” Kenzo said with the smallest of smiles and a cutting gaze at Tara. “Unlike some people.”
“You even turn joy into a competition,” Tara said with a hint of sour pity.
“No, I take joy in competition,” Kenzo corrected. “There’s a difference.”
“Okay.” Tara’s sarcasm was lost on no one.
What Kenzo neglected to mention was that he spent most days in Gael’s room studying for hours at a time, and his goofy boyfriend loved all the silly dances. While Kenzo never appeared on any of Gael’s socials aside from the occasional photo or brief video cameo, he did participate in almost all of Gael’s dance routines. Apparently, it was Gael’s study reward that he requested the most.
While this was not the best use of their internship hours, I was glad they were unwinding and learning to have fun with each other. Especially since Kenzo and Caleb had lost so much time over the years.
I worked from Cerberus, handling some of Milo’s paperwork. How he convinced me to take on the menial task of filling out an endless stack of forms, I’d never understand. Okay, well, not true. Milo had pulled every string to get me back into enchanter work, vouched for my telepathy with the Global Guild, and kept Guild Master Campbell off my back when it came to taking on actual casework to “earn” my exorbitant salary. Seriously, evenas a lowly paid enchanter at Cerberus, I made nearly three times what I pulled working in education.
Alas, my vision started to blur after reading over so many contracts, and my hand was killing me from signing and dating as the proxy for Enchanter Evergreen’s signature.
By the time lunch rolled around, I was too exhausted to go out, so I went down to the Cerberus café, which had a pretty top-notch spread. I could see why so many enchanters and acolytes ate here.
As I stuffed my face with a burger and scarfed down the crinkle fries, my telepathy wandered the café. A lot of third-year students took their lunches here, chatting with their friends about their internships.
Nearby, both Gaels dined together, and I let my telepathy linger around them a bit longer than the others. It was nice seeing some of my former homeroom coven students, and it was even better to glean a bit more insight into how they were progressing in their internships. They both had interesting choices for their mentors, so I wanted to ensure Milo and Diaz weren’t dropping the ball.
“And they just let you bring that anywhere you go?” Gael asked, scooting his chair back as Gael and King Clucks took turns passing the metallic ball of their meteor hammer weapon back and forth.
“Yep,” Gael said, taking a bite of his salad. “I got a permit and everything. It’s part of my internship, and I’m legally allowed to use it in any way I see fit.”
“Ba-ba-bawk.”
Gael’s thoughts flitted to the actual clauses of his permit that King Clucks must’ve referenced, and then he spaced out,ignoring them altogether while twirling his weapon around their table.
“I don’t see why your mentor needs y’all to carry an enchanted weapon.”
“Because they’re badass,” Gael insisted, slowing the pace of his meteor hammer and putting it down for a moment. “Diaz ain’t so bad. I mean, he’s no Enchanter Evergreen, but he’s still cooler than most of the duds around this place.”
“I don’t know.” Gael shrugged. “I think everyone’s got pretty awesome mentors.”
Gael scoffed. “Please, most of them are doing kiddie cases with wisps and fiends. Might as well have stuck around the academy. Last week, we took down a warlock.”
Bywe, his thoughts revealed Diaz and Priscilla engaged in the actual combat while Gael and his fellow interns secured civilians and cleared the area. Admittedly, that was a good call on Diaz’s part.
“What about you and Evergreen?”
“Mostly just training stuff,” Gael said. “He’s been busy coordinating with the Global Guild.”
Of course, still trying to convince them to send their best and most capable enchanters for the Celestial Coven’s impending attack.
“Oh, but we have been working on a cool new technique.”
