Chapter : 3 MAGIC MISHAPS

Ivy had been in Division D for three days, and she was already convinced that Ronan's soul animal was a grumpy cactus.

He didn't smile. He didn't laugh. He barely talked - unless he was correcting her. Which was always.

"Don't aim the wand like that."

"You labeled the crystal wrong."

"You are breathing too loud."

"I'm literally just existing," Ivy snapped once.

"Try existing more quietly."

She stared at him. "Do you practice being this unbearable or is it just natural talent?"

Ronan didn't even blink. "Top of my class."

She groaned.

Worse, everyone else in the lab adored him. Senior staff treated him like a walking genius. Lani called him " a socially constipated legend." Even the enchanted kettle glowed a little warmer when he was near it.

Ivy was not impressed.

So when Kiera told her they'd be pairing up for the weekly field test, her soul left her body.

"With Ronan?" Ivy repeated. "Did I do something to offend the universe?"

Kiera sipped her spiked coffee. "Probably, but you're the only one who can work with him without bursting into tears or setting a table on fire. Mostly "

"That's not comforting." she said

"Look sweetie. You challenged him, it's good for him. Keeps him humble." Kiera said.

"I'd like to challenge him to a dual."

Kiera smirked, "Same energy. Now go. And don't blow up Velmora."

The assignment was simple - on paper.

They had to recalibrate a magical conduit in an old section of the city. Basically, a glowing, humming streetlamp that had started...glowing.

Ronan scanned the reading on his device. "The field is unstable, approach with caution."

"Right, because I was totally about to poke it with a stick and see what happens." Ivy muttered.

He turned, "Don't."

"I wasn't going to!"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Okay, maybe, but only a little."

They stood under the crooked lamp as it pulsed with faint green light and made a sound like an angry cat being choked by a harmonica.

Ronan pulled out a stabilization orb nd tossed it to her. She caught it - barely

"You hold the node steady," he instructed. "I'll patch the feedback loop. Don't move and don't speak."

"I'm not your lab assistant."

"No, you're the Intern. It's worse."

Ivy was about to throw the orb at his head when the streetlamp sparked violently.

"Uh, Ronan?" she said.

"Don't speak."

"No seriously, it's making noises like it's possessed –"

The lamp suddenly burst with wild, chaotic energy. Ivy's hair lifted as if she were in a wind tunnel. Spells shout out like lightning zig-zagging through the air .

"Did you poke it!?" Ronan shouted

"I DID NOT POKE IT." The orb in Ivy's hand started vibrating. Then spinning, then glowing.

"Oh no. Ronan. RONAN."

"Let go of it - NOW-"

"I can't! It's stuck."

Ronan lunged forward, grabbing her wrist just as the orb exploded in a flash of white light.

BOOM

Everything went still.

No sound, no wind, no lamp.

Just white.

When Ivy opened her eyes, she was flat on her back. Again, Ronan was sprawled beside her, his coat smoking. Her hand was still in his.

And they were inside a glowing bubble.

"Oh stars," Ivy whispered.

Outside the dome, people were staring. A crowd had formed, someone was recording them on a floating phone.

"I'm going to die, not from the explosion. From the humiliation." Ivy muttered.

Ronan sat up slowly, still gripping her hand. His face was pale, for a second, he looked genuinely shaken.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

She blinked. "I- yeah. I think so."

He dropped her hand like it burned. " That was your fault."

"WHAT? You gave me the cursed orb!"

"You destabilized it. Your magic - it's not calibrated. You shouldn't have even touched it."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Spell Genius, maybe next time brief your human partner before tossing a death ball into her hands."

"You never follow instructions!"

"You never give proper instructions!"

They were both yelling now.

The bubble popped with a snap, releasing a shockwave that knocked over a mailbox and sent spark into the aair.

Back at the Institute, the ir was thick with awkward.

Ronan paced in front of the review panel while Ivy sat beside him, army crossed. Kiera stood off the side, looking both amused and exhausted.

The hard supervisor, a man with a beard made of smoke, raised one brow. "You destabilized a conduit, activated a defense charm, created a spontaneous containment field, and knocked out half a street's power. Together."

There was a long silence.

Ronan said, "It was his fault."

"Your magic triggered the cascade," Ronan snapped.

"Oh please. You think I have the raw power to break and entire -?"

"You don't know what you're capable of yet."

That shut her up, for a few second, the tension shifted. Not just angry. Something else. Like they were standing too close to something dangerous and not entirely unpleasant.

The supervisor sighed, "You're not fired, yet, but I want a full report. Together."

They both groaned

Back in the lab, Ivy dropped into her chair.

Lani looked up, "So... How was your first mission?"

Ivy looked at Ronan, who was typing furiously at his desk.

Then back at Lani, "We almost died."

Lani popped a marshmallow into her mouth. "So... Bonding, then?"

Ivy scowled

But deep down, under the frustration and glitter and smoke - something ws starting to burn.

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