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4. Fairy God Wizard

"There you are."

A huge, heavy hulk of a body fell on top of me- weight forcing the breath straight out of my lungs. I screamed, thrust my knee into the bastard's stomach.

"Ow!"

The body rolled away and I scrambled to my feet- only to find a grimacing Ian on the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Shit," I grabbed his arm, peered down at him. "You alive?"

"Barely," he gritted out. "What is wrong with you, woman?"

I helped him sit up, pressed my lips together to stop from laughing. "You shouldn't have snuck up on me like that." I had been staring up at the sky again, beginning to doze off when he'd just landed on me. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear any footsteps. Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

He stopped rubbing his tummy, gave me a smile that screamed mischievous. "What's magic good for if I can't teleport out of class to hang out with my best friend once in a while?"

"You teleported out of class?!" I screeched.

Newbury College was the only school in Seattle with an all supernatural student population so his teacher seeing him use magic wasn't the big deal here. Ian was studying Law, mostly to appease his mother- who more importantly would murder him if she found out he was skipping. She threw fireballs at him the last time he did something stupid. As fate would have it, I was around at the time and ended up being used as a human shield by my loving friend. I'd like to avoid that happening again.

"Learned the spell last week," Ian said, ignoring my obvious panic. He held up a single high-heeled shoe. "Your crazy teacher threw this at me while I was leaving your class."

I frowned. "Ms. Jessica was awake?" I asked.

She normally gave us work, stretched right out on her comfy chair and knocked off for the rest of the class. Said she was going on a journey in search of inner inspiration. Of course, none of us were allowed to find our own inspiration that way.

Ian threw the heel into a bush. "I woke her up. Wanted to know where you were. I also told her she had a bit of drool on her chin."

"You have yourself to blame for the assault then," I said dryly, reaching over to pat down the blonde disarray that was his hair. The mess was a normal thing but it was way worse today. I guess she got him on the head.

His hazel eyes squinted at me, mouth forming a frown. Ian was all grins and jokes, but he could sniff out trouble like a bloodhound could meat. "Why did you skip class?"

"My stomach was hurting. Cramps." The lie came out smooth, a reflex.

Ian knew Kane, his mom occasionally took care of magical business for the pack but I've never told him about the mate thing. Not him, not my mom either. Aster was the only one who knew actually. It was strange telling the people I saw every day that the one person who was supposed to be right for me didn't think I was right for him. Having them know that, the two people who were my entire world, would be another blow I couldn't take. I couldn't let them in on how much of a letdown I truly was.

"You're lying," Ian observed.

My mouth twitched. He took my hand, fingers grazing the red knuckles. They hadn't quite healed from last night.

"Are you still hurting? From last night's fight?"

After my fight with the Giant, all my injuries were thoroughly inspected by a doctor in one of the rooms granted to regular participants. I had a couple broken ribs, a crushed ankle and could barely twitch any of my fingers without crying out. Presently though, ninety percent of those injuries were gone and I knew I'd be as good as new by the afternoon. My healing abilities were the only exceptional werewolf trait I had. The rest, scent, hearing, speed and strength were all pretty much lacking.

Well, at least Ian thought my injuries were the reason for me skipping.

I tried to play it cool, giving him a sheepish grin. "You got me, but I've had worse. I'll heal."

He didn't press further, didn't judge. He knew what it was like to be told you couldn't do what you wanted.

But then he grew quiet, pensive. "Has Kane been bothering you?"

"Why do you ask that?" I asked, hoping my voice didn't betray me.

He rolled his eyes at me, released my hand. "The dude is always staring at you."

"Glaring," I corrected.

He wiggled his eyebrows. "Intensely."

"He doesn't like me," I growled.

Ian snorted, slung an arm over my shoulder and pulled me close. "One of these days he's going to confront you and declare his undying love for you," he said, tone teasing.

"He's more likely to murder me in some dark alley. Like Jack the Ripper," I grumbled.

"Watching those true crime videos again?" He grinned. A few rays of sunlight fell on his face, his brown eyes appearing more golden in that moment.

Ian was my own beacon of sunshine, always chasing away all dark thoughts when he was around. He was like a fairy god mother- or maybe fairy god wizard- sprinkling a bit of glitter and abracadabra, bad mood gone. Only he could edge around my biggest insecurity and manage to make me joke about it.

"Buzzfeed Unsolved," I corrected, tracing circles on his blue shirt. "You missed the last episode. The killer this time was such a genius, a murdering crazy genius-"

"Am I going to have to worry about helping you hide a body someday?" He chuckled.

I smacked him playfully. "If I'm killing anyone first, it'll be you."

"You love me," he straightened with a slow smile. "Which is why you'll be coming with me to meet a troll tonight."

I crawled away from him, wagging a finger at him. "No way. Not happening. No more fireballs."

He held both palms up, expression innocent. "You're not telling me the real reason why you're stressed and we both know you can't fight again until the weekend. How about punching the troll around for a bit? Relieve that stress. It's a win-win situation."

I gasped. "You want me to punch a troll?"

"Only just a bit."

"No."

"Okay."

I frowned. "Okay? That's it?"

He nodded, crossed his long legs. "I guess I can't convince you after all. Not as Ian at least."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

Kane winked at me.

I screamed.

Kane- no, Ian laughed. "I've been itching to use this spell for a long time. If I knew that's the reaction I'd get I would've done it sooner."

I could only gape at him. He looked like Kane, down to the single tiny freckle under his right eye- all except his voice which remained Ian's. My brain was telling me this, but my cheeks couldn't stop burning because Kane was staring at me- not glaring for once.

"Turn back," I ordered, hearing the tremble in my voice.

Ka- Ian raised an eyebrow at me. "You going to punch the troll around for me?"

"No," I snarled. "Change back now!"

Ian reached for the hem of his shirt. "Would you do it if I flashed you his abs? They feel pretty solid. Tell you what, I'll even let you feel them."

I leapt forwards, stopped him from lifting the shirt. Which meant I was touching his hands. I jumped back, face on fire. Ian laughed.

"Fine. I'll go punch the stupid troll," I hissed, "but only if you turn back. Right now."

"Are you certain you don't want a feel at these abs?"

I reached for my sneaker but Ian was already gone, the sound of his laughter echoing in the garden.

"I'll pick you up after six," he called.

"Jerk," I threw back half heartily, unsure whether it was him I was cursing at or the blue eyed monster that left me a scrambled mess.

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