Conflict defusing. That was clear from the way the familiars and even natural animals all around us were on edge. Something major was going on that I didn’t understand yet.
I nodded and walked briskly towards them.
Except I got it all wrong in the end and absolutely threw fuel on the fire with what I tried to do. I ended up decidingto glamour cat ears on all of the top-tier studentsthinkingthat would break the tension and people would chuckle and chill.
Yeah, I really needed to work on my ability to react and assess situations when the tension got to me and my anxiety shot up. Normally, I would have known that wouldn’t have helped. Never in a million years would puttingcat earson any top-tieranyonehave improved any situation.
Idiot.
And when all of the other students burst out laughing thinking that I’d joined in to help them, everything exploded. At least five of the top-tier students built magic fast and it was focused on me.
Before they could launch it, a strong arm wrapped around me and magic I knew enveloped us.
My eyes went wide as the barrier shook, knowing what was sent at us wasn’t small.
“Over the fucking line,” Winter bellowed as he kept me in place against him. “She put fucking cat ears on you, not hurt you! You sentmaulingmagic at her for that? Are you out of your fucking minds?”
“Who the fuck is she to—” one started to say, but his friend elbowed him.
“That’s not what he did, and you have no proof we did,” that friend said firmly.
“Oh, but I saw it,” Mrs. Reid purred.
That guy smirked at her. “Yes, but your husband doesn’t have the stones to do anything about it against our families, does he? And you’re just his mate so—”
I threw magic at the guy from behind Winter’s barrier and the guy went down hard, unable to talk. Everyone slowly looked at me like I’d grown another head. I cleared my throat. “We’re dating. We’ve used magic together before.”
“I insisted on it given how unhinged people are around her,” Winter added, backing me up. He gave me a curious look. “Cat ears?”
I winced. “I was trying to implement what Emma taught me. I’m clearly not ready.” I sighed and gestured to the other top-tier students. “I know better than this. Even if—this was the wrong move.”
He kissed my hair and comforted me that it was a good try.
Yeah, sure it was.
The long story of it all was that the top-tier students hadtriedto do what I had with Winter and his friends or even Gloria and her friends and had failed.
Miserably. They’d underestimated everyone and not remotely put enough power into their plans thinking they were so much better and stronger than people.
And of course, the first to feel the magic mocked them. When it hadn’t even remotely worked on them and the normal students—the ones they calledlow-born—easily blocked it, they laid into the students from top-tier families.
Then I walked in and gave them cat ears.
Yeahhhhh, so clearly I needed to work more with Emma and pull my head out of my cute arse. Fine, Winter said the part about me having a cute arse later when I was picking on myself.
Right then, there was still a mess.
“You guys deserved this after you shit all over the people who were already doing stuff like this for the Wicked Challenges,” Danny interjected when things started to get heated again.
I reached out and blocked his face at the last second, everyone jumping around us. I shot an angry look at the squirrel familiar before the warlock he belonged to. “Really? You’re such an asshole and chicken shit, you have your familiar throw shit?”
The warlock gave me a bored look and raised an eyebrow. “They’re animals, Shaw. They do what they want and—”
“If that was true, their large familiars would chomp on people. I’m sorry you’re not talented enough to control your familiar and have such an unruly little shit squirrel,” I said firmly.
Winter cleared his throat and waited until I met his gaze. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear you talk so badly about a cute little squirrel. The little guy just—”
“Are you really siding with the squirrel over me?” I asked him, giving him the look he deserved for how stupid that truly was. “The woman you want to see naked? Even I’m not that dense, Winter. For real.”
