by ERIN BEDFORD
"Well, yeah." Chad dragged his hand through his hair again and then shrugged. "But it's not just that. She's so cool. She knows so much. Like important stuff. It's not all about getting married and finding the right magical china pattern with her."
"How long have you guys been talking exactly?" I couldn't help but ask. I needed to know what I was dealing with here. Were they just talking good fun in a flirty non-serious kind of way? Or were they talking in more of an ‘I want to be around you and no one else’ kind of way? Seeing as Callie hadn't mentioned him to me once in the last few months, I was hoping for the first one.
Chad took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Since the welcome party."
"You guys have been talking for that long?” My mouth dropped open, and I blinked several times to get my mind to reactivate. “Why am I just hearing about it?"
Trina came up beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder to give me a tight hug. "Maybe she was insecure about what it might become."
"Or she was ashamed of Chadwick Von Wood," Sabrina unhelpfully supplied. "He's a walking dick joke waiting to happen. Besides, he's not exactly serious boyfriend material."
"Hello, the walking dick joke is still here?" Chad waved a hand with a scowl. "Damn, Sabrina, you really know how to let a guy have it."
Sabrina lifted a shoulder, a bored expression on her face. "I just tell it how I see it, Von Wood."
"Anyway, that’s off topic." I waved my hands between them to break up their little snit. "Chad, why aren't you taking Beth Ann?"
Chad snorted. "Look, Beth Ann and I might be engaged by our parents’ standards, but she doesn't want anything to do with me. Man, she already had a date when I asked Callie.” He shrugged his shoulders. "So, I figured that I was a free agent."
Sabrina barked a laugh. "Ha. No such thing with Beth Ann."
"Right." I pointed at Sabrina and narrowed a look at Chad. "I have to agree with Sabrina on this one. You are here trying to get me to keep your would-be fiancé away from your... girlfriend? Are you two boyfriend/girlfriend?"
"I don't know.” Chad gave me a goofy kind of grin. “I was gonna ask her tonight."
"You do know, Beth Ann is going to blow a gasket." Sabrina mimed an explosion with her hands and mouth. "I mean, nuclear. Not just because you are bringing someone else, because obviously, she's doing the same but because you're bringing a human and that said human is besties with her competition. Not that she even has a chance in hell with Ian."
I gave Sabrina a grateful smile before turning back to Chad. "Look, I want what is best for Callie. If she wants to be with you, fine, but you have to be able to stand up to Beth Ann. You know as well as I do that, without magic, Callie is a sitting duck for Beth Ann's torment, and I'm not about to have that happen. If you can't promise me that you'll protect her, you won't be dating her long." I paused for dramatic effect. "So, can you protect her?"
Chad's face grew serious, his eyes hardened, and his lips pressed into a thin straight line. With a jerk of his chin, Chad said without any hint of that fun loving guy in there, "With my life."
"Good.” I patted Chad on the chest. “Then we won't have a problem."
Chad sagged as if being serious for that long had taken a lot out of him. He gave me a lopsided grin. "Thanks, Max. So, I'll see ya there?"
"Looks like it." I grinned at him. Chad waved a hand at the rest of them and I closed the door behind me. When the door was firmly closed, I rushed over to my desk and snatched up my phone to rapidly type out a text to Callie.
Me: When were you going to tell me you were dating Chadwick Von Wood?????
"I hope you know that tonight is going to be a disaster." Sabrina glanced over my shoulder as I typed another message to Callie when she didn't immediately answer.
I glowered in her direction. "I am aware, thank you, Queen Obvious."
"I'm just saying... Beth Ann already hates you because of Ian, but now, your human friend is dating her fiancé?" Sabrina huffed a laugh as she adjusted her white sheer dress so that it didn't show so much side boob. "If you're not dead meat, then Callie certainly is."
"I'm not going to let that happen," I snapped back, clutching my phone tightly in my hand.
"You mean that we are." Trina moved to stand beside me with a lethal grin.
"No, honey." Libby took Trina's arm with a frown. "That's wrong. Max isn't more than one person."
Trina and I exchanged a look before Trina took Libby's hand. "I mean, we are going to help her keep Callie safe."
"Oh." Libby's eyes widened as her mouth formed a large o-shape. Nodding enthusiastically, she grinned. "Oh, yeah. Definitely. That's what friends do, even if they are just humans."
I rolled my eyes and held back a laugh. I couldn't fault the girl. It just wouldn't be fair. "Thanks, Libby." To the rest of them, I clasped my hands together. "So, are we ready?"
Before any of them could answer, another knock came to my dorm room door. I sighed and marched over to it, muttering, "I swear if this is another wizard wanting to date someone I'm friends with, I'm going to hex them. I'm at my quota today."
"How about a boyfriend looking to pick up his gorgeous girlfriend?" Ian answered as I opened the door. Looking sexy as all get out as a fairy prince in a pair of light green pants and a leaf covered vest along with his own pair of charmed wings, Ian defined the word lickable.
"Hey," I breathed, unable to rip my eyes away from his delectable abs as he leaned against the door frame. He looked good, a lot better than the last few weeks for sure. The dark circles under his eyes were gone, and he actually seemed like he wanted to be here. I hadn't even had a chance to talk to him about lunch with his mom and Beth Ann this past week, and it looked like I might not even need to.
"If you keep eye fucking him like that, some of us are gonna need protection for the backlash," Sabrina joked without a hint of animosity.
At her words, I shook my head and beamed up at Ian. "You look great."
"So do you." Ian leaned down and kissed me on the lips, careful not to mess up my makeup. "The others are waiting in the quad. Didn't think there was enough room for all of our wings in this hallway."
"Hold up!" Sabrina jumped off the bed and scowled. "You're saying all four of you dressed up like poncy fairy princes with wings for her?" Sabrina threw a hand in my direction, all pretense of friendship gone. There was the Sabrina I knew. Pouting as she crossed her arms, Sabrina sulked. "I couldn't even get Paul to wear matching costumes, let alone girly ones like this."
"Hey!" Ian protested as he flexed his biceps. "Doesn't any part of this look girly?"
My eyes trailed over his form before more lingering in a few places longer than appropriate. I licked my lips and murmured, "Not from where I'm standing."
Ian laughed and drew me out into the hallway. "As I said, not girly." He winked over my shoulder at Sabrina and the others before offering me his arm. "Shall we?"
I nodded eagerly. My fingers curled around his warm bicep, and I swore he flexed just a bit more for my benefit. I didn't care, I loved every second of it.
"See you down there, girls," I called over my shoulder, only half paying them any mind. My head was full of what the others would look like. If Ian was this hot like a fairy, the others had to be a wet dream combined, one that I planned to reenact in reality the moment I could.
As if the universe declared it needed something to ruin my night, my phone dinged in my hand reminding me of the impending doom tonight's party would entail. I groaned at the text from Callie.
Callie: I didn't know how you'd react.
"Callie's dating Chad?" Ian asked as he caught sight of that and my last text.
I groaned and shoved the phone into the lone pocket of my leafy dress. "Yes, and no, I didn't know until like ten minutes ago when Chad showed up at my door, wanting help keeping Beth Ann away."
Ian snort laughed. "Oh, yeah. That's not going to happen. They might as well hide out in his room or another planet because there is no way Beth Ann
is going to let this go."
"That's what I said!" I screeched as my shoulders bunched up around me. My wings smacked into his, and for a second, a tiny thrill went through me. Interesting.
"So, what's the plan?" Ian moved us to the side so a few students could pass, our wings lowering on their own to make room. I think I could get used to this. Not that I needed another new thing in my life right now, but if I could learn to fly with them? That would be badass. Forget the broom. Wings were in!
I sighed and hugged his arm closer. "The plan is to have fun and not let Beth Ann kill Callie. Chad swears that he had it under control but..."
"You're a worrier, I know." Ian tugged on one of the blonde curls I had piled on my head. "Don't worry. If all five of us plus Chad can't keep Beth Ann at bay, no one can."
"Plus Libby and Trina." I pointed out before I frowned. "Maybe Sabrina... but I have a feeling she'd be happier standing on the sidelines cheering as it all went up in smoke."
Ian chuckled as he inclined his head. "Yeah, that's her. She and my mom have something in common there."
The fact that Ian brought up his mom made me stop walking. Ian pulled back his brows furrowing. "What's wrong?"
"About your mom," I chewed on my lower lip with a nervous smile, "I had lunch with her this week."
"You did?" Ian arched a brow, a hint of a smile on his lips. "How did that turn out?"
I groaned, and Ian laughed.
"That good, huh?"
"Worse.” I rolled my eyes. “Beth Ann showed up with her."
Ian let out a bitter laugh. "Not surprising. She’s the only person who was further up my parents’ ass than Sabrina."
I waited for him to ask what we talked about, but he didn't. I wasn't sure if that was because of disinterest or that he was utterly unworried about what might have happened.
"Don't you want to know what we talked about?" I asked at last.
Ian gave me a sideways look. "You mean besides me?"
My brows shot up to my forehead. "You knew?"
"I know that I've not been myself lately," Ian bobbed his head, his eyes facing forward, "but I'm alright now."
He didn't elaborate more, and I couldn't leave well enough alone.
"And the reason you weren't yourself was because of what your parents said right?"
A tiny smile crept up Ian's lips. "You could say that. I want to be sure I make something of myself in the Dark Arts, and the only way I'm going to do that is do something that no one else has been able to do."
"And have you done it?" I was curious to know what he could do in the Dark Arts that was groundbreaking. The name of the art itself wasn't very enlightening, and I feared what he could be getting into that would keep him so run down.
Ian patted my hand as we moved close enough to the quad that the music pouring out made it harder to hear him. "Not yet, but I'm close."
As Ian pulled me into the horde of costumed students, he didn't say anything else about it. I quickly forgot all about it too because the room was everything I had hoped for and more by a Halloween party run by witches and wizards. Bubbles floated through the air, and streams of sparkling light flew by and danced in my hair, making me giggle. Pumpkins carved with faces shifted their expressions and talked to the students passing by on their own.
If the quad wasn’t already a haunted wonderland all of the students dressed up like goblins, fairies, and the like would have tipped it off. Someone had even cast a spell on them so they were as small as hobbits! Now that was dedication.
We passed by the refreshment table where jelly eyeballs watched you as you passed and sausage fingers waved hello. There were gummy spiders that tried to get away as you reached for them and smoking drinks that really gave them the spooky witch feeling.
The event team had really gone all out for this event. I’d have to tell Dale what a good job they did when I saw hm.
Even the floor was charmed with smoke and zombie hands shooting up from the floor. One of them came up beside me, and I shrieked jumping away from it and closer to Ian.
"They won't touch you," Ian shouted in my ear over the music as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Too much of a liability."
"Why have them then?" I asked, relaxing a bit as I watched the hand I'd jumped away from pretend to grab someone else but never quite touching them.
Instead of Ian answering, Dale appeared from the crowd decked out in a rose-colored outfit similar to Ian's and said, "Where's the fun in that?"
"Some of us aren't psychos who like to be scared for fun." I grinned as I approached him and wrapped my arms around his waist. "This is so great. I can’t believe you did all this.”
“Thanks it wasn’t just me but I think it came together okay.”
I snorted. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. And by the way...” My gaze moved over his costume, appreciating the way his outfit showed all the best aspects of him. He had run some product through his wily auburn hair and that, paired with his glasses, caused a warmth to burn low between my thighs. “You look good."
After he pressed a kiss to my lips that left me gasping, Dale stroked the skin below the line of my dress. "So do you. Wings become you."
"You too." My eyes drifted to his wings, a matching pair of emerald green ones folded close to his body. It seemed everyone knew to get charmed wings but me. "Where are the others?"
“Here.” Paul pushed through the crowd with Aidan close on his heels. Paul looked just as delicious as Ian, but in a more princely manner than his bad boy brother. His eyes twinkled in the magical lighting, and his hair fell into his face where he kept pushing it back. The wings on his back were pale blue and flickered a darker tint every so often to match his pants and top.
“Oh, my.” My hand came up to my mouth to hide the grin I couldn’t hold back as I took in Aidan’s appearance. If there was one guy on campus who shouldn’t have dressed as a fairy, it was my large masculine boyfriend Aidan. While his clothes fit him perfectly and the red wings were just like the others, he looked downright ridiculous in an adorably cute way. He had a flat expression on his face as if he couldn’t decide if he liked or hated what he was wearing but had just given into it.
Unable to help myself, I poked at his bare abs. “So, what do you think of the wings? Think they’d be more fun than a broom?”
Aidan flexed his wings and then, with a thoughtful expression, grunted, “Not big enough.”
“Not big enough?” I laughed. “They’re already like six feet wide. I’m having issues not running into anyone.”
Shaking his head, Aidan held his hands out to measure. “The weight to size ratio is off. They wouldn’t hold me.” His eyes skimmed over my form, making me flush. “Maybe you.”
I giggled pleased and let my hands play on his abs for a moment before my eyes caught onto a familiar dark head of hair. I turned to get a good luck at Callie, and my mouth dropped open and my eyes widened at the pink Renaissance dress covering my best friend’s body.
“Callie!” I called out over the music, and my bestie turned from where she was giggling at Chad to me. For a second, guilt covered her face but then she plastered a smile on her face, lifted her skirts, and hurried toward me. Chad quickly followed much to my surprise. His eyes moved with her a smile never too far from his lips even as he kept checking around the room nervously, no doubt looking for Beth Ann.
“Max, you look... Wow!” Callie clasped my arms with her hands and took in my whole outfit. “This is so cool.” She focused on my fairy wings. “Are those real?”
I lifted a shoulder and grinned. “For the night. What about you?” I let my eyes roam over the petticoats and bows of her dress, admiring the way her waist looked so tiny. I bet that corset was a bitch in a hair to put on. “Why didn’t you come over and get ready? I would have helped you.” I let out a small pout and stomp of my foot.
Callie smiled shyly at Chad. “I didn’t know what to say...”
“Yo, Broomstein... es, Templar, Varnes!” Chad
nodded to each of my guys, shaking a few of their hands and blowing up fists like they were old buddies. A chorus of Von Wood’s was returned before they started to talk about the upcoming Game, a broom race from what I could overhear.
It was an event I still wasn’t sure that I would even be participating in. I still hadn’t gotten much better at keeping my shit together broom-riding after the first class, even with Aidan there to hold my hand. I pushed that thought aside as I focused on Callie. I looped my arm with hers and pulled her to the side, so we had some privacy.
“You could have just told me you know,” I said quietly. “I wouldn’t have judged. Besides, Beth Ann obviously doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Chad, who seems like a good guy by the way. That witch keeps trying to shove her way into Ian’s life even if she’s not dating him.” And when I said witch, I really meant bitch. That woman was winning no personality awards here.
Callie chewed on her lower lip to try to hold back a dreamy smile. “Yeah, he kind of is, isn’t he? Beth Ann can kiss my perfectly sculpted ass. Chad told me all about their arranged marriage and how he wasn’t even their first choice.” She growled and sniffed, her eyes locking onto someone behind me. “Like she has any right to be that picky. She couldn’t tell a real man if it kissed her on her phony ass.”
I chuckled and mock hissed. “Me-ow. Someone’s jealous.”
“Not jealous.” Callie put her nose in the air. “Determined. I won’t let Beth Ann and her parents ruin what could possibly be something real for Chad and me.” She paused and squirmed for a moment. “Even if we’re ill-matched.”
“Why would you even think that?” I scoffed. “Ill-matched. He should be so lucky.” I threw Chad a vicious look that he frowned at but didn’t ask about.
Callie shifted in place. “Well, I am a human. He’s a wizard.”
“So?”
With an exasperated sigh, Callie groaned, “People will talk.”
Before I could get a word out to counter her, a whiff of evil floated by. Oh, wait! That was just Beth Ann.