Page 62 of Frayed Owner

“You would think, but I find that’s not normally how it works,” I grumbled, moving my hand to her lower back and leading her towards the cafeteria. Someone came storming towards her before we reached the entrance and I was ready to handle it.

But Derek came in first and blocked the guy, shoving him back from Bevin. “You forget yourself, Professor.”

Oh shit. I hadn’t even known the guy was a teacher. He must have been hired to teach underclassman classes after I’d moved up.

He tried to push past Derek, but he kept his hand on the professor’s chest. Still, he focused on Bevin. “You’ve gone too far this time, Ms. Millen. There are rules about confession magic and—”

“That’s not what I did,” Bevin cut in firmly. “And the headmaster approved it.” She nodded when everyone froze. “He found it hilarious, so you might want to—”

Derek wisely cleared his throat. “It’s true.” He looked around at everyone since we had an audience gathered. “Ms. Millen hasrepeatedlysaid this crap of everyone going for easy targets and focusing on the freshmen was disgusting and definitely not in the spirit of the Wicked Challenges.

“They also aren’t supposed to always benegative. I suggest everyone read the banners and put their brains to use.” Derek pushed the professor back again. “It’s not a confession spell or you would have been telling everything, notpraisingsomeone. The wrong someone I would guess from how upset you are.”

Nailed it. The professor bared his teeth at Derek.

“It’s an old spell that moms used to use when kids fought,” Bevin elaborated. “Or one was bullying the other. The idea was for them to be grounded to the same room and they would start saying nice things to each other and hopefully find common ground. Stop being little shits.” She held her arms out wide and gestured around.

“Sounds a lot like this campus,” I chuckled darkly, crossing my arms over my wide chest. “And a lot of us are tired of it. Alotof the master’s students are over this trend of the seniors going for the freshmen. We were better than that. You all should be too.

“So yeah, it was Bevin’s idea, butIknew how to make it happen as a master’s student. I put in the magic too. This was our prank.” I winked at her when she looked at me, making it clear that I wasn’t trying to steal her credit or even points. “It’s clear that she’s going to be the Wicked Queen at the end of the semester, and I want to be the king standing next to her.”

I loved when she flushed all the way up to her ears. Damn, it was sexy.

I met the professor’s gaze, noting the change in him. “Funny how you’re not so gung ho to chew me out like you were her, huh?”

He bristled at that. “It was her explanation, and that is in the parameters of the challenges. I wasvalidto explode too if she used confession magic. That is against—”

“It’s actually not and has been used before,” Headmaster Kerwynn said from behind me. “It’s normally just quick and targeted.” He glanced all around the huge group we now had. “And this was approved. Millen and Green checked with me because it would get everyone given they did dozens of doorways. So take the prank in the spirit of it.”

He pointed to one of the banners as if his message wasn’t clear enough.

“Freeze,” Bevin yelled in Latin, her magic activating her intention. She darted away from us.

I didn’t understand what was going on until I followed the line of where she was heading… And saw a guy frozen with his hand raised to hit a woman.

Shit.

And Bevin was faster than all of us. She moved the woman away and asked her if she was okay.

“Thank you,” the woman said. “You’re so much nicer than people say. You’re the only one who has ever cared when they witness him hit me.” She hurried to cover her mouth, fear in her eyes.

“Why was he going to hit you?” she asked.

“You’re in enough trouble,” the guy warned the woman. “Shut your damn mouth. And you release me, Shaw.”

“Fuck off,” Bevin drawled, not even looking at the guy, focused on the woman. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”

“It’s your fault,” the guy yelled. “This stupid prank is over the top again. You’re going to really pay for—”

“I couldn’t come up with anything nice to say,” she whispered, shooting a worried glance at me as I approached. “Or the spell wasn’t making me say nice things. It was all the normal things I say to him and he caught on. When the spell was clarified and he figured out I had nothing nice to say about him, he got furious.”

“And you think you have the right to hit her?” Bevin snarled at the guy.

“She’s my fiancée,” he replied.

Bevin launched for him, but luckily I had quick reflexes, catching her around the waist and holding her against my chest. “He’s not worth it and you’re too pretty for jail, Bev.”

She struggled against me. “We’re not fucking property you can just treat however! You’re fucking pathetic and you deserve to get beat.Youare the problem if she has nothing nice to say about you, nother. What would be good about you? You smack your fiancée? You’re controlling and—”

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