Trust From Within - Book 3 Daughter of a Monster Series

Chapter 3- Defensive Magic

Tara tugs at my arm, but I dig my heels in, making her drag me towards the portal again. "No Tara, I can't. What if he doesn't like me? I made such a fool of myself, I-"

"Okay, first of all, did you see the way he was looking at you?" Tara interjects, spinning me around by my shoulders so she's staring straight into my eyes. "Second of all, you two are mates, of course he's going to like you."

"Oh my god, someone likes Jade? That's a first!" Liam interjects as he walks up to us, leaning on Tara's shoulder dramatically. I playfully punch his arm and he laughs, rubbing at his arm. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"I don't know," I mumble.

"Wait... what? You didn't get his name or anything?" he asks.

"Nope, because she saw him and fled."

"Hold on- was he cute?"

"Yes-"

My magic growls lowly at them and I screw my eyes shut, reining it in, my body tensing with the strain of keeping my magic away from the two people in front of me. "Woah, Jade, you okay?" Liam asks worriedly.

"Yep, fine, just trying to keep my magic from killing you," I tell him, my eyes still tightly shut and fists in balls as I speak through clenched teeth.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, a familiar magic wrapping around mine and calming mine down almost instantly. I look up to meet white eyes. "You okay?" Dad asks worriedly, his magic embracing mine and giving it a once over.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. I gotta go, Tara are you coming with or not?" I say, ducking under Dad's arm and running the few steps towards Tara. It's not that things are awkward or anything, it's just, I know what Dad's reaction will be to me saying I found my mate.

'I want to meet him'.

It's something all dads say, Steve said it whenever I even looked at a guy, and that's nothing compared to this. So, I push myself into Tara's side and she wraps her arm around my shoulders with a chuckle, the two of us stepping through the portal, leaving behind a dumbstruck Dad.

Grass takes ahold of my feet as I step down into the familiar meadow, a smug Tara following. "So-"

"Don't even start," I bite out, glaring at her. "I didn't really want to tell Dad that I've found my damn mate."

"True, he would flip his shit."

The portal wavers again and both Tara and I turn around to see a familiar black haired boy stumble through to the other side. "Liam, what are you doing here?" Tara half laughs.

"Well, I thought Jade here might need a wingman," he says.

"Why do you think I'm here?"

"Wingman. You're her wingwoman. Just as important, but she needs some male advice."

"And I would totally take that from you," I reply sarcastically.

"I don't see why not," he responds with a shrug, walking ahead of us. "Now, I believe there's a date we need to secure with Jade and this mysterious guy." I roll my eyes and we continue through the forest to the village where I first caught sight of this guy that has my magic buzzing excitedly like a teenage girl.

Wait... I am a teenage girl...

Eventually, we get to the village, my magic swirling the butterflies up in my stomach, my limbs subtly shaking, the excitement and nervousness coursing through me. We may not even be able to find the guy, so I don't know what I'm getting so excited about. We walk through the streets of the little village, people busily rushing by on different errands, paying no heed to the newcomers.