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“It did work. Mason was thinking about pushing the envelope, and I gave him a warning, putting him in his place. The reason I felt confident doing that was because I knew Icould.” My hands were on my hips, andflustereddidn’t quite describe my agitation with this man.

“But you shouldn’t have let him touch you at all.That’sthe problem,” he said, looking a little rough around the edges himself.

“You were going to let me take it on the chin. What’s the difference?” I threw my hands in the air. How did this make sense to him?

“I wasn’t going to let anyone touch you.”

“You’re saying you would’ve been able to stop them mid-swing?” I tilted my head back. That was the biggest load of bullshit anyone had ever tried to serve me.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. They never would’ve touched you.”

Had to give it to him—he did try to sound convincing.

“Don’t try to paint this situation in rainbow colors now that the rain’s gone when we all know it was a dingy, dark sky.”

“Take a swing at me.” He curled his finger, urging me closer.

“We’ve done this game before. I know you have fast reflexes. It doesn’t prove anything.” I shrugged, topping it off with an annoyed sigh. Those seemed to irritate him even worse than anything I said.

“I won’t move. Now take a swing.”

I took the bait, eagerly, in fact. He was trying to rewrite history, and I wasn’t going to let him.

I swung.

He said, “Stop,” right before my fist connected, and it was as if I’d hit a wall of granite I couldn’t push through. Not for lack of trying. I reached back and did it again, and then again. I couldn’t touch him.

He smiled. It was such a gloating smile that it was worse than a full-blownI told you so.

Dammit. I was really getting sick of his winning. The only thing that softened the loss was that he really wasn’t going to let them hurt me. I was happy and pissed off all at once.

I still had a problem.

“Fine. Maybe you could’ve stopped them, but now that I know, your bully training tactic is no longer going to be effective. I’m not going to be able to knock out someone when I know they aren’t even going to get a chance to hurt me.”

I kicked a couple of stones as I took a few steps away from him, cursing a bit as I did.

“As I see it, we’re on the same page. We need to find a different way.”

Another win for him. I muttered a few more curses before I finally turned to him and asked, “Well, do you have any other ideas, then?”

“I do. They’ll be here soon.”

A few minutes later, the Kradix who had stood with me against Mason, and the few Kradix who had sided with him, started making their way into the field.

“What are they doing here? Is this a mob-type deal?” I’d gotten used to fighting bullies one on one. This might be a bit much.Orit might be perfect. If I could manage a horde, I’d be nearly invincible.

“I realized that instead of fighting random bullies, you should be fighting with Kradix. They’re your people now, and you need to realize it. Just as they need to realize you are one of them, willing to put yourself in harm’s way to defend them. Best way for that to happen is sparring together. Your magic is defensive. What’s a better way to bring it out than make you feel protective of everyone?”

Slowly the field filled with all the faces I’d already known, but didn’t really know at all.

“They’re here to fight?” I asked, goosebumps spreading down my arms. I was going to “have people”? I’d never had this many people in my life.

“Fight beside you.” He gave a nod while watching me. “I occasionally have some good ideas.”

“Fight besideus,” I said, the idea filling me with some foreign sense of belonging.

They walked closer. I knew all the faces and the names, but I didn’t reallyknowthem. Some of them were staring at me with hesitance, as if they weren’t sure how trustworthy I could be. Hopefully that would change as we trained with each other every day.