I was nervous the entire day, trying not to lose focus and trying not to let myself give in to the inclination to just chicken out and not say a word.  By the time I met Riven for lunch, I was a big, worried mess.

He seemed to notice that and gave me a confused, if somewhat concerned, look.  “Is everything okay?  You seem upset.”

“Yeah, I mean no,” I struggled to figure out how to start this, but looking at him and his sweet face, a patient expression there while he waited for me to explain, I couldn’t help but just spit it out.  I couldn’t let this guy be taken advantage of anymore.

“It’s your friend, Brian, he’s not – he’s not really having family issues or whatever he’s telling you, he just makes stuff up so you’ll help him with his homework and projects and all, but when he’s not with you he’s joking around with his friends about how he doesn’t have to worry about homework anymore because someone does it for him and he doesn’t – he’s just taking advantage of you.”  I blurted it all out, then looked at Riven anxiously.  “I – I may have followed him around some and asked about him when I thought that was the case, and kind of listened in on conversations just to make sure.  He’s not – he’s not a good friend, Riven.  I don’t want to take away friends that you have but he’s just not – he’s not a good friend.  He’s just taking advantage of you and I hate that.”

“Oh.”  Riven had stilled during my little rant, but otherwise had given almost no indication that he’d even heard me.  This was probably a lot to take in all at once, but I was still nervous about his response and needed to find out if he blamed me for trying to break him up with one of the few friends he had.  It wasn’t like that, honestly, I just didn’t want Brian to keep taking advantage of him.

“Did you realize that because you’re one of – ” Riven suddenly cut himself off, his eyes going wide as he stared at me briefly.  He seemed horrified, then terrified, and I didn’t understand what happened.

“Sorry, sorry,” he babbled abruptly, then grabbed his things in a rush.  “So sorry.”  And without another word, he rushed off, leaving me behind, stunned and alone.

In a daze, I returned to my classes but spent the entire rest of the day pondering over what happened and being confused about Riven’s response.  He didn’t initially seem that upset, but what had changed?  And why did he look so scared?  And why had he apologized to me?  That made no sense.

I tried to catch him later that day to talk through what happened, but saw, to my own horror, that the moment he spotted me waiting for him, all the color drained from his face and then he darted off in another direction.

My heart got heavier and heavier the more I thought about it and by the time I got home, I just went upstairs to my bedroom, curled up on my bed, and cried my heart out.

Riven was scared of me now, all because I’d tried to tell him the truth.

I didn’t know how to survive this.

It only got worse from there.  I kept trying to talk to Riven, growing more desperate every time I saw him blanch and practically run the other way.  He started deliberately avoiding the tree where we used to meet and anywhere where I might overlap with him.  If he did see me, I couldn’t miss the look of fear in his eyes and each time, it was like a stab to my heart.  I tried even putting a note in his locker, begging him to just talk to me, but he didn’t respond and after that I noticed, when I tried to watch him from a safe distance, that he seemed extra jittery around his locker, looking around as if he expected something bad to happen every time he came near it.

The idea that he might be scared of me, for reasons I didn’t understand, tore at my heart and made me wish desperately that there was some way to go back in time and fix this.

Because Dad was wrong.  The soulmate bond wasn’t helping with anything, Riven actually seemed to get worse every time he saw me.

There was no way to fix this.

By the end of a week of this, I felt broken-hearted and miserable, practically dragging myself to each class and finding some spot to curl up alone in during any free time.  I wondered if I should ask Mom if I could transfer back.  I wondered if Dad knew how to fix broken hearts.

I was hiding behind the bleachers in the gym – located in Building Two – when I heard voices.  At first I slid further back to make sure no one would see me, but then I recognized the voices and froze a bit.

“What’s the deal, Riven?”  Brian sounded a little angry.  “You’re not free to help anymore?  What happened?  I thought you cared about me!  Some friend you’re turning out to be.”

“You don’t really need the help, do you?”  Riven’s voice was quieter, hesitant.  “You lied to me about all that stuff – you just wanted me to do your work for you.”

A pause, then Brian laughed a rough laugh.  “Don’t know how you figured it out, but fine, no point in lying now, I guess.  Yeah, I want you to do my work for me.  So come on, don’t be stubborn about it.”

I peeked around the corner cautiously to see Riven shaking his head, hugging his backpack to his chest.

“It was one thing when I thought you needed it because you were in a tough situation,” he told Brian.  “But it still wasn’t really okay then, I just was making allowances because of the situation.  I’m not helping you anymore.”

“You don’t get it, do you?”  Brian took a step forward, and Riven instinctively gulped and took a step backwards.  “I’m not giving you a choice.  You’ll do what I want.”

Riven’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t look like he was going to back down.  “No, I won’t.  You can’t bully me, Brian.  I can just tell the teachers the truth.”

“Oh no,” Brian growled – a literal growl which concerned me about the nature of his shifter form – “you will do what I want, or else I’ll make your life extra painful for you.”

He pulled his arm back, forming a fist, and I saw Riven flinch and steel himself for the blow.

I wasn’t about to let that happen.

I darted out from behind the bleachers, planting myself in between them and giving Brian a furious scowl.  “Leave him alone,” I snapped.  “Back off, or I will have you reported.”

Riven wouldn’t know that by that I meant reported to supernatural people, he probably would assume I just meant to school authorities.

Brian hesitated, then sneered at me.  “Oh, the rich little prince comes to save the day – let’s see what you’re really made of, huh?”

Was he crazy?  He wanted to attack me – us – in the middle of the school and have me show off my magical talents?  Nevermind that I was bluffing about attacking him, that was just stupid!  Pure stupid!  No wonder they’d had complaints about supernaturals being reckless!

Without waiting to see if he would carry up on his threat, I grabbed Riven’s hand and started to run, dragging him along with me.  Out the gym door, across the tennis courts, into the woods beyond.  Woods were my friends, I could lose the stupid shifter in here without worrying about him revealing anything to humans at the school.

I did not, however, count on Brian being a bear shifter who was charging after us with a lot more speed than I would have expected.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” I mumbled as I dragged Riven through the woods, trying to lose the bear behind us.  What was Riven thinking of all of this?  This was not the way to introduce him to the supernatural world, but I didn’t exactly have much of a choice now.

Brian was gaining on us, I didn’t think we could lose him in the woods after all.  I nearly swore and then shoved my bag at Riven.  “Hold this,” I ordered, turning to face Brian, hoping Riven would just stay put and not run off despite the situation.  I couldn’t risk Brian trying to chase him down if this didn’t work right.

My magic was slow to come.  A late bloomer, as my parents called me, but bottom line was I had a lot less magic than most fairies my age.  I should, though, still have enough for this.  Maybe.  I hoped.  Especially since Riven’s life might be on the line here, and I had to protect him.

I bit my lip as I watched Brian thunder towards us, then, touching one of the trees, I pleaded with the forest and my magic to just cooperate.

It did.

Brian was running towards us when all of a sudden the trees themselves shifted, their roots flying up to catch his paws and twine around his legs, bark dropping off to form a muzzle in the same moment.  Brian was pulled to a dead stop and then attempted to thrash around, growling, but was unable to pull himself loose.  He tried shifting back – ignoring the fact that he was doing so in front of a human – but the roots just twisted tighter around him, trapping him in place.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief and then remembered something.

Riven.  Riven had just watched all of this happen.

I swung around to look at him anxiously.  “Please – I know this is a lot, I’ll explain, please don’t freak out.”

Actually, he looked surprisingly un-freaked out, just blinking at Brian in surprise.  That was, until he heard my words and remembered I was there, and looked back at me with that flash of fear in his eyes again.

“No, please,” I begged him, “don’t be afraid of me.  I’d never hurt you!  Never.  Honestly, I just wanted to – oh,” I glanced back at Brian as he started making noises, “um,” I turned back to Riven, reaching into my backpack to find my phone.  “I promise to explain everything, and I promise I won’t hurt you, I’ll answer any questions you might have, but I kind of need to call my mom and get someone to take care of him, okay?  Just give me, uh, 10 minutes?”

Riven hesitated, then nodded, still holding both our backpacks.  He didn’t say a word as I called Mom and briefly told her what happened or as we both stood there in silence.

Mom did get there about as my 10 minutes were up, along with a couple of patrol officers.  I nodded to her briefly and then grabbed Riven’s elbow and started escorting him away just as we could hear Mom’s voice reach our ears.

“What were you thinking?!?!”  She was demanding.  “What kind of moron tries to start a magic fight in the middle of a high school, in front of a human?”

I dragged Riven further into the woods, not daring to really breathe deep until we reached a little creek.  Hesitantly, I sat down, and waited until he did the same.

“So,” I said, not sure where to really start with all of this, “I suppose you have a lot of questions, but you really need to know first that I would never ever hurt you.”

His brows furrowed up a bit, but he nodded after a pause.

That gave me a bit of hope, so I started trying to explain all of this as briefly as possible.  “So, um, there are a lot of supernaturals in the world, actually.  I’m a fairy – so is my family – while Brian is a shifter.  It’s kind of like what people think of as werewolves, I guess, only in a bunch of different varieties?  Wolves are only one type, like you saw, Brian is a bear shifter.  So, uh, there’s actually several supernaturals in our school, but we’re not allowed to harm humans and he never should have done anything as stupid as trying to attack another supernatural in the school in front of humans.  There’s just so many things that could go wrong there.  But, um, not really the main point, I guess.  Uh…what would you like to know?”  I had no idea how to go about this.  I just needed him to understand I wouldn’t hurt him and he didn’t have to be afraid.

Riven was still looking at the creek, his profile not giving anything away to me.  “Nicole, Paige, Isabelle, Henry, Simeon, Quinn, Matthias, and Alvin.”

For a moment, I didn’t understand, and then a link appeared in my head.

Those were all the other supernatural students at the school.

This time it was my turn to look surprised.  “How – how did you know?”

It took him a long moment to answer.  “I see things,” he finally whispered.  “I have my entire life.  I don’t know why.  Sometimes I thought I was just crazy.”

If what he was seeing related to supernaturals, though, that sounded less crazy and more…magical.  “What kind of things?”  I scooted a little closer.

He glanced in my direction, but not enough to look me in the eyes.  “I don’t know.  Everything?  I knew Brian was a bear, I know you have wings, I see them.”

My eyes widened.  Wait.  He had – he had known I was supernatural all along?  He knew about the supernatural world?

“You knew about all of this?”  I asked excitedly.  “You knew?  You weren’t protected, so I just assumed you didn’t, but I was terrified of telling you in case it scared you off.”

He slowly turned to face me, his expression somewhat confused.  “You’re…not upset that I can see that?”

I thought for a moment.  “I don’t know why you can see that,” I admitted, “I’m not aware of any species that can see stuff like that, but who cares?  It’s not like you’re out there using it for bad stuff.  I’m actually impressed you can hide it so well.”

His shoulders slumped a little.  “I thought – I thought you’d be mad when you realized I knew,” he whispered.

Pieces of the puzzle started to fit together.  “That’s why you’ve been running away from me the last week?  Why you were scared of me?  Not because of what I said about Brian?”

Riven shook his head, the faintest tint of a blush on his face.  I found it fascinating.  “No, I knew you wouldn’t say that without a reason, and I did believe you.  It’s just – I started to say something which I realized might tell you I knew you weren’t human and I was scared that would upset you.”

Relief.  So much relief that I forgot myself and flung my arms around his neck, squeezing the taller boy tightly.  “No, no, no, I don’t care one bit, actually I’m happy, it makes it all easier since you know some stuff already, just please, please don’t be afraid of me!”  I pulled back and gave him the biggest smile I possessed.