-Nina’s POV-

“You okay dude?” I swung my arm around Jace’s shoulder, ruffling up his perm. He shrugged.

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“How am I gonna ask her out?” he sighed, pouting. “My stomach hurts~” he held his stomach while sulking.

I giggled causing him to glare at me.

‘Tell him he’s amazing. He lacks confidence.’ Malia advised in my head. Recently, I’ve been acting more like myself so I decided to listen more to Malia’s orders so I can seem more like her.

I grabbed Jace’s face in my hands, pulling them down in front of me so he could look into my eyes. “Listen, you are better than Allefin. Your hair looks like pot noodles. Naz loves pot noodles-“

“Do you like pot noodles?” he smiled, his cheeks squishing against the sides of my thumb.

“Yes. I love pot noodles. You are handsome and funny. Plus, your smile is super cute.” I finished off as he nodded, smiling. I finally pushed his head away from me, mentally rolling my eyes.

‘Smile.’ Malia reminded me.

I smiled up at him as we continued walking down the hall towards the bathroom.

“Thanks Malia. I really love you, you know that?” he smiled, genuinely at me.

Malia’s heart started to beat faster in me. I guess that made us happy?

I looked back at him, “Same.” I smirked, slapping his head. “Now go to the bathroom, I’m gonna take a walk around the school”

He laughed, running into the bathroom and I didn’t realise… I was genuinely smiling. My eyes widened as I wiped the smile off my face.

The halls were empty and my nose picked up on a delicious smell… Sara.

‘How many times do I have to tell you? We are not going to eat her!’ Malia scolded me.

‘But we already put our claim on herrrrr.’ I whined.

I ignored Malia’s scolding and followed the smell to a small corridor. It was empty and the nearby corridors also were empty. 

I looked through the glass of the door to see Sara and a girl. The girl was yelling in her face and the room looked to be a storage room. There were no lights in the room and the only light came in from the window in the door which I could see through.

How dare she yell at my prey?!

‘Omg…’ Malia sighed, giving up. ‘Give me control.’

‘How? You’re not strong enough. Don’t force it or you’ll be weaker than you are now. Malia, I’m serious; this is really dangerous!’ I panicked but a surge pushed through my skin making me gasp and everything went black.

-Malia’s POV-

I’m back.

I looked down at my hands, rolling my shoulders and getting back into my own skin. Phew. It was so annoying watching Nina say all those stupid things to my friends. She was obviously not anything like me. 

I opened the door, casually walking in. The girl froze along with Sara as they both turned to look at me. I tilted my head at the random girl as she scurried out the room without me having to say a word. Sara tried to follow her but I stepped in front of her with my jaw clenched.

The last memory I have of her was when I begged her to help me but she kicked me away… all for Zeref. She made me bleed red. All for what? Why did she turn on me so aggressively? I get I was in the wrong when I hurt Zeref but I was in a weird state of mind. She was so aggressive about me being wrong. Why?

I tried.

I tried to reach out to her when even Naz didn’t. I protected her when she was attacked. I made sure Nina didn’t rip her head off when we woke up. I could feel the tempt and hunger swirling my insides. I wanted to rip her head off and munch into her neck. I wanted to watch her burst arteries pour out gallons of blood. I wanted to kill her. But I didn’t. 

I showed her vulnerability. I gave her my hand and she took advantage of me. She thought my friendliness was me being weak so she tried to ‘teach me a lesson’. 

I showed her my golden eyes. I showed her my true form. My spirit wolf.

“P-Please don’t kill me…” she whimpered, baring her neck at me in submission. “I know what you are. I-I won’t tell a-anyone. I sw-swear.” she pleaded, getting on her knees and keeping her eyes on the floor.

I looked at the closed door behind me before looking back at her and kneeling down to her height. I reached my hand out and stroked her furry ears again, like the first time we became friends.

“Soft.” 

She looked up at me with a foreign look in her eyes. It wasn’t hatred or jealousy. It was a glint of admiration. I smiled short and softly at her, letting my hand drop to my side again.

“I thought we were friends…” I whispered in the dark. Before she could say anything, I stood up to leave.

My brain fuzzed, blurring my vision and causing me to sway slightly. I stood still, trying to get back my balance. Sara held onto my shoulders, gasping.

“Are you okay?” she whispered, hesitantly removing her hold off my shoulders at my deadly aura. 

“Listen, I know I betrayed you but I was in love with Zeref. He saved me and the way you treated him that night changed me. It was like a feral instinct to avenge him.”

“So you chose to break ties with Naz and all the people who cared about you, for a revenge that Zeref didn’t even want?” I seethed, spinning around to face her. 

Tears welled her eyes but those tears wouldn’t make up for the hurt Naz felt or the betrayal Jace and I felt. Tears wouldn’t make up for her letting Zeref down.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I can offer you. When you showed me who you really were, all those memories of what really happened came back to me. You woke me up from the jealousy I was in. You spared my life-“

“I had no choice. You would’ve been dead if Zeref wasn’t approaching us back then.” I growled, my eyes glowing. She flinched as I took a deep breath in, controlling myself.

“Malia… You have always been what I couldn’t be. You had Zeref and Jace and now you have my best friend. I was jealous and I regret every second of turning on all of you. I was just so in love-“

“You act like I’m stealing what’s yours. People aren’t objects you can own Sara. We have feelings, we make mistakes and we feel pain. If you liked Zeref, you should’ve taken that up with him, not me or Naz or Jace. You should’ve voiced yourself in a better way than turning on all of your friends.”

A single tear ran down her cheek as she nodded. We stood in silence as I watched her sniffle.

“Please give me another chance.” she cried out, wiping her tears and keeping her head down.

I looked at her hesitantly, my mind starting to fog up with a growing pain.

“I forgive you…” I sighed finally. It felt as if a large weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. She looked up at me with a genuinely relieved smile and I had tried to return it but my eyes started to get droopy.

“Mali-“

I fell onto her, causing her to squeak as we both tumbled to the ground. I laid on top of her groaning as she turned bright red in the dark. Placing my right hand next to her head, I pushed myself up. 

Suddenly the door opened.

“OH MY MONARCHS-” Jace’s voice came from behind me causing me to grunt. I got off of Sara as she awkwardly smiled at him. Annoyed at the bad timing, I turned to look at him standing at the doorway with his jaw on the floor.

“MALIA STRONGHOLD- MISS MA’AM!” he yelled as I realised what it looked like.

“You’re gay?” he whispered, looking at Sara up and down. “I feel lied too. As your best friend, I would have liked to know-“

I burst out laughing which caused Sara to laugh with me. “I’m not gay Jace. Sara and I made up.”

“By made up you mean made out-“

“No! We are friends again. I just accidentally fell onto her.” I laughed as Sara nervously looked at him. I ran up to him, hugging him after not being able to for so long. “Let’s go, you two.” I smiled, pulling on Jace and Sara’s hand.

Jace glared at Sara in which she chuckled nervously. “Behave Jace.”

“I AM BEHAVING!” he returned grumpily. He wasn’t happy that I forgave her that easily but he would have to come to terms with it. I couldn’t wait to tell Naz that Sara was back to normal again.

‘Im telling you Malia. It’s all fun and games until you drop dead during the dance in front of everyone.’ Nina warned. It panged the depth of my chest making me uneasy.

‘I won’t.’ I replied hesitantly. Hopefully…