The Magic In Me
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
/0/22775/coverbig.jpg?v=20230726090633)
The Magic In Me
It had been just four months since Isabel Andrew and her Father, Mr. Jacob Andrew moved to Nomay. She had lived the life of a human all her life, always moving from one town, country or continent to another without having any particular reason as to why, only that her father's job required it.
/0/40192/coverbig.jpg?v=5fc57f0929c1b151d4e59e93fd4365e4)
Magic in the Moonlight
Yesterday, my name was Elizabeth Summers. I was 43 years old with a good job that I didn’t like much, but it paid the bills. When I woke up today, I was told my name is Kimberly Sparks. My birth certificate says I’m 24 years old. I don’t have a job or a place to live. But there’s a seriously hot guy
/0/12875/coverbig.jpg?v=82d6558ad0b528dbf027bfb191ed35ed)
/0/7685/coverbig.jpg?v=92e81d68e7ca2634f1cd44563e08a375)
Italy, the Magic Land
Trajectory presents classics of world literature with 21st century features! Our original-text editions include the following visual enhancements to foster a deeper understanding of the work: Word Clouds at the start of each chapter highlight important words. Word, sentence, paragraph counts, and re
/0/40159/coverbig.jpg?v=2fb145e254b8fe5fbbc43512031def6c)
THE BEAST IN ME
I shivered in the darkness, the air stale, damp and cold making goosebumps appear on my bare skin. The low rumbles and huffs which were coming from behind made me a little scared, and I knew the beast was still there, watching me with interest. I knew screaming and calling for help was futile s
/0/20264/coverbig.jpg?v=3b2e6255a3760ea94b948194a37acca8)
The Wolf In Me
Luka, who was in his twenties had his life all settled with a well paid job as a journalist and photographer. Despite having interest in a young colleague working with him, she has never showed interest in him, so he decided to stay single until the right one shows up. He was still living with his
/0/17289/coverbig.jpg?v=0de2daa34d27b9b5e240e2129591d4b4)
Through the Magic Door
Best known now for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was also an astute and entertaining critic. In this collection of essays first published in 1907, he takes the reader on a tour of his own bookshelf and explores an eccentric range of topics, from the unreasonable opinion
/0/61769/coverbig.jpg?v=4265eacad227665daa2fd544111e19c3)
Lena And The Pyrex's Magic
Rumors swirled around the tower, whispers of a curse that had been cast upon it. Some said it was built on an ancient burial ground, while others claimed to have seen shadowy figures lurking in its depths. Lena, a curious and adventurous soul, felt drawn to the tower. She had always been fascinate
/0/19295/coverbig.jpg?v=1a4c41945b3c8105922905d492ff60d4)
Love Me in the Dark
When River Rouge’s ex starts stalking her, she turns to the man she resented for years for help—a rich, powerful, and private named Krew Selik. At first, she’s just a damsel in distress, and Krew is her white knight, but their attractions are undeniably strong. She’s grown to him that she’d never be
/0/36493/coverbig.jpg?v=7c18ef37e55fc77950e658671e017942)
When Magic Happens
It was supposed to be a normal visit to her Grandmother for the weekend ... Mia was supposed to spend a couple days in peace and quite with her granny until her best friend decided to tag along... The visit was going well and everything was set up right when suddenly it all turned into a nightmare
/0/47577/coverbig.jpg?v=34dd2682b0a29c2a7e3608b81c63b67f)
BLACK MAGIC
🌪️BLACK MAGIC🌪️ Prologue NUMBER 1....... he is the top ruler of the confratanity in the country (nobody knows his identity except for the 4 regional heads) THE FEDERAL AGENTS (FA) ...... Receives order from and answers to the no1 only, yet they don't know the identity of the number 1 THE REGI
/0/18691/coverbig.jpg?v=1be670087a0a9c1578669370816402dc)
My Evil Husband: Love Comes After Marriage
Molly fell from grace on her eighteenth birthday. A policeman brought her the dire news of her parents' car accident- her father was presumed dead, while her mother was in a coma. Her mother's medical bills had to be paid and Molly had nothing but her youth to sell. Vito bought her for ten milli
/0/17907/coverbig.jpg?v=9ace91875aa4faf2536a050dcd312b16)
Heart of Magic
Olivia was born with incredible powers, powers that her father saw the need to seal. Now in her junior year in high school, she seeks to awaken her sealed powers. Yet, the key to unlock them might not be as easy to obtain as she thought. All rights reserved.
/0/14127/coverbig.jpg?v=441c952364c00496be2ecf3ac534bddc)
/0/44037/coverbig.jpg?v=71801081635bc1dcbb8f8bbf6a6e6455)
Love Me In Darkness
Under the cover of darkness, when the night envelops the world, Pennelope Casey finds herself entangled with the man of her dreams. He exudes charisma, oozes sexiness, and what initially seemed like a fleeting encounter without introductions has now evolved into a year and a half of pure pleasure. W
/0/50411/coverbig.jpg?v=eeb860814d10b2642cbb8951300727cc)
CEO's Lust In Me
When tragedy strikes, Sarah Walter's life shatters. Her wealthy parents perish in a devastating car accident, and her fiancé abruptly ends their billion-dollar contract marriage. Heartbroken and adrift, Sarah seeks solace in a night of reckless abandon, where she encounters the enigmatic and irresis
/0/85496/coverbig.jpg?v=475b98f2da84aa7cd877fc53e2f02584)
HE LOVES ME IN SECRET, HE GAVE ME THE WORLD
Bella thought she had it all - a man who promised her forever, a future filled with love, and a life she could believe in. But in one devastating moment, Jason's betrayal shattered everything. His cold words - "You're not enough" - haunted her as she struggled to pick up the pieces of her broken hea
/0/58376/coverbig.jpg?v=4de31b577509ece851247ac74acb576d)
The Billionaire Touches Me In Private
A man who knows he's a catch. A sexy flawless billionaire. "For me, Sex is a way to relieve stress." A woman who has been broken by the ones she calls family. "I don't want to feel this much pain anymore." A sister who wants everything to herself. "The way to a man's heart is through sex." A m
/0/21748/coverbig.jpg?v=c27a7f0d183d4aea0bf555ceea773bc4)
A place for me in the sky
Ella is a promising young girl who doesn't believe in love. She doesn't even believe that her own family loves her but then came Francis into her life. He changes all that belief.
/0/24662/coverbig.jpg?v=dc23eb671e1de322c242761e85e8c877)
The PopStar Is In Love With Me
Synopsis Meet Hana, the most unlucky person in the world. She considered herself unlucky when she found out she was pregnant just two weeks after she lost her fiancee and the father of her unborn child. She moved to the city where she birthed her children Mina and Momo. She got herself
