“I didn’t mean—” Paxton started and then stopped. His cheeks were flushed with anger and embarrassment. What was he supposed to do? She was right: In all technicality, the wish fulfilled exactly what he had asked for. She had just granted it a way that he hadn’t expected. Her haughty attitude wasn’t helping anything either. He let out his breath and rubbed his forehead, trying to calm himself down so he could think rationally. “Okay, fine. That was a cute little trick, but I want you to reverse it. Put things back the way they were before I made my wish.”

Of course he wanted to use all three wishes to try and woo Emily White, but it wasn’t fair to everyone else if he left them to suffer from the first one. He had to use the next wish to make things right. But what if the third wish turned out just as badly as the last? He would have no way to reverse it if something went wrong. He would have to take the time to think his final wish over and find a way to word it so that Mirajane couldn’t twist it into something undesirable.

Paxton suddenly recalled the note taped to the counter in the magic shop where he had originally found the lamp. It had said that ‘all magic comes with a price.’ At first he had just laughed it off as some catchy little gimmick to attract customers, but now he was finally starting to see just how true it was. He sighed. He should have just left the lamp and walked out of that store. It would have made his life a whole lot easier if he had.

“Do you make all your masters miserable?” Paxton sat down tiredly in a chair and drummed his fingers on the desk. “Or am I just special?”