Tommy and I walk back to my dorm together, our hands intertwined the whole way. Honestly, maybe I made too big a deal out of it before. It's not bad holding hands with Tommy, and I like the way he strokes the back of my hand with his thumb as we walk. It's not long until we reach my dorm, and he comes in with me to say hi to everyone. As soon as we push open the door and they see our hands locked together, the jokes and laughs begin. I just shrug it off, as does Tommy, and we sit around and talk for a while until we have to kick both him and Donald out so we can get to bed.

"So are you guys, like, official now?" Ellen asks as she pulls the covers up to her chin.

"Official?" I ask, settling into my own bed.

"Dating," Virginia clarifies. "You two are so cute together."

I shrug, although they can't see it. "I'm not sure."

"Well, do you want to be?" Ellen asks thoughtfully.

"I'm not sure," I repeat. "I mean, he's great. He's nice, and he's sweet, and he's thoughtful, but I don't know if I'm ready for anything to be more yet, you know?"

"Well, you are wearing that thing," Virginia says, and I don't have to ask what she's referring to. "It's kind of like a wedding ring or something."

I roll over to face her bed. "I am not getting married to Tommy."

"Okay, okay," she says dismissively. "Whatever you say…Mrs. Thomas Howell."

"Ugh," I make a noise in the back of my throat and roll over.

Hesitantly, I slip my fingers around the stone and hold it to my chest, trying to focus. It beats once, maybe twice, before it's extinguished. I try to get it back, but I can't. Maybe he broke the connection, maybe I did, but it doesn't matter. It's over with. It's done. I'll put Grabiner behind me and date a boy like Tommy. Someone normal. Someone nice.

I kick at the covers restlessly. But what if that's not what I want?

Monday morning we have a test first thing after coming back from break, and I was glad to see that Jason was the one who was proctoring it. It was another creature-crawly dungeon map, and I was running around shooting things and blowing things up, just like before.

"Good job!" Jason cheers, giving me a high five as he teleports me out. "How does that feel?"

"It feels good," I say, panting a little, my hands on my knees. "I like the exercise."

"Kicking that monster head and then bursting it into flames right as it hit the others was a cool move," he says. "I was cheering you on from here."

"It felt like soccer," I say. "I haven't played in a while, with break and all. Thought I was getting rusty."

"Doesn't look like it," he says. "And for that showing, I'm going to give you ten merits. Head on out. There's a tray of cookies out there over at the victor's table." He winks at me, and I blush excitedly as I head outside.

Virginia, who had gone in directly before me, was still there, munching on cookies. "How'd it go?" she asks, crumbs tumbling down onto her shirt.

"I was like, 'pew pew pew,'" I tease, holding my hands out in finger guns as I stuff a cookie into my mouth. "I set a monster's head on fire and kicked it at some creeps. I think I miss Sports Club a little too much."

She laughs, hitting my arm lightly. "Same here. I'm so glad Jason was proctoring the exam today. I think it's like, the first time I've gotten all ten merits."

"At least he appreciates other magics," I snort. "Old Grabby had a cow when I used red magic on the last test. I did amazing and he just was like-" I hold up my nose with one finger to make myself sound stuffy and pompous. "Oh, red magic, how mundane."

Virginia laughs. "So I take it no more private study lessons with him anymore?"

"Oh hell no," I shake my head. "Please, I don't want to spend any more time with him than I have to. I should get merits just for putting up with him."

"Hey, Tori, can I talk to you for a second?" I whirl around, half expecting Professor Grabiner to be there, but no, it's just Minnie.

Before I can answer, Virginia says, "Yeah, it's cool, I think I've had enough cookies." But she takes a handful more before she walks off.

"I don't think there's anything we have to talk about," I say coolly, turning to go.

"Wait," she says quickly. "I don't have time now to explain everything. But can you meet me in the library tonight? Around six? It's about, you know." She shifts uncomfortably.

"Really?" I ask. I glance over my shoulder to make sure no one else is around. "Firstly, I'm over it. I'm over everything. Secondly, the library? Really? As if I haven't had enough trouble there for one year?" She looks at me strangely. "Oh he hasn't told you?" I brush my hair out of my face. "I guess you two aren't that close yet. Don't worry; I'm sure he'll tell you if you ask him nicely."

I turn to go when she grabs my arm. "Tori-" She sounds mad, but I can't bring myself to care. "I need you to listen, really listen to what I'm about to tell you."

"Well then?" I ask, pulling my arm out of her grasp.

She sighs, choosing her words carefully. "There is nothing romantic going on between me and Professor Grabiner." I roll my eyes until she adds. "I swear it."

I bite my tongue and stare at her for a moment. "Yeah, romantic. Okay, sure."

"Or that other way," she says, and she seems kind of grossed out at the implication. "Look, I can tell you that there's more going on here, more that you don't know. But if you'll just meet me and Professor Grabiner tonight at six in the library-"

"Me and Professor Grabiner." Now I do roll my eyes. "Wow, how convenient that you mention that now. It's almost like you knew I wouldn't go if you told me that he would be there." I raise my eyebrows and shake my head as I stare down at the floor and make my decision. "Have a good night, Minnie."

I start to walk away, but she's clearly not done. "He's still wearing his, you know."

I can't help myself. My head snaps back around instantly. I storm towards her. "How do you know about that? He told you about that?"

"It's not what you think," she starts, and I can feel myself growing hot. "You're in danger, and-"

"Tori!" Jason comes out of the room. I stop cold in my tracks, and the ball of energy that I didn't realize was glowing in my fist fizzles out. "What's going on? You know using magic on other students isn't allowed."

I hold up my hands innocently as Minnie scurries away. "I wasn't doing anything," I say quickly. "Just joking around, that's all."

He sighs and shakes his head. "I don't think you'd hurt anyone, Tori, but I don't have a choice. You have detention with Professor Grabiner this Saturday."

"No, sir, please-"

"Sorry, Tori," he shrugs. "That's the rules; I don't have a choice here."

"No please," I say quickly, and there's urgency in my voice that makes him turn around to face me. I don't know how to explain to him that I think Professor Grabiner has been doing weird experiments on me, because I don't fully understand it myself just yet. "I don't know what he'll do to me. Please."

He sighs and shakes his head. "Sorry, kiddo. Detention. Saturday."

I shake my head with disgust and storm out of the room. How do I tell Virginia and Ellen about what had just happened? The short answer is, I don't. Instead, I head straight for Tommy's room. I rap on the door and call his name. "Hey, Tommy, you in there?"

"One sec," he calls, and I can hear the shuffling of things being moved around as he opens the door.

"Hey Tori," he smiles at me, but stops when he sees my face. "What's wrong?"

"I got detention." My shoulder's slump and he takes my hand, closing the door behind him.

"Want to take a walk?" I nod my head like a child. "Okay, let's go."

"So you want to talk about why you got detention?" he asks. "Did something happen with Grabby again?"

"No," I shrug. "Me and this girl got into an argument after class. I was mad, and I didn't realize that I was summoning magic." I hold out my free hand and pull my energy into a small orb of light that rises out of my palm. I close my fingers around it quickly, dispelling it. "I wasn't going to do anything with it, you know, I wasn't going to hurt her, but Jason saw it and said…I don't know, he said he didn't have a choice."

"Wait, Jason gave you detention?" Tommy asks. "That's rough. I didn't think Jason gave detention to anyone."

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm special," I huff.

"Hey, it won't be that bad," Tommy says, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb again. "I'll get thrown in detention with you. Then you won't be stuck alone with him."

"Yeah?" I ask. "You'd do that?"

"Of course I would," he says, grinning up at me.

"Yeah, well, don't," I shrug. "I'm sorry; I just don't want you to get in trouble because of me."

"Hey, I'm sixteen, almost seventeen now," he says, turning to me. "I make my own choices." I force a smile in his direction and we keep walking.

"Can I have a hug?" I ask suddenly. "I think I can use a hug."

He smiles and we duck into a nearby cluster of trees. I wrap my arms around his middle and he puts his arms in a similar fashion around me. I rest my head on his shoulder, but it's awkward. I close my eyes and remember the way Hieronymous had held me, the way he had run his hands up and down my back, how good it felt. It wasn't just the physical sensation; I felt safe in his arms, I felt like I belonged there, I felt like-

For a second, I think I can feel the pulse of his heartbeat through the stone, even though I'm not touching it, and I have to pull away from Tommy. "Thanks," I mutter sheepishly, and he just nods as we step back onto the trail and continue walking.

No, I had to forget about Hieronymous. I hadn't had any of those weird brain itches since the last time I had seen him, which meant that they were probably tied to him in some way. In fact, he was probably the one who was doing them. Either it was part of some experiment that had gone massively wrong, or maybe they were just trigged in proximity to him. Whatever the case, the less time I spent around him, the safer I was. Whatever feelings I had for him, or thought I had for him, I had to put them aside.

"Hey, want to get dinner?" Tommy asks eventually. "It's about six o'clock."

It doesn't take me more than a second to respond. "Dinner sounds good to me."