For the rest of the week, I avoid both Grabiner's and Jason's classes, deciding instead to focus on white and black magic with Professor Potsdam. At first I was concerned that she might say something to me about what had happened with Minnie, but she doesn't treat me any differently, and I'm relieved that I don't think Jason has told her about what happened. On Saturday morning, I get up promptly at 4 AM to get the mail and sort through it early, intent on getting in and out before Grabby could get there.
But as much as I'm trying to avoid him, I can't help going to detention. I don't have a choice. If I don't go, then he might tell Professor Potsdam and then I would really be in trouble. Luckily, Tommy had thought of a fool-proof plan to get sent to detention. "I'm just going to go," he told me Friday night. "It's genius. No one wants to get themselves thrown in detention, especially not with Grabby, so if I just show up, I doubt he'll even ask why I'm there."
And so he literally drags me into the detention room with him, a few minutes late, of course, holding my hand firmly in his. "Reporting for detention," he says resolutely. I avert Grabby's eyes, and try to separate our hands, but Tommy remains firm. I swallow hard, waiting to see where this will go.
"You are dismissed, Mr. Howell," Grabby says at length.
"But-" Tommy starts.
"You are dismissed," Grabby yells, and even I flinch at his tone.
"Fine," Tommy says after a moment. He turns to me and lifts my hand to his lips, kissing the back of my fingers. I know he's doing this to make Grabby jealous in some weird way, but I can't help thinking that this is a bad move. He gets to ignite the spark of Grabby's anger and then leave, while I have to stay and watch him burn.
"You'll be fine," he says softly. "See you after." I take a deep breath in and let it out as he shuts the door behind him, refusing to look at Professor Grabiner.
"Sit down," he says. I do so, taking a seat where I don't have to look directly at him. He stands up and walks around the desk in front of me anyway, but I still can't look up at him. Honestly, I'm a little afraid of who I might see, angry Grabby or Hieronymous. I don't know how to handle either of them right now.
"What were you going to do to Ms. Cochran?" he asks.
"Nothing," I say. "I didn't even realize I was doing anything." He says nothing. "Really, I wasn't going to hurt her, if that's what you're asking."
He doesn't say anything for a long while, and I sit there, taking in the silence. "What were you doing with Mr. Howell?"
"Holding hands, sir?" I ask sarcastically.
"I don't want to see you with that boy," he says at length.
"Looks like somebody's jealous," I say in a sing-song voice.
I hear the slap before I feel it. I breathe in and out and straighten myself up, brushing the hair out of my face and ignoring the stinging sensation on the side of my head. At least I didn't cry out. Did he really just hit me? Seriously? Was that his way of avoiding the no-magic-against-students rule? Hitting them?
"Do you think this is a game?" he shouts at me, and suddenly I can feel myself being lifted in the air. He has me suspended in the air directly in front of him, and I struggle to touch the floor with my toes. I try to say something, but it feels like something has me around the throat.
"I thought this matter could be resolved Monday night," he says bitterly. "But no, you chose to go to him instead. I asked Ms. Cochran to extend an olive branch, and you burned it in front of me. This is an extremely precarious situation, and yet you seem determined to defy and taunt me at every turn."
I close my eyes as a wave of dizziness passes over me. I feel him release me, but when my feet hit the ground, it's not the cool tile floor of the detention room. Instead, I'm in a dungeon. It's dark, and I can hear things scurrying around and moving on the other side of the thick stone walls.
For a moment, I'm scared. It's really dark around me, and I feel as though something might be waiting to jump out at me at any second. "Professor?" I whisper, but there's no answer. I take a few steps forward, tentatively, but it's very, very dark and I can only see a few feet in front of my face. I summon a small ball of light in front of me and inch my way forward slowly, making all sorts of twists and turns until I finally come to a dead end that empties out into a small-sized room. I sigh and decide to stop here. There's no way out if something were to attack, but the entry way looks narrow enough to only allow one monster in at a time, so at least it's a semi-defensible position.
How long is he going to leave me down here? Is there a way out? For all I know, the maze could go on forever, and I didn't know what kind of dangers were inside. Monsters? Pitfalls? Fire traps? Was he going to leave me down here to die? Surely Professor Potsdam wouldn't allow that. Someone would notice that I'm gone. Someone would come looking for me…right?
I hear something growl from deeper in the labyrinth and I quickly extinguish my light, throwing my back against the cold stone wall of the dungeon. I use a quick spell to warm myself, but only let it last a minute. I have no idea how long I will be down here for, and I have no idea if I might need to defend myself, so I better conserve my magic now to make the most of it.
"Well, you wanted time alone to think, Tori," I whisper to myself. "Here you go."
"Isn't there anything I can do?" Professor Grabiner asked. "There has to be something, some way to end this marriage."
"I already told you, there isn't a way," Professor Potsdam replied. They were sitting in her office. Well, at least she was sitting. He was pacing.
"She's going to kiss that boy," he said. "I know it. Then she'll die and I'll basically die."
"I can only imagine what is motivating your actions," she said. "Is it jealousy, or self-preservation?" He glares at her, but when he doesn't answer, she sweeps an empathy spell over him. "Jealousy? Hmm, I almost would have expected more of a combination of the two."
"I don't have time for this," he snapped. "I need to end this marriage. This is too dangerous, for both of us. What if we just told her what happened? She might be able to take it and then we're done with this, once and for all."
"Or she may not be able to take it," Professor Potsdam replied. "And we don't exactly know what will happen to you then, either."
Professor Grabiner ran a hand through his hair. He was panicking now. Things had been going so well between them over Christmas break, and then all it took was one package, one accidental Christmas present sent from his father, to completely undo the whole thing. He wasn't sure if her feelings for that boy she always hung about with were real, or if she was just using him as a toy to make him jealous, but either way, the results would not be good.
He shook his head. She had learned about the meaning behind the stone he had given her, and she had learned that he was married, but she couldn't put two and two together and remember that she was the one who was married to him? Had she figured it out and simply rejected the notion as nonsensical? Or had she really not figured it out yet? He thought he had been doing everything possible to show her how much he cared about her, and yet she still seemed to doubt his motives. Was it still not enough? What more did she want from him?
"Are you happy now?" he asked, turning on her. "You were so insistent on this union, and now it's going to lead to both of our untimely deaths. Well done. At least I won't die a bachelor."
"Oh come now," she said. "Things can be repaired in time. She's a girl. She's just confused." She shakes her head. "But in any case, she is quickly unravelling, and we need to pay attention to that."
"Unravelling?" he repeated, troubled.
"The incident with Minnie Cochran?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"You don't think she'd seriously-"
"No, but someone who can do magic without being aware of it is a dangerous thing," she said. "I'm sure you are well aware of that fact. Even given her emotional state at the time, we can't run the risk that she could lose her temper and do magic around non-magical people. If we're forced to strip her of her magic and send her away-"
"That's not going to happen," he growled. "How would you even know what happened? You weren't there."
"Ever since that incident with the book in the library, I have been keeping an extra close watch on her," Potsdam replied. "I have eyes on her at all times. The girl can't step a foot on this campus without me being aware of it."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair again. Wiping Tori of her memories completely would actually probably be one legitimate way to nullify the marriage, but that meant losing her forever, and it didn't take him long to realize that he couldn't risk that, even with his own magic on the line. This whole mess was his fault to begin with, and he wasn't going to let her pay the price for his mistakes. "I'll watch over her," he said resolutely. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
"I'm quite sure it won't," she said simply. "It did happen just the once, and slip ups happen to us all now and again, as I know it has happened to you quite a few times. Hopefully it won't be yet another issue we have to deal with. Something to be aware of, yes, but hopefully nothing major will come of it."
He sighed and slumped down in a chair, rubbing his temples with both hands. "Why does this have to be so complicated?"
"Oh, marriage is always complicated," Potsdam replied, and he shot her a look. "Now, it's just curious to me," she continued. "That you would lock her in a dungeon for hours upon hours. I believe just last year you threatened her with the same thing. It would be a pity if she would remember that when she's locked down there all by herself, without any way out."
His eyes widened, and he quickly teleported himself out of her office. "Silly man," Professor Potsdam said as she reached into a bowl on her desk and popped a sweet into her mouth. "For all the books that he reads, that man really hasn't the smarts."
She sighed and picked up a piece of paper on her desk. Fortunately, Hieronymous had not caught sight of it. He was always so distracted and narrow-minded, focusing on either himself or that Tori girl of his. He would never be able to focus on the big picture. She held up the piece of paper in front of her and scanned down the list of students that had stayed on campus over holiday break. Tori's name, of course, was near the top of the list, as she was still listed as Tori Brown in their registry, but it didn't take her long until she spotted the other name she was looking for. Thomas Howell.
She simply wiped the name with her fingertip and watched it disappear off the list, the two names above and before it sliding together to close the gap that it had left. "Hmm," she smiled to herself and put the paper back down on her desk, making a mental note to leave it in Professor Grabiner's office on Monday morning.