I didn’t know what to say to Sam. He didn’t want to try and remember everything that he’d forgotten because he had feelings for me? How could he know at such a deep level that he and I were meant to be together when he couldn’t even remember his name?I thought it had complicated things the day before when Starla had admitted that it had been magic that brought her and Sam together to begin with, but this was something else entirely. This was him saying that there was something about me that innately told him that we were meant to be together, even when he didn’t know who he was.“Sam,” I began, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, trying to figure out how to respond, “there’s a lot more to this that you don’t remember at the moment.”&ldqu

 I was dismissed from Mage Jaye’s office pretty quickly after I told her that Sam was my legal guardian, at least when it came to school. Surprisingly, she wasn’t rude about it, but she did send me home. I did tell her that any conversation she had with him about me I wanted to be present for. I didn’t come right out and tell her I didn’t trust her not to use her magic to manipulate his mind, but that was pretty much what I implied--because it was true. How did I know she wouldn’t use her powers to make Sam sign something he otherwise wouldn’t?I took my time walking home, enjoying the peace of the forest. I was glad I hadn’t seen any of the people I knew at the school. As much as I’d thought it might be fun to hang out with Kayla, Lluvia, and Sean, I just had too much on my mind to actually be entertaining at the moment. Still, as I walked throu

“I’m so sorry to bother you, Harlow,” Liam Finch said as he wandered over toward me, his hands shoved down deep in his pockets, his eyes on the ground. I could tell Sam wasn’t sure he should leave us. He was lingering a few feet away from where I’d stopped, between our houses.“Sam, it’s fine. Just tell them I’ll be right there,” I said.“Okay.” He looked at Liam a little bit like a person stares at a spider before they squish them and then headed toward my house. “What’s going on, Liam?” I asked as he awkwardly came to a stop in front of me.“Well, I just, uh… I didn’t want to come,” he said, looking up into my eyes for the first time. “I want you to

It took me a moment to absorb what Sam had just said to me. “You’re taking Starla to Cody’s house?” I repeated. “But Mage Jaye just told me not to take her.”“I know that,” he said. “But she didn’t tell me not to.”I folded my arms and stared at him for a moment, not sure what to say. “Why would you do that?” I asked him.He shrugged nonchalantly. “Why wouldn’t I? I want to know just as much as you do whether or not this Cody feller is her baby’s daddy. I’ve been there before, right?”I nodded.“So maybe I can find it again.”

As soon as the birds perched on the trees behind me, Jason’s eyes doubled in size. I wasn’t exactly sure why Mage Jaye had instructed the other mages to stay in that form, or why she hadn’t shifted herself, but I was glad for it. The entire experience was scarier this way.Jason was trying to count. I remembered his comment about math and almost laughed. He couldn’t even see all of the birds in the trees, let alone count them all. While I was certain Mage Jaye was going to chew me out royally for this one, she had brought everyone she had available with her, and I appreciated it. I did deserve to get in trouble for not listening to her, after all, even if I hadn’t technically set out to disobey her.Melanie was there, too. I saw her approach on Joshua’s left, a bit out of breath. She’d had to run the whole way, after al