"Can I get anyone anything to drink? Are you guys hungry?" Dr. Reed asked.

I glanced over at Sierra, who scrunched her face from her mouth to her eyes.

Dr. Reed seemed oddly pleasant for sure. It must have been a nice visit from the paleobiology professor.

What even was paleobiology? And how was it attractive?

"Nothing?" Dr. Reed said and held her cigarette up to her mouth without actually smoking it. "I find that hard to believe. There isn't shit to eat on campus."

"Do you have tea?" I asked. "Any tea is good. I've had a stressful day."

"I have a chardonnay that I bought in Burgundy," she said. "Or if you're not into wine, I have Jack Daniel's. Who doesn't love some good Tennessee whiskey?"

I smiled. "Thanks, but I'm only nineteen. I don't want you to break any more laws or moral codes for me."

"Then let's talk. So you think the talisman can read your thoughts, but it grants you those wishes in the worst way possible. Is that right?"

I nodded.

"And do you think that's because you can't control your emotions and desires, or is it because you found the biggest asshole of a lucky charm ever produced?" she asked.

"Definitely the second one."

She shook her head. "Wrong. This talisman is just a tool, Lindsay. You're the only person who gives it any power, and it's up to you to learn how to control it."

That definitely wasn't true. I felt the talisman force me to click on the metal detector and the add to cart button, and then it made me go to class and work with Dominic by the pond so I could dig it out of the ground a day later.

I made no decisions. I was only its vessel.

"Everything is all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and we have to prevent it from happening again. Don't bother stopping by my office tomorrow. We're going on a field trip instead," Dr. Reed said.

"A field trip?" Sierra gasped. "That sounds like so much fun."

"We should go to the zoo," Jack said.

"And then we can get pizza after that," I added.

Dr. Reed shook her head. "It's just going to be me and Lindsay, and we're not going to the zoo. We're going somewhere where no one is going to bother us."

This sounded a little like Dominic's plan to murder me at the pond, but I was kind of okay with it.

"And then what?" I asked.

"Then we find out who made it, when, where, how, and why," Dr. Reed said. "And let's be real, that's the exciting part."

Having a little piece of magic that could fix my problems was probably more exciting than an archaeology lesson, but they were both super excellent. It was just unfortunate that Dr. Roberts had to be a casualty along the way.

But if Dr. Reed was right in that I could learn how to control the talisman, no problem was ever going to get in my way of living my life again. Not school, not Dominic, not money, not myself. All it would take was a little bit of effort, and I had been storing a lot of it over the course of my life. Now was the perfect time to use it, just like Jack said.

***

One of the reasons I chose Tillamook College was because of the location. Since money wasn't a problem, why wouldn't I pick a small private college close to the ocean where they had a decent anthropology program? It was a charming town with interesting people who were different than what I was used to in Sherwood, Oregon. The school wasn't very far from where I grew up, and it was the perfect chance to figure out who I wanted to be instead of an OB-GYN like my mother or an actuary like my father. I'd never live up to what they wanted for me, anyway.

My sister was a few years older than me, but she was happy in Florida with a career as a civil engineer. At least that was what I last heard.

After a couple of rough semesters without anyone making sure I got all my shit done, I was on academic probation and in big trouble. My parents refused to pay for the college tuition of a failure, and hopefully, I had the ticket to fix it in my back pocket.

"Watch your step. There are a ton of roots, and you're definitely not paying attention to where you're going," Dr. Reed said.

The pond was the end of the safety of campus, but a little walk beyond that, there were some woods that Dr. Reed thought would be private enough for no one to find us. If no one bothered with the pond, then who would bother with the woods?

If the woods were more spooky than magical, I had watched enough horror movies to know that I had to leave there as soon as possible if I wanted to live. But it wasn't dark, it wasn't thick, and there were chipmunks that happily scampered across the fallen leaves on the forest floor.

Everything checked out. Good.

"You know, Dr. Reed, you really don't have to help me figure this talisman out. It's not really in your job description," I said.

"You can call me Cora. I think we're at that point," she replied.

That wasn't exactly an answer, but I accepted it anyway. "Well, Cora." I hesitated. "That feels wrong. Can I stick with Dr. Reed?"

"I don't give a damn what you call me." She stopped in a relatively clear area. "This seems quiet and like the surroundings won't interfere with your focus."

The weather had cooled off to what I would expect from a late September day, but in the sun, the temperature was perfect. Since the area wasn't heavily forested, plenty of light made it to where we were standing, and I took in a deep breath. Fresh pine. Glorious.

"So where do we start?" I asked and took the talisman out of my pocket. "I mean, I haven't exactly had good luck with this thing, and I don't even know where to begin to fix it."

"I'd say that we should get started with research to find out the history of the talisman, but we don't have time. You've done enough damage already, and I know for a fact that you don't have it in you to let it sit for a few weeks," Dr. Reed said.

"What? You really don't think I can help myself from doing any more damage?"

She nodded. "Exactly. You remind me too much of myself."

I blinked a couple of times. There was no way that was a compliment, but I liked her anyway. Even if she was a little bitchy as Sierra put it, she was one of the best anthropology minds in Oregon.

She tied her hair up into a ponytail and tightened it so a few bumps formed at the top of her head. "Look, Lindsay. I'm just as intrigued by this as you are, but do you know what happens if anyone else finds out?"

"It gets taken away because I found it illegally," I said.

"Right, so I'm going to need you to save that for emergencies only. Real emergencies. Not to save your ass when you didn't study."

"That seems like a real emergency to me. I mean, I'm kind of on academic probation."

"It's not."

"Right, because I'm sure you understand what it's like."

She laughed. "What? Do you think this Ph.D. just happened overnight with no effort or failures at all?"

I hadn't actually thought about it, but there was no way the road to the Dr. title was a smooth one.

"I barely got into grad school after barely passing my gen ed classes in undergrad. Once I got into the information I liked, grades came pretty easily, but who the hell cares about chemistry? Not me," she continued.

"So you do get it," I said. It was just like American Sign Language for me.

"How old do you think I am?"

I looked at her for a moment. Her skin was a little wrinkled and her hair looked like years had faded the natural brunette color, but that could have easily been the smoking habit.

I didn't have the chance to answer her probably rhetorical question before she changed the subject. "Have you ever shot a gun before?"

"What? Why would I need to?"

"I'm just planning ahead," she said without elaborating any further. How did she expect me to not want any more information?

"Have-have you shot one before?" I asked.

"Of course."

"At a person?"

She looked over at me. "What? No."

That made me feel a little better. "Okay. I was just checking."

I didn't want to have to use my talisman to protect me from the woman who was supposed to be helping me, and for now, it seemed like we were gonna be okay.

"Then let's get started. We'll start with small things that can happen quickly, and when you get those under control, we'll try something bigger." She looked at the talisman in my hand. "It's just weird that you're getting this much power from something like that. Normally they're just to ward off evil spirits or bad luck."

"Do they normally work?" I asked with a laugh.

"How would anyone know? You're not gonna know that something bad was gonna happen unless it actually does."

That was probably true. "Well, this one sucks at that. It just makes bad things happen."

"And you need to keep that out of your mind. I don't care how you do it, but-"

I stopped listening when my phone vibrated with a text. Dr. Reed could hold on a second.

It was from Dominic. Where are you?

I laughed. "I forgot I told Dominic to meet us in your office today. Whoops."

"Would you put your phone down and focus?"

"Sorry, sorry." I put my phone back in my pocket without responding. Even though it vibrated again, most likely with a less nice message from Dominic, I ignored it. Instead, I shut my eyes. "What should I try to manifest or whatever?"

"Something small and quick."

"Okay. I got it," I said to myself. Please make Dominic leave me alone for the rest of the day. I'm not in the mood to deal with him.

My eyes widened. As soon as the thought left my mind, a million ways that could go wrong flooded into the space it once occupied, like him getting hit by a truck or getting laryngitis or getting with Sierra to make up for the lost pleasure of making my life miserable.

Shit.

"How do I take it back? Oh my god, I need to take it back," I sputtered.

Dr. Reed "What? What did you ask for?"

I shook my head. "Can I overwrite that with an opposite manifestation? I'm gonna try." Please let me find Dominic and not let him out of my sight for the rest of the day. I'm really not in the mood to be the reason he gets killed today. I do, in fact, have a soul.

"What the hell did you try to do?"

"It's okay. I fixed it. We just have to make sure that it works," I said. "I'm not gonna be the reason another person ends up in the hospital. Not today."

"For God's sake, Lindsay, would you stop picking tests that involve other people?"

"I'm sorry," I said and waved for her to follow me out. "I just want to make sure he's okay. I don't like him, but I don't want him to get dead or anything worse than that."

"Dominic?"

I nodded.

She shook her head. "Of course. Well, let's go make sure he doesn't end up dead."

As we left the woods, there was a short walk to the pond, and to shorten it even more, I picked my pace up to a run. He had to be there. He had to be at the pond.

There he was. Dominic sat on a towel with a book and Starbucks, and everything seemed quiet and calm. There were a few birds chirping and a low hum of the insects all around, but no one was screaming, so that seemed promising.

"Oh, it's you." I held my breath so he couldn't see how heavily I was actually breathing.

"You found me this time, so you can't even blame it on my made-up stalking tendencies," he said and looked up at me from his ASL textbook. "Did you get my texts?"

"I got one of them." I sat down beside him. "Dr. Reed and I were just trying to control the talisman, so that's why we weren't in her office."

"Did it work?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Can you do anything right?"

"Also no, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm never doing that again."

He scooted away from me a little, and I pretended I didn't notice.

What a jerk. I was trying to make sure he wasn't gonna die today. He probably wouldn't do the same for me.

"So do you know what's gonna happen to Dr. Roberts?" I asked.

"He's gonna be fine, but having a heart attack is never a fun experience, especially when you're in relatively good shape and thirty-five," he replied without looking up.

I forced out a laugh. "Yeah, that sucks. But I need you to understand that I'm trying here. I never meant for any of that to happen."

"I know you didn't, but I really don't think you're gonna fix your careless nature any time soon, so what does it matter?"

I should have never even bothered to undo my first wish.

As Dr. Reed caught up to me and walked by, she didn't bother to come close, and instead, she shouted, "Hey, Dominic, have you ever shot a gun?"

"Who hasn't?" he replied.

This time, I scooted away from him. At least it added substance to my theory that he was the kid who took a gun to school in his backpack.

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Hello! How's it going? Thank you so much for reading!

At this point, I feel like it's a good time to get some feedback. So I'm gonna be honest here, I'm not really sure about the pacing in this book. To me, it seems a little slow (What can I say? I'm indecisive), but my question is what do you think? Are there other areas you think need to be improved at this point?