"I'm in heaven," Rachel said, sighing past a mouthful of hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon.

"It's a little heavy after last night's pizza," Katherine observed critically, but she wasn't complaining. I had awakened early on our second day and ordered breakfast from a nearby deli as a surprise. I knew she wouldn't finish a full serving of standard skillet fare, so I picked up a container of sliced honeydew and cantaloupe with her in mind.

"Bullshit," Rachel countered. "All this protein first thing in the morning? I'll be flying all day."

"You say that like it's a good thing."

Having just taken another bite, the best Rachel could do was flex her middle finger, bringing unexpected giggles from Becca whose mood had improved significantly since our walk. Though frightening, her vision had been obscure, and we agreed not to tell the others, and to keep our eyes peeled for potential threats.

"You're welcome," I said to the room at large, indulging in the last strip of bacon, "but since nobody considered packing food it was either order in or eat out."

Rachel swallowed forcefully. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but it would have been nice to sit down at the restaurant. I'm already stir crazy."

"And delay breakfast by an hour?" I asked.

She gave it half a second of thought before returning to her meal without answering. Still chewing on her last bite, Katherine stood up and began collecting empty containers and dirty dishes, waving Becca back into her seat when she stood up to help.

"This one's on me," she said.

What little momentum we accumulated in the morning ground to a halt that afternoon and by the time six o'clock rolled around, I excused myself early, suited up for the weather, and deliberately consumed time by walking to campus.

Kelly's blue Subaru was the only car in the lot. The building itself was mostly dark except for a few office windows, and the lack of both faculty and students in the halls made me feel unwelcome, as though I was sneaking in. As usual, I found Miss Barnes in her lab, wearing her traditional business skirt and lab coat and reading a book behind her desk.

"Mister Corwen," she acknowledged my presence, peering over the top of her glasses in a way that made her appear older than she was.

"Hi professor," I said, deliberately violating our agreement. If I hadn't been looking for a reaction, I'd have missed the slight narrowing of her eyes and hasty return to the pages of her novel, but whatever had changed Kelly's attitude toward me kept her silent.

I wasn't angry with her, but I couldn't think of a way to approach her that wouldn't be artless, so without a word, I marched to the workbench and laid out my pre-labs for bacterial morphology. It was one of those subjects required by the curriculum that held little interest for me, but I applied my years of discipline toward completing the work and when I looked up forty minutes later, Kelly had pointedly turned her chair to face the wall.

That intentional move to disassociate herself irritated me, and in a moment of weakness, I flicked a thin whip of power across several of the lights floating lazily around her. A brief flash of lightning arced through her anima, producing sharp sparks that quickly vanished as the gates of her will flashed like tiny strobes.

Kelly visibly jumped in her seat and placed a hand on her desk as if steadying herself. I had to fight to keep myself from laughing out loud, but my glee didn't come from any sense of revenge or cruel humor. No thought had accompanied the action, only instinct, and the fine control I'd just exhibited had been eluding me for weeks. For the second time, the professor had been the catalyst for a breakthrough, and my inadvertent success left me giddy.

I badly wanted to try again, but anxiety and good manners prevented me from following through. Whether I let it out as a torrent, a trickle, or a strand of ethereal spider silk, it was still raw power, and I still didn't know how it worked, and though I'd need to test my limits at some point, an assault on my teacher out of an infantile desire for attention didn't seem the right way to go about it. Rather than tweak her again, I advanced on her desk.

"Prof—" I began, but it had begun to sound petty even to me, so I started over. "Kelly?"

"Yes, Tom?" she said carefully, politely slipping a bookmark into her novel as she turned back to face me. I couldn't read the looping script of the title upside down, but the cover art wouldn't have been fit for anything but a cheesy romance.

"I wanted to talk to you about my labs."

"There's nothing to discuss," she said curtly. "I've been observing your progress, and I think you've demonstrated enough understanding of the material to pass my class."

"That's not what—"

"It shouldn't take long to finish the remaining lab requirements, but I can speak with your other professors. Based on your performance, I believe we can reduce or eliminate your remaining time."

"Professor—"

"In fact, if you're done for this evening, you can go. I'll clean up your station before I leave."

"Kelly!" I shouted. At first, I thought I'd gone too far, but the pain and shock on her face wasn't directed outward. She pushed her chair back and growled darkly, "I'm sorry, Tom, you need to leave."

"Kelly—"

"I don't think you should call me that anymore, Mister Corwen. Please gather your things."

Frustration welled up in me again, and the power squirmed inside my brain, demanding retaliation. I bit down hard on the primal temptation to saturate her anima and leave her drooling on the floor.

"What's wrong?" I asked, bewildered. "you've been treating me like a pariah for weeks now. Did I do something to offend you?"

"Please just go," she said, her jaw set firm, as if she was hurting and trying to hide it.

"I just want to know what changed," I demanded. "You held me to a high standard even when you said you'd help me with my labs, and I thought that meant you believed in me, but you've been acting like you can't stand to be in the same room and now you're giving me a free pass. Please tell me what I've done."

She reacted to the intensity of my outburst as if she'd been struck, but didn't quite break eye contact. "You didn't do anything."

"Then stop pushing me away! I haven't completed enough labs in microbiology to get a decent grade. I need to keep up my average or I lose my scholarship."

"I know, which is why you'll receive full marks."

"Are you afraid I won't make the cut on my own?"

"Of course not," she objected, "you're easily talented enough to earn an A."

"Then let me earn it!" I begged. "Don't I at least deserve that chance?"

Something in her anima shifted. The fairy lights within brightened as the cracks in her mask revealed the face of a trapped and panicking woman. She gaped at me, locked in indecision for several seconds, then sighed and stood, carefully brushing the hair away from her face.

"Fuck it."

"Excuse me?" I gawked.

She rubbed at her temples, then gestured to a lab stool not far from her desk. "I must be out of my mind. Please sit."

"I don't understand."

"You will shortly. Sit down."

I retrieved the stool she indicated as genuine concern gnawed beneath my ribs. Once I was settled, she returned to her chair and leaned back, bewildered or frightened, I couldn't tell which.

"You deserve more than I've been giving, an explanation, at the very least, but I don't want to cry in front of a student. Give me a moment." I remained silent while she gathered her resolve. She seemed exposed, vulnerable, and was trying to hide it. Katherine had once looked at me the same way, as though she could make me hate her with just a few words.

"What do you know about me?" she asked at last.

"Your credentials," I answered with a dismissive shrug. "I've read several of your published papers and I know you're brilliant. You're a world class geneticist, and you probably belong in an international think tank. You like Thai food, you're a closet nerd, and you read trashy paperback romances, but other than that, nothing."

The smile she returned was wistful, and a little of the tension left her shoulders. "After grad school I was fast tracked into a senior scientist position at Stanford, dividing my time between teaching and research. I met my husband there."

"I didn't know you were married."

"I was," she nodded and went on. "I even received a federal grant for my own research project in biogenetics, the youngest scientific director in the school's history. Every dream I ever had was coming true, and we started planning a family."

None of that surprised me. From what I'd heard, she was probably holding back to avoid sounding prideful. "How did you end up here?"

"I had an affair with a student."

She said it so matter-of-factly that I almost missed its significance. I held my breath for several seconds, trying to absorb what she had just confided.

"It was a mistake," she faltered briefly, then continued, "one stupid decision in the heat of a moment that cost me my job, my marriage, my dream, and almost my future."

I had no idea how to respond. I sat there instead, meeting her eyes, caught between unintended judgment and a heart breaking on her behalf.

"I like you, Tom, a little too much, and I very much want to get to know you more. Worse, I find you undeniably attractive, and agreeing to spend time alone with you may have been an extreme error on my part."

"I would never take advantage of you." I said reflexively, but the words weren't entirely sincere. In a way, I already had.

She shook her head. "That doesn't matter. Dean Truman knows my history and wouldn't tolerate even the whisper of a scandal. I genuinely enjoy your company, but I can't be seen as anything but your teacher, Tom, not even a friend."

I looked down at my hands, my hope of enlisting her help falling through my fingers like sand, but I found myself able to relate. The same Dean had the power to ruin me if he suspected my former illness wasn't under complete control.

"Do you understand?" she asked plainly. "Please tell me you do."

"I do, professor" I assured her. "And I have no right to judge you. I'm just feeling a tiny bit selfish."

Her weak smile returned, "It's still Kelly, Tom, at least in private, and I'm being no less selfish. If I weren't, I'd have explained the situation from the beginning. I didn't want you to think worse of me."

I nodded quietly and got up to leave, but before I could return to my station, a thought I'd had weeks before stumbled to the front of my mind. "Prof—Kelly, what if we weren't alone?"

"Pardon?"

"What if I brought my girlfriend with me? Would that make a difference?"

Her sorrow gave way to amusement. "You're dating someone who'd sit through hours of laboratory work for you?"

"I think she would, yeah."

"You should put a ring on that girl's finger immediately."

I grinned back, relief pouring through me at the change in her demeanor. "You're already doing the same for me and you have less reason. Is there a yes in there somewhere?"

"That could work," she said with a brief nod. She spoke calmly, as if a weight had left her. "Maybe she can keep me company while you're forcing me to stay late."

"I don't think anyone could force you to do anything," I scoffed, but she held up a finger and shook her head.

"Don't underestimate the power you have over others, Tom. Do I need to ask you to keep what I told you between us?"

"No." I met her eyes with a promise. "It's your secret, I won't tell anyone, not even Katherine."

"Thank you," she said. "Let's wrap this up for tonight. I need some time alone to think. I'm glad you stood your ground, Tom, I feel better having told you."

"So can I keep coming?"

"I said I need to think, but perhaps. I'd very much like you to. I'll call you when I've made a decision."

I finished my write-up and gathered my things and Kelly wished me a pleasant evening as I exited the lab. I could have skipped down the hall, fueled by an emotional high. I'd successfully controlled my power all evening, even with Finn's warnings of instability. I also finally understood the source of Kelly's anxiety, which set us back on the path toward friendship. I could start testing the waters, maybe even acclimate her to the idea of magic, and finally solicit the help I craved. The drama had been brief and cathartic, and the uncertainty over my academic life melted away, leaving me completely unprepared for Penny, who waited just outside Tory Hall.

She sat on the steps in her winter parka and skinny, embroidered jeans, blowing the smoke from a cigarette into a cloud above her head. She didn't turn when I stepped outside.

"Hi Tom," she said, taking another drag with her elbows perched on her knees. I paused behind her at the top of the steps.

"I didn't know you smoked."

She slowly exhaled another plume. "I quit in high school. Why have you been meeting with a professor at night?"

I groaned inwardly. "I don't think that's any of your business."

She pivoted just enough to look at me, expressionless, not at all the Penny I knew. "What did you do to me?" she asked for the second time. "When you left me in my room, I sat at my desk doing nothing for an hour. I couldn't think straight, but I came twice, like I had a vibrator down the front of my pants, just sitting there with my hands on the desk, doing nothing." Of course it was because of me. Just as obviously, I couldn't admit it.

"I only pushed you away. You didn't leave me much choice."

"Bullshit," she said calmly, turning back around. "You drugged me, I just can't figure out how."

I walked down the steps so I could face her, but she avoided my eyes. "Even if I had access to drugs that could do what you're describing, why? If I had some evil plan, why would I use it to stop you from coming on to me?"

"Is that what you did?" her eyebrows went up, and the streetlights lit her green eyes like emeralds. "Because I distinctly remember you coming into my room uninvited. I remember being sexed all the way up, and I hadn't been before seeing you. I'm not the nympho everyone thinks I am. Maybe something else happened. Something I don't remember at all."

"I was there for Katherine, not you, and you know it."

She shrugged, "A target of opportunity. You're just a fucking dog, Tom. All guys are once you get to know them."

"I don't need to listen to this," I said and turned to leave, but she called after me.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing. If you want to fuck around, just ask. All I want to know is how you did it."

"Goodbye, Penny," I replied without stopping and crossed the parking lot. She stood and threw aside her cigarette, then jogged after me.

"Why are you meeting with a professor after hours?" she asked again.

"Leave me alone."

"Is she helping you make the drugs?"

I didn't answer. If I had, the indignation I felt would have definitely come out, and for someone like Penny, it would be the same as a confession.

"Where's Katherine?" she continued unabashed. "Who's Rebecca?"

I stopped and turned, and for the second time that night, I was tempted to use my power the way my father would. To hurt. To ruin. Thinking of him made me stop in sudden anxiety and focus on her anima, and I exhaled in relief as her fairy lights swam weakly before me. She was still free of that bastard's influence.

"Penny, I don't know where you're getting your information," I said, forcing myself to remain impassive, "but what goes on in my life is none of your business. I frankly don't care what you think I did or didn't do to you, but the truth is I stopped by your dorm to pick up things for Katherine because she's staying with me. If you want to waste your time digging up more nonsense, be my guest."

"Did you hear about Gloria?" she asked as if I hadn't spoken.

"My answer hasn't changed since last time," I replied, unable to hold back my irritation.

"What about Sloane?"

"Sloane who?"

"Marquez. She attacked a professor last week. They say she was trying to kill him."

"I don't know anything about that."

"Rob Foster wrapped his Honda around a tree a few days ago. Last I heard he was in the ICU. People are saying he might not make it."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know him either."

She cocked her head to one side. "You don't think that's a lot of drama in a short time? Kath leaves without notice, and Rachel's gone not a week later. Gloria's dead, and now Rob and Sloane. All these people acting out of character one right after the other. Tell me it's all a coincidence."

"What's your point?"

Instead of explaining, she changed her tone completely. "Do you want me to kiss you?"

"What? No!"

"Want to fuck?"

"Penny—"

"I know you think I'm a slut, but I'm not. I don't spread my legs for just anyone. I'd do it for you. All you have to do is ask."

Her audacity robbed me of words. Was she implying I had something to do with her classmates? Could she be trying to trick me into confessing my attraction to her? I still didn't know how she found out about Becca or my meetings with Kelly, but she was clearly building a case against me. A surreal shroud of anxiety began to close in.

Instead of responding, I concentrated on her anima, on one solitary light that seemed to hover in the air between us. With a single whip of power, I ignited it. There was no lightning as there had been with Kelly, no uncontrolled surge pouring into her, just a single brilliant star and the smell of cinnamon. Her eyes widened briefly, then her surprise faded into confusion. She licked her lips between heavy breaths.

"Go back to your room, Penny. Forget about this, about me. There are no drugs, no late night meetings with a professor, and I didn't do anything to you. Get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning." An ugly, green tinge spread through her anima. The words vibrated from the knot in my mind. I felt them in my fingers, and between my eyes. For a second I was connected to her, as if somehow our nervous systems had aligned.

She blinked her eyes rapidly, then, without speaking, without acknowledging me at all, she turned and left me standing in the cold, beneath the icy blue glow of a parking lot light.