Page 97

“I’m the worst wizard in the world!”

“Cute, though.”

With a cry, she jumped in the air and turned to find Tobias standing in the doorway.

“How did you get in here?” she demanded.

He looked around. “Walked in.”

“I didn’t lock the door?” She could have sworn that she had.

“Was wide open, Cherry. Didn’t know this room existed.”

She nodded and glanced around. No one but their family knew about this room. It was her favorite thing in this entire house. The secret room behind the bookcase in the library.

The library and secret room were hers. And she normally always locked the main library door before coming into the secret room.

“No. It’s kind of a secret.”

He mimed locking his lips and throwing away the keys. She grinned, appreciating the sentiment.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Sure,” she grumbled, setting her wand down on the wooden desk. The desk was so large it had to be taken apart to get in here then put back together.

But it was gorgeous and as soon as she saw it, she’d known that this was where it was meant to be. The walls were wall-papered with an image of a train. She had piles of spell books on the floor and a cage for Snowy that hung from a hook.

“Do you think I’m a complete weirdo?” she asked.

Tobias turned to face her. “Why would you say that?”

She shrugged, feeling awkward. “None of this is really normal, is it?”

He stepped closer to her and she glanced up into his face, swallowing heavily. Whoa. That should have felt intimidating. And it kind of was.

But it was also hot as heck.

The more time she spent with Tobias, the more attraction she felt toward him. The more time she wanted to spend with him.

This wasn’t good.

Yet, at the same time it felt right.

“Who gets to say what’s normal or not, Cherry?”

“Well, most people would say it’s not normal for a twenty-two-year-old to have a secret room filled with Harry Potter memorabilia and be practicing spells.”

“Who cares what they’d say? Only matters how you feel. Does this make you happy?”

“Yeah. It does.”

“Then do what makes you happy. It’s not hurting anyone else.”

Uh-huh. Sure. It wasn’t hurting anyone. She wasn’t casting spells to create warts on a certain person’s nose or anything.

“Immy? This hurting someone else?” he asked.

“Well, I might be trying to create a spell to put warts on the nose of my arch-enemies.”