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“Woo-hoo!” Avery fist-pumps. “Let’s do another one!”

My fingers have gone a little numb, and for some reason, I’m shaking.

“Hold on,” Leo says to Avery, but his eyes are on me.

Aaron rubs my back. “Breathe, Betts.” He gets up off the couch. “Here, Leo. Come sit beside her. ”

Yes, please, because apparently I’m in shock. In my head, I know I’m psychic, but I guess my body hasn’t gotten the message yet.

Leo lowers himself down next to me and stretches a welcoming arm across my shoulders. I lean into him and feel his warmth. Breathe in his calming scent.

He whispers close to my ear, “You were the key. They never would’ve gotten it without you.”

I’m skeptical, but after spending a few minutes up against him eating the two snack-size Hershey bars Avery offers me, I’m ready to try again.

Together, we identify the Ten of Pentacles and The Magician without a single wrong guess.

In both cases, it’s my information that narrows down the handful of possibilities to only one.

By the time we set the Tarot deck aside, I’m considering getting my own to practice with.

Avery studies me from her seat in the creaky desk chair, looking like an evil genius with her pensive, narrowed eyes. “Have you ever tried reading a person’s feelings?”

“Uh, yeah.” I stare at her like she’s lost her mind. Did she miss the part where I’m clairsentient? “That’s my problem, I’m always picking up everyone’s feelings.”

“But not on purpose .”

“Why would I do that?” I pick up enough emotions by accident. Why add water to a river that’s already at flood stage?

As usual, Avery won’t back down. “Because you can . Ownership, remember? I’ll bet if you focused, you could sense everything Leo’s feeling right now.”

“Leo?” I sit up with a jolt. “Why Leo?’

A slow smile spreads across Avery’s face. “Well, because he’s right beside you?”

I don’t like that knowing glimmer in her eyes. Or the heat consuming my face. “Um…” I glance at Leo. His brows are raised and his smile is wobbly. Am I nuts, or does he seem nervous?

“Go ahead and give it a try,” he says. “If you want.”

“I can’t,” I blurt. “I mean, it wouldn’t work. ”

“Why not?” asks Aaron. “You did it with the cards.”

“Because I didn’t know what they were. But with Leo—” I shake my head.

“With a person—” Any person, please, other than him.

“With a person, I’d be bringing a bunch of assumptions to the table.

You know, all the things I know about him.

” Along with my own complicated emotions.

Even with a stranger, it would be nearly impossible to distinguish whose feelings are whose.

“That’s something you’d have to practice,” Avery admits. “Really clearing your mind.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen tonight. Too much chocolate and cider.” I toss a sizable gulp of the latter down my throat. There. Now, don’t ask me again.

Avery shrugs and sings under her breath, “It would be really empowering.”

Leo leans in so our shoulders are touching again. “She’s right.” He lowers his voice. “It’s a good way to practice controlling your ability.”

“I don’t want to control it. I just want to block it out.”

Avery doesn’t even try to hide the fact that she’s listening to us. “You’re never gonna be able to block it all out, witchling.”

Aaron agrees with her. He tells me how he uses shielding by imagining soundproof tiles going up all around him. “But even then, if there’s something I really need to hear, I’m still going to hear it.”

I snatch a chocolate bar off the end table and tear it open. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure,” Avery says, like the placating mother of a pouty teen. “Anyone want more cider?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the plant Leo revived, sitting proudly on the windowsill.

It looks even healthier and more lush than it did a few weeks ago, and strangely, one of its trailing stems has curled around the Krampus candle.

Avery just set that candle there two hours ago; the vine couldn’t have grown that fast. Maybe somebody brushed past it and pulled it along?

I gently elbow Leo. “What did you do to Avery’s plant? ”

“I healed it.”

“Yeah, but how?”

“I talked to it.”

“I do that all the time, but my plants die anyway.”

“Do you talk nicely to them?”

“No,” I drawl. “I call them rude names.”

Leo keeps a straight face. “Try singing them love songs.”

“What, like Taylor Swift?”

He taps his chin like he’s seriously considering this. “No,” he finally says. “Too much feminine rage.”

I crack into a laugh and he smiles broadly back at me.

“Plants are sensitive to energy, Betts.” He takes my closest hand and squeezes it. “Just like you.”

An hour later, as Leo and I are bundling up for the walk to Newberry, Avery gasps and leaps from the couch. “Hold on, witchling.” She grabs the Tarot deck off the coffee table and thrusts it at me. “Learn them.”

“But don’t you need them?”

She snorts. “I have eleven different decks. I can do without this one for a while.”

“Well then, thank you.” I slide the box into my jacket pocket and give it a pat. It’ll be nice to have something to focus on over winter break besides food and presents.

Leo and I walk at a sharp clip as flurries dance in the light of the street lamps. Avery’s cider keeps my insides warm, but my cheeks and ears are stinging in the wind.

Leo holds out an arm. “Come here.”

I want his warmth, but I hesitate. What if someone who knows me sees us?

“We’re friends, Betts. Friends who are cold.” He shivers theatrically .

Good point. I’d cuddle with Liv to keep warm, so why not Leo?

Because I’m a chicken-shit afraid of conflict, that’s why.

Screw it. It’s freezing out here.

I merge into Leo and snuggle under his arm. How is it this man is always so warm? Naturally, our pace slows, but I’m so content I can’t be bothered to care. There’s hardly anyone about, and my worries of being spotted fade away. It’s only me and Leo and a beautiful, wintry night.

As we approach Newberry Hall, he comes to a stop in a pool of lamplight. “I don’t think I’ll be able to see you until we get back from the break.”

This is something I assumed, but hearing it spoken aloud casts a cloud over me. “I know.” Nearly a month with no Leo. No grounding presence, no gentle voice, no steady hands.

Suddenly, impulsively, he shoves a hand into his interior coat pocket. “I got you something.”

“What?” I blink up at him. “But…”

He cuts me off with a shake of his head and pushes something into my cold hands.

An old book.

Anne of Green Gables .

“I’m keeping your copy,” he says. “So consider us even.”

This is no cheap thrift store find; this book feels precious. I open the cover and choke on my breath. “This is a first edition.” I look up to find him watching me intently.

“I know. And if anyone should have it, it should be you.”

I caress the yellowed pages like they’re made of lotus silk. There’s something tucked between them, something sparkly attached to a small card. I raise questioning eyes to Leo.

“Yeah, that.” He shifts his weight and stuffs his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “When I saw it, I thought of you. And in a moment of weakness, I bought it.”

The something sparkly is a silver bobby pin, decorated with a rhinestone faerie .

He takes the card from me and frowns down at the pin. “Because of your Halloween costume, I guess. And it goes with the book, in a way.”

“Does it?” I wish I could get more than two words out at a time, but my tongue is all in knots.

“Anne’s a child of nature, just like Pearl. If you ask me, they’re both faeries.” He hands me back the card. “And so are you.”

My eyes flit back and forth between his and the silver pin. I’m breathless. Overcome.

“Um—” He looks down at his feet. “Maybe you could use it as a bookmark, you know, if you don’t want to wear it.”

If only I could speak and relieve his discomfort. I’ve never been given anything as heartfelt as this book and this pin. I feel so seen, and it frightens me a little.

“No.” Heart racing, I sweep the front of my hair to the side and slide the pin in to hold it back.

Leo smiles and my knees go liquid.

With the back of a finger, he brushes the ends of the trapped tresses from my cheek. Then abruptly snatches back his hand.

He wants you. Bad . And you want him .

I should probably stop staring at his mouth.

He murmurs my name and pulls me close. “I’m going to miss you.”

I fall into his hug, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders and burrowing into his neck. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“I will.”

“Now, get inside before you freeze to death.”

I hug Anne of Green Gables to my chest. “Thank you.” It’s all I can say.

“You’re welcome.”

I turn away before I can give in to the temptation to throw myself back into his arms. As I reach the door to Newberry, I look back over my shoulder, but he’s already gone.