Hannah sat down behind Tina on her bed. She rubbed Tina's back as she sobbed into her pillow. Hannah thought to Spencer and asked if he could leave the room while she had a moment alone with Tina. He looked sad for Tina and nodded. Excusing himself and closed the door behind him.

"I'm so sorry, Tina," Hannah whispered.

Tina picked her head up and shifted her body around to face Hannah.

"I don't understand what happened?" Tina questioned, through shuddering breaths. "Everything was going so well. Then, last night when we were driving home from the movies, he started acting differently. He didn't want to hold my hand anymore, and when I went to kiss him goodnight, he just gave me his cheek."

Tina burst into tears again. Hannah patiently waited for her friend to calm down once more.

"I have something to tell you," Hannah admitted cautiously. Tina just looked at her and waited. Hannah explained the concerns she and Jennifer had about how Eddie had been acting. She provided examples of his behavior, hoping it would help Tina understand when she finally ended and said, "So, I found a way to undo the love spell."

Tina's eyes darkened. Hannah thought for a brief moment that Tina's eyes were more intimidating than Alpharium's. "Get out," Tina demanded with a now sharp and stable voice.

"Tina –"

"I said, get out!" Tina said louder, startling Hannah.

Hannah didn't argue. She got up, left Tina's room, and bounded down the stairs as fast as she could, almost tripping on the last step. Spencer and Todd were in the living room watching sports and talking. She didn't want to be rude, but she didn't want to stay and converse with Todd either. All she wanted to do was go home and spend the rest of the day in bed.

Spencer and Hannah didn't talk all the way home. She turned up the volume as loud as her hearing could stand and zoned out to the alternative rock station. Once home, her mom commented that she was surprised to see Hannah home so soon. Choosing not to respond, she made her way upstairs.

Hannah hardly ever locked her door, but this time she did. She wanted to be alone. She even told Spencer to go find something to do and warned him to stay out of her thoughts.

Hannah tried using her runes to see if they could provide her answers on what was to come between her, Eddie, and Tina. Every cast she did, didn't answer her questions. Hannah figured it was because it wasn't midnight. Then she tried using her tarot cards, but without her guidebook, or Spencer's help, the layouts didn't make sense to her either.

She grabbed every spellbook she had, including 'Spells Real Spellcasters Should Know.' She read through every spell, hoping she'd find something that could help her and her friends forget everything that had happened. All of them were useless. Hannah gave up, got into her bed, and closed her eyes.

*******

Hannah didn't realize that she fell asleep. Or that she slept until the next morning. When she checked her phone for the time, she saw that there were only a few hours until she had to be at school.

Her weekday morning routine typically included showering, doing her makeup, and picking out an attractive outfit. But that morning, she just wanted to do her best to get through the day, so she could get back home and be alone. She took a quick shower, braided her hair, and put on an old, worn t-shirt and jeans.

"Are you okay, Hannah?" her mother asked when she saw Hannah putting on her sneakers by the door.

"I'm fine, Mom."

"You didn't come down for dinner last night, and when I came to check on you, your door was locked. Did something happen at Tina's?"

Hannah hated that her mother could always tell when something was wrong. "I don't want to talk about it, Mom."

"Hannah, let's go already!" Isaac insisted walking in from the kitchen. "I have to show Spencer my new Spiderman comic – Whoa! Are you sick or something?"

"I'm fine!" Hannah shouted and stormed out of the house, not caring to say goodbye to her mother or see if Isaac was following her.

She started her car and put it into reverse, just as Isaac climbed in. As he went to speak, Hannah gave him a look that made him swallow anything he had to say.

Hannah didn't even pretend to get Spencer that day. Isaac was disappointed since he wanted to show Spencer his comic. Hannah made an excuse about how Spencer messaged her that he was sick and was staying home.

After she dropped Isaac off at school, Hannah sat at the stop sign. As Hannah turned in the opposite direction of her usual route, Spencer appeared in the front seat. "Are you skipping school?"

"You are as smart as you look!" Hannah sneered.

He smirked. "Using my words against me, huh?"

"Leave me alone. I would really like to be by myself right now."

"I wish I could, but you know I can't."

Hannah's face flushed with anger. "Yes, you can! You left me alone at the party! You stayed at Eddie's after I left! You are very capable of distancing yourself from me. So I suggest you rethink your statement."

"Well, yes, I can stay a certain distance from you," he confessed. "But it's not like I can go miles away. Even if I tried, the forces of the summoning wouldn't allow it."

"Well, why don't you cast that spell you used on Alpharium, where you divided her from Oradeus?"

"I didn't really cast a spell like that," Spencer revealed. "It was a bluff. Thankfully, Alpharium fell for it long enough to help undo the love spell."

Hannah saw the entrance to the park, where Isaac practiced soccer, approaching. She turned sharply, having almost missed it. Spencer planted his hands on her dash to stabilize himself.

She parked in a spot by the trail she and Spencer had walked a few weeks before. Hannah got out of her car and went into the entrance of the trail. Without a second thought, she screamed as loud as she could. She didn't care at that moment who could hear or see her.

Once Hannah stopped screaming, she looked back at Spencer, who was still sitting in her car. Glad to see that he hadn't followed her, she decided to keep walking through the trail. She figured being alone, in nature, would help ease her troubles, even if it was temporary.

As she walked, she came upon the fallen tree that was still blocking the path. She looked up, analyzing where to place her feet. Securing her steps, she climbed to the top with ease. Hannah was proud of herself for not needing anyone's help. Especially Spencer's. Feeling overly confident in that moment, she quickly descended the other side. She stepped where she remembered stepping the last time. As she reached the bottom and jumped down the last few inches, Hannah's foot landed sideways on the trail. Her body followed as she tumbled to the ground.

She cried in pain as she tried to stand back up. Her ankle wouldn't allow her to move any further. Though she hated having to admit it at that moment, she was grateful for knowing Spencer was nearby. She thought to him that she was pretty sure she broke her ankle. He responded that he was on his way. Hannah examined her hurt foot as she waited for Spencer to arrive. It was already swelling to the size of an orange. Even the lightest touch to the skin would send immense pain signals throughout her body.

Hannah heard twigs snapping and dirt scraping on the other side of the tree. Then she detected a low huff and looked up to the top of the tree trunk as Spencer came into view. He looked at her with concern and climbed down. Spencer insisted on examining her ankle before they moved. She went to resist at first but decided to let him inspect it.

He removed her sneaker and sock as carefully as he could, but she still winced. Spencer lowered himself to sit crisscrossed on the ground so he could place her foot on his leg. "It's not broken."

"I'm sorry, are you a doctor?" Hannah asked sarcastically.

"Good to see you still have your charming wit intact," he chuckled lightly. "No, but I know what I'm talking about. It's just sprained. I can fix it if you want."

"How?"

"Do you have to ask?" He tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

Hannah blushed, feeling slightly embarrassed for having asked such a silly question. She agreed to let Spencer fix her foot.

"Good. Well, I can't fix it here, but I recall seeing a fishing pond near the entrance of the trail I can use."

"A pond? Can't you just snap your fingers?"

"Yes, but I need the water from the pond to help," he explained, as he shifted his body. He lowered Hannah's foot back to the ground and said they'd have to walk the long way around since they couldn't go back over the tree.

Spencer wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He lifted her effortlessly to stand and asked her to lean into him, so she could still use her good foot. Her stomach began to flutter, being so close to him. She tried to make the feeling stop by focusing on her throbbing foot. It wasn't working.

Hannah figured it'd be best to distract herself from her feelings with a little conversation. "Can you explain to me why you can't just snap your fingers to fix this? I mean, if you could snap your fingers to summon Oradeus from who-knows-where. Fixing my foot should be much easier."

"Well, I had to draw the summoning circle first. While my snapping is my way of completing spells, there's more to the setup."

"Oh, that makes sense," Hannah paused, trying to think of another question. "So how many other dimensions or worlds have you been to, besides ours?"

"Too many to count. It's my job to go through to the other dimensions and aid those who summon me," he explained. "Days before you summoned me, I had just returned from helping a Krayling witch. They needed help defending their villages and farms. Their world had locusts that were magically enhanced by Liviktus, and they would devour all the crops and food in marketplaces to keep the people there weak.

Liviktus was one of Oradeus' top soldiers during the war. He found ways to lure us to his new world to constantly fight him and his followers that he established on Kray. I think I've been there, more than I've ever been to Earth."

"Do you always go by yourself?" Hannah asked as they continued to walk the trail. She hoped they'd be nearing the entrance soon, as she was getting tired, even though she was enjoying leaning on Spencer.

"For the most part, yes. The portals aren't usually open long enough for two to go through. But there are at least twenty of us always working between the dimensions. We usually aren't in our dimension long enough before being called to another one."

"That must be sad. To never really see your home or your family."

"Well, I chose this career, as you Earthling's title it. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Defending other worlds is how we keep my world safe. If that means I don't go home often, then I'm okay with that. Plus, everyone in my family does this, so we only really see each other during my world's holidays."

They were finally approaching the entrance, which made Hannah feel grateful. The pain in her foot was getting worse. "Spencer, I don't think I can walk any further."

As she said that, her body went limp as she fainted into Spencer. She was only out for a moment, but as she reopened her eyes, she saw that she was being carried the rest of the way in Spencer's arms, and her head was resting on his shoulder. She could hear his heartbeat mixed with his steady but stressed breath from carrying Hannah's full weight. The sounds soothed her, even though her body ached from the pain in her foot.

Spencer finally lowered her on the grass as he reached the edge of the manmade fishing pond. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. It just really hurts."

He nodded understandingly and requested that she lower her foot into the water.

"What if there's a gator or snapping turtle in there?" Hannah asked with genuine concern.

"There's definitely no gators here. And your foot won't be in there very long for anything to bite you. I promise."

With that, she lowered her foot as instructed. The water was icy cold, as the days had been cooler, and the fall was quickly leading into winter. Spencer smiled as he brought his fingers together and said, "Here we go."

As soon as Spencer snapped his fingers, Hannah watched as the water waved violently and crashed as if an invisible storm was happening right over the pond. The pain in her foot began to subside and was replaced with a tingling sensation. It felt like tiny bubbles were bursting against her ankle. It even tickled slightly, which amused Hannah. Then, the water calmed just as quickly, and the bubbly feeling around her foot dispersed.

Spencer told Hannah she could remove her foot from the water, which she did without hesitation. She checked it thoroughly. The swelling had gone down completely. She cautiously pressed her fingers over it and felt that her foot was, in fact, normal again.

Feeling so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, she flung her arms around Spencer's neck and pulled him into a hug. Without much thought to her actions, she moved slightly to kiss his cheek. Without realizing it, she kissed him right on the corner of his lips.

Embarrassed, she went to pull back off him, to apologize. But he instantly responded by pulling her back into him and kissed her. Right on the lips. With purpose. As she melted into his kiss, all of Hannah's troubles and worries from the past few weeks disappeared.

_________________________________________

Author Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you continue reading further. I would be ever so grateful for feedback/comments on anything that stood out to you.

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Happy Reading!