Hannah performed all the steps Spencer had taught her to complete a successful rune stone casting.

She started by waiting until midnight when the runes would be energized by all the elements. Next, she laid out her beige, hemp cloth on her bedroom floor. It was explicitly designed for rune readings as it had a large black ring, with all the rune symbols embroidered along the outside edges. Similar to a target, there was a smaller ring closer to the center of the cloth. Within that was a stitched tree, detailing all the branches above and roots below. There were also the four cardinal directional symbols sewn strategically outside the border of the large ring.

Hannah placed her positive energy crystals exactly halfway between the four directions. She completed the setup by adding two identical, blush pink candles at the top two corners of the cloth. They were there to enhance the power of the positive energy from the crystals, cloth, and stones. Striking a match and lighting the candles, she was ready to cast.

Taking her royal-blue, velvet sack of runes, in the cup of her joined hands, she closed her eyes and thanked the elements, universe, and spirits for their guidance.

Keeping focused on the question, Hannah dropped the stones to the cloth. Some rolled off and landed on her bare room floor, while others landed outside the largest circle. From the edge of the large ring in, rested seven stones, three of the seven were not facing up.

She learned from Spencer that it was best to remove all irrelevant stones. After placing those stones back in the velvet sack, Hannah looked at the four remaining stones that were face-up. She remembered to read the symbols in a spiral form, starting with the stones closest to the edge of the large ring and spiraling past the directions, North, East, South, and West.

Hannah grabbed a pencil and notebook from her desk and copied the symbols in the order she was to read them. Eihwaz, Ansuz reversed, Ehwaz, and Kenaz.

Looking at Eihwaz, Hannah remembered it meant many things. Still, regarding her specific question, the word dependability and trustworthiness came to mind. It was telling her that Spencer was an honest man she could rely on. Seeing that made her grin ever so slightly.

Then came Ansuz. It usually meant having clear communication, but because it was reversed, it symbolized misunderstanding and manipulation of others. Hannah thought this was probably referring to Peggy-Sue. Did she manipulate Spencer to kiss her?

Hannah continued and tried to recall what Ehwaz meant, but it wouldn't come to her. She remembered that Spencer had left his backpack on the floor of her closet. She opened the door and grabbed the bag.

Placing his bag at the edge of her bed, Hannah unzipped the front pocket and pulled out the index cards he created. She shuffled through them and found the Ehwaz symbol. She flipped it over and squinted her eyes, trying to read Spencer's poor handwriting. It listed a lot of things, transportation for one. Was that it? Because Spencer was transported to Earth? But it didn't make sense as to answering her question. Then her eyes scanned over and locked on the words, relationship development, and ideal marriage. Hannah's eyes widened. The runes seemed to be confirming what her father suggested.

Then there was the last rune, Kenaz, which solidified all the runes before. Kenaz meant the beginning of a powerful flow of energy. Not just any energy. But the flow of passion. How did this happen? When did this happen? She couldn't be falling in love with Spencer!

Hannah wanted to know more. More specifically, she wanted to know if Spencer felt the same way about her.

She moved back to the floor and gathered up the runes to recast them when there was a knock on her door. Hannah glanced at her phone and saw it was a quarter till one in the morning.

Fearing it was her mom, Hannah quickly blew out the candles and went to push everything under her bed. Then Spencer's voice came from the other side of the door. "It's me. Can we talk?"

She froze for a moment, then breathed in and said, "Sure. The doors unlocked."

Spencer entered as she gathered up and put away the runes and cloth into the shoe-box, she housed them in.

"Were you practicing the runes?" Spencer asked, impressed.

Hannah nodded as she shut the box and placed it on her desk, "A little."

She noticed her notebook was still open on the floor where the cloth had been. She quickly bent to pick it up, hoping Spencer hadn't seen the runes she had written down. She closed it and placed it in the box with the runes.

Spencer pointed out that she almost forgot his index cards on the desk and made his way towards them to pick them up. Hannah moved fast to intervene and picked them up for him. Hannah could see Spencer looking at her with confusion while also trying to read Hannah's defensive body language.

She made sure to keep her mind clear of any telling thoughts. Plastering her face with a fake smile, usually reserved for conversations with her mother, Hannah motioned, to return Spencer's cards to him. She purposely let them slip from her hands and scatter to the floor. She didn't want him to see the card she had read.

"Are you still mad at me?" Spencer asked, narrowing his gaze at her as he knelt down to collect all the cards.

"I wasn't mad at you," Hannah insisted.

"Well, why did you just drop all the cards on the floor then? I could tell you did that intentionally," Spencer pointed out.

"I swear it was an accident. I'm just getting tired, and they slipped out of my hand," Hannah said defensively. "Did you just come in here to pick a fight with me?"

Hannah handed Spencer his backpack so he could return his index cards to the front pocket.

"No. I couldn't sleep, and when I went to go get a drink of water from the bathroom, I saw the light was on in your room," Spencer explained. "I figured since we were both awake, we could maybe talk about what was going on with you today."

"I'm too tired to talk about anything right now. Do you think we could save it for tomorrow?" Hannah asked, trying to avoid the topic of her feelings for as long as possible.

Spencer locked his piercing blue eyes with her light brown eyes. She felt like it was a staring contest as he studied her for a moment. Then as if he lost, he simply nodded and answered, "Sure."

He replaced his backpack on the floor of Hannah's closet and made his way towards the door. He looked back at Hannah. He watched her for a moment as she finished twisting her brown hair into a braid that came down over her shoulder.

"Sweet dreams, Hannah," Spencer said with a kind tone and warm, subtle smile. Without waiting for a response, he left, closing the door.

Hannah finally exhaled the breath she'd been holding unknowingly. She flopped with a thud into her pillow, feeling confused, emotional, and tired. Thankfully it didn't take her long to drift off into a deep sleep.

******

Over the next week, Hannah did everything she could to avoid getting into any real discussions with Spencer about her feelings. She made sure to fill up their time together by asking him more about magic, his world, and practicing her runes, tarot cards, and even learning some spells.

At school, Hannah noticed that Peggy-Sue would always try to sit with Spencer at lunch or talk to him in the halls between classes. Still, he would always be short with his responses to her, or intentionally not show her too much attention. Hannah pretended not to notice, especially when Spencer would look at her when Peggy-Sue would openly try to flirt with him. The look he gave Hannah was always one of concern.

Hannah was getting better at controlling her thoughts too. She would make sure to always keep them too vague for Spencer so he wouldn't know how she was feeling about anything related to him or Peggy-Sue.

Luckily, Hannah had Tina and Eddie to focus on. Almost every day, Tina would find Hannah and Jennifer to tell them stories about Eddie. What he did for her, or what they did together. Tina was sure Eddie was going to still be her first by the Winter Formal.

What Tina didn't notice, Hannah and Jennifer did. Eddie was appearing to be too forward with Tina. He would show up to all her classes to walk her to her next classroom. During lunch, he would always get annoyed if Tina didn't sit right next to him. On top of that, Eddie would aggressively be eyeing every boy that looked in Tina's direction or attempted to talk to her. He even insisted on driving Tina to and from school every day. Yet she lived twenty minutes in the opposite direction from school and Eddie's house.

Hannah was becoming genuinely concerned about the level of obsession and possession Eddie was showing towards Tina. She knew it wasn't like him at all, and that it was all because of the spell. Feeling responsible for what was happening, she knew she needed to see if she could do anything to tone down his lustful feelings for her friend.

Hannah had discussed her concerns for Eddie with Spencer, and he suggested they revisit Madam Nova over the weekend for her guidance on the matter. Hannah agreed, thinking it was a good idea.

Hannah had seen Madam Nova almost every morning and afternoon since she was "Spencer's ride". Still, she didn't always get much of a chance to talk to her more than the casual greetings. Because Isaac was always with them, Madam Nova was nothing more than just Spencer's grandmother.

"Hannah! Spencer! What a pleasant surprise to see you on a Saturday afternoon," Madam Nova greeted them. "Come on in," she said opening her doors to them.

"I hope we weren't disturbing you." Hannah hugged Madam Nova naturally as she entered. "We were hoping to get your help with something."

Madam Nova moved to hug Spencer too, then led the way into her living-room. Hannah didn't feel as uncomfortable as she had the first time. Looking around at the now-familiar surroundings, Hannah waited for Madam Nova to gesture to her to sit. She sat down in the same armchair as before, while Spencer and Madam Nova once again took a seat on the dusty floral couch across from her.

"I know why you're here," Madam Nova said in an earnest tone directed at Hannah.

"You do?"

"Spencer told me when he visited me in my dreams the other night. He mentioned he's had a hard time reading your thoughts, and that you have been distant with him ever since some party you both went to last weekend," she explained. "He mentioned it may have something to do with some girl named Peggy-Ann?"

"Peggy-Sue," Spencer corrected.

Hannah's complexion instantly turned to a shade of red with a mixture of emotions, flowing into her veins. She was supposed to be there to talk to Madam Nova about Tina and Eddie, and she was bringing up Peggy-Sue! She felt blindsided.

Shooting up out of her chair, tears started streaming down her face. She cried whenever she got too emotional about something, and she hated having that trait. Especially at that moment, she didn't want to show any weakness.

"First of all, my thoughts are my own!!!" Hannah began powerfully. "Spencer doesn't have the right to invade them just because he's connected to me while he's here. So if I shut him out, then I have every right to do so." Her voice started quivering. "Second of all, I am not here to talk about Peggy-Sue and Spencer! I am here to see if there's anything that can be done to help tone down a love spell or do away with it completely. Can you help me?"

Madam Nova and Spencer didn't take their eyes off of Hannah right away. They both showed the same concerned look, which was making her feel even more heated. She hated being pitied by anyone.

"Why did I even come here?" Hannah asked in a calmer tone, but with anger behind it. "You couldn't help me before with getting Spencer back to his world. Why should I have thought you could help me now?"

Hannah walked out of the living room and down the hall towards the front door. Just as she reached the knob, a firm hand gripped hers. It was Spencer's. She turned to face him, not breaking his hold.

He didn't say anything at first, but he moved his free hand to wipe away some of Hannah's tears from her face. His touch shot unexpected sensations throughout her body, and her stomach started to fill up with butterflies.

"I'm sorry...You're right, you have every right to keep your thoughts to yourself."

"Thank you," Hannah muttered under breath, as she was finding it difficult to speak.

"And I'm sorry I went to Madam Nova. I was just needing to talk to someone, especially when you wouldn't," Spencer conveyed. "It really wasn't my intention to bring you here and have her bring it up. I really do think she can help with the Tina situation."

"I can," Madam Nova said, approaching the two of them. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, my dear. Let's see what we can do to fix that love spell."

At that moment, Hannah didn't mind that Spencer kept his hand linked to hers as they followed Madam Nova back to the living room.

______________________________________________________________________________

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.

Also, if you enjoyed what you read please consider clicking or tapping on the star to vote for it. I know I would greatly appreciate it.

Happy Reading!