Chapter 3

3

I t was happening again.

Everywhere I looked, couples were kissing or holding hands or cuddling up on benches. Again, I had to wriggle my way between couples who thought it was appropriate to be so affectionate out in the wild.

Not that blame could truly be assigned to them. Yet again, there had been a love potion outbreak, and I still didn't know how it had happened.

Ever since last Monday's first attack, I had been trying to determine the cause. How could someone administer a love potion to everyone? Even professors were affected—I saw things I never wanted to see from individuals I looked up to academically.

The Love Potion was only effective if ingested. It was bright pink and tasted distinctly like strawberries and pound cake—delicious and unmistakable. If slipped into the dining hall's beverages or even food, it would be incredibly noticeable.

So, how? How was the perpetrator slipping this into the diet of everyone on campus? Aside from me, obviously, because I hadn't had the pleasure of tasting a strawberry pound cake in any of my drinks.

I drank the same water as everyone else and ate the same foods, yet I didn't even feel the slight buzz of the potion.

When I was still an undergrad, I had many elective options that I could choose from just to meet credit requirements. Each year, I would take whatever potion classes were available. In my second year, our professor allowed us to brew and consume a love potion so we could experience it for ourselves. Of course, we all had to sign a written consent form and agree to take it once in a safe place, away from whatever individual we were possibly going to be inclined to, well, kiss . For research purposes, I agreed to take it and locked myself in my room so no one would find out I had a serious crush on one of the football players at the university. The potion was rich but obvious. There was no way I could ever take it again without immediately knowing.

I hurried to the library to continue my search for answers, desperate to get away from all the canoodling couples out in the open. It was across campus from the dining hall I'd just left, and I nearly broke out into a run to get away from the chaos.

Was there no one in this school at all who had a crush on me? Not even a slight one? I was glad the love potion—thanks to my glorious self-control and ambition—did not affect me, but seriously? No one had even a bit of an infatuation with me?

I scoffed at myself for caring about such a thing as I dodged a couple running across the courtyard hand-in-hand. The last thing I needed right now was for some sorry fellow to come running to express his love for me. I needed to focus on finding a solution to this problem, because it had already caused the cancellation of one of my classes today. Not to mention, the dining hall, where I had to grab my food and run out to avoid being knocked over by blind love, was utter chaos.

Finally, I made it to the library and shoved the heavy doors open. For one oblivious moment, I thought I was in the clear. This place had always been my sanctuary, and I needed it to remain so.

"Miss Jacobs! Mister Smith! Get off that display this instant!" shouted the poor librarian, Mrs. Ellington, at a couple perched on top of a wizarding history display. She waddled from the circulation desk to where they were, for lack of a better word, roughhousing against the display I knew she'd worked hard on. I'd watched her meticulously place history books in a tabletop formation and use spells to create a changing array of books in the shapes of former great wizards and witches. But the display was already destroyed as Anna Jacobs and Galan Smith moved a little too fast in their desperation to kiss one another. They'd knocked the entire table over, ruining the magic that held the display together. It would have perhaps made me laugh under different circumstances, but Mrs. Ellington's distress kept my face stoic.

My phone vibrated in my jacket pocket, but I was too busy glancing around the library with dread. There were crazed witches and wizards everywhere. How was I supposed to find the information I desperately needed with students against every bookshelf, in every aisle, and at every table?

Straightening my back, I marched straight to the potions section and found the aisles I needed. There were, of course, more individuals caught in the potion's trance, but there wasn't anything I could do about that. I just needed to get some materials.

"Excuse me," I squeaked as I shoved my way between two couples crowding the entrance to the aisle I suspected would have texts on love potions. Could they not have found anywhere else? A room, perhaps?

My phone was buzzing again, but this time with a call. It went against my moral compass to talk on the phone in a library, but with all the other library rules being broken right now, I decided I could make an exception.

"Ivy!" I said in a hushed whisper. "Please tell me you're not under the effects of this blasted potion?"

"Well, Henri, I can't say that exactly, but Remy and I are cooped up in my room. I think since we're already together, it doesn't affect us as intensely. Is that a thing?"

I chuckled as I browsed the titles at my eye level on the shelf. "As long as neither of you harbors a secret infatuation with anyone else, I think you should be in the clear."

"Don't get me wrong, Remy and I are very much enjoying the canceled classes. With how busy this semester has been, we've barely had a moment alone together!" I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Ever since my two best friends started dating three years ago, I had dealt with their incessant heart eyes for each other. Though I was happy for them, they never stopped pushing me to vitalize my own romantic life. They said our trio needed a fourth member and that I needed someone to spend time with when they were on dates and whatnot.

I reminded them time and time again that I was too busy for all of that.

"Well, you two enjoy...whatever it is you're doing alone in your dorm, and I'll get to finding a solution for all of this."

"Of course you will, Henri. Have fun!" Ivy hung up with a giggle. I slid my phone back into my jacket, glad to take a serious look at the books before me. I pulled my gray wand from my inner jacket pocket and used a spell to float titles down from higher shelves. I was thankful magic could help height-restricted witches like me—I hated ladders.

Potion Basics: A General Guide to High-Level Potion Mastery . Read that one three times, and I knew it didn't touch on love potions enough.

Potion Mishaps and Mistakes . This one I hadn't read yet, so I pulled it from the rest with a flick of my wand.

Potion History: A Comprehensive Guide . I had read part of this one for an assignment, and seeing as the book was nearly as wide as my head, I didn't finish it. I wanted to, but my assignments were more important. It was promising, so I waved the thick tome to the side as well.

After pulling two more books I thought could be useful, I wiggled my way out of the aisle.

"Could you love-blind idiots not find anywhere else to suck face?" I whined as a couple near the circulation desk nearly knocked me over. I just needed to check these out and get back to my room. Where was I going to put these books until I could finish them? I had no clue. Normally, I would have sat in the library all night and poured over the texts, but now, I would have to squeeze these into my personal space.

"Henrietta! Just take them! I can't take care of that right now!" called Mrs. Ellington. I raised a brow at her loud voice as I looked for her. She was quite literally prying couples apart, begging them to leave the library. Everyone was much too busy to pay her any mind. Pausing momentarily, I stood astounded at the effect of the potion, my desire to solve the problem strengthening. I seemed to be the only one with a clear mind. Who would do this?

I moved around the offending couple from before, walking towards the exit. Before I made it to the doors, though, strangers bumped into me seven times, and a couple knocked my floating book stack to the floor. Huffing, I used magic to stack them again and floated them above my head where, hopefully, no one could disrupt them.

"Excuse me," I shouted, hoping the couple pressed up against the doorway would kindly move. They didn't, so I repeated myself. Still, that did nothing.

Left with no other choice but to remain trapped in this love-fest for the rest of the day, I put a hand on each of their shoulders, pushing the couple until they moved. They were surprisingly resilient and unwilling to move, so I had to put more force than I'd expected behind my shove.

"Ugh!" I wailed as I finally moved them enough to open a door and leave the building.

The bright light of day assaulted me as I left what was usually a cozy sanctuary. I squinted as I trudged across the yard, hoping to make it back to my dorm without having to deal with any more distracted couples.

"You're stomping those little legs quite hard, Baker. Missing class got your knickers in a twist?"

I had to take a deep breath before turning around to see Noah Lawrence jogging up to my side. His eyes roamed over my stack of books with curiosity before they flickered back to me. Those green eyes that so enjoyed taunting me were quite darker than usual.

"You know, every time you're around, I get a sudden migraine. I wonder what the correlation could be?" My frustration was already too high for me to have to deal with him today. It wasn't even Tuesday.

Noah took a step closer to me, his smirk growing. Lukas was noticeably absent—I assumed he was with whoever the object of his affection was—which made me wonder why Noah was here instead of snogging whichever unlucky witch caught his eye. "Perhaps it's because you want me so badly that it's hurting your brain? Especially with the love potion flowing through your veins."

"Or maybe it's that I must use every ounce of my self-control not to chuck one of these books at you." I waved my free hand at the floating books at his eye level.

"Easy there," he teased, holding his hands up mockingly. "Are you grumpy that no one is following you around and confessing their love for you? The love potion didn't reveal any secret admirers, did it?"

His words stung a bit, but I just narrowed my eyes. He appeared as unaffected by the potion as I was, since he was the only other person not currently in the throes of passion.

"Just as upset as you are that the potion didn't have me falling at your feet the way the rest of this academy already does." It was true. Everyone here was obsessed with Noah, and it made me sick. Even in undergrad, everyone seemed to be in love with him. I wondered how he'd kept the dozens of girls at bay with this potion nonsense. Something flickered in his expression as I turned to walk away, but he continued.

"Don't worry, love. You'll get there eventually. You'll realize you've been in love with me for the past eight years."

"As if!" I whirled on him, taking a step closer. It was an unfortunate fact that to glare at him, I had to tilt my head almost as far back as it could go. Otherwise, I would have just been staring at the bottom of his chest. "I would rather drop out of Forrestbriar, enroll in a non-magical university, and never hold a wand again than ever feel anything other than disgust for you!"

"Is that a promise, Baker? Because I would love to not have to deal with your prudish disposition and know-it-all attitude." He took another step closer, our bodies separated by mere centimeters. Something darkened in his eyes, and he took a small step back, hands clenched. "Perhaps I should try harder to make you fall for me."

"Or perhaps you should jump off Briar's Cliff! See how far a broom can fly!" I spun around, stomping away from him and wishing I could be alone .

Once I got back to my room, I felt the slightest twinge of guilt that I'd told Noah to fly off the cliff. Brooms couldn't fly, after all.