He shrugs. “Somehow I doubt that.”

Even though he is echoing my thoughts, I’m incensed enough to stop, hand on the surprisingly flimsy doorknob. If Nolan Endsley’s personality is any indication, I would have thought he would have nothing short of a fortress guarding his precious lakeside hideaway.

“And why is that?” I ask.

“Because of Orman.” He says it like it’s a curse, and I want to roll my eyes, so I do. “Because you’re just like everyone else.”

I wish I was like everyone else, I think. Everyone else our age is smuggling microwaves into dorm rooms while I’m here arguing with an antisocial writer and his batty dog.

“Think what you want,” I say. “I’m still leaving.”

I half expect him to come after me, to act like a human and show regret, and that I will hear the door open behind me by the time I’ve reached the sand. When it doesn’t, I redirect to the tree a few yards ahead.

Nolan doesn’t come.

When I am almost to the gate where Alex first dropped me off, I realize Nolan really isn’t coming after me, that he failed this small test, and I’m mad again.

I shouldn’t be. It’s not like we’re friends. It probably didn’t mean anything to him, the pictures last night or the whales this morning. But he did promise to tell me about Jenna. Maybe.

I stomp back down the beach toward his fort, because where else can I go? The dark storm clouds gathering over the lake personify my mood. How lovely to see the weather finally cooperating with the events of the day.

As I keep checking my footing in the rocks and sand, I imagine myself a powerful sorceress with the ability to bend the weather to her whims. I look down to my feet and let my clothes flutter and change until I am dressed in an emerald green cloak with golden trim. Too cheerful, I think. It changes to black, and with narrowed eyes I direct a lightning bolt to strike the little fort and command the storm to kick up a cresting wave that bashes the stairs.

I’m considering a tornado to get Nolan and his little dog, too, as I approach the door, but I stop when I hear the low murmuring of Nolan talking on the phone.

“I know,” he says, muffled. “Alex, I know.”

Not giving myself time to decide if it’s right or wrong, I creep beside the wooden stairs and press my ear as near to the insubstantial door as I dare.