“I won’t do it again,” he says, dripping with sincerity. He turns his attention back to me. “I just wanted to mentor you, Shay,” Mr. B says gently. “I’m sorry it turned out like this.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” I snap. “You met me, and you assumed I was some poor Latina charity case. I’m not even Latina!”

“You’re . . . not?” he says, his brow furrowing.

“No,” I say stonily. “I don’t know why you’re obsessed with students you think you can, like, save or something. But you’re not helping us. And you’re sure as hell not mentoring us.”

With that, I turn to go back to Lex’s car. But before I can move away, he gestures sharply with his hand, and I sense a major shift in the magic around me. A tingling sensation runs down my body, starting at my shoulders and ending at my ankles. When I try to move my legs, they don’t respond. I’m left standing there, immobile, with muscles that feel strangely relaxed.

“You’re overreacting,” Mr. B says to me, getting even closer to where I stand. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but I can’t let you sabotage yourself like this. We can talk about this reasonably.”

What is this absurd upper-level magic he’s just pulled on me? The closest thing I can think of that would do this is a Partial Paralysis potion. But causing that effect yourself manually? That’s truly some higher-level stuff I don’t understand.

Brittany comes up behind him and tugs at his shoulder, but he ignores her.

“What are you doing?” Brittany says, staring at him with horror. “You could really hurt her.”

A bone-deep fear fills me as I stare at this powerful wizard in front of me. He has this friendly, apologetic expression on his face, like he’s sorry that I brought this upon myself. How disconnected from reality is he? He’s done something deeply dangerous and frightening to me, and he seems to think that it’s something he can play off.

Brittany grasps at his arm, babbling wildly. “Come on, you don’t have to do this. Just—just undo whatever you did. I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful, but—I tried to tell her it wasn’t your fault. Really, I really tried. Let me try again!”

He turns to her for a moment, and I sense a third magical shift. Her expression softens into calm. She steps away from him, smiling serenely. I try to clench my fist, wishing I could slam it into his face, but my hand won’t move.