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but her magical senses were still wildly unpredictable. Sometimes, she could feel everything Sam was doing, almost as though she herself was the one casting the spells, and sometimes, she was like a brick wall.
    They hadn’t been able to find any common denominator that distinguished the times she could sense magic from those she couldn’t. The whole thing had gotten more than a little frustrating, and she was pretty sure Sam and Serenus were both at a loss.
    “No, I meant...” Sam looked off to the side and seemed to be struggling for the right words. “I meant, just to be together.”
    For Cassie, the whole world seemed to stop—and she had experience with time actually stopping, so that was saying something. Sam seemed unsure what to do with his hands, and finally shoved them into his pockets. He still wasn’t quite making eye contact with her.
    “We could go back to my apartment, and I could make you dinner—if you want. We could also go out for dinner if you would prefer that….”
    Miri grabbed Cassie’s arm. “Cass, he’s asking you out!”
    “I know that!” said Cassie, knowing her face must be red as a tomato. “Um, well, okay. If that’s what you want.”
    Miri jumped up and down. “Yaaay! This is exciting!”
    “Aha!” said Khalil, jumping out from behind the break room door. “We have a cradle robbery!”
    Sam, who had jumped ever so slightly when Khalil popped out of nowhere, glared at the other man. “What are you still doing here? I thought you went home!”
    “Naw, why would I do that?” said Khalil. “Now I can report this shocking incidence of cradle robbery to all of the appropriate parties.”
    “Wonderful,” muttered Sam.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Cassie woke up the next morning to the sensation of her little brother poking her face.
    “Wake up, we got it! It came in the mail!”
    “What did?” said Cassie, bleary-eyed. If the mail had already come, that meant she had slept later than she intended.
    “ Car Fights 3 !”
    Cassie groaned inwardly; Car Fights was one of Hunter’s favorite videogame series, and it was one of the few that Cassie would actually play with him from time to time. She wasn’t very good at it, but she was good enough that she could occasionally beat him, which was more than she could say for most videogames she played. Something about driving a virtual golf cart and firing lasers and rockets was fun sometimes, but she still didn’t feel like playing.
    “ Hunter.…” she began, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
    “See they revved up the golf cart, now if you have enough money early in the game you can buy the Super Golf Cart and it shoots double the amount of lasers, and it also flies for 30 seconds whenever you hit a blue power-up,” he babbled excitedly. “I want to drive the cement truck, that one lets you go invisible when you hit the power-up and it has a flame-thrower and—”
    “Hunter, I don’t feel like playing it now, okay? Maybe another day.”
    “But you said you’d play!” Hunter said, the expression in his blue eyes pleading. “You told me you’d play with me again when the sequel came out.”
    Cassie could have kicked herself; of course, she’d promised him that ages ago to get him off her back for never playing with him. She’d been secretly hoping the stupid thing would never be released.
    “Look, just not now, okay? I just got u p, I need to go out later, and—”
    She trailed off, feeling that familiar pull in her stomach as she remembered last night’s events. Yes, she needed to go out later—with Sam. And it was less about going out than it was going home with him, because she’d understood the subtext of his invitation. They were out of time, and if she wasn’t made a witch, the entire Western Court would have a fit….
    Perhaps mercifully, an annoying little sibling cut off this line of thinking.
    “You always say ‘not now,’ and then you never do it,” Hunter whined.
    Cassie looked at him, puzzled; she