Demonglass hh-2

by Rachel Hawkins

  I had no idea how to reply to that, but Nick saved me. Leaping to his feet, he said, “And you do look like a goddess, Sophie.” He took my hand and pulled me off the platform, spinning me. “See? Embrace your goddessness.”

  Nick may have been a weirdo and a half, but I chuckled.

  Then he pulled me to him like we were going to dance, and the laugh died in my throat. For an instant, all I could see was another dance, another dress, another dark-haired boy holding me, and the sudden pain that lanced through me caught me by surprise. Before I could stop myself, I raised a hand to his chest and pushed him away.

  An awkward silence descended over the room. Lara discreetly cleared her throat and said, “Nick, Daisy, why don’t you come with me and let Jenna and Sophie get changed? Lysander, we can discuss your payment.”

  Nick and Daisy shot me unreadable looks as they followed Lara and Lysander.

  “You okay?” Jenna said once we were alone.

  I shook my head, but answered, “Yeah. Just a little freaked out about the party.”

  Which technically wasn’t a lie. It seemed profoundly stupid to gather a whole bunch of very important Prodigium plus four demons in one place when things were so scary. But Dad had explained that it was a point of pride with the remaining Council members. “We can’t let The Eye think they’ve cowed us,” Dad had said. Then he’d given me a little smile. “Besides, this will be the first birthday party of yours I’ve ever been to.”

  I couldn’t resist that. Still, I was uneasy about the whole thing.

  Jenna stood up, coming to stand beside me. She had decided to go as Mina Harker fromDracula, and she was wearing her own Lysander design, a pseudo-Victorian concoction of black lace and pink silk. It even had a cool little top hat and veil.

  There were no changing rooms at Lysander’s, probably because faeries tend to be really into their bodies and showing them off, so something like “modesty” is kind of a foreign concept to them. Luckily, Jenna and I had lived in close quarters for nearly a year, so it wasn’t a big deal.

  “You looked really beautiful in it, though,” Jenna offered as I attempted to unsnarl the crown from my hair.

  “Please. I look like an Evanescence album cover.You look fabulous.” Jenna tipped her top hat at me, which made me smile. “I just hope no pictures of me looking like this ever get back to Hex Hall,” I continued, turning toward the mirror. Maybe if I could actually see where the crown was snagged…“Can you imagine? Dressed as Hecate? And wearing this thing?” I gave another tug. “All my new social cachet would be gone like that.”

  I glanced at Jenna in the mirror, but she had her back to me. Weird. I thought that would’ve gotten me at least a chuckle.

  “Sucks to think that we’ll be back at Hex in, what, four weeks? Gonna be quite an adjustment after being”—I pulled hard, but my hair refused to let go—“a pretty, pretty princess all summer.” I was joking, but even as I said it, my stomach sank. Thorne definitely had its own issues, but at least I could do magic here.

  Jenna turned and met my eyes in the mirror. “I’m not going back to Hecate, Sophie.”

  My fingers stopped tugging, and the tiara dangled limply near my left ear. “What?” I whirled around to face her.

  “I’m not going back,” she said, her voice firmer now.

  “But…you have to,” I said stupidly.

  For the first time in a long time, Jenna’s face flushed with anger. “No, I don’t. I don’t have to do anything the Council tells me to. They’re not—”

  “The boss of you?” I finished, even as I cringed at how snotty that sounded. But Jenna couldn’t leave Hecate. I was already dreading going back; how could I possibly do it without her?

  “I don’t belong there,” Jenna said, pulling off her pink lace gloves. “Vix thinks it’s time we were with our own kind, and so do I.”

  A very nasty comment sprung to the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. In two days I would be seventeen, and I couldn’t act like a toddler with hurt feelings. I touched the tiara and used my magic to make my hair uncurl itself from the platinum band. “But last year you said you didn’t even want to be a vampire. That you wanted a normal life with algebra and prom, and all that.”

  “Last year changed both of us a lot, Soph,” she said, not unkindly.

  “Yeah.” It was all I could think of to say. We got changed with our backs to each other, and neither of us said anything until we were back in our regular clothes, the costumes up on silk hangers.

  “I don’t get why you’re so upset,” Jenna said, taking me by the shoulders and turning me to face her. “This is something I have to do. I thought you’d get that, especially after everything with the Removal.”

  I stepped back, and her arms fell limply between us. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Well, if you had gone through the Removal, I’d have been left on my own at Hex Hall, and that never seemed to bother you.”

  “Right, but I was going to do that so I wouldn’tkill anybody,” I said, trying not to get angry but failing miserably. “It wasn’t like I was ditching you at Hecate to frolic with some guy.”

  Her eyes flashed, and I thought I saw a hint of fang. “Oh, really? So you’re telling me Archer had nothing to do with why you wanted to get your powers removed, and ditchme at Hecate?”

  I gaped at her, even as magic swirled up in me. “What?”

  Jenna rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, her voice thick when she said, “Like it never crossed your mind that you could be with him if you weren’t a demon.”

  It had. Or at least I think it had. All the reasons I’d wanted to go through the Removal were too twisty and complex to sort out. But still, it hadn’t been the main reason, and how could she…Something clicked.

  “That’s why you were all ‘Sophie and Cal, rah, rah, rah!’ isn’t it? You thought if I found some new guy, I wouldn’t want to go through the Removal.”

  She didn’t have to answer. The blush that spread up her neck and her lowered gaze were enough.

  “I watched Alice murder Elodie, Jenna. I thought I was a monster. That’s why I wanted the Removal, not so I could be with Archer.” My powers were racing around me now, curling inside me. A nearby mannequin rattled, and both mine and Jenna’s hair was fluttering slightly. “The Removal could have killed me,” I continued. “And you’d have to be a total moron to die for acrush.”

  Jenna recoiled like I’d slapped her, and I suddenly realized what I’d said. “Oh, Jenna,” I said, taking a stumbling step toward her. “I didn’t mean—”

  “No,” she snapped, backing up from me. “I get it. You’re Demon Queen of the World, and I’m an idiot who let a monster kill me.”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “You didn’t have to.”

  It seemed impossible to believe that just a few minutes ago we were laughing and joking about my dumb costume. “Jenna,” I said, but she just shook her head and walked away.

  chapter 25

  My seventeenth birthday party was held in the conservatory, that giant glass room filled with plants. The ferns had been decorated with tiny purple ribbons and white lights. A group of faeries were set up in the corner, playing some kind of elaborate clockwork instruments, but the music that came out of them was thin and wavering, and weirdly melancholy for a birthday party. Not that you could hear it that well, anyway. A storm had sprung up earlier in the evening, and raindrops were splattering loudly on the glass roof. I had staked out a spot on a window seat, and from there I watched the rain trickle down the glass like tears.

  I thought about my last birthday party and decided that despite the ice sculptures, and the champagne fountain, and the giant cake shaped like Thorne Abbey, I preferred Skee-Ball and a guy in giant rat suit.

  Of course, that could have had something to do with the fact that my dress weighed roughly fifty pounds, my crown was giving me a headache, and my best friend was currently not speaking to me.

  I sca
nned the room, but I didn’t see Jenna. She’d kept her distance ever since that day in the dress shop. Maybe it was easier this way. If Jenna was bound and determined to get her vamp on, it might hurt less if we weren’t friends anymore. Still, telling myself that did nothing to lessen the ache in my chest.

  There were maybe a hundred Prodigium in the room, all of them in fancy, glittering costumes, and they were all smiling at me, and coming up to wish me a happy birthday. They’d all brought gifts, too: a marble-top table near the door was rapidly piling up with brightly wrapped packages. Still, there was this heavy feeling in the air, like everyone was trying too hard to have a good time. Laughs were too loud, and smiles looked forced. Maybe they were afraid Dad and I would vaporize them if they didn’t act like this was the best party ever.

  I would have laid my forehead against the cool glass wall, but I didn’t really want to see my reflection that closely. Lysander had brought the dress earlier that afternoon, and insisted on doing my makeup, too. Consequently, it looked like a glitter bomb had exploded on my face. Even my bare shoulders were dusted with sparkling blue powder.

  There were dozens of waiters moving through the room, bearing trays of glasses that were filled with a glowing purple concoction. I wasn’t sure if the waiters were Thorne’s regular servants, or if they’d been specially hired for this party. They were dressed in simple white shirts and black pants, the upper halves of their faces covered with silver masks. One had already come up to me three separate times, and each time I took a drink, only to pour it in the nearest potted plant as soon as the waiter walked away.

  “Why so glum, birthday girl?”

  I turned to see Nick and Daisy, each holding an empty crystal-and-silver goblet. There was a purple stain on the lapel of Nick’s doublet. From their pink cheeks and bright eyes, I guessed those weren’t the first drinks they’d had tonight. “It’s my party, and I’ll sulk if I want to,” I replied, heaving myself off the window seat.

  “This party does kind of suck,” Daisy said, reaching up to straighten the silver laurel wreath on her dark hair.

  “You could always open a present, see if that makes you feel better,” Nick said, nodding toward the gift table. A couple of the boxes were moving. One spun in slow circles above the rest, while another skittered about like a spider, the trailing ends of white satin ribbon acting as legs.

  I gulped. “Um…you know what, I’m good. Have either of you seen Jenna?”

  A look passed between them, but before they could say anything, that same waiter headed our way again. Ugh. What was that guy’s deal? Had someone paid him to get the head of the Council’s daughter drunk or something?

  Looping my arms through Nick’s and Daisy’s, I pulled them away from the window and out of the waiter’s path. “What are you two fighting about, anyway?” Daisy asked.

  I was about to tell her the whole story about Lysander’s shop when a blond witch in a bright red dress stopped us. “Hello,” she said, her voice breathless. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to wish you happy birthday, Sophia.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

  I thought she’d move on, but she just kept standing there, smiling at me. Well, at all three of us, actually. “It’s just such an honor to meet you,” she enthused. “All of you. I hear…” she glanced around, and when she turned back to us, her cheeks were flushed. “I hear demons can make something appear out of nothing. Is that true?”

  I blinked at her.What the heck? “Yeah,” I replied. “But so can witches. It’s just a matter of—”

  Before I could finish, Nick bowed, and with a flourish of his hand, produced a huge bouquet of white roses. “It is indeed true,” he said, handing the flowers to the witch. “Of course, that’s only a little of what demons are capable of.”

  The witch nearly squealed. “That’s amazing!”

  There was a dangerous glint in Nick’s eyes. “Oh, that’s nothing.” He leaned forward and whispered, “If I wanted to, I could bring this whole ballroom down before you had time to blink those pretty brown eyes. Or pull the fabric of time so that—”

  “Okay, that’s all really awesome, Nick,” I said, tugging both him and Daisy away from the witch. “But I think I see my dad, so we should go. Bye! Thanks for coming!”

  Once we were out of earshot, I turned to Nick. “What was that all about?”

  He took another swig of his drink. “That was me giving them what they want. They want us to be these scary, powerful things that can kill The Eye for them. That’s why they made us, right?”

  I briefly pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, which only had the effect of smudging the glittery gunk on my lashes.

  Daisy patted Nick’s arm, her laurel crown listing heavily to the right. “Sweetie, can we ease off on the killing talk? It’s a birthday party.” She punctuated that sentence with a little hiccup, and suddenly I was very tired of both of them. I wanted to talk to Jenna. Or Cal. Someone normal—well, as normal as my friends got—and preferably sober.

  “Maybe I will go get a present after all,” I told them. I had taken maybe four steps when that waiter made another beeline for me. “Drink, miss?” he asked, holding out the tray.

  “Look, dude,” I said, stumbling a little as I stepped on one of my draping sleeves, “I don’t know if you’re trying to suck up or what, but—”

  I glanced up into his masked face, and our eyes met.

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  chapter 26

  Even though I couldn’t see it, I had a feeling Archer was raising an eyebrow at me. “Who are you supposed to be?” he asked in a low voice.

  I took deep breaths and tried to keep my face as impassive as possible. If anyone glanced over here, they had to think I was just talking to a waiter, not facing down an Eye in their midst. “Hecate,” I said, plucking one of the glasses off his tray. “What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged, managing somehow to look elegant even in his waiter’s uniform. “Who doesn’t love a party? Plus, I thought there might be a chance you’d wear that blue dress again.”

  My fingers tightened so hard on the crystal goblet that I’m surprised I didn’t snap the stem. “You are a crazy person,” I said, struggling to keep my voice calm. “Or an idiot. Or a crazy idiot person. Why aren’t you at least glamoured or something?”

  “No one here has ever seen me in person,” he replied, making a show of rearranging the glasses on his tray, “so the mask is good enough. If I’d used a glamour, I just would’ve drawn attention to myself. Of course, I wouldn’t have had to go to all this trouble if you’d just met me three weeks ago.”

  It could have been the dim lights or the mask, but I thought I saw real anger flash in his eyes for just a second.

  “I couldn’t,” I said, smiling like he’d just said something funny. My heart was leaping around in my chest, and it was all I could do to keep my powers under control. “You should leave. Now.”

  Now there was no mistaking it: he was definitely pissed. “Do you have any idea what I risked to come here tonight?” he hissed. “Not only from your people, but mine?”

  I glanced around, but no one seemed to be watching me. That would probably change once I started yelling at a waiter. I gave Archer what I hoped was a significant look, but thanks to all the sparkle, I wasn’t sure he got it.

  I walked away to the corner of the room and ducked behind a truly insane amount of potted plants. The light back there was dim and green, and everything smelled rich and loamy.

  Archer parted the palm frond a few seconds later and leaned against the glass wall, his arms folded over his chest. “Why didn’t you meet me?” he asked without preamble.

  “I don’t know, maybe because you’re a demon hunter and I’m a demon, so us hanging out seems like a bad idea?” When he didn’t reply, I sighed and said, “Look, basically, everyone in my life has told me to stay away from you. So that’s what I’m doing.”

  It was weird talking to him
while he was wearing that mask. I could see his eyes, but I couldn’t read him at all. “Trust me,” he said. “If there weren’t something major going down right now, I’d never see you again. Happily.”

  Pain sliced through my heart, as bright and sharp as the dagger Archer undoubtedly had hidden somewhere on his body. I hoped I didn’t let it show. “What do you mean, ‘something major’?”

  But he shook his head. “I don’t have time to get into it, but it’s about your little demon buddies back there. Can you meet me tomorrow night at the mill?”

  My brain raced. If Archer really knew something about Nick and Daisy, maybe Dad and I could get a better grip on what was going on here. Or was I just telling myself that so I could spend time with Archer and not feel guilty about it?

  “I can’t tomorrow.” Dad and I hadn’t had any time to research stuff about the grimoire, thanks to all the birthday madness, but we’d set aside all next week to work on it. That should have been all I said. That could have ended it, and I could’ve walked away. Instead, I heard myself say, “But my dad leaves for a business trip in nine days. It would be easier for me to get away then.”

  He nodded. “Good. Nine days, then. Three a.m.”

  “Fine. But if you pull a knife on me again—”

  To my surprise, he laughed. “You keep bringing that up. First of all, I didn’t pull the knife onyou, I pulled it out so I could jimmy the lock on that window. Secondly, I was trapped in a cellar with a pissed-off demon. Of the two of us, who do you think was the most freaked out?”

  I rolled my eyes, no easy feat, seeing as how my eyelids were weighed down with a thousand pounds of glitter. Archer moved past me, out of the plants. When I followed a few seconds later, he was nowhere to be seen.

  As I walked over to the gift table, I kept looking around for him, but it was obvious he’d already left. I sighed and reached up to take off my crown. I was probably making a huge mistake, but Dad wanted to know where Nick and Daisy came from, and if Archer—or The Eye—had that information, why shouldn’t we use it?