He shook his head. “Nothing. But…look. I’ve spent basically my whole life pretending to be someone I’m not, faking some feelings, hiding others.” Reaching down, he clasped my hand and lifted it so that our joined hands were trapped between our chests. “This thing with us is the only real thing I’ve had in a long time.You’re the only real thing.” He raised our hands and kissed my knuckles. “And I’m done pretending I don’t want you.”
I had read a lot about swooning in the romance novels Mom had tried to hide from me, but I’d never felt in danger of doing it until now. Which was why a snarky comment was definitely called for.
“Wow, Cross. I think you missed your calling. Screw demon hunting: you should clearly be writing Hallmark cards.”
His face broke into that crooked grin that was maybe my favorite sight in the whole world. “Shut up,” he muttered before lowering his head and kissing me again.
“Why is it,” I said against his lips several moments later, “that we’re always kissing in gross, dirty places like cellars and abandoned mills?”
He laughed, pressing kisses to my jaw, then my neck. “Next time it’ll be a castle, I promise. This is England, after all. Can’t be too hard to find one.”
We didn’t talk for a long time after that, and when we finally managed to break apart, the light in the mill was slightly brighter. “I have to go,” I said, resting my head against Archer’s chest. It occurred to me that my cheek was probably right over his tattoo. Without thinking, I lifted my face and tugged at the neckline of his T-shirt. This time, the stark black-and-gold mark wasn’t hidden. No need for that spell anymore, I guess. Still, I covered it with my palm. Archer’s hands clutched reflexively on my waist. Our eyes met. “It doesn’t burn this time,” I whispered.
His breathing was ragged. “Beg to differ, Mercer.”
Magic was rushing through me, and when Archer covered my hand with his own, there was a little blue spark. Slowly, he moved my hand off his chest, then gripped both my shoulders. I thought he was going to kiss me again—and with the way we were feeling, there was a chance we might set the whole mill on fire—but instead, he gingerly pushed me away. “Okay,” he said, closing his eyes. “If you don’t go now, we’re…You should go now.”
Once we were several feet apart, the lust-fog cleared a little. “We still have no idea what we’re going to do.”
Archer opened his eyes and took a couple of steps backward. “Right now, you’re going to go back to Thorne and check in with your dad. I’m going to go back to my people and do the same. Then tomorrow night, we’ll meet here. You’ll stand over there”—he pointed at a corner—“and I’ll stand overthere”—the complete opposite corner—“and there will be no physical contact until we’ve figured something out. Deal?” I smiled, even as I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from grabbing him again. “Deal. Midnight?”
“Perfect. So.” That grin again. “See ya, Mercer.”
Happiness flooded through me as warm and bright as sunlight. “See ya, Cross.”
chapter 33
The corn mill was just out of sight when reality sunk in. Now I knew that Archer wanted to be with me just as much as I wanted to be with him, but there was a lot of major stuff standing between us. Namely, the fact that basically everyone I knew wanted to kill him, and everyone he knew wanted to killme. As far as obstacles went, that had to be the ultimate. And it wasn’t just what other people thought. I’d gotten kind of used to the idea of being head of the Council one day, and at Thorne, I’d felt less like a freak with crazy powers, and more like…well, someone useful. Valuable, even.
As soon as Archer and I went public, that would be gone.
I made my way through the garden maze, the tall hedges making deep shadows in front of me.
Also, there was Cal to think about.
I stumbled slightly at the thought of him. It’s not like I thought he’d be heartbroken or anything; Cal and I were friends, and sure, maybe he was a little interested in me, but I think that was just a result of the betrothal. I mean, hadn’t I tried to make myself crush on him just because it would be easier?
The closer I got to the house, the more my happy feelings began to deflate. The Eye was Archer’s family. And, I thought as Thorne Abbey loomed above me, the Council had become mine. I wasn’t willing to give that up. Was he?
Ugh. Why did I have to have so many thoughts? Why couldn’t I just be a normal girl and bask in the glow of finally knowing that the boy I wanted wanted me back?
I slipped in the back door, and as I did, one of the maids gave me a quick curtsy. Ah, right. Because I wasn’t a normal girl.
I had hoped to get back to my room without seeing anyone else, but I met Cal on the landing. Wonderful.
“Hey,” he said, taking in my disheveled appearance. “Why are you up so early?”
“Oh, I was just, you know, exercising.” I jogged in place for a second before realizing that I probably looked like a mental patient.
“Okaaay,” Cal said slowly, confirming my suspicions. “Well, I was about to go for a walk. You wanna come with?”
You couldn’t actually die from guilt, right? No matter how stabby it felt in your chest?
“I’m actually fitnessed out,” I told him. “But can we hang later?”
“Sure,” he agreed.
As I watched him walk away, I told myself it was stupid to feel bad about Cal. It’s not like he was going to be heartbroken when I called off our betrothal. Pissed, maybe, but not devastated. He didn’t like me like that. If he did, surely he would have made a move by now.
I walked up the rest of the stairs to my room, the house hushed around me. Opening my door, I flipped on the light and started to sigh with relief.
But the breath caught in my throat when I saw who was standing in the middle of my bedroom.
Elodie.
Well, her ghost, obviously. She was much more translucent than she’d been at Hex Hall, and I could barely see her, but it was definitely Elodie. Her red hair waved out from her face, and she floated several inches off the ground.
I was so shocked to see her that it took me a second to realize she was trying to say something.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a harsh whisper. I’d never heard of a ghost leaving Hecate. As far as I knew, it was impossible.
I couldn’t be sure, but I thought she rolled her eyes. A horrible thought occurred to me: “Is this about Archer? Please don’t tell me you’re upset about us, because…I mean, you’re dead.”
She floated closer to me, until she was right in my face. At first I thought she was going to spit ectoplasm on me or something, but then I saw her lips moving again. I wasn’t an expert lip-reader, but she was close enough and speaking slowly enough that I was able to make out what she said. “I told you,” her pale lips mouthed, “that I’d haunt your ass.”
I stared at her mouth, horrified, as she smirked. And then, just like that, she was gone. The air near my face wafted slightly, like someone had just opened a window.
“I don’t need this!” I said to the empty room. “Seriously, plate? FULL.”
But there was no reply.
I’d planned on getting my nap on for most of the day, but instead, I ended up spending most of it in the library, researching ghosts and demons. It was not exactly the lightest reading, and none of it did me any good.
All the books on spirits and haunting said the same thing: ghosts are tied to the place where they died, not to people. As forDemonologies: A History, I was beginning to think it would have been better employed as a doorstop. There was nothing in there that shed any light on the Daisy/Nick situation.
I thought about asking them at dinner—quietly, and hopefully somewhere in private—if either of them had any weird memories that might correspond to what I’d seen at Hecate, but they didn’t show up in the dining room that night. I also couldn’t find them the next morning, which was weird. Missing dinner was one thing, but Nick and Daisy always showed up f
or breakfast. No one seemed that concerned about it, though. “You know those two,” Jenna said. “They’re probably off doing their weird Kurt and Courtney thing somewhere.”
Still, when they didn’t turn up for dinner again, I was worried. I hovered around the hallway where their rooms were until nearly ten that night, but there was no sign of them. I was still hanging around when Roderick found me to say that Dad was back.
“That was fast,” I said, following him inside, even as my stomach started doing jumping jacks. I had to tell Dad what I’d seen at Hecate, but I didn’t have a good excuse for how I’d come by that information. I’d thought I’d have a few more days to cultivate one.
By the time I crossed under the marble arch leading to Council Headquarters, my mouth was completely dry, and my knees felt wobbly.
I wanted nothing more than to flop into one of Dad’s leather chairs and tell him everything. For the first time, I understood why soldiers who go on dangerous missions have to be debriefed. I wanted to get the whole story out as quickly as possible, mostly so I could erase it from my memory. I thought again of that ghoul with the mismatched features, and was suddenly afraid I might hurl all over the diamond-patterned carpet.
But when I opened the door to Dad’s office, he wasn’t alone. Lara was in there, and even though they were speaking in low voices, the magic in the room was so intense it made me dizzy. They were both so busy glaring at each other that they didn’t even notice me standing there, which was good. It gave me a chance to study Lara. I knew I wasn’t going to figure out what she was up to just by reading her face; I seriously doubt there’s an expression that says, “So me and my sister are raising demons at Hecate Hall.” Still, I thought there might be some hint as to whether she already knew someone had found the demon spot.
But there was nothing. She was every bit as good at hiding her emotions as Mrs. Casnoff was. Must run in the family.
“So that’s it then,” Lara said, crossing her arms. “You’re not going to do anything.”
“What can I do,” Dad said in that deceptively calm voice, “if neither you nor Anastasia will tell me what exactly has happened at Graymalkin?”
Well, there was my answer. I’d known that Lara and Mrs. Casnoff had to have had something to do with whatever was going on at Hecate, but to have it confirmed like that still blew my mind. How? How could these women who worked so closely with Dad be up to something so heinous without his knowing?
“The school is our domain,” Lara snapped. “And so this is our affair.”
“And yet you ask formy help.”
Lara sprung forward suddenly, slamming her hand down on Dad’s desk. “There was an intruder on a forbidden part of the island, and the security system was compromised.” Another image of Archer’s sword slicing through a ghoul came to mind. Yeah, compromised was one word for it.
Suddenly she changed tactics. “You swore. You swore to my father that you would do everything in your power to protect Anastasia’s and my interests in Hecate.”
Even I could have told her that was a bad move. Dad just looked pissed. “Don’t bring him into this, Lara.”
Dad finally noticed me then, and as he looked over Lara’s shoulder at me, she whirled around. Immediately, her face softened, and she even smiled. Her eyes, however, were every bit as hard and shiny as the varnish on Dad’s desk.
“Sophie, there you are! Where have you been the past few days? We’ve hardly seen you.”
“A-around?” I stuttered, inwardly cringing. Oh, that was an awesome alibi. “Dad gave me a bunch of reading to do. Am I interrupting something?”
Lara waved her hand. “Just some boring Council business. Nothing that concerns you.” She glanced at Dad. “We can finish talking about all this later. I’ll leave the two of you to chat.” As she left the office, she patted my hand in that familiar way she always did. It took everything I had in me not to wince away from her touch.
The door clicked behind her, and I gave a sigh of relief. Dad gestured for me to sit. Once I had, he said, “I’m afraid my trip wasn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped. Aislinn Brannick continues to—”
“They’re raising demons at Hex Hall,” I blurted out. “I went there the other day—I took the Itineris—and I saw it myself. That’s where it’s happening, and six students have disappeared from the school in the past eighteen years. Two of them were Anna and Chaston, the girls Alice attacked last year.” It felt good getting it all out like that. It didn’t give me time to be scared that there were holes in my story.
Dad just stared at me like I’d started speaking Greek. Of course, Dad probably spoke Greek, so maybe it was more like I was talking Martian. In any case, he looked equal parts freaked out and confused.
“What?”
I made myself slow down as I went back through the story, leaving out Archer’s part in it, of course. I told Dad that I’d remembered seeing something weird at Hecate, so I’d gone back to check it out, then described the pit, the rock in the middle, even the ghouls.
By the time I was finished, Dad looked older and sadder than I’d ever seen him. “None of this makes any sense.”
“I’m beginning to think I should make that the title of my autobiography.”
“Lara and Anastasia are two of my most trusted allies,” he said, rubbing his hand over his jaw. “Why on earth would they be behind all this?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. Is there any way to check and see if Nick and Daisy were ever at Hecate? They must have had different names or you’d remember them.”
I don’t know why I was holding out hope that Dad would be all, “Why, yes, let me check the Hecate Enrollment Roster 9000 computer database.” Those lists were probably written on pieces of parchment with quill feathers. Still, I was disappointed when Dad shook his head and said, “No, Anastasia keeps all those records. And if what you say about Anna’s and Chaston’s parents is true, then Nick’s and Daisy’s own families would never have reported them missing.”
Dad got that faraway look in his eyes, the one that said he was about to go in search of really ancient books and cryptic passages. Sure enough, he got up from his desk and walked over to his bookshelf.
He pulled out one of those giant leather tomes he was so fond of and started paging through it, so I decided I was dismissed. Fine by me. I heaved myself out of the chair and shuffled for the door.
Just as I turned the knob, Dad said, “Sophia.”
“Yeah?”
When I looked back at him, he said. “I’m very proud of you for what you did. I have no idea what the far-reaching consequences of your actions may be, but—”
I held up my hand. “Let’s leave it at the proud part for now, okay, Dad?”
Especially since a lot of that pride would probably dissolve once he found out about Archer, I thought with a pang of sadness.
He smiled. “Very well. Good night.”
“Night, Dad.”
I walked out into the lobby. It was nearly empty, for once, except for the two vampire guards standing watch. The whole house seemed quiet as I walked down the massive staircase. Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was nearly eleven. Less than an hour until I was supposed to meet Archer, and I had no idea what I would say to him when—
“Sophie?”
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Daisy standing at the top of the stairs, just inside the archway. There was something weird about her posture: her hands were clenched at her sides, and her head was tilted slightly to the right. Her face was blank. Alarm bells clanged in my head, but I raised my arm in a halfhearted wave. “There you are,” I said, as I backed up. “We haven’t seen you—”
I didn’t get the chance to finish my sentence. Daisy started moving toward me, and then I noticed her eyes.
There was nothing human in them.
Everything seemed to slow down as nearly every hair on my body stood on end. I had seen eyes like that before, and I knew what they meant.
I raised my han
ds, and despite my fatigue, the magic came, clean and pure. I thought of Mom, and with one flick of my wrist, sent a burst of power crashing into Daisy’s shoulder. I didn’t want to hurt her, just slow her down. But even though she stumbled on the steps, she kept coming.
“Dad!” I yelled, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me.
Daisy snarled at me and lunged, her hands curling into claws, and this time I shot a bolt of magic big enough to knock her to the ground. She hit her knees, whimpering with pain, and even though I was terrified, guilt shot through me. She wasn’t Daisy, I reminded myself. There was no trace of her in the thing that staggered to its feet, rage gleaming in its eyes. Then she looked up. I saw her lips move, but I wasn’t sure what she was saying. Only when I heard the horrible screeching of metal on stone did I realize I was standing right under one of the huge statues that had so impressed Jenna our first day.
A statue that was about to land on my head.
chapter 34
This may sound weird, but the first thing I thought as I watched that ten-feet-tall bronze lady plummet toward my face was, “Well, at least it can’t kill me.” Only demonglass could do that, after all, but I wasn’t sure even Cal could heal the amount of broken I was about to be.
Without really thinking, I closed my eyes. I felt my powers surging through me, and then a strange sensation of cold wind rushed over me; something I hadn’t felt since that night in the clearing with Alice.
As if from distance, I heard the deafening crash of the statue on the marble floor. I opened my eyes.
I was standing several feet away, on the staircase behind Daisy. For the first time in over six months, I’d teleported.
Daisy whirled around, confused, but apparently, the sound of a ginormous metal statue hitting the floor got everyone’s attention, because I suddenly heard running footsteps. “No!” someone shouted. It was Dad, standing at the top of the stairs. He was breathing hard, one hand held out toward Daisy.
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