CHAPTER 18

Jenna and I slid through the door as inconspicuously as we could. My heart was hammering, and all I wanted to do was rush to Archer, but Lara was standing right next to him, a smirk on her face. “This whole ‘lying low’ thing sucks so hard,” I whispered to Jenna as we fell to the back of the crowd.

She gave me a sympathetic look, and then we turned our attention to Lara. “Students,” Lara said. “As many of you have heard, Mr. Cross here is a member of L’Occhio di Dio.” She walked closer to Archer and unbuttoned the top several buttons of his shirt, pulling the fabric away to reveal the gold-and-black tattoo just over his heart. I heard several gasps from the crowd. Of course, everyone had heard Archer was an Eye, but hearing about it and actually seeing proof were two different things. “And The Eye are our enemies,” Lara continued, circling Archer. I met his gaze, and he tried to smile at me, but I could see he was shaking.

My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. My magic was like a tsunami inside me, pounding against its prison.

“But Mr. Cross is far and away the worst of L’Occhio di Dio. Would anyone care to tell me why?” Her gaze locked on mine. “Miss Mercer? Since you’re the one he tried to assassinate last year, why don’t you inform your classmates of the danger Mr. Cross represents?”

“He wasn’t sent here to as—assassinate me,” I insisted. I probably would have sounded more confident if I hadn’t stumbled over the word “assassinate.”

I cleared my throat, and kept going. “He was sent here to watch me, nothing more.”

“And was he also sent to watch Elodie Parris? Why exactly, Miss Mercer, would The Eye have such an interest in you?”

I was standing on shaky ground, and Lara and me both knew it. It was like she had woven chains around me, too, only with words instead of magic. I didn’t want to own up to my demon-ness in front of the entire student body—after all, everyone at Hex Hall still thought I was a regular witch—and I was afraid that anything else I said was just going to get Archer in more trouble. So even though I felt sick, I lowered my eyes and pressed my lips together.

“I can tell you what The Eye wanted with Sophie,” Archer spoke up. He was grinning, but his voice was tight with pain. “We heard she was particularly skilled at Chutes and Ladders, and since The Eye holds a Chutes and Ladders tournament every summer—” His voice broke on a cry of pain as Lara twisted her fingers, and the glowing threads of magic around him burned white hot for a moment. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming.

“Archer Cross is not only a member of L’Occhio di Dio, but he’s also a traitor to his people,” Lara said, moving to stand closer to him. “He represents the greatest threat any of us can ever face. Which is why he’ll be so very useful to us.”

Jenna slipped her hand in mine and squeezed my fingers as Lara said, “Today, we’ll be using Mr. Cross for practice. The ritual I discussed last night will increase your powers, but first I need to see what we’re working with.” And then, like she was getting us ready for a game of Red Rover, she clapped her hands and said, “All right, everyone, line up. You will each get one chance to use your most powerful attack spell on Mr. Cross. I do ask that you don’t do anything that will kill him. Mr. Callahan is on hand to heal him, but even his powers only go so far.”

Mouth dry, I looked up. I’d been so focused on Archer in the middle of the room that I hadn’t noticed Cal, standing at the very back of the room, leaning against the gallows. His arms were folded over his chest. He was watching me, the expression on his face a weird mix of relief, anger, and tension. I lifted my fingers in a kind of wave, and he nodded in return. Jenna followed my gaze, and her grip on my hand got tighter. “Cal,” she murmured. “That’s at least one more thing in our favor.”

And it was. Too bad it was impossible to feel happy about anything as I spent the next few hours watching my classmates torture Archer. Because I didn’t have magic, I was allowed to sit the exercise out and watch. And Lara ensured that I watched. The first time I tried to shut my eyes, I realized they were frozen open. I couldn’t move my neck either, so turning my head away was out of the question.

Michaela was the first witch to go. She hesitated, and her attack spell, when she finally cast it, was weak. It bounced off Archer’s chest and barely made him rock back on his heels.

I thought maybe they’d all do that. I mean, sure, Archer was the “enemy,” but it wasn’t like these kids were killers. And if it hadn’t been for Lara, maybe they would’ve gone easy on Archer.

But when Michaela went to stand at the back of the line, Lara sent a bolt of magic crashing into her back that brought her to her knees.

“The next person to purposely hold back will get far worse than that,” Lara declared, and I wondered how I could have ever thought that she was nice. Or sane.

So I sat there, tears streaming down my face, and watched Archer take one attack spell after another from the witches and warlocks. The faeries froze him with ice, or burned him with heat. One conjured a vine out of thin air that wrapped itself around Archer’s throat until he passed out.

I don’t want to talk about what the shapeshifters did.

After every attack, Cal walked forward and laid his hands on Archer’s body until Archer regained consciousness, or stopped bleeding, or started breathing again. Each time Archer stood up to face yet another kid, he looked a little paler, a little more broken, and the closer Jenna got to the front of the line, the more my stomach twisted itself into knots. The idea of watching my best friend bite and drink from the boy I loved was so wrong, so nauseating, that I couldn’t let myself even contemplate it. Thank God, in the end, I didn’t have to.

Taylor went right before Jenna, and when Cal knelt next to Archer to heal him, he looked up at Lara and said, “That’s enough. Any more, and I won’t be able to bring him back.”

Lara frowned, but waved her hand and said, “Fine. You’ll get your shot tomorrow, Miss Talbot.” She turned her attention back to the rest of the group, all of whom looked…I don’t even know what the right word is. Shattered. Depleted. There’s no worse feeling than being forced to use your powers to hurt someone.

“Good work today,” Lara said, and you would’ve thought we’d all just aced a math test or something, not tortured a classmate. “Now that I have a better idea of your various strengths, we can work on honing your powers. Everyone back to the house.”

No one spoke a word as they shuffled through the doors. Jenna came back to sit by me, and as soon as Lara left, I could move again. Blindly, I ran to Archer, who was sitting on one of the thick mats we’d used in Defense. His elbows rested on his raised knees, and he had his head in his hands. I knelt in front of him, awkwardly wrapping my arms around his neck. He uncurled himself, pulling me to him. For a long time, we held each other, my hands fisted in his hair; his, stroking my back.

“I’m okay,” he said at last. “I know that’s hard to believe, but nothing hurts. I mean, except for my mind and soul, but those were always a little broken.” Gently, we disentangled ourselves and rose to our feet. “Your magic is awesome, man,” he said to Cal, who I just realized was standing at the edge of the mat, next to Jenna. “Although I have to say, now that you’ve brought me back from the edge of death—what, like, hundreds of times?—I’m starting to feel like our relationship is a little unbalanced.”

“You can buy me a burger when we get out of here,” Cal said, and as usual, I had no idea if he was joking or not.

I stepped away from Archer and reached out to give Cal one of those uncomfortable side hugs. “It’s good to see you,” I told him. “And not just because of, um…” I gestured to Archer, who raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t say anything. Willing my face not to go red, I asked Cal, “Did you get here yesterday like the rest of us?”

Sighing, Cal shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. One minute, I was heading out to the tent to grab some stuff; the next, there was all this light, and here I was. Back in my cabin, actually.”

“Why are we just now seeing you?” Jenna asked.

“The cabin was locked,” he replied. “Windows sealed shut, everything. Then this morning, I got the order to come here. Lara said they needed my ‘special skills.’ Gotta admit, I didn’t think it was going to be anything this intense.”

Now that he mentioned it, Cal did look awfully gray and exhausted. Healing magic is hard, and just one spell took a lot of Cal. To repeatedly bring someone back from the brink of death? No wonder he looked ready to keel over.

Still, Cal was tough, and he shook off his obvious weariness to ask, “So they’re turning everyone into demons, huh?”

“That seems to be the plan,” I said. Briefly, I filled him in on the assembly last night, adding, “And from what Elodie said, it’s like they want to do some kind of experiment on all of us, see what happens when you put a demon in a vampire.”

“What do you mean, ‘Elodie said’?” Archer asked, furrowing his brow.

“Oh. Um, Elodie haunts me. And now, uh, she can possess me and stuff. Which”—I hastened to add since Archer’s expression had gone dangerously dark—“is actually a good thing, because she can do magic through me.”

Jenna and I stood there, letting the boys take that in.

“Okay,” Archer said slowly. “Well, that’s incredibly disturbing, but I’m all for anything that helps us get out of here faster. Especially if I’m going to be used as some kind of guinea pig for torture.” I moved closer to him, wrapping my arm around his waist, and pretended not to see the way Cal suddenly looked away.

“So what do we do now?” Jenna asked.

I sighed. “Honestly, I want to say run. Spend some time researching spells that will get us through that killer fog, and then maybe find another spell that can make a magical boat or something.”

Cal made a sound that might have been a laugh, and Jenna smiled at me. Archer’s arm tightened around my waist. “But?” he prompted.

“But,” I added, “that’s like putting a Band-Aid on Marie Antoinette’s neck. I think our best bet is to try to talk to Mrs. Casnoff.”

“Why?” Archer asked.

“I don’t know. It’s just…she could’ve staked Jenna, but she didn’t.”

“Because she wants to put a demon in her,” Cal pointed out.

I shook my head. “Maybe, but I’m not so sure. Look, Lara is completely evil, but Mrs. Casnoff was…Okay, nice isn’t exactly the right word, but you guys have seen how awful she looks. Something is bothering her. It’s worth a shot to try to get her alone.”

“Maybe she knows where the grimoire is,” Jenna said, reaching out to grab my arm.

“She might,” I said, shooting for “enthusiastic” rather than “ambivalent and maybe a little scared.” As badly as I wanted my powers back, Torin’s second prophecy sat lodged like a stone in my chest. Just thinking about it made my head hurt.

So I turned to Archer, running my fingers over the front of his shirt. It was still stained with blood. “We’ll deal with Mrs. Casnoff. But first, there’s someone else we need to talk to.”