It took me a good thirty minutes to find Cal. That was actually a good thing, because it gave me plenty of time to come up with something to say to him that wasn’t just a string of four-letter words.
There are a lot of freaky things witches and warlocks do, obviously, but the arranged marriage thing was one of the grossest. When a witch is thirteen, her parents hook her up with an available warlock, based on things like compatible powers and family alliances. The entire thing is so eighteenth century.
As I stomped across school grounds, all I could see was Cal sitting with my dad in some manly room with leather chairs and dead animals on the wall, chomping on cigars as Dad formally signed me away to him. They probably even high-fived.
Okay, so it’s not like either of them are exactly the cigar-and-high-fives type, but still.
I finally found Cal in the potting shed behind the greenhouse, where our Defense classes were held. His talent for healing extended to plants, and he was running his hands over a browned and drooping azalea when I flung open the door. He squinted as a shaft of late afternoon sunlight flooded in behind me.
“Did you know I’m your fiancée?” I demanded.
Cal muttered something under his breath and turned back to the plant.
“Did you?” I asked again, even though I clearly had my answer.
“Yes,” he replied.
I stood there waiting for him to say something else, but that was apparently all Cal had to say.
“Well, I’m not going to marry you,” I said. “I think this whole arranged marriage thing is gross and barbaric.”
“Okay.”
There was a bag of potting soil by the door, and I scooped up a handful to fling at his back. Before it hit, he raised his hand and the dirt froze in midair. It hovered there for a moment before floating slowly back to the bag.
“I just can’t believe you knew and didn’t tell me,” I said, sitting on an unopened bag.
“I didn’t see the point.”
“What does that mean?”
He dusted his hands off on his jeans and turned to face me. He was streaked with sweat, and his damp T-shirt was clinging to his chest in ways that would have been interesting if I wasn’t so irritated with him. As usual, he looked more like an all-American high school quarterback than a warlock.
His face was blank, but Cal always held his cards pretty close to his chest. “It means that you didn’t grow up in a Prodigium family, so I knew you’d think arranged marriages were—what did you say?”
“Gross and barbaric.”
“Right. So what was the point in making you all freaked out and hostile?”
“I’m not hostile,” I protested. Cal gave a pointed look to the potting soil, and I rolled my eyes. “Okay, yes, but I was mad that you didn’t tell me, not that we’re…engaged. God, I can’t even say it. It sounds too weird.”
“Sophie, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “It’s like a business contract. Didn’t anyone explain that to you?”
Archer had. He’d been betrothed to Holly, Jenna’s old roommate, before she died. Of course, now that I knew he was an Eye, I wondered how legit that had ever been. But I didn’t want to think about him right now.
“Yeah,” I said. “And we can, you know, break it off, right? It’s not a done deal.”
“Exactly. So are we cool?”
I drew a pattern on the dirt-covered floor with my toe. “Yeah. We’re cool.”
“Great,” he said. “So there’s no need for things to be awkward.”
“Right.”
Then we sat there awkwardly for a moment before I said, “Oh! Almost forgot. Dad wants you to come to England with us this summer.” Briefly, I told him everything that had happened in Mrs. Casnoff ’s office. He looked surprised when I told him about the Vandy, and he scowled when I mentioned the interview-and-testing part of his summer vacation, but he didn’t interrupt me. When I was finished, he said, “Well, that sucks.”
“A bunch,” I agreed.
He got up and walked back to the azalea, which I guess was my cue to leave. Instead, I said, “Sorry I tried to throw dirt at you.”
“It’s fine.”
I waited for him to say something else. When he didn’t, I pushed myself off the bag of soil. “See you back at the house, honey,” I muttered as I left. He made a sound that might have been a laugh, but it was Cal, so I doubt it.
The sun was beginning to set when I walked up the front steps of the crazy half-antebellum mansion, half-stucco institution that was Hecate Hall. Crickets were already chirping, and frogs croaked around the pond. A gentle breeze that smelled like honeysuckle and the sea breeze nudged the vines that climbed the walls of the school. I turned and looked back at the lawn. I’d hated this place when I first came here, but I was actually going to miss it this summer. So much had happened to me since Mom had steered that rental car up the drive for the first time, and, as impossible as it would have seemed then, Hecate Hall almost felt like home.
Something furry brushed my arm. It was Beth, a werewolf I’d met my first night at Hecate.
“Full moon,” she growled, nodding her muzzle toward the darkening sky.
“Right.” Weres got the run of the place during the full moon. Glancing behind me, I could see a handful of them gathering in the foyer.
“Can’t believe the school year is almost over,” Beth said, in that voice that sounded like a teenage girl who had a throat full of broken glass and lug nuts.
“Tell me about it,” I replied.
Her eyes were bright yellow, but I could see the affection in them as she said, “I’m gonna miss you this summer, Sophie.”
I smiled. Just a few months ago, Beth hadn’t trusted me, thinking I had to be a spy for the Council or something. Luckily, nearly dying had cleared me of that suspicion. I reached out to pat her shoulder. “I’ll miss you too, Beth.”
Then she leaned forward and licked the side of my face.
I waited until she had loped off before wiping my cheek with the back of my hand. “Yeugh.”
Okay, so I wouldn’t miss everything about Hecate Hall.
I headed up to the third floor, where all the girls were housed. There were a few people gathered in the lounge on the landing, but for the most part, things were pretty quiet tonight.
Taylor, one of the shifters, saw me and waved. “Hey, Soph! Heard you went for a swim today,” she said, taking in my still-bedraggled appearance. “Why didn’t you change your clothes?”
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I, uh, didn’t really have time.”
Taylor laughed, the sound surprisingly throaty for such a delicate-looking girl. “I meant with magic,” she said.
Oh, right. “With the way things have been going lately, I didn’t wanna risk it.”
She nodded sympathetically. “Oh, I understand. Especially after the Bed Thing.”
The Bed Thing had happened two months ago. I’d wanted to move my bed, and decided to use magic to do it. Instead of scooting over a few feet, the bed had gone flying out the window, taking out a big chunk of the wall with it.
Mrs. Casnoff had not been amused.
Especially since the Bed Thing had followed the Doritos Incident. Jenna had wanted chips; when I’d tried to make them appear, I’d flooded the hallway with Doritos. There were still traces of cheese dust in the floorboards. Before that, there was That Time With The Lotion (the less said about that, the better). Ever since Alice and Elodie, my magic had definitely been…off. As a result, I’d pretty much stopped using it.
After saying good-bye to Taylor, I continued on to my room. A few more students called out greetings, or commented on my date with the pond. It still caught me off guard, this newfound popularity. At first I thought that word must’ve gotten out that I was a demon, and everyone was being nice to me because they were afraid I’d eat them. But according to Jenna, who was a champion eavesdropper, everybody still thought I was just a superpowerful dark witch. Mrs. Casnoff had done a bang-up job covering up the truth of Elodie’s death, which meant there were all kinds of rumors about what happened to her. The most popular one had Archer sneaking back onto Graymalkin Island and me and Elodie trying to fight him off with our mad magic skills, Elodie dying in the attempt.
Too bad the truth was a lot more complicated. And a lot sadder.
I was nearly at my door when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Hecate Hall was full of ghosts, so we were always catching glimpses of them like that. But when I saw who it was, I froze.
Even as a ghost, Elodie was still beautiful. Her red hair waved around her face, and her skin was translucent. It sucked that she had to spend eternity wearing her school uniform, but then again, Elodie made even that look good.
She was doing what all the ghosts seemed to do: wandering around, looking confused. They weren’t technically in our world, but they weren’t in the afterlife either, so they were just…stuck.
I’d seen Elodie’s ghost a lot, and every time I did, a wave of sadness washed over me. Her death had been her own fault. She and her coven had raised a demon in the hopes that they could bind it and use its power. They’d even sacrificed Holly for it. Still, Elodie had given me her last spark of magic. Without it, I never would have been able to kill Alice.
Now Elodie drifted past me, her eyes searching for something, her feet not touching the ground.
It seemed wrong that someone as vibrant as Elodie would be reduced to this pale, sad spirit, forever wandering the place where she died. “I wish you could just go on to wherever you’re supposed to be,” I whispered in the silence of the hallway.
The ghost swung around and looked at me.
My heart lodged in my throat.
That was impossible. Ghosts couldn’t see or hear us. That was why I should’ve known right away that Alice wasn’t a ghost like she claimed. But Elodie was staring at me, the expression on her face no longer lost and bewildered, but annoyed, with just a touch of disdain.
The way she’d always looked at me in life.
“Elodie?” I barely murmured the word, but it sounded deafening in the quiet. She kept studying me, but she didn’t reply. “Can you hear me?” I asked, slightly louder this time.
A pause. Then, to my disbelief, she made a tiny nod.
“Soph?” My door opened, and Jenna peeked out. “Who are you talking to?”
I whipped my head around, but Elodie had already vanished.
“No one,” I said, trying hard not to seem irritated. It wasn’t Jenna’s fault she’d interrupted me in the middle of talking to a ghost, a ghost who wasn’t supposed to be able to communicate at all.
“Where have you been?” Jenna asked as I slumped on my bed. “I was worried.”
“It’s been a really long afternoon,” I answered before launching into the Tale of Casnoff’s Office again. Unlike Cal, Jenna had a lot of questions, so the story took a lot longer to tell. I left out the part about Cal and I being betrothed. Jenna was already practically wearing a Team Cal T-shirt. I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition. By the time I was finished, I felt too tired even to go down to dinner, usually my favorite time of day.
“England,” Jenna breathed when I was done. “How awesome will that be?”
I laid an arm over my eyes. “Honestly, Jen? I have no idea.”
She tossed a pillow at me. “It’s going to be superawesome. And thank you.”
“For what?”
“For letting me come too. I thought maybe you’d want some time alone with your dad.”
“Are you kidding? You were the deal breaker, my friend. No Jenna, no England. Those were my conditions.”
She smiled brightly, shaking her head so the pink stripe in her bangs fell over one eye. “I’m not sure that island is big enough for the two of us. Oh! Do we get to use some sort of sweet witchy transportation to get there? Like, a traveling spell or a magical portal?”
“Sorry,” I said, forcing myself to get up and change. After all, my uniform still had the distinct odor of Nasty Pond. I would need at least a thirty-minute shower before going to bed tonight. “I asked Dad. We’re taking a plane.”
Jenna’s face fell. “That’s such a…human thing.”
“Look on the bright side,” I told her, tugging on a clean Hecate-blue skirt. “It’s a private plane, so at least it’s a rich-human thing.”
That cheered her up, and we started planning our entire wardrobe for the summer as we made our way toward the dining hall.
But once our plates were filled and we were sitting at our usual table, Jenna’s face grew serious. “Sophie,” she said.
“What?”
She pushed her food around and seemed to be debating what to say. Finally, she just decided to be blunt.
“Archer’s in England.”
The piece of ham I’d been chewing turned to sawdust in my mouth, but I forced my voice to be light as I said, “Allegedly. I’m not sure the word of two warlocks—who were drunk off their butts, from what I hear—can be taken as fact.” Except that that hadn’t been the only sighting. There was the werewolf who’d seen a guy matching Archer’s description when The Eye raided a den in London. And the vampire who’d fought with a young dark-haired Eye three months ago a few blocks from Victoria station.
Mrs. Casnoff had a file on Archer in her bottom desk drawer. Her desk was protected from spells, but apparently not from nail files and elbow grease.
“Anyway,” I said to Jenna, lowering my eyes to my plate. “That sighting was months ago.”
“It was last month,” Jenna corrected, and her tone suggested I had known that. “And people have been saying he was in England since he disappeared. I overheard those two witches in Savannah.”
“It’s a big island, Jenna,” I said. “And even if Archer is there, I seriously doubt he’s anywhere near Prodigium. That would be stupid. Archer’s a lot of things, but he’s not an idiot.”
Jenna turned her attention back to her food, but when her green beans had made their third circuit around her plate, I pushed my dinner away and said, “Spit it out.”
She put down her fork and looked into my eyes. “What would you do, though, if you did see him?”
I held her gaze for as long as I could. I knew what she wanted me to say. She wanted me to tell her that I’d turn him in to the Council—who would almost certainly execute him—or maybe even that I would kill him myself.
For the first time in a long time, I let myself remember Archer, really remember him. His brown eyes and slow smile. His laugh, and how I felt when I was with him. How his voice sounded when he called me “Mercer.”
The way he had kissed me.
I lowered my eyes to the table. “I don’t know,” I finally said.
Jenna sighed, but she didn’t say anything more about it. After a moment we started talking about the trip again, and I made Jenna laugh by wondering aloud if there was such a thing as vampire high tea. “And when you ask for Earl Grey, you actually get Earl Grey,” I summed up, sending Jenna into another fit of giggles.
I felt better as we left the dining hall, and Jenna must have too, since she looped her arm through mine to walk up the stairs.
But the thought she’d put in my mind refused to die, and I fell asleep that night seeing Archer’s eyes and hoping with most of my heart he wasn’t in England.
Even as a not so tiny part of it hoped that he was.