CHAPTER 11

“Oh, good, it worked,” Archer said, his ghostly face relieved. Unlike Elodie, his voice came in loud and clear, and so familiar that my heart broke all over again.

I stood frozen, my back against the door. Even though he was faint, I could see him smirk.

“Um…Mercer? Haven’t seen you in nearly a month. I was expecting something like, ‘Oh, Cross, love of my heart, fire of my loins, how I’ve longed—’”

“You’re dead,” I blurted out, pressing a hand against my stomach. “You’re a ghost, and you think—”

All the humor disappeared from his face, and he held up both hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Not dead. Promise.”

My heart was still hammering. “Then what the heck are you?”

Archer almost looked sheepish as he reached inside his shirt and pulled out some kind of amulet on a thin silver chain. “It’s a speaking stone. Lets you appear to people kind of like a hologram. You know. ‘Help me, Sophie-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.’”

“Did you steal it from the cellar at Hecate, too?” Archer had collected all sorts of magical knickknacks back when we had cellar duty at Hex Hall.

“No,” he said, offended. “I found it at a…store. For magical stuff. Okay, yes, I stole it from the cellar.”

I rushed across the room and thrust my fist at his solar plexus. It went right through him, but it was still kind of satisfying. “You jerk!” I cried, striking at his head. “You scared me to death! Cal said The Eye probably had you, and I thought they’d found out about you and me working together, and killed you, you arrogant piece of—”

“I’m sorry!” he shouted, waving his translucent hands. “I—I thought the talking would give it away, and I didn’t mean to scare you, but I’m not dead! So would you please stop hitting me?”

I paused. “You can feel it?”

“No, but it’s still kind of unsettling to see your fist coming at my face.”

We were inches away from each other. I let my arms drop to my sides. “You’re not dead.”

“Not even a little,” he replied. And then he smiled, a genuine, happy smile, and my cheeks started to ache.

That’s when I realized I was grinning, too.

“So hologram means—” I finally said.

“It means non-corporeal, yeah. Which sucks seeing as how there are a lot of very corporeal things I’d like to do with you right now.”

My cheeks flushed hot as my gaze dropped to his lips. Then I remembered that ten minutes before, I’d been in another guy’s arms. Kissing another guy’s lips.

I spun away from him, hoping he hadn’t seen, and went to sit on the bed. “So where are you?” I asked, drawing my knees up to my chest.

Even though he was all ghostly, I noticed a brief flicker of guilt on his face.

“Rome,” he answered. “Or, if you want to get more specific, hiding in a closet in a villa in Rome.”

It wasn’t a surprise he was with The Eye. After all, hadn’t that been the best case scenario as far as him getting out of Thorne went?

“Why are you making that face?” Archer asked.

I hugged my knees tighter. “What face?”

“Like you want to throw up or cry. Both, maybe.”

Oh, the joys of having whatever the opposite of a poker face was. “It’s just been an insane night. An insane few weeks, really.” I didn’t know how much time I had to talk to Archer, so I gave him the most bare-bones version of what had happened since I left Thorne. He stood there listening, and only looked surprised when I told him that my mom was a Brannick.

“So that’s why we’re here,” I told him, “chilling with the Brannicks. And now my dad has shown up, and, uh, Cal, and now you. It’s been kind of a busy night.”

“How did Cal and your dad track you? I’ve been trying this magical GPS thing ever since I left Thorne, and it only locked on to you today.”

“Cal had told me to come to the Brannicks when I left Thorne, so they were just hoping I’d be here. It may be the first time I’ve had any luck since…oh, 2002 or so.”

Archer smiled and then began to flicker in and out. “Damn it,” he muttered, tapping on the stone around his neck. “Okay, it’s looking like I don’t have much longer, so I’ll make this quick. All The Eye knows is that the Casnoffs have disappeared. There haven’t been any more reported demon attacks, but something is definitely stirring. They just don’t know what.”

“That’s what Dad said, too.”

“We’re looking for the Casnoffs, but so far, no dice. It’s like we’re all in a holding pattern.”

“Here, too,” I told him. “So…what now, Cross? Are you going to stay with The Eye?”

Archer glanced over his shoulder at something. “I don’t know,” he said when he turned back, his voice much quieter. “But it’s not like I really have anywhere else to go.”

“You could come here.”

He smiled at that and reached out one ghostly hand. I pressed my fingertips to his, even though I couldn’t feel him. “I wish I could,” he said. “But they’re watching me pretty closely these days. For now, it’s probably safer for me to stay there. Toe the line a little bit.”

I stared at our hands. “Am I ever going to see you again?”

“You better believe it,” he said. “Didn’t I promise you we could make out in a castle?”

Chuckling, I drew my hand back. “You did. And to take me on dates. Real dates with no swords or ghouls or angst.”

“Well, there you go,” he said. “As soon as we’ve saved the world from a demon invasion, it’s you, me, and Applebee’s.”

I rolled my eyes, but I was grinning now. “Oh, the romance.”

His smile slowly faded. “I will see you again,” he said, serious this time. “I promise.” He moved closer to me so that his translucent legs disappeared into the bed. “Mercer, I—”

And then, just like that, he blinked out and was gone.

“Oh, come on,” I groaned to the empty room. Sighing, I flopped back against the pillows and shut my eyes. I’d been lying like that for a few minutes when I suddenly had the sense I wasn’t alone anymore.

Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, Elodie was perched on the end of the bed, watching me with an unreadable expression.

Finally, she mouthed, “Do you love him?”

I took a moment before replying, “Yeah. I think I do.”

She nodded, like that was the answer she’d expected. “I thought I did, too.”

It suddenly occurred to me that if I ever did see Archer again, Elodie’s new habit of popping into my body whenever she felt like it could be…awkward.

“He’s sorry, you know,” I told her. “For lying to you. And for the whole you-getting-killed thing.”

She shrugged. “Not his fault I got killed.” I was getting a lot better at reading her lips. She didn’t have to repeat anything now. “That was Alice. And since the Casnoffs had a hand in making her a demon, I guess it was their fault in the end.”

“We’re going to stop them,” I told her. “I don’t know how, but we will.”

Elodie gave me a look. “Will you? I heard what that magic mirror dude said, about seeing two futures for you.”

“I would never help the Casnoffs,” I said, automatically, but I couldn’t help the little shiver that went up my spine as I remembered Torin’s words.

I thought Elodie might have sighed. It was hard to tell since she didn’t technically breathe. “Well, even if you don’t go over to the dark side, you’re still pretty screwed. Your dad doesn’t have powers anymore. You might as well not have any, because I certainly can’t keep taking over every time you run into trouble. Those two little girls can’t even kill a werewolf, and Aislinn Brannick is just one woman. Your mom is better at books than she is at weapons, and Torin is both annoying and useless. Basically, the only thing you have going for you is Cal, who might be able to postpone the inevitable when the Casnoffs and their pet demons rip you to shreds. But, you know, good luck with that.”

And with that inspiring little speech, she vanished.