Mom just sighed. "Okay. Wel , I'm glad you're there, safe and sound, but please tel your father to cal me as soon as he gets a chance."

I promised that I would, but as I hung up, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion. I didn't real y want to deal with parental drama on top of everything else I was trying to process.

I was in England. With my dad. At some ridiculously huge house that was also serving as Council Headquarters, and home to two other demons.

And on top of al that, I stil couldn't shake that weird feeling, almost like a premonition, that had been with me ever since leaving Hecate Hal .

Chapter 4

Then, of course, there was the fact that my sort-of-ex-crush might be lurking around the same country, al monster-kil ing.

Yeah, I was definitely gonna need a nap before dealing with any of that.

I flopped on my new bed. It may never have belonged to a duke, but it had apparently been stuffed with baby angel feathers. Kicking off my shoes, I settled into the cool sheets. Everything smel ed faintly of sunshine and green grass. I figured I could nap for an hour or so before I went and talked to Dad. And maybe I could ask Lara if she had a map, or better yet, a GPS for this place. I closed my eyes, and fel asleep stil wondering why the name Thorne sounded so familiar to me.

The next thing I knew, someone was shaking me, and a shout was echoing in my ears. I had a feeling it had come from me. Disoriented, I sat up, my heart thrumming in my chest.

"Sophie?"Jenna was sitting next to me on the bed, her eyes wide.

"What happened?"I asked, my voice husky. The room was darker than it had been when I'd laid down, and for just a second, I thought I was back at Hex Hal .

"You must have been having a nightmare. You were yel ing. Screaming, actual y."

Wel , that was embarrassing. And also weird. I never had nightmares, not even after al that had happened last semester. I searched my brain for any image or memory from the dream, but it was like my head was stuffed with cotton. Al I could remember was that I had been running, that I'd been scared of...something. Weirdly, my throat was aching too, like I'd been crying. Other than that, al I was left with was that same feeling of dread I'd felt on the ferry, and a strange odor in my nostrils.

Smoke.

I took a deep breath, but even the sunshine smel of my sheets couldn't block the acrid stench.

I tried to smile. "I'm fine,"I said. "Just a stupid dream."

Jenna looked less than convinced as she wrapped her arms around her knees. "What was it about?"

"I don't real y know,"I told her. "I was running, I think, and there was a fire somewhere nearby."

Jenna twirled her pink streak. "That doesn't sound too bad."

"It wasn't, but the feeling that came with it..."I shuddered, remembering that awful sense of loss. "It's like I was scared, obviously, but I was also sad.

More than sad. Devastated."Sighing, I leaned back against the headboard. "I felt something similar when we left Hecate. Like, I had this super-strong sense that we'd never go back there. Not al three of us, at least."

One of my favorite things about Jenna is that she's pretty much unshockable. Maybe that comes with being a vampire, or maybe she was that way before she changed.

Either way, she didn't freak out about my maybe being psychic al of a sudden. She just chewed her thumbnail with a thoughtful expression before saying, "Is that a demon power? Seeing or sensing the future?"

"How the heck would I know? Alice was the only demon I've ever been around. The only thing she seemed to do that regular witches don't is suck people's blood, and that's not particularly impressive. No offense."

"None taken. Wel , maybe you could ask your dad. Isn't that the point of this vacay? Learning what it means to be a demon?"

I made a noncommittal sound, and Jenna wisely dropped the subject. "Okay, so you had a dream about fire and possibly a psychic sense that we're al going to die in England."

"I feel so much better now; thanks, Jenna."

She ignored me. "Maybe it doesn't mean anything. Sometimes dreams are just dreams."

"Yeah,"I agreed. "You're probably right."

"And if those are the only weird things that have happened to you lately, then why..."She trailed off at the expression on my face. "Those aren't the only weird things that have happened."

At that moment, al I wanted to do was slide back down and pul the covers over my head. Instead, I told Jenna about seeing Elodie.

And apparently, that was the one thing that could surprise Jenna. "She looked at you? Like, right at you?"

When I nodded, Jenna blew out a long breath, ruffling her bangs. "What did Mrs. Casnoff say?"

I fidgeted. "I, uh, haven't exactly told her yet."

"What? Soph, you have to tel her. That could mean something, and after Alice...Look, I get that living in the regular world for so long gave you major trust issues, but you don't need to keep any more secrets from Mrs. Casnoff. Or me."

There was that familiar stab of guilt again. Jenna and I had never real y talked about it, but we both knew that if I had just told someone about seeing Alice, then Jenna might never have been accused of the attacks on Chaston and Anna. And, of course, Elodie might stil be alive.

"I'l send her a letter tomorrow. Oh! Or, duh, I can cal her. Lara gave me a cel phone."

Jenna perked up. "Real y? What kind? Can we download music and-"She broke off and shook herself. "No. Do not try to distract me with shiny, sexy technology, Sophie Mercer. Promise,"she said, squeezing my arm.

I held up my hand and did what I thought was the Girl Scout salute. Or it could have been that Star Trek thing. "I solemnly swear to tel Mrs. Casnoff that Elodie's ghost looked at me. And if I do not tel her, I swear to buy Jenna a pony. A vampire pony."

Jenna tried not to crack a smile, but no one can resist a vampire pony.

I felt about a mil ion times better as we both started to laugh. Jenna was right. There were people I could trust now, people who deserved to know what was going on with me. My heart suddenly seemed lighter, and I decided that, Demon Central or not, Thorne Abbey was as good a place as any to turn over a new leaf, and clean the slate, and al those other cliches about starting over.

I was done with secrets.

"I hate that you had a bad dream, but I'm glad you're awake,"Jenna said when we were done giggling. "I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe about how your dad brought us to Council Headquarters?"Her expression softened as she added, "I could tel something freaked you out."

"Was it that obvious?"

"No, but as a vampire, I'm able to detect subtle shifts in emotional energy."

I just stared at her until she rol ed her eyes and said, "Okay, you got real y pale and looked like you were gonna hurl. I thought you might faint there for a second."Then her face brightened and she sat up straighter. "Oh my God, you so should have fainted, and then Cal could have caught you, and, like, carried you up the stairs."She punctuated that last bit with a little squeal and clutched my arm.

"I liked you so much more when you were sulky and angsty, Jenna."

She just kept grinning and wriggling around the bed like a four-year-old until I laughed. Shoving off my covers, I begrudgingly said, "Okay, I admit that the image of Cal carrying me up that fancy staircase is...nice."

Jenna gave a happy sigh. "It is, isn't it? And I don't even like dudes."

I snorted at that as I leaned down to fish under the bed for my sneakers. I knew I should probably tel Jenna about the betrothal, but I wasn't real y ready to talk about it with anyone else until I worked out how I felt.

"It wasn't just the Council thing,"I cal ed up to Jenna. "Did you see those kids at the back of the welcoming committee?"

"Yeah, the black-haired girl, and the guy who looks like Archer."

I sat up too fast, hitting my head on the bed frame. "What?"I said, rubbing my scalp.

"That guy. He looked a lot like Archer. In fact, I thought that might be part of the reason you looked al vomitish."

Sitting back on my haunches, I tried to remember the guy without the haze of "Oh, dear God, that's another demon"clouding my vision. "Yeah,"I said final y. "I guess he did look like him. Similar hair. Tal . Kind of smirky."My stomach twisted a little, and I wished Jenna hadn't brought up Archer.

"Anyway,"I said, sliding my shoes back on, "that's not what freaked me out. He's a demon. Both of them are."

Jenna's mouth dropped open. "No way. But thought you and your dad were the only ones in the whole world."

"So did I. Hence my puking face."

"What do you think they're doing here?"

"No idea."

We were quiet for a minute before Jenna said, "Wel , they're probably lame demons anyway. I'm sure you and your dad are much better at demoning."

I grinned at her. "Jenna, how are you so awesome?"

She smiled back. "Yet another one of my special vampire powers."She pushed herself off the bed. "Now come on. I did a little exploring while you took that epic nap. You were out for like three hours. Anyway, I was scared to go too far by myself."

"You scared? You know you could probably take out anything that goes bump in the night?"

Jenna shrugged. "Yeah, but being a vampire doesn't protect you from getting lost. I real y didn't feel like wandering around this spooky house for al eternity."

"Thorne Abbey isn't spooky,"I said. "Hecate is spooky. This place is just...different."

"It's huge,"Jenna said, her eyes wide. "Didn't you hear what Lara said? Thirty-one kitchens. Just kitchens, Soph."

My mouth watered at the thought of food. "I wonder which one is making dinner tonight."

Jenna and I stepped out into the hal way. There were several lamps affixed to the wal s, but it was stil gloomy. "It's weird to think of one family living in this house,"I said.

"This wasn't even the Thorne family's primary residence,"Jenna said, like she was quoting from a guidebook. "They had a mansion in London, a castle in the north of Scotland, and a hunting lodge in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, they lost most of their wealth after World War I , and in 1951, they were forced to sel al of their properties except for the Abbey. It stil belongs to the Thorne family."

"Dude. How do you know al of this?"

Jenna looked a little sheepish. "I told you. You were napping for a long time and I got bored,"she said. "There's this insane library downstairs, and they have a whole bunch of books about the history of the house. Some real y fascinating stuff happened here. Like those big statues in the foyer?

They were commissioned by Philip Thorne in 1783 after his wife committed suicide by throwing herself down the stairs."

"Gruesome,"I replied, but something was bothering me. It was that name, Thorne. I knew I'd heard it somewhere before, but where? And why did I feel like it was so important?

As we walked downstairs, Jenna rattled off more history about the house. "Oh! One thing I read was real y neat. In the late 1930s, Thorne Abbey was a school for girls."

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