Now he went very stil . "Why? You planning on tel ing Daddy?"

I scowled, even though I knew he couldn't see me. "No, the cone of silence has firmly descended over this entire night. I just...they think you're the only one. That's why they're so gung ho about kil ing you."It also meant that while Archer hadn't planted the exploding birthday gift, another Eye might have. Yay for more complications.

"There aren't many, but they're out there. Who do you think told us you were at Shel ey's that night?"

Wel , that certainly made things more interesting. And scarier. "Keep going,"I said.

He started walking again, holding a branch out of the way so I could duck under it. "Simon trained me as a warlock and as an Eye, and I spent summers in Rome with L'Occhio di Dio, learning sword fighting, attack maneuvers, that kind of thing."

"No wonder you always kicked my ass in Defense,"I muttered.

"The Eye had been looking for ways to get into Hex Hal for years, but the screening process for teachers was too intense, and they didn't have any Eyes young enough to get in as students. Until me. When I was fourteen, I turned my middle school gym invisible. Bam, instant ticket to Hecate."

"What did they want you to do there?"

"Nothing as awful as you're probably thinking. Listen, mostly. Observe and report back."He stopped and turned around. Even though I couldn't see his face, I knew he was studying me. "This is weird,"he said. "I've never said this stuff out loud to anyone before."

"That's because I'm using a demon compulsion spel on you."

"Seriously?"

"No, you dork. So keep going. What about Hol y and Elodie?"And me? I thought, and even though I didn't say it, I could feel the words hanging in the air around us.

"The betrothal with Hol y was al aboveboard. Simon and her father arranged it."He took a couple of steps back, and I heard a faint metal ic clunk as he leaned back against a tree. "It was part of my cover, but I liked her. She was sweet. Quiet. It's not like we had this great love or anything, and I obviously had no intention of actual y marrying her, but...I don't know. It wasn't hard spending time with her. Elodie was a different story, especial y after what she did to Hol y."

"So when you left Hex Hal after Hol y died, that wasn't because you were the grief-stricken fiance. You were going back to The Eye."

"Yeah. I told them that I thought Elodie and her coven had raised a demon, so we decided I should get close to her, see what was real y going on."

"And you decided to get really close to her."

He laughed softly. "I can't see you, but I have a feeling you're cute when you're jealous, Mercer."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, "It's not jealousy you're hearing, it's disgust. You dated a girl you didn't even like just to get information out of her."

His laughter died, and his voice sounded weary when he said, "Trust me, a lot of my brothers have done much worse."

There was so much more I wanted to ask him, but it's not like we could sit out here al night passing the sharing stick or whatever. Time to cut to the chase.

"So did The Eye tel you to get al Mata Hari on me too?"

There was a long pause before he answered. "I was supposed to watch you, yeah. They thought it was weird that Atherton would send his own kid to Hecate, so we wanted to keep an eye on you. No pun intended."

He kept doing that, using "we"and "they"interchangeably when he was talking about The Eye. Not like I could blame him for being al schizo. It had to be bizarre to live two lives for as long as he had.

He pushed himself away from the tree. "So yeah, you were part of the job. Don't get me wrong, Mercer, I like you. You're smart, fluent in sarcasm, and, Bad Dog incident aside, pretty kick-ass at magic. And it's not like you're hard to look at."

"Be stil my beating heart."

Chapter 16

"But to answer your question, no part of the Archer Cross you knew at Hecate exists. That day in the cel ar, I kissed you back because it was my job to stay close to you. If that's where you wanted to take things, then that's where I was going to go. I kissed you because I had to. Not exactly the hardest assignment I've ever had, but an assignment nonetheless."

I stood there absorbing his words like blows, my heart aching. But it wasn't what he said that made me feel like I'd been punched in the chest.

It's that I knew he was lying. That speech came out way too quickly and way too smooth, almost like he'd been practicing it in his head. The same way I'd been practicing what I'd say to him if I ever saw him again.

I couldn't even begin to handle that right now, so instead I just said, "Okay, then. Yay for honesty. Now that we're done with the confessional part of the evening, why don't you tel me why we're here."

There was another pause, then he started walking again. I fol owed, leaves crunching under my feet.

"Like I said, Hecate Hal has always made The Eye nervous."

"Why? Are they al ergic to plaid?"

I thought he might laugh, but instead, he said, "Think about it, Mercer. One place where Prodigium round up their most powerful members? Don't tel me that's not suspicious."

That had never occurred to me. I'd always just thought of al us at Hecate as giant screwups, but in a way, Archer was right. We'd al been sentenced to Hex Hal because of spel s that were powerful and dangerous. I thought of Cal saying I created "too big."Wasn't that what just about everyone at Hecate had done?

Stil , the idea that the place I'd cal ed home for nearly a year was actual y some evil farm for powerful Prodigium was unsettling to say the least.

"Hecate isn't like that,"I said weakly, almost more to myself than to him.

"Isn't it? Do some kind of il umination spel ."

I raised my hand, and within seconds, a glowing orb of bluish light had appeared. It lit up the surrounding area, and I gasped. This section of forest looked like a meteor had landed here. We were standing at the edge of a crater that was about eight feet deep and thirty feet in diameter. Al around us were flattened trees, lying broken like matchsticks. The trees that were stil standing were scorched and blackened.

But it wasn't just that. Dark magic, darker than anything I'd ever felt, crackled over everything. It was like the whole area was marinating in it. It seeped up from the dirt under my feet, and I could practical y taste it in the air.

There was a large flat rock at the base of the crater with something carved into it. I wiggled my fingers and the orb grew larger and brighter until I could see the markings.

I'd only seen writing like that one other place-the grimoire.

"Now you see why I wanted to show you this,"Archer said quietly. "Whoever is raising demons is doing it here. At Hecate."

"This is bad,"was al I could manage to say.

"Yeah, I kind of picked up on that too."

"No, I mean real y bad. Like, to a level I didn't know badness could reach."

Archer crouched down near the lip of the crater, the flickering blue light playing in his eyes. "It gets worse."

"What, does this pit also eat kittens? How much worse can it be?"I stared at the flat rock, blinking at the power radiating off the markings.

"Ever since I left Hex Hal , I've been looking into the history of the place. In the past eighteen years, six students have disappeared from the school."

I final y tore my gaze away from the depression and turned back to Archer. My knees were weak, and my stomach churned with dread, but I made myself play devil's advocate. "That's not that many. Have you ever been to a big human school, Cross? Some of those places lose six kids in, like, a week."

"Sophie, two of those kids were Anna and Chaston."

I knew he was serious because he hardly ever used my first name, and then I just went ahead and let my knees do their thing and give out. I thumped onto the ground.

"After the attacks, they both vanished,"Archer said.

"No,"I said, thinking of Daisy that night at Shel ey's. How she'd kept insisting that The Eye couldn't be there. "No, their parents came to get them."

Archer stood up and moved closer to me. "Did you ever see them?"he asked quietly. "Did any of us?"

I racked my brain. Mrs. Casnoff had told us that their parents had come for them, and they were taking the year off. They were supposed to come back after the summer.

But no. I'd never seen either of them-or their parents-after Alice fed on them.

"I visited their parents,"Archer continued. "Al four of them were under some heavy spel s, Mercer. They were convinced their daughters were spending the summer at Hecate. Said they talk to them once a week. But none of our guys have been able to locate either Chaston or Anna anywhere."

My brain was spinning. Demons, missing students...

Why had my life suddenly become a Nancy Drew mystery from hel ?

"Okay, but that would mean..."I could hardly say the next words. They seemed unbelievable to me. "That would mean Mrs. Casnoff is in on it, and if that is the case, my dad would know something about it."

"Not necessarily,"Archer said. "Hecate Hal and Graymalkin Island are completely Mrs. Casnoff's domain. Your dad signs off on al the kids who're sentenced here, but past that, he leaves it al to her."

Way to be screwed over by delegating, Dad.

I stood up and paced a few feet around the basin. "So you think Chaston and Anna were taken so they could be made into demons?"

"It seems to fit. Daisy and Nick are both teenagers; so was Alice back in the day. Maybe Mrs. Casnoff figured they'd be easier to turn because they'd already been up close and personal with the dark side."

"Why, though? Why would Mrs. Casnoff, of al people, be raising demons?"

"It might not be just her,"Archer suggested. "After al , her sister works for the Council. Their father used to be the head. I think this goes way deeper than we can even guess."

I kicked a clump of dirt, and it tumbled down the sides of the crater, landing on the slab. For a second, I thought I saw something move, but it was probably just a trick of the light. "Cross, my dad thinks if he can catch the people who changed Nick and Daisy, he can get them to reverse it, and stop a war between The Eye and Prodigium. But if it's the Casnoffs who are doing this?"

Archer stood up, dusting his hands on his pants. "Yeah. As we've established, it's bad."

"So...why did you want to show me this? You guys could handle this on your own. Why risk getting kicked out of your He-Man Monster-Haters Club?"

"Because we can't handle this on our own. At least I don't think we can."

"You said yourself you already have some Prodigium working with you. Why not go to them?"

"We have a handful,"he said, frustration creeping into his voice. "And most of them suck. Look, just consider it a peace offering, okay? My way of saying I'm sorry for lying to you. And pul ing a knife in your presence, even if it was just to open a damn window to get out before you vaporized me."

Most girls got flowers. I got a dirt pit used for demon raising. Nice.

"Thanks,"I replied. "But don't you want in on this?"