That’s awesome, I told her, but I’m letting you use my body so that we can break into Lara’s office, not so that you can give me a makeover. Besides, if I wander around looking like this, people will either know I’m doing magic somehow or wonder how I managed to sneak a flatiron into Hex Hall.
It was an odd thing, watching my face crumple into a scowl at…myself.
“You’re supremely irritating when you’re right,” she said, waving her hand. Once again, my hair sprang out in a messy halo of curls.
I was on the first one when I felt his fingers encircle my wrist. “Sophie, come on. I don’t want to fight with you.”
Turning, I opened my mouth to say I didn’t want to fight with him either. But before I could, I saw the telltale flash out of the corner of my eye, and the next thing I knew, my arm was jerking out of his grasp. “If you don’t want to fight with her, maybe you shouldn’t suggest she team up with people who want to kill her,” my voice snarled.
Archer backed up so fast he nearly stumbled, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him look so freaked out. But he recovered quickly. “Elodie, if I wanted to talk to you, I’d do a séance or something. Maybe go on an episode of Ghost Hunters. But right now, I want to talk to Sophie. So clear out.”
Elodie had no intention of doing that. “You always were a crappy boyfriend,” she said. “Once you left, I chalked that up to you, you know, not actually liking me. But unless I’m blind as well as dead, you really like Sophie. In fact, hard as it is for me to fathom, I think you love her.”
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
Screw that, she retorted. You two spend all your time making stupid jokes and being all witty. Someone has to get real.
“What’s your point?” Archer asked, narrowing his eyes at me. Her. Whatever. God, this was getting confusing.
“Cal loves her, too, you know. And the last time I checked, he wasn’t part of a cult of monster killers. I’m just saying that if you’re going have loyalties that divided, maybe it’s time to bow out gracefully.”
You couldn’t say Elodie didn’t know how to make a dramatic exit. The next thing I knew, I was pitching forward into Archer’s arms, my head swimming.
Archer clutched my waist and then abruptly shoved me at arm’s length. “Sophie?” he asked, looking intently into my eyes.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’m back.”
His fingers loosened, becoming more of a caress than a grip. “So you can’t control when she swoops in like that? She can just take you over…whenever?”
I tried to laugh, but it came out more of a cough. “You know Elodie. I don’t think anyone has ever controlled her.”
Frowning, Archer pulled his hands back and shoved them in his pockets. “Well, that’s awesome.”
I grabbed the railing to steady myself. “Archer…that stuff she said. You know it’s not true.”
He shrugged and moved past me onto the steps. “Saying the most hateful things possible is like Elodie’s superpower. Don’t worry about it.” He paused and looked over his shoulder. “We should probably go tell Jenna what we found down here.”
Oh, right. We’d just unearthed a whole bunch of demons. That probably trumped over relationship issues. Another few seconds passed. “Come on, Mercer,” Archer said, holding his hand out to me.
This time, I took it.
Maybe she’ll have a file labeled, My Evil Plan,” I suggested. “That would be super helpful.”
It had taken us three days to come up with a strategy to get into the office. Cal was distracting Lara with questions about his own powers and how they might be useful to “the cause,” while Jenna and Archer kept an eye on Mrs. Casnoff. Since she’d taken to just wandering in circles around the pond, that wasn’t particularly challenging.
Which left the most important part to me and Elodie using Elodie’s magic to get into the office and search it for anything that might help us stop the Casnoffs. As far as plans went, it wasn’t exactly D-day, but it was the best next step.
Now Elodie looked at my reflection and said, “It’s weird. Looking in a mirror and seeing you.”
Yes, I think we’ve established this is kind of awful for everyone involved. Can we go now? We don’t have much time.”
I don’t swing my hips like that when I walk, I said to Elodie as we passed them. Cut it out.
She gave no sign of hearing me.
Why did you break in Mrs. Casnoff’s desk for?”
Information on Archer. After he left.
“Ah. You’re welcome, by the way?”
For what?
She jiggled the nail harder. “For putting him in his place the other night. Working with The Eye,” she scoffed. “Yeah, that’s a brilliant plan.”
He’s just trying to think of something,” I said automatically. I wasn’t sure why I was defending him when I’d basically said that idea was the stupidest thing ever to have stupided, but I didn’t like the scorn in her voice. Well, my voice, her words.
Elodie paused in trying to open the desk drawer and shoved my hair back with both hands. “What’s it going to take for you to realize that Archer Cross is bad news? He’s an Eye. He’s a liar and a jerk, and he’s not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. And you’re betrothed to Cal. Boys who can heal all wounds and are super hot, to boot? Don’t exactly come around every day.”
I don’t think about Cal like that.
Pressing the point of the nail back into the lock, Elodie snorted. “Um, hi, I’ve been in your head. You totally think about him like that.”
Look,, this isn’t a slumber party, I snapped. Can you please get back to work?
“Fine,” she muttered. “Don’t listen to me. But I’m telling you, Cal is the way to go. Heck, if I had a body, I wouldn’t mind-“
I’m going to need you to stop right there.
I’m ninety-nine percent sure she wasn’t going to stop right there, but before she could say anything else, the lock on the drawer gave way.
I had to hand it to Elodie. If I’d been in control of my body, there would have been flailing and knocking things over, and I probably would have caught my clothes in the drawer. But Elodie smoothly closed the drawer without a sound, and sat down in Lara’s chair like she belonged there.
Rachel HawkinsSo, that sucked,” I said, trying to sound as jovial as possible. “Side effect of dating in the magical world, I guess.”
He made a sound of amusement, his shoulders jerking slightly. But he still didn’t look at me. “You think those guys ever had these kinds of problems?” he asked, nodding toward the picture. It was the one depicting the very first class at Hecate Hall, back in 1903. There had only been a few students that year, back when the school hadn’t been used for punishment but as a kind of safe house.
“Probably,” I said. “That chick in the straw hat seems kind of skanky.
Cal cares about you. And he’s a really good guy. And even though I want to hate him for being betrothed to you…” He gave a helpless shrug. “I can’t. Which must mean he’s extra-special dreamy.”
“Stop it,” I said, jerking our joined hands. “Cal’s my friend. That’s it. You’re the guy I-“
Love, I wanted to say. But the word froze on my tongue, and I ended up just saying, “Want. Chose. Whatever.”
He held my gaze, and his dark eyes were as serious as I’d ever seen them. “Maybe I shouldn’t be.”
Shocked, I leaned away from him. “What does that mean?”
“It’s just…If you were with him, you’d be happier. Better off.”
Okay, now I was getting angry. “That’s really not for you to decide. And if you feel that way, maybe you should just go ahead and give me the ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’ speech right now.”
To my surprise, Archer smiled. “That’s the thing, though,” he said. “I can’t. I could stand it if you left me, but I don’t think there’s any way I could leave you.”
I blinked at him. “You are so screwed up.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Wrapping my hand around the back of his neck, I pulled his face to mine. “I happen to like screwed up,” I whispered, our lips nearly touching. “So don’t ever say crap like that again, okay?”
I could tell there was more he wanted to say. Instead he just sighed. “Okay.”
“Well, this is a lovely moment.”
I whipped my head around. Lara stood just inside the room, smiling beautifically at us. “So glad to have found you, Miss Mercer,” she said to me. “I think it’s time we two had a little chat.
A feeling of contentment flooded through me as I felt magic surging up from my feet. I flung another hand out, and the fog seemed to flinch in its rush to pull back. “Okay,” Jenna said, tugging at my arm. “You’re back to being a badass. Now, run.
Rachel HawkinsThe ends-“
“Justify the means. That’s what she said. What is that, your family motto or something?”
Lara stilled, her knuckles white. “Would you like to know about my family, Sophie?”
Pressing myself back against my chair, I shook my head. “I think I know enough about your family, thanks.”
“You don’t know anything,” Lara said, and then she flicked her fingers in my direction.
At first, nothing happened, and I wondered if all she’d done was give me the witch version of her middle finger.
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