"Why?"
"Because I'm stil in love with your mother."
Whoa. Okay, not exactly the answer I was expecting.
Before I could even process that, Dad rushed on, saying, "Please don't let that get your hopes up. There is no way your mother and I could or wil ever reunite."
I held up my hand. "Dad, relax. I'm not twelve, and this isn't The Parent Trap. But that's...it's good to know. I always thought you and Mom must have hated each other. I thought that's why Mom and I moved around so much-because she was trying to make sure you could never find us."
His eyes slid away from my face, focusing on a spot above my shoulder. "Your mother had her reasons,"was al he said. Then he sort of sighed and turned away. "Al the magic in the world can't simplify affairs of the heart,"he murmured as he headed toward his office.
"Tel me about it,"I said to his retreating back.
Two days later, he left for Yorkshire, and I prepared for what I'd come to think of as my "field trip"with Archer. Cal ing it that seemed safer and more businesslike than "meeting"or, God forbid, "assignation."Stil , I spent most of the day in my room by myself because I was afraid Jenna or Cal would be able to tel something was up with me. I was so nervous that I was shooting off tiny flashes of magic like a sparkler.
I didn't even attempt to sleep, and I thought three a.m. would never come. Final y, at 2:30, I threw on a black T-shirt and some cargo pants, hoping that was an appropriate ensemble for meeting one's former crush who had turned out to be one's mortal enemy.
As I walked down the gravel path toward the mil , I tried to tel myself that despite my churning stomach, I had nothing to feel guilty about. I was doing this for a good reason. No, Dad might not understand that. And Jenna definitely wouldn't, but...no. No, I wasn't going to let the thought of Jenna make me feel bad about this.
When I got to the mil , Archer was waiting for me just as he had before, right by the doorway leading to the Itineris. His back was to me, and he was wearing a dark green V-neck shirt and a pair of worn jeans. That struck me as weird. I'd expected him to be al decked out in L'Occhio black, but instead he looked like any regular teenage guy.
Except for the giant sword in his hand. "Is that real y necessary?"I asked when I walked in, noting that his dagger was also hanging off his belt. His head jerked up, and I thought he might have been relieved to see me. But then he turned back to the Itineris, crouching down to pul something out of a black duffel bag at his feet. "Never hurts to be prepared,"he said.
"It just seems like overkil when you already have a dagger and I have superpowerful magic at my disposal."
"'Superpowerful?'"He stood up, a gold chain dangling from his fingers. "Let me remind you of two words, Mercer: Bad. Dog. "
I rol ed my eyes. "That was nearly a year ago. I'm way better now."
"Yeah, wel , I'm not taking any chances,"he said. For the first time, I noticed there was some sort of holster thing on his back. He slid the sword into it so the hilt rose over his shoulders. "Besides,"he added, "I thought you might not come. After what happened the other night..."he paused, studying my face. "Are you al right?"
"I wil be when people stop asking me that."
"You know I had nothing to do with that, right?"
"Yeah,"I replied. "And if you did have something to do with it, I wil vaporize you where you stand."
The corner of his mouth quirked. "Good to know."
He closed the distance between us, coming to stand entirely too close to me. "What are you doing?"I asked, hoping I didn't sound as breathless as I felt.
He lifted his hands, and with surprising gentleness, placed the chain around both our necks. Looking down at it, I saw that the links were actual y tiny figures holding hands. I'd seen it somewhere before.
"This is the necklace one of the angels is wearing in the window at Hex Hal ."
"It is indeed."
Reaching down to take my hands, he explained, "It's also a very powerful protection charm, which we're going to need."
I swal owed as we laced our fingers and stepped closer to the Itineris. "Why?"
"Because we're going a very long way."
I involuntarily squeezed his fingers with mine. The last time I'd traveled through the Itineris, I'd only gone a few hundred miles, and that had made my head nearly explode. "Where are we going?"I asked.
"Graymalkin Island,"he answered. And then he yanked me into the doorway.
Archer's necklace thing may have spared us the crushing headache and loss of breath, but it didn't make the landing any more graceful. We were tossed into a thick copse of trees as we came out of the blackness, and I immediately tripped over a huge exposed root, scraping my elbow on a branch as I went down.
Unfortunately, since the necklace was looped around both our necks, that meant Archer fel too. On top of me.
In another lifetime, that might have been kind of pleasant. And yeah, he stil smel ed nice, and as I grabbed his shoulders to push him away, I remembered that he was a lot stronger than his thin frame would suggest.
But none of that mattered. I didn't get to notice those things about him anymore.
The ground I was lying on was muddy, and I had a feeling I'd be pul ing leaves and twigs out of my hair for al eternity. "Get off of me!"I mumbled against his col arbone, shoving at him. He rol ed over onto his back, his sword clanging against a rock or exposed root, but thanks to the necklace, that just pul ed me half on top of him.
"And here I thought you were playing hard to get,"he whispered. Moonlight glinted in his eyes, and he sounded a little out of breath. I told myself it was just from the fal .
I thwacked his chest with the palm of my hand, then ducked my head underneath the necklace. Once I was free, I scooted away from him. "Let me guess,"I hissed, nodding at the chain. "Something else you stole from Hex Hal ."
He pushed himself to his feet. "Guilty."
"Where the heck was I while you were playing Grand Theft Cel ar?"
"I only took a few things, and most of those I grabbed during those last few weeks when you weren't talking to me."
I remembered that time now, right after the Al Hal ow's Eve Bal . Thanks to the weirdness of that night, Archer and I had spent a lot of cel ar duties avoiding each other. No wonder he'd been able to stuff al sorts of magical things into his pockets.