A branch brushed against my cheek, and I ducked around it. "Where did al this happen?"
I could practical y hear him shrug. "Don't know. They never told me."
"So you don't know where you're from?"
"I don't even know what my real name is, Mercer. La Reina was the one who cal ed me Archer, after an Eye who'd just been kil ed in battle. Anyway, she let me live, and gave me to a warlock she'd recruited, Simon Cross. He was the one who decided I should infiltrate Hecate, and-what are you doing?"
I had stopped as soon as he'd said "warlock she'd recruited."
"There are other Prodigium who work with The Eye?"
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.