I could feel every eye in the room on me, even Archer’s. “Yes.”
Mrs. Casnoff leaned forward. “And has she done the same here at Thorne?”
My fingers were icy as I curled them in my lap, but I didn’t say anything. Still, Mrs. Casnoff nodded as if I had. “There’s never been a case of a ghost communicating with a Prodigium, much less following one across the Atlantic Ocean. Elodie should be haunting Hecate. Instead, she’s hauntingyou.” She shook her head slightly, like she couldn’t believe it. “It’s possible that it’s an aftereffect of her sharing magic with you as she was dying, but again, there is no precedent for anything like it. When we take that into account with both the powers you’ve already displayed, and your heritage, I’m afraid it leaves us with no choice.”
My mind felt like an oversaturated sponge. There was just too much information to even begin to make sense of it all. I had somehow bound Elodie to me, and despite all the work I’d done this summer to not be scary-powerful, that’s exactly what the Council was saying I was. And what did she mean, “heritage”?
Mrs. Casnoff dropped her gaze, and Lara once again scrawled something across her parchment, then spoke. “It is our ruling that you be subjected to the Removal.”
As one, the Council murmured something, a word or phrase in a language that wasn’t remotely familiar. Whatever it was, there was power in it, so much that my hair blew back off my shoulders while I sat dumbly, glued to my seat. Archer’s hand landed on mine, warm and heavy, and I was reminded of the first time we’d ever touched, the night of the assembly at Hecate. From the back of the room, I heard Dad say something, his voice sharp as a blade. As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to laugh. Looks like I was finally going to get what I’d come here for after all.
Dad was beside me now, his fingers clamped on one of my shoulders. “Sophie was at Graymalkin with Archer on my orders,” he said, and I immediately grabbed his hand.
“Dad, no!”
But he didn’t even glance at me. He kept his gaze locked on Mrs. Casnoff. “I suspected you were the one who had raised Daisy and Nick, and I sent Sophie and Archer to investigate. If anyone should go through the Removal, it should be me.” He nodded at Lara. “Being head of the Council has always been your chief desire. I cede it to you freely.” He said the same phrase they’d used when handing down mine and Archer’s sentences, and once again, a pulse of power went through the room.
This time, the surge felt stronger, and as I watched, the candles in the room guttered, nearly blowing out. Lara took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, like something heavy had landed on them. Dad seemed to deflate a little as he said, “Just let Sophie go back to her mother unharmed.”
“Oh, James,” Lara said, almost sadly. “Your sacrifice is noble, if pointless and predictable.”
Kristopher, Roderick, and Elizabeth were staring at Dad with the same look, a strange combination of pity and disdain. The dread that had been swirling around in me for over a month suddenly came crashing down, strong and heavy, stealing my breath. This was it. The thing I’d felt coming was finally here.
“You’ve been such a disappointment to us.” Lara’s gaze flicked to me. “Both of you.”
The whole room was silent, but Lara didn’t need any encouragement to continue. This was clearly the moment she’d been waiting for. “When my father and Virginia Thorne transformed Alice, they thought they’d created the perfect weapon—a being containing more power than dreamed of, yet completely under their control. Instead, they ended up with a mad, hysterical girl who had to be put down like a dog. Of course, Father still had such high hopes for Lucy, but she refused to work for the Council. So the Council simply waited until you were old enough, James, and then disposed of your parents.”
It took me a second to realize what she was saying. Alexei Casnoff had been Alice’s maker, so he’d had control over the whole bloodline. He’d made Lucy kill her husband. My grandfather. And then he’d had her killed, too. I was surprised I could hear anything over the sudden rushing of blood in my ears, but Lara was still talking.
“Father saw the value in using demons in our war against The Eye. Sadly, your grandmother and your mother proved…incapable of being used as weapons. Father had higher hopes for you.”
I didn’t think it was possible for Dad to look any paler, but as what Lara was saying sunk in, his skin went papery white. Rage and horror coursed through me, and I waited for my magic to surge up, too. But while my powers were swirling in my blood, it was like they were locked in a glass box. I could feel them, but I couldn’t access them. “Don’t bother,” Roderick said to me. “As soon as you were sentenced to the Removal, your powers were locked away from you. Your father’s, too, once he’d spoken the spell of binding. Very useful piece of magic. Otherwise, a witch or warlock could attempt to fight their way out of the Removal.”
Next to me, Archer sat up straighter, and I saw tiny blue sparks on his fingertips. I caught his eyes and shook my head. Archer was an amazing fighter, but he wasn’t the strongest warlock. If he tried something now, he’d just end up as another stain on the wooden floor.
Lara was still looking at Dad. “However, my father was a smart man. He kept the ritual used to raise Alice just in case you did not prove yourself to be what we needed. Sadly, you have not. Nor has you daughter. But we have others.”
Dad gave a humorless laugh. “Nick and Daisy? They’re too feral to be of any use to anyone.”
“No,” Mrs. Casnoff said, speaking for the first time since I’d been sentenced. “Nick and Daisy are simply the ones you know about.” If it hadn’t been Mrs. Casnoff, I would have said her eyes seemed pleading. “You were never going to move aggressively enough against our enemies, James. I know you have personal reasons for that, but we simply couldn’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable any longer.”
“This is madness,” Dad said, his voice trembling. “You have given The Eye and the Brannicks, the whole damn lot of them, more reason than ever to exterminate our kind.”
“They have infiltrated our kind, James,” Lara said, pursing her lips. “We need every weapon at our disposal.”
She was wrong. I could feel it in my bones, but I didn’t know if that was the psychic thing or just common sense. Raising demons would be seen as an act of war. There was no doubt in my mind of that. Despair crashed over me as I thought about all the evil this one family had done. Alexei Casnoff had destroyed Alice, Lucy, my grandfather…and now his daughters wanted me and Dad out of the way, too. The whole thing was so insane, I didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.
But that decision was made for me when Lara nodded toward the back of the room and two of the vampire guards, maybe the same I’d seen last night, stepped out of the shadows and grabbed Dad.
“No!” I shouted, but the guards were already dragging him to the door.
“I’ll be fine,” Dad said, holding my gaze. His voice didn’t shake, but I saw fear in his eyes.
I stared at him, my panicked mind trying to come up with something, anything, to say to him. After all, this could be the last time I saw him. But my brain was full of too much terror, and all I could say was, “Dad.”
And then he was gone, the slamming of the door echoing in the dark chamber.
chapter 38
Archer and I were taken to the lowest part of Thorne and put in one of those cells Dad had mentioned the other night. They weren’t anything like what I’d imagined; I’d been picturing steel bars, a narrow cot—like a prison. Instead, they were just caves with iron doors. We were thrown into one of the larger ones, the white rock walls slick with moisture, the only light coming from an orb like the one I’d made the other night, hovering high overhead. Power crackled throughout the room—a spell, Archer informed me, that kept anyone held in the cell from doing magic. Apparently he’d discovered that last night.
For a long time, we just sat on the damp floor, holding hands. Somewhere in the house, my dad was being put through a ritual that might kill him
. I was next, and by this time tomorrow, Archer would be dead. It was too much to think about, much less talk about, so we didn’t speak for the longest time.
I watched the light flicker on the limestone walls until Archer said, “I wish we could go to the movies.”
I stared at him. “We’re in a creepy dungeon. There’s a chance I might die in the next few hours. Youare going to die in the next few hours. And if you had one wish, it would be to catch a movie?”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I wish we weren’t like this. You know, demon, demon-hunter. I wish I’d met you in a normal high school, and taken you on normal dates, and like, carried your books or something.” Glancing over at me, he squinted and asked, “Is that a thing humans actually do?”
“Not outside of 1950s TV shows,” I told him, reaching up to touch his hair. He wrapped an arm around me and leaned against the wall, pulling me to his chest. I drew my legs up under me and rested my cheek on his collarbone. “So instead of stomping around forests hunting ghouls, you want to go to the movies and school dances.”
“Well, maybe we could go on the occasional ghoul hunt,” he allowed before pressing a kiss to my temple. “Keep things interesting.”
I closed my eyes. “What else would we do if we were regular teenagers?”
“Hmm…let’s see. Well, first of all, I’d need to get some kind of job so I could afford to take you on these completely normal dates. Maybe I could stock groceries somewhere.”
The image of Archer in a blue apron, putting boxes of Nilla Wafers on a shelf at Walmart was too bizarre to even contemplate, but I went along with it. “We could argue in front of our lockers all dramatically,” I said. “That’s something I saw a lot at human high schools.”
He squeezed me in a quick hug. “Yes! Now that sounds like a good time. And then I could come to your house in the middle of the night and play music really loudly under your window until you took me back.”
I chuckled. “You watch too many movies. Ooh, we could be lab partners!”
“Isn’t that kind of what we were in Defense?”
“Yeah, but in normal high school, there would be more science, less kicking each other in the face.”
“Nice.”
We spent the next few minutes spinning out scenarios like this, including all the sports in which Archer’s L’Occhio di Dio skills would come in handy, and starring in school plays. By the time we were done, I was laughing, and I realized that, for just a little while, I’d managed to forget what a huge freaking mess we were in.
Which had probably been the point.
Once our laughter died away, the dread started seeping back in. Still, I tried to joke when I said, “You know, if I do live through this, I’m gonna be covered in funky tattoos like the Vandy. You sure you want to date the Illustrated Woman, even if it’s just for a little while?”
He caught my chin and raised my eyes to his. “Trust me,” he said softly, “you could have a giant tiger tattooed on your face, and I’d still want to be with you.”
“Okay, seriously, enough with the swoony talk,” I told him, leaning in closer. “I like snarky, mean Archer.”
He grinned. “In that case, shut up, Mercer.” Then he pressed his lips to mine. I was very aware of the fact that this was probably the last time we’d ever kiss, and I think he was, too. The kiss was different than any of the others we’d shared, slower and tinged with desperation. By the time it was over, we were both breathing hard, our foreheads pressed together.
“Sophie,” Archer murmured, but then the heavy iron door opened with a screech.
Kristopher was standing there, his hair blue in the orb’s light. He barely seemed to register me and Archer, turning over his shoulder to someone behind him and barking, “In here.”
Two dark figures walked into the cell, carrying a bundle between them.
Dad.
He was dressed in a black robe, similar to the one he’d worn the night of my birthday party, and his head lolled back as the two men—vampires, I realized—lowered him to the ground. At first, all I could see were those marks twining up his neck, spiraling over his cheeks and forehead like poisonous vines. In the gloom, they looked black, but I guessed they were the same dark purple as the Vandy’s.
But I didn’t care about any of that. All I cared about was the steady rise and fall of his chest and, when I grabbed his wrist, the thread pulse that beat there. “Dad,” I said softly, but he didn’t wake up. I squeezed his hand harder. Something about him felt different, and it took me a minute to realize that what I was feeling were his lack of powers. I’d been so used to tuning in to Dad’s magic, like a low-frequency radio station that only I could hear. Now there was just silence. My own powers, locked inside of me, seemed to beat against their invisible case in sympathy.
Tears dripped from my eyes, landing on his robes.
Rough hands grabbed my shoulders as the vampires pulled me to my feet. Kristopher stood in the doorway, his face impassive. “Come along, Sophia.”
I looked frantically from Dad to Archer and back again. No, this couldn’t be it. These couldn’t be the last few seconds that I’d see them. There was still so much I had to tell them.
“I’ll look out for him,” Archer said, kneeling next to Dad. “And I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Right,” I said, licking lips that were suddenly, painfully dry. “I’ll see you when I get back.” I said it like it was a mantra, or a vow. And I kept repeating it in my head.When I get back, when I get back. If Dad could live through it, I could, too.
I shook off the vampires. “I can walk,” I said. Even though my knees were wobbling so badly it was a wonder I didn’t slide to the floor, I made myself move toward Kristopher.
I followed him out of the cell, keeping my back straight and my head high.
But when we got to the base of the steps leading up to the rest of Thorne Abbey, my resolve wavered.
Standing there, waiting for me, was Mrs. Casnoff.
chapter 39
I could barely bring myself to look at her as she gestured for me to follow her up the stairs. I had never been her biggest fan, but I had trusted her. All I could think of was that night she and Cal had come for me after Alice, how she’d sat by my bed and held my hand. How she’d told me I had a destiny to serve the Council. Too bad she’d neglected to mention that they’d kill me if I didn’t live up to their expectations.
We made our way up the twisting stone steps. “Sophie, I know you feel betrayed.”
“Betrayed, pissed off, terrified…I have a lot of emotions going on right now, actually.”
She stopped, placing her hand on my arm. “There are very valid reasons for all of this.”
I threw her hand off. “Your sister already did the ‘villain explains it all’ speech. I don’t need another one.”
“But that’s just it,” she insisted. “We are not villains. We are doing what’s best for all Prodigium. Our numbers are getting smaller as factions like L’Occhio di Dio and the Brannicks increase. You and your father were meant to protect us, and yet you both seem to prefer the company of our enemies.”
“That’s not what’s—wait, what do you mean ‘both’? Since when is Dad all cozy with The Eye? Or the Brannicks, for that matter?”
She shook her head and continued walking upstairs. “It’s of no concern anymore.”
We’d reached the top of the stairs, but we were still underground. There were no windows in the long corridor. Suits of armor lined the walls, but these looked different from the ones I’d seen in other parts of Thorne. The dimensions were strange, and many of the suits were freakishly huge. Fear raced over me and through me, and once again, I felt my magic thump pitifully, uselessly, inside me.
“If you’ll follow me,” Mrs. Casnoff said, but before we got even three steps, a voice cried out, “Anastasia!”
It was Elizabeth, running down the corridor on her tiny grandma legs, her long skirt flapping around her.
Elizabeth reached us, panting, her round cheeks flushed. “Lara needs to see you immediately.”
Frowning, Mrs. Casnoff said, “I’m taking Sophie to the Removal chamber. Tell her I’ll be there shortly.”
“No!” Elizabeth shook her head. “She said to come now. It’s”—she glanced at me—“it’s about Nick.”
Even in the near-dark of the hallway, I could see the blood drain out of Mrs. Casnoff’s face. “Is it—”
“It’s like before,” Elizabeth said. “With his parents, but this time—” Her words dissolved into a strangled sob, and she pressed her hand to her mouth before saying, “Oh, God, Anastasia, it’s happened again.”
I had no idea what Elizabeth was talking about, but Mrs. Casnoff spit out a word I never thought I’d hear her say. She whirled on me. “Come with us, Sophie. And if you make any attempt to escape, so help me, I will kill you myself. Is that clear?”
I nodded dumbly, too relieved that I wasn’t being taken to the Removal chamber to feel scared. I followed Mrs. Casnoff and Elizabeth down the corridor, my brain whirring. If something bad had happened, maybe everyone would be distracted enough so I could formulate some plan for escape, Mrs. Casnoff’s death threats notwithstanding. First I’d need to find Jenna. It startled me to realize that I hadn’t even thought of her during all of this. Did she even know what had happened? Of course, if she’d heard about the Archer part, she might not want to leave with me anyway. I shook that thought away. Not helpful. And then there was Cal. I needed to find him and see what they’d done to him, if anything. Then maybe somehow, Cal, Jenna, and I could find a way to get Archer and Dad out of that cell, and we could make for the Itineris like the hounds of hell were at our heels.
Which they probably would be.
We finally reached the main foyer, and even from there, I could hear shouting coming from upstairs.
As Elizabeth and Mrs. Casnoff ran up the stairs, I thought about making a run for my room, hoping Jenna and Cal were in theirs. I’d barely made a quarter turn in that direction when a bolt of magic hit me squarely between the shoulder blades, sending me to my knees. I’d been hit by an attack spell before—Alice had done it as part of our training—but it hadn’t hurt like this one. I felt like I’d been electrocuted and slammed in the back with a bat all at the same time.
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