Raphael now, and Archer was right: he was young.
Really young, actually. I guessed around fourteen. I kept myself close to the wall as Archer clapped his arm around Raphael’s shoulder, saying something in a light, jovial voice. Raphael shook his head and kept looking in my direction. Then a burst of blue light exploded from the back exit, and both he and Archer turned toward it, giving me a chance to run out of the alley.
My head was still spinning, and my knees were shaking by the time I turned left out of the passageway. I braced my hand on the slimy brick and tried really hard not to throw up. I had no idea where the road would be. I only hoped that Daisy or Nick had left some sort of demon bread crumbs for me to follow.
But when I got to the end of the street, I saw that all three of them were waiting for me in front of a squat, concrete building. Daisy and Nick were smoking again, and Jenna was pacing back and forth, her fangs still out, her eyes still red.
When she saw me, her whole face lit up, making her look less like a vampire and more like a kid on Christmas morning. I staggered up to the three of them, and Jenna threw her arms around me. “I was so sure they caught you,” she said, her voice thick.
I hugged her back, a lump in my throat. I’d sworn there would be no more secrets in my life, but there was no way I could tell Jenna about seeing Archer. Jenna was my best friend, but there were some things even she couldn’t understand.
“It’s these stupid boots,” I told her with a shaky laugh. “They’re not exactly the best running shoes.”
Jenna pulled back and cupped my cheeks. Her eyes weren’t red anymore, but they were wide and bright with tears. “I am so sorry, Sophie,” she said. “If I’d had any idea that this place would be so dangerous for you…”
“Yeah,” Daisy said, coming to stand beside Jenna. “Seriously, Sophie, nothing like that has ever happened to us at Shelley’s, I swear. We never would’ve taken you there if we’d known.”
Even Nick came forward, frowning with worry. “James would kill us if he found out. We’re supposed to be helping you adjust to being a demon and instead we nearly handed you over to L’Occhio di Dio.”
All three of them looked so genuinely sorry, so guilty, and I felt sick all over again.
“It’s fine,” I said, waving my hand as though demon hunters raiding clubs to kill me were something that happened all the time. “I’m fine. Now let’s get out of here.”
Daisy had said that the second road trip wouldn’t be as rough as the first one, but she was either wrong or a liar. The second one seemed far worse, probably because I was so drained. Still, we made it back to the corn mill, and even though it felt like a dwarf with a chisel had taken up permanent residence in my frontal lobe, I managed to stagger all the way back to the house. Luckily, everyone appeared to have gone to bed, because the front hall was dark and silent as we let ourselves in. After more whispered apologies, Daisy and Nick headed for their rooms on the second floor, while Jenna and I went up to our hall.
At her door, Jenna stopped. “Soph, I really am—”
“Jenna, if you say sorry one more time, I’m going to punch you in your tiny pink head.”
She gave a little smile. “Okay, okay. Still, the next time I suggest going to Prodigium nightclub, please smack me.”
“Will do,” I said.
I practically had to drag myself to my room. I put on a nightshirt and brushed my teeth in a daze, my mind replaying those minutes in the alley with Archer on a continuous loop. Six months ago, he’d pulled a knife on me in the cellar at Hecate. Tonight, he’d protected me from the other members of L’Occhio di Dio. Why?
My jeans were crumpled up on the floor, and before I got into bed, I reached into the front pocket. The gold coin he’d given me was still warm. It was old, the likeness stamped in the metal so faded that I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a man or a woman.
Keep it on you, he’d said. I’ll find you.
I should’ve thrown it out. I should’ve found whichever one of the hundreds of bedrooms in this place was my dad’s and told him what happened. I should’ve done anything but what I did, which was to close my fist over it and slide it under my pillow.
chapter 16
Thankfully, there were no weird dreams that night, and I slept nearly until noon. I would’ve slept even later if my door hadn’t opened.
“Go’way, Jenna,” I mumbled into my pillow.
“I would if I were Jenna,” a deep voice—a voice that was most definitely not Jenna’s—replied.
All of last night’s events came rushing back to me, and in my sleep-fogged brain I remembered Archer saying to keep the coin on me, that he would find me, and how I’d put the coin under my pillow.
I sat up so fast I practically broke the sound barrier, but it was Cal standing in my doorway, not Archer. I heaved a huge sigh, one of relief, and not even a little bit of disappointment.
Of course, once I’d wrapped my mind around the fact that it was Cal and not Archer standing in my bedroom, it dawned on me thatCal was standing in my bedroom.
“Hey,” I breathed, hoping my hair wasn’t a huge tangled mess, even though I was ninety-nine percent sure that it was. I mean, I could see it out of my peripheral vision.
“Hey.”
“You’re, um, in my room.”
“I am.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Well, we are engaged,” Cal deadpanned.
I squinted at him, shoving big handfuls of my hair away from my face. I had no idea if that was supposed to be a joke or not. You could never tell with Cal.
“Did you want to watch me sleep or something? Because if that’s the case, this engagement isso broken.”
Cal’s lips quirked in what might have been a smile. “Do you have a smart-ass reply for everything?”
“If at all possible, yeah. So why’d you come in here, then?”
“To see how last night went.”
My heart slammed painfully into my ribs, and suddenly all I could think about was that stupid gold coin currently burning a hole underneath my pillow. “It was good,” I said, scooting against the headboard. “You know. Villagey. Hate that you had to miss it.”
“Yeah.” He ran a hand over his jaw. “It was weird. Your dad said there were only a couple of plants that I needed to look at, but it was like as soon as I finished healing one plant, another one started drooping and looking sick. I must’ve worked on every bush in that whole garden. Took me until nearly ten o’clock last night.”
“That is weird,” I said, even as a suspicion began to form in the back of my mind. I couldn’t have been the only one to realize that Cal wouldn’t have been cool with going to Shelley’s.
“Did you learn anything about Nick and Daisy?”
Oh, right. That whole part of my mission had been a total bust. “No, not really. It was a pretty boring night, actually.”
Despite all the practice I’d had over the past few months, I was a terrible liar, and Cal wasn’t an idiot. He watched me intently for a second before saying, “Your dad got home early this morning. Apparently L’Occhio di Dio raided some Prodigium club in London last night.”
“Wow,” I said faintly. “That must’ve sucked.”
“Yeah,” Cal said, never dropping his eyes from mine. “It seems they heard that the head of the Council’s daughter was there with two other demons and a vampire.”
I felt the blood drain out of my face. “Crap. Is he mad?”
Cal shrugged. “That’s one word for it. I’m not all that thrilled with it either.”
I pushed the covers off and got out of bed, making sure my nightshirt didn’t ride up. “Cal, I already have to deal with an angry dad today. Please don’t pull some macho ‘betrothed’ thing on top of it, okay?”
He caught my wrist. “I’m not. And it’s not you I’m pissed at. It’s them. They shouldn’t have taken you
