make things worse. My magic flooded through me, and I let myself envision, just for a moment, unleashing it on that table of five grim faces.
I could have. My powers were stronger than all of theirs combined.
But then what? Make a run for it, destroy everything Dad had worked for, and spend the rest of my life hiding out? No thanks. Whatever the Council had in store for me, it couldn’t be as bad as that.
“Sophia, as you’ve no doubt noticed, your father is not seated with us,” Lara said as Kristopher made his way to sit on the other side of her. “We decided, and he agreed, that he could not maintain the necessary objectivity to participate in your sentencing.”
I glanced around and finally spotted Dad leaning against the back wall, nearly hidden in the gloom. His arms were crossed, but I couldn’t see his face. Then it occurred to me that Lara said Dad hadn’t participated in my sentencing. Had he had a role in deciding what would happen to Archer?
“But since Council law requires we have five members at all rulings, Anastasia agreed to fill the vacant seat. The two of you face very serious charges.” Lara’s voice should have been big and booming, the sound of a judgment coming from on high. Instead, it was low and quiet, almost intimate. “Archer Cross, you infiltrated Hecate Hall as a member of L’Occhio di Dio. Do you freely admit to this?”
Never in my life had I wished so hard for telepathic powers.Please don’t be a smart-ass, please don’t be a smart-ass, I thought, trying to will the words into Archer’s brain. Either it worked, or Archer had more sense than I’d thought.
“I do,” he said softly.
It was as if a sigh rippled through all five Prodigium. Then, as one, their eyes swiveled to me. “Sophia Mercer, you intruded in a forbidden area on Graymalkin Island and plotted with a member of L’Occhio di Dio in order to do it. Do you freely admit to this?”
A million arguments and explanations leaped to my tongue, namely that I’d only been at that part of Graymalkin because the Casnoff sisters were up to some evil crap there, but I bit them all back. I just wanted this over with. “I do.”
Lara nodded, and I think I saw a flicker of relief on her face. She scribbled something on a long piece of parchment in front of her. She didn’t even look up as she said, “Mr. Cross, since you admit to the charges before you, we shall now pronounce your sentence.”
My heartbeat slowed, and I suddenly felt very cold, like I was about to teleport. But it wasn’t magic, just fear.
“It is the ruling of this Council that you shall be taken onto the grounds of Thorne Abbey tomorrow at dawn and executed.”
It was like all the air rushed out of my lungs. Out of the room. I thought the chamber started to vibrate, but it wasn’t the room. It was me, shaking so hard I couldn’t see straight. Tomorrow. Dawn. That was less than twenty- four hours away. In less than a day, Archer would be dead. The words screamed in my skull, the pain in my head almost as intense as the pain in my heart.
Next to me, Archer drew in a deep breath, and I dug my nails into my palms to keep from taking his hand. If I touched him now, I was afraid of what might happen. My powers churned inside me, the way they had last night when I thought he was dying. I didn’t think there was anything I could picture that would keep me from blowing this place to smithereens if I released even an iota of magic.
“As for you, Sophia,” Lara said, drawing my attention back to the table. “You are an entirely different matter.”
I’d been so focused on how they were going to kill Archer that I nearly forgot I still had to be punished.
Lara frowned, a vertical line forming between her brows, and said, “This is merely the last in a long line of troubling events where you are concerned. There was the situation at Hecate in the fall. You injured several Prodigium at Shelley’s several weeks ago. You were able to open the case holding Virginia Thorne’s grimoire almost single-handedly.”
I shook my head. How did she know about that? I wanted to turn to Dad again, but it was like my eyes were glued to Lara, watching her lips as she calmly continued, “And perhaps most disturbing of all is the strength of your necromancy skills. There has literally never been another Prodigium as proficient in those as you.”
“What, you mean the ghouls?” I asked, confused. “Because, I mean, yeah, I could control them, but it took nearly everything out of me.”
Mrs. Casnoff settled back in her chair, hands folded on top of the scarred table and spoke for the first time. “Not the ghouls, Sophie. We are speaking of Elodie Parris.”
chapter 37
Her words fell on me like stones. “You told me that she had attempted to communicate with you at Hecate. Is this true?”
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.
