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My heart was still pounding, butuess he was feeling better too

Mrs Casnoff waved her hand again, and like before, i up behind her, only this time they were still pictures instead of roup that calls the al ht her tone fully dismissive for a lady orked for a council called "the Council," but I had to agree that "the Alliance" was pretty laents froencies froed doith paperwork that they're rarely an actual threat"

That picture faded as a trio of wohtest red hair I'd ever seen appeared "And, of course, the Brannicks, an ancient fa 'monsters,' as they call us, since the time of Saint Patrick These are the current keepers of the flahters, Finley and Isolde They tend to be a little erous, as their ancestor was Maeve Brannick, an incredibly powerful white witch who renounced her race to join with the church They're therefore iular huain, and the women disappeared

"And then there is our most forceful enemy," Mrs Casnoff continued

As she spoke, a black iure out that it was an eye But not an actual eye--more like a really stylized tattoo sketched all in black, except for the iris, which was deep gold

" ll'Occhio di Dio The Eye of God," she said I heard the room draw in a collective breath

"What's that?" I whispered to Archer

He turned That sarcastic sured our earlier ca, "You can't do a blocking spell, and you've never heard of ll'Occhio?

Man, what kind of witch are you?"

I had an incredibly nasty retort ready that involved his et it out, Mrs Casnoff said, "ll'Occhio di Dio is the greatest threat to any Prodigiuroup based in Ro our kind off the face of the earth They see thehts, while we are the evil that roup alone was responsible for the deaths of ium"

I stared up at The Eye and felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up Now I remembered why it looked so familiar I'd seen it once in one of Moh the pages, adlossy pictures of fa of a witch's execution in Scotland, rueso at it I could still see the witch lying on her back, strapped to a wooden plank Her blond hair strearound, a look of sheer terror on her face Standing over her was a dark-haireda shirt, and just above his heart was a tattoo--a black eye with a golden iris

"In the past we've roups, but that's when they were separate and at odds Noe've received word that they hed

"Well, let's just say we can't let that happen"

The Eye faded, and Mrs Casnoff clapped her hands together "Now

Enough of that You all have a very big hts out in half an hour"

She sounded so bright and businesslike that I wondered if I had hallucinated the part where she basically told us ere all going to die

But one look around the room and I knew that my classmates were just as shell-shocked and confused as I was

"Well," Archer said, slapping his hands on his thighs "That was new"

Before I could ask what hethe crowd of students

CHAPTER 8

Thanks to his long-legged stride, I nearly had to jog to catch up with Archer

By the time I reached him, he was halfway up the stairs

"Cross!" I called I just couldn't bring myself to say "Archer" out loud

I'd have felt like I was in an episode of Masterpiece Theatre: "Archer! Let us fetch a spot of tea, old boy!"

He paused on the stairs and turned to face

"Mercer," he replied,me roll my eyes

"Look, what did you ht you'd seen all that before"

He came down a couple of steps "I have," he answered when he was only two steps above o, when I was fourteen My first year here But it was different then"

"Different how?"

He shrugged out of his blazer, rolling his shoulders as if the jacket had been heavy "They still did the Charles Walton thing; that see shot, and maybe one or two faeries on fire But there weren't as es And they weren't all at once like that"

He looked down at ed witches and warlocks either I have to say, I'm a little impressed"

I crossed my arms overat me "Impressed by what?"

"When I saw that show three years ago, I had to run into that little bathroom over there"--he pointed to a suts out Whattonight was a lot worse, and you don't even look pale You're tougher than I thought"

I fought the urge to laugh My face may have looked calm, but my belly still felt like aeyeliner and ripped jeans, I gave Archer what I hoped was a look of cool nonchalance "I just don't believe all that"