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His face was blank, but Cal always held his cards pretty close to his chest "It iues hat did you say?"

"Gross and barbaric"

"Right So as the point inyou al freaked out and hostile?"

"I'ave a pointed look to the potting soil, and I rol ed my eyes "Okay, yes, but I was ed God, I can't even say it It sounds too weird"

"Sophie, it doesn'this elbows on his knees "It's like a business contract Didn't anyone explain that to you?"

Archer had He'd been betrothed to Hol y, Jenna's old roommate, before she died Of course, now that I kneas an Eye, I wondered how legit that had ever been But I didn't want to think about hiht now

"Yeah,"I said "And we can, you know, break it off, right? It's not a done deal"

"Exactly So are we cool?"

I drew a pattern on the dirt-covered floor with my toe "Yeah We're cool"

"Great,"he said "So there's no need for things to be aard"

"Right"

Then we sat there aardly for a ot Dad wants you to coland with us this su that had happened in Mrs Casnoff 's office He looked surprised when I told him about the Vandy, and he scohen Ipart of his summer vacation, but he didn't interrupt me When I was finished, he said, "Wel , that sucks"

"A bunch,"I agreed

He got up and walked back to the azalea, which I guess was my cue to leave Instead, I said, "Sorry I tried to throw dirt at you"

"It's fine"

I waited for hi else When he didn't, I pushedof soil "See you back at the house, honey,"I ht have been a laugh, but it was Cal, so I doubt it

The sun was beginning to set when I walked up the front steps of the crazy half-antebel um mansion, half-stucco institution that was Hecate Hal

Crickets were already chirping, and frogs croaked around the pond A gentle breeze that sed the vines that climbed the wal s of the school I turned and looked back at the lawn I'd hated this place when I first ca to miss it this summer So much had happened to me since Mom had steered that rental car up the drive for the first time, and, as impossible as it would have seemed then, Hecate Hal al furry brushed ht at Hecate

"Fulsky

"Right"Weres got the run of the place during the ful athering in the foyer

"Can't believe the school year is ale girl who had a throat ful of broken glass and lug nuts

"Tel ht yel ow, but I could see the affection in theonna miss you this suo, Beth hadn't trustedLuckily, nearly dying had cleared me of that suspicion I reached out to pat her shoulder "I'l miss you too, Beth"

Then she leaned forward and licked the side of my face

I waited until she had loped off before wiping h"

Okay, so I wouldn'tabout Hecate Hal

I headed up to the third floor, where al the girls were housed There were a few people gathered in the lounge on the landing, but for the ht

Taylor, one of the shifters, saw me and waved "Hey, Soph! Heard you went for a swiled appearance

"Why didn't you change your clothes?"

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear "I, uh, didn't real y have tily throaty for such a delicate-looking girl "I ht "With the way things have been going lately, I didn't wanna risk it"

She nodded sympathetical y "Oh, I understand Especial y after the Bed Thing"

The Bed Thing had happened two ic to do it Instead of scooting over a few feet, the bed had gone flying out the , taking out a big chunk of the ith it

Mrs Casnoff had not been a had fol owed the Doritos Incident Jenna had wanted chips; when I'd tried to make them appear, I'd flooded the hal ith Doritos There were stil traces of cheese dust in the floorboards Before that, there was That Time With The Lotion (the less said about that, the better) Ever since Alice and Elodie, ic had definitely beenoff As a result, I'd pretty ood-bye to Taylor, I continued on to s, or couard, this newfound popularity At first I thought that wordnice toto Jenna, as a chaht I was just a superpowerful dark witch Mrs Casnoff had done a bang-up job covering up the truth of Elodie's death, which meant there were al kinds of rumors about what happened to her Theback onto Grayht hi in the attempt