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"He wasn't sent here to as-assassinate me," I insisted I probably would have sounded more confident if I hadn't stumbled over the word

"assassinate"

I cleared"He was sent here to watchmore"

"And was he also sent to watch Elodie Parris? Why exactly, Miss Mercer, would The Eye have such an interest in you?" I was standing on shaky ground, and Lara and me both knew it It was like she had woven chains around ic I didn't want to own up to my demon-ness in front of the entire student body-after all, everyone at Hex Hall still thought I was a regular witch

-and I was afraid that anything else I said was just going to get Archer in h I felt sick, I lowered ether

"I can tell you what The Eye wanted with Sophie," Archer spoke up He was grinning, but his voice was tight with pain "We heard she was particularly skilled at Chutes and Ladders, and since The Eye holds a Chutes and Ladders tournament every summer-" His voice broke on a cry of pain as Lara twisted her fingers, and the glowing threads of ic around him burned white hot for a moment I had to bite the inside of

"Archer Cross is not only a member of ll'Occhio di Dio, but he's also a traitor to his people," Lara said, reatest threat any of us can ever face Which is why he'll be so very useful to us" Jenna slipped her hand in ers as Lara said, "Today, we'll be using Mr Cross for practice The ritual I discussed last night will increase your powers, but first I need to see e're working with" And then, like she was getting us ready for a gaht, everyone, line up You will each get one chance to use your most powerful attack spell on Mr Cross I do ask that you don't do anything that will kill him Mr Call ahan is on hand to heal hio so far" Mouth dry, I looked up I'd been so focused on Archer in theat the very back of the rooall ows His ar er, and tension I lifted ers in a kind of wave, and he nodded in return Jenna followed hter "Cal," shein our favor"

And it was Too bad it was i as I spent the next few hours watching my classic, I was allowed to sit the exercise out and watch And Lara ensured that I watched The first time I tried to shut my eyes, I realized they were frozen open I couldn'tmy head aas out of the question

Michaela was the first witch to go She hesitated, and her attack spell, when she finally cast it, eak It bounced off Archer's chest and barely ht maybe they'd all do that I mean, sure, Archer was the "enemy," but it wasn't like these kids were kill ers And if it hadn't been for Lara, one easy on Archer

But when Michaela went to stand at the back of the line, Lara sent a bolt of ht her to her knees

"The next person to purposely hold back will get far worse than that," Lara declared, and I wondered how I could have ever thought that she was nice Or sane

So I sat there, tears strea down my face, and watched Archer take one attack spell after another from the witches and warlocks The faeries froze him with ice, or burned him with heat One conjured a vine out of thin air that wrapped itself around Archer's throat until he passed out

I don't want to talk about what the shapeshifters did

After every attack, Call walked forward and laid his hands on Archer's body until Archer regained consciousness, or stopped bleeding, or started breathing again Each time Archer stood up to face yet another kid, he looked a little paler, a little ot to the front of the line, the moremy best friend bite and drink fro, that I couldn't let myself even contemplate it Thank God, in the end, I didn't have to

Taylor went right before Jenna, and when Call knelt next to Archer to heal hih Anyhim back"

Lara frowned, but waved her hand and said, "Fine You'll get your shot tomorrow, Miss Talbot" She turned her attention back to the rest of the group, all of whoht word is Shattered Depleted There's no worse feeling than being forced to use your powers to hurt someone

"Good work today," Lara said, and you would've thought we'd all just aced a , not tortured a classths, we can work on honing your powers Everyone back to the house" No one spoke a word as they shuffled through the doors Jenna came back to sit by ain Blindly, I ran to Archer, as sitting on one of the thick mats we'd used in Defense His elbows rested on his raised knees, and he had his head in his hands I knelt in front of hitime, we held each other,my back

"I'm okay," he said at last "I know that's hard to believe, but nothing hurts I mean, except for my mind and soul, but those were always a little broken" Gently, we disentangled ourselves and rose to our feet "Your ic is aweso at the edge of the h I have to say, now that you've brought e of death-what, like, hundreds of ti to feel like our relationship is a little unbalanced"

"You can buy et out of here," Call said, and as usual, I had no idea if he was joking or not

I stepped away froive Call one of those uncoood to see you," I told hiestured to Archer, who raised an eyebrow at o red, I asked Cal, "Did you get here yesterday like the rest of us?"