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"Maybe it's because they know I can't escape? Oralive every day is punishment for the other students Either way, I'll take it"

Archer turned back to rin flashed over his face "Co?"

CHAPTER 20

A few days later, I found myself back in the cell ar But this ti ic junk

"What happened to the pro out in castles?" I asked as Archer and I pulled back for a breather I was leaning back against one of the shelves,Archer's waist Over his shoulder, there was a jar of eyeballs staring at s like that? Kind of a lanced at the jar and then turned back tohis eyebrows "Really? I find it has the opposite effect" Giggling, I elbowed him in the stomach and pushed myself off the shelf "You're sick" He sain, but I skirted around him "Come on, Cross, we ca around"

S, Archer folded his arms over his chest "May not have been your reason, but-" I cut him off "No Don't distract me with your sexy talk We need to search this place, and that spell Elodie did will only last so long" Elodie had swooped intoa quick spell to unlock it She hadn't even looked at Archer,And the second the lock clicked open, she'd vanished

The smirk disappeared from Archer's face, and he actually looked kind of sull en

"Are you honestly that buht now?" I teased

But he was deadly serious when he shook his head and said, "It's not that It's Elodie"

"What about her?"

Archer rolled his eyes "I don't know, Mercer Maybe it's that I'irlfriend occasionally inhabiting the body of irlfriend"

I backed up another step and ran into another shelf Soainst the dirt floor "Whoa, I'ed "We've tried to kill each other, fought ghouls, and kissed a lot I'm pretty sure we're married in some cultures" Noas my turn to roll my eyes "Whatever Look, the fact of the ht now Elodie does If her occasionally using ain, then I'host, and all that" There was obviously more Archer wanted to say, but in the end, he just nodded and said, "Fine I'll deal" So about the way he said that irritated me, but I let it slide "Okay, so where should we start?" Archer unbuttoned his cuffs and began rolling up his sleeves "Well, Jenna said Lara's been down here, what? At least three ti down here with her, never has anything when she co breath "So whatever she's doing, sheone or lanced around at the jaso With some stuff That's somewhere"

"That pretty much covers it, yeah," Archer replied

"Yay for vague," Ioff ririross Would it kill the Casnoffs to do the occasional cleaning spell? I swear to God, everything in here is covered with a least an inch of" My words trailed off as a thought occurred to rin, he'd apparently had the sa an artifact at least three times a week, it's pretty dust-free," he said

"So we look for the least disgusting shelf Easy enough"

Or at least that's what I thought For about twenty minutes, Archer and I walked around each and every case, looking at every slot I saw a few itenized fros in a jar), and sohtmares What I didn't see was a clean shelf Even the artifacts themselves were covered in dust, which eird Because they were ic, the items in the cell ar moved around by theatherA thought suddenly occurred to me

I stood on my tiptoes to look over the bookcase "Cross"

His head popped up a few shelves over "What?"

"Check out the ic crap"

He shot ? Because I've just been drawing hearts and our initials in the dirt"

"Hilarious," I deadpanned "What I mean is, why are all the jars and boxes and stuff covered in dust, too? I ht? They shouldn't be in one place long enough to get dusty"

"Good point" Archer's eyes scanned the shelf in front of hio," and pulled out a large glass jar

Inside, I could just loves I remembered them; they flew, and Archer and I had once spent nearly half an hour chasing theloves into that jar

Now Archer unscrewed the lid and duloves on top of the shelf They lay there, co that they'd died

Archeraround, pulled out an old druic left in this either," he said, holding it up forin a circle, I took in all thetheirwell, quietness "There's no ic justdrain out?"