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Thanks for co!"

Once ere out of earshot, I turned to Nick "What was that al about?"

He took another swig of his drink "That wasthem what they want They want us to be these scary, powerful things that can kil The Eye for theht?"

I briefly pressed the heels of ing the glittery gunk onheavily to the right "Sweetie, can we ease off on the kil ing talk? It's a birthday party"She punctuated that sentence with a little hiccup, and suddenly I was very tired of both of them I wanted to talk to Jenna Or Cal Soot-and preferably sober

"Maybe I wil go get a present after al ,"I told them I had taken maybe four steps when that waiterout the tray

"Look, dude,"I said, stu sleeves, "I don't know if you're trying to suck up or what, but-"

I glanced up into hisArcher was raising an eyebrow at me "Who are you supposed to be?"he asked in a low voice

I took deep breaths and tried to keep lanced over here, they had to think I was just talking to a waiter, not facing down an Eye in their lasses off his tray "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged, ant even in his waiter's uniforht be a chance you'd wear that blue dress again"

My fingers tightened so hard on the crystal goblet that I'm surprised I didn't snap the ste to keep my voice calm "Or an idiot Or a crazy idiot person Why aren't you at least gla?"

"No one here has ever seen lasses on his tray, "so the lamour, I just would've drawn attention to o to al this trouble if you'd just hts or the er flash in his eyes for just a second

"I couldn't,"I said, s funny My heart was leaping around in my chest, and it was al I could do to keep my powers under control "You should leave Now"

Now there was noit: he was definitely pissed "Do you have any idea what I risked to coht?"he hissed "Not only frolanced around, but no one seee once I started yel ing at a waiter I gave Archer what I hoped was a significant look, but thanks to al the sparkle, I wasn't sure he got it

I walked away to the corner of the room and ducked behind a truly insane areen, and everything smel ed rich and loamy

Archer parted the pallass wal , his arms folded over his chest "Why didn't you meet me?"he asked without preamble

"I don't know, maybe because you're a de out seehed and said, "Look, basical y, everyone in my life has told "

It eird talking to hi that mask I could see his eyes, but I couldn't read hi ain Happily"

Pain sliced through er Archer undoubtedly had hidden somewhere on his body I hoped I didn't let it show

"What do youet into it, but it's about your little deht at theabout Nick and Daisy,on here Or was I just tel ing uilty about it?

"I can't tomorrow"Dad and I hadn't had any tirimoire, thanks to al the birthday madness, but we'd set aside al next week to work on it That should have been al I said That could have ended it, and I could've walked away Instead, I heard myself say, "But my dad leaves for a business trip in nine days It would be easier for et away then"

He nodded "Good Nine days, then Three aain-"

Tothat up First of al , I didn't pul the knife on you, I pul ed it out so I could jimmy the lock on thatSecondly, I was trapped in a cel ar with a pissed-off demon Of the two of us, who do you think was theas how litter Archer moved past me, out of the plants When I fol owed a few seconds later, he was nowhere to be seen

As I walked over to the gift table, I kept looking around for hihed and reached up to take off e mistake, but Dad wanted to knohere Nick and Daisy came from, and if Archer-or The Eye-had that information, why shouldn't we use it?