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Then Mrs Casnoff said, "You're sure it was the mark of The Eye"

It was the third ti h that made her sound a hundred years old "But how?"

she asked for the third time "How could one of ours be ll'Occhio di Dio?"

I closed ht: the tea was fortified with some kind of alcohol It hitto stop the shivering

How? I thought How?

I tried to answer the question for ht them out last year when he'd left Hecate for a while But that was a logical question, and ht now

Archer was an Eye Archer had tried to killit in my head Almost from a distance, I wondered if Archer had only befriended et close toElodie?

I rubbed my hand over my chest, just above my heart Mrs Casnoff watched with a look of concern "Did he hurt you?"

"No," I told her "He didn't"

Nowhere you could see, at least

"Looks like you got a few good blows in, though," the Vandy piped up, nodding towardup from its runin with Archer's jaw

I raised h-quality defense lessons Much appreciated"

"I just don't understand," Mrs Casnoff said, dazed "We should have known We should have been able to sense it Or someone should have seen his mark"

I shook my head "It was hidden It only appeared because"

Because of Alice's protection spell, I thought, but I didn't want to tell them about Alice "I did a protection spell on , but they were too shaken up to notice "When I touched the mark, it appeared"

Mrs Casnoff looked at me "You touched it?"

I felt h that the boy I loved had turned out to be an assassin, noas going to get busted for uson, the shapeshifter teacher, ca rain off his heavy leather coat There was an enorolden mountain lion As I watched, the wolfhound stood and becaory Davidson, one of the older kids on campus The mountain lion was Taylor For the first tilaring at me In fact, I was pretty sure I saw pity in her eyes

"No sign of hiuson said "We searched the whole island"

Mrs Casnoff sighed "None ofeither It's as though he vanished into thin air"

Sheissue now is infor the Council that ere infiltrated Your father will definitely want to hear of this, and then of course, our security spells will have to be strengthened, and the other students will have to be told what happened"

Her voice wavered on the last word, and to my horror, she dropped her face into her hand hat sounded like a sob

I shrugged off the afghan and draped it over her shoulders

"It'll be okay"

She looked up at ht with unshed tears "I'm so very sorry, Sophie I should have listened to you"

Just a few hours ago, those words fro in the streets Now I just slad that this ht be able to come back, but that one piece of happy was buried under a coer I'd wanted to be proven right, but not like this

I left Mrs Casnoff, Ferguson, and the Vandy planning an asseh Ialone

Call met me at the foot of the stairs

"I' up my hand "It'll heal on its own"

"It's not that Mrs Casnoff doesn't want you going anywhere on your own for now Not until we find Archer"

I sighed "Sowhat? You're going to follow me to my room?"