“Can you get me home by nine?" His grin widened. "Isolde, my friend, I can get you back by quarter 'til.”

“Archer turned back to me, and that familiar grin flashed over his face. “Come on, Mercer. Me, you, the cellar. What could go wrong?”

“This is probably just his new assignment, getting close to you so he can use you for information about the Council.""Actually, I was just going to use her for her body, but that's a good idea, too.”

“Oh, come on, Sophie. Don't you get it? He's L'Occhio di Dio's ultimate weapon. They used him as a spy at Hecate for years, so what makes you think that's stopped now? This is probably just his new assignment, getting close to you so he can use you for information about the Council.""Actually, I was just going to use her for her body, but that's a good idea, too.”

“How is it that you can go from decent human being to complete jackass in zero-point-two seconds? Did they teach you that in The Eye?"He stopped, and his eyes glided over my lips."Actually, I'm just trying to see if I can make you mad enough to kiss me again.”

“So when you left Hex Hall after Holly died, that wasn't because you were the grief-stricken fiance. You were going to The Eye.""Yeah. I told them that I thought Elodie and her coven had raised a demon, so we decided I should get close to her,see what was really going on.""And you decided to get really close to her."He laughed softly. "I can't see you, but I have a feeling you're cute when you're jealous,Mercer."Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, "It's not jealousy you're hearing, it's digust. You dated a girl you didn't even like just to get information out of her."His laughter died, and his voice sounded weary when he said, "Trust me, a lot of my brothers have done much worse."There was so much I wanted to ask him, but it's not like we could sit out here all night passing the sharing stick or whatever.Time to cut to the chase."So did The Eye tell you to get all Mata Hari on me too?”

“That present sucked," I muttered.Dad slipped an arm around my shoulder and helped me sit up. As he did, his sleeve fell back to reveal several slivers of demonglass embedded in his forearm."I'm fine," he said before I could ask. "Cal can get them out later. Are you all right?"My shoulder was still on fire, but there was no pain anywhere else, and other than the shock of being blown backward and stabbed, I was peachy. "I think so. What was that, like a magic pipe bomb?"The present lay in tatters on the floor, its ribbon coiling and snapping like a snake. Cal stomped on the ribbon, and it went still. "Seems like it," he said grimly."And it was ensorcelled to seek you out," Dad added. He looked so worried and angry that I decided not to give him a hard time for using a word like ensorcelled.”