Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(12)

On my left, Ryan rose to his feet, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Damn straight.”

But David sat in his chair, his elbows on his knees, hands clasped tightly in front of him. He was looking at the ground, a muscle working in his jaw. “David?” I asked, hating how unsure I sounded.

“It’s just . . . Pres, we need help. I need help.”

“But,” I faltered, “you have help. You have me and Ryan.”

He nodded, almost too quickly. “I do, and you’re great, both of you, but . . . Harper, if my powers could actually be used to help people, if this guy”—he nodded at Alexander—“can help me do that . . . it kind of seems worth it, don’t you think?”

I stood there, my stomach twisting, my skin suddenly cold. “Saylor and Christopher gave up everything to protect you from these people. They tried to kill you, David. They took Bee.”

“I know,” David said, “but, Pres, I looked into this guy’s mind. He’s not trying to hurt me, and what he said adds up. The Ephors only wanted me gone when they thought I was a crappy Oracle. Now that the ritual has worked and it didn’t kill me, they need me again. Hell, maybe . . .” He trailed off, tugging at his hair. “Maybe the world needs me. And it’s not worth your lives”—he gestured at me and Ryan—“if I’m not doing something important. Plus, I’m . . .” Another hair tug. “I’m sick of running from this. Aren’t you?” Behind his glasses, his eyes were very blue, and I could hear the plea in his voice.

“He’s got a point, Harper,” Ryan agreed, and I turned, surprised.

“Okay, what happened to ‘damn straight’?”

Ryan gave one of those easy shrugs, and it was the weirdest thing, seeing such a familiar gesture in such a bizarre setting. “Our job is to protect David, right? If this is what David wants, it seems like we should go with it. If the alternative is us looking over our shoulders forever, this seems a hell of a lot better.”

I had plenty of experience getting girls in line, but it seemed like boys were a way bigger pain in the butt. I couldn’t believe I was being overruled by my boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend in front of a guy I was already pretty sure I hated.

Still, I wanted to present a united front. “Let’s go home and talk about it,” I said, smoothing my hands over my skirt. In the soft golden lamplight of the study, I could make out a little stain at the hem. Ugh, Spencer must have spilled beer on me when I grabbed him, and I suddenly felt exhausted. “No decision needs to be made tonight, and, hey, not to be rude, but it’s not like either of you have to go through some kind of crazy Greek trials if we say yes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Alexander said, his brows drawing together with what had to be fake concern. “I don’t think I was clear. There’s no ‘deciding.’ You are already in the Peirasmos, Miss Price.”

I turned to look at him. “What?”

“The moment I arrived here, the Peirasmos began. It’s not a choice you get to make, but rather a duty you must fulfill.”

If I hadn’t been so tired and rattled, I probably could’ve managed something better than “That’s not fair!” But that’s exactly what I said, and I sounded petulant even to myself.

Alexander only shrugged. “Has any part of this been fair to anyone?” he asked, and I realized I couldn’t argue with that. Everything about this had been unfair from day one, but this seemed particularly awful. I was getting sick of not being offered a freaking choice in things.

“The Peirasmos have begun,” Alexander continued. “And either you will pass, or you will die.”

That seemed like a pretty steep grading curve, and for the first time in a long time, I felt something like real fear. Not the adrenaline spike I got when I was fighting bad guys or keeping David safe, but the scary kind. It was a cold, kind of sick feeling that made me want to go home and put my head under the covers, maybe forever.

But I couldn’t do that right now, so instead, I stared Alexander down and said, “That seems kind of stupid. If I fail the trials, I die, and then David doesn’t have any kind of Paladin, official or not, and how—”

“Ah,” Alexander interrupted as he drummed his long, elegant fingers on the desk. “That actually brings me to my next point.”

“I wasn’t finished,” I said, turning a glare on him, but he was already rising from the desk.

“We’ve made provisions for those circumstances.” He lifted a hand and nodded at the doorway behind him. “Thanks to you, David, we have a spare.”

I turned, my heart in my throat.

There, in the doorway of Alexander’s study, was Bee.





Chapter 6


I’D THOUGHT ABOUT seeing Bee again for so long, but now that she was actually there, standing right in front of me, I felt frozen. Paralyzed.

I think I was afraid to believe she was actually there.

Ryan apparently did not have that fear, though, because he crossed the room in a few strides, swooping her up into a big hug. “Holy crap,” I heard him say, and her hands came up to rest on his shoulder blades, hugging him back. Bee was only a few inches shorter than Ryan, so I could clearly see her heart-shaped face over his shoulder. Long blond hair pulled back in a braid, dressed in a simple black T-shirt and jeans, she looked so . . . normal.