Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(14)

I didn’t like it. No, more than that, I hated it. Saylor would have known what to do here. The weirdest thing was that parts of it sounded okay. It sounded right. And there was Bee.

“I understand why you hesitate to trust us, Miss Price, I honestly do,” Alexander said. “But right now, we are all you have. And believe me when I say we need you as desperately as you need us.”

“What for?” David asked, but Alexander only shook his head.

“All in good time. Now, Miss Price, the Peirasmos began as of midnight tonight. There are three trials you will undergo before the end of this moon cycle. The trials may be physical in nature, or perhaps tests of the mind, of your spirit. You will not know when they are coming, and you will not receive any assistance. To do so violates the laws of the Peirasmos, and would be considered a failure of the tests. At the end of the trials, you will be stronger, quicker, better at being a Paladin, and Miss Franklin”—another nod at Bee—“will lose her own Paladin powers and return to life as before. Have I made myself clear?”

“As mud,” I muttered, and he frowned again.

“Pardon?”

Waving that off, I took a deep breath. “I get it. I do these trial things, I get better powers, I don’t die, and Bee gets to be de-Paladined.” I looked back at Bee, still standing in the doorway. “Is that what you want?”

She didn’t even hesitate, her head bobbing up and down quickly. “Yes. God. Like . . . a lot.”

That was it, then. It’s not like I’d ever had much of a choice in this thing—“do this or die” is not a choice, let’s be real—but seeing the relief on Bee’s face was enough to make me feel a little better about all of this. Go through these trials, get even more powerful, don’t get killed, and Bee gets to be happy? That seemed worthwhile to me.

But that wasn’t the only reason I found myself turning back to Alexander and saying, “I guess I’m in.” It was that something twisting in my stomach, and I knew it was part nervousness, but more than that, it was a little bit . . . excitement. Look, I’m not saying I didn’t feel terrible about this—after all, it was probably going to mean more lying, and definitely more danger, but for the past few months, I’d felt like I was in this weird stasis, waiting for something to happen. And now here it was.

And here was Bee.

I took her hand and started pulling her toward Alexander’s office door, even as David said, “So that’s it? We’re leaving?”

“We need to get Bee home,” I said. “And I think we’ve heard everything Alexander has to say.” Flipping my hair over my shoulder, I looked at the Ephor with raised eyebrows. “Unless there’s some other horrible thing you’d like to dump on us tonight?”

To my surprise, he replied, “No, I’m finished for now.”

At least he didn’t try to argue that this had not been horrible. That was something.

The four of us made our way back down the hall, me and Bee in front, the boys trailing behind. We weren’t even halfway to the front door when David said, “So where did they have you?”

Next to me, Bee twisted to glance back at him. “Here,” she said. “But . . . it’s like it wasn’t here. It was this house, but not in this place.”

“But this is the house that was originally here,” David said, walking a little faster so that he was right behind us, the toes of his sneakers nearly catching the back of my heels. “He . . . magicked it up or whatever. Are you sure it wasn’t here?”

Bee’s fingers were clammy in mine when she answered, “I never went outside, but I don’t think it was here. Or maybe it wasn’t this house.” Stopping, she pressed her fingers to her forehead. “It was just a bunch of rooms, like a hotel. I never saw anyone but Alexander, but there was food, and all these books about Paladins and Oracles and—”

“What did the books say?” David asked, and that was enough for me. I stopped in front of the door, my hand already on the crystal knob.

“Okay, look. This has been a weird night. Bee has had a weird few months. Ease up on the third degree, please?”

David’s blue eyes fixed on mine, his fingers flexing at his side. “We need to know this stuff, Pres.”

Ryan’s hand came down on David’s shoulder. It was a friendly enough gesture, but it was firm, too. Unlike me, Ryan could be firm with David.

“Harper’s right,” he said. “We can talk about all this later, but for now, let’s get Bee home.”

“Home,” she mumbled, following me out onto the porch in a kind of daze. “God, what do my parents think happened to me?” When she turned to look at me, her eyes were so big that I could see the whites all the way around her irises. “Are they okay? Are the police looking for me?” Her grip tightened on my arm. “Have I been on one of those true-crime TV shows?”

“No,” I told her, covering her hand with mine. “No, everyone thinks you were at cheerleading camp. Ryan did a spell.” I stopped suddenly, pulling Bee up short. “I . . . should probably explain that.”

But Bee shook her head. “No, Ryan’s a Mage and does magic. Alexander told me when I was . . . wherever I was.” She frowned slightly, tugging her hand from mine and hugging herself. “But I have to be honest, I still don’t totally get . . . any of this.”