Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(20)

“You’re not,” I said automatically, but even as I did, I was remembering how I’d felt when Saylor had told me that my sacred duty was to protect David. I’d told her that I didn’t want to screw up my life to save someone else.

Once again, this helpless, choking feeling rose up in my throat. I wanted to pass the Peirasmos because I didn’t want to die, obviously, but looking at Bee, who, even though she was more than half a foot taller than me, looked so small and scared sitting in that chair, one knee drawn up under her chin, her eyes still red, I realized there was more than just my life at stake.

I hadn’t been able to protect Bee the night of Cotillion, but if I managed to survive the Peirasmos, she would be free from all of this.

“We’re going to get through this, Bee,” I said, and her head shot up. She’d rubbed off most of the mascara with the tissue I’d handed her, but there were still dark flecks around her eyes, and her face was splotchy and damp.

“You can’t promise that, Harper,” she said, and then, as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, she stood up, rolling the chair underneath the counter.

“I just . . . I thought you’d all know what you were doing,” she said at last, and with that, she walked out of the room, leaving me, Ryan, and David in silence.





Chapter 9


“THAT IS RUDE, Harper Jane.”

I glanced up guiltily, lowering my phone back into my lap. “Sorry, Aunt Jewel.”

After school, I’d decided to run by The Aunts’ house. Bee had gone home early, so I’d gotten David to drive me to my house to pick up my car. After everything in the newspaper room, I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Bee again, and while I was worried about her, I thought maybe she needed a little space. Plus, I wasn’t sure what to say. She was right that Ryan, David, and I hardly knew what we were doing, but it had still stung.

So off to The Aunts’ I went. I hadn’t done the best job being a good niece over the past few months, and as Mom always reminded me, The Aunts were the closest things to grandparents I had, so I needed to appreciate them.

And that meant that when I went to see them, I shouldn’t be messing around on my phone. But I hadn’t been able to resist poking around the internet a little bit to see if I could pick up any information on the Peirasmos, especially since The Aunts had been distracted by discussing whether or not Jell-O salad was still a thing you could take to a church potluck. Preparation was the key to any test, after all, and even if Alexander had said that the whole point was for me to be caught unaware, I didn’t think that had to mean, you know, going in completely blind. But it wasn’t like it mattered. Google seemed to think I might have some kind of stomach issue, but there was nothing on the internet about Peirasmos, the trials. I had been fixing to text David to see if he’d found anything in Saylor’s books yet, but from the way Aunt Jewel was looking at me, that was no longer an option.

Aunt Jewel was only a year older than Aunt May and Aunt Martha, but she took her role as the eldest sister very seriously. She regarded me now through pink-rimmed glasses fastened on a sparkly chain around her neck. All three of The Aunts were decked out in pretty pastel sweaters, the pale green of Aunt Jewel’s almost matching her eyes.

My purse was sitting beside my chair, and I slipped my phone into it.

“Oh, leave her be, Jewel,” Aunt May said, not glancing up from her own cards. “The children today need their technology.”

“That’s true,” Aunt Martha said, nodding. She’d been to the beauty shop that morning, obviously, since her steel-gray curls were tight against her head. “I read it in the New York Times. People Harper’s age are actually in love with those fancy-schmancy phones of theirs. Activates the same chemicals in the brain.” Sighing, she discarded a card. “I went to look at one of those phones at the Best Buy, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”

“You can’t make heads or tails out of your cordless phone, Martha,” Aunt May said, picking up the card Aunt Martha had put down. All three had skin that still glowed despite their age, and green eyes like mine.

Before they could get into too much of a fuss, Aunt Jewel gave a little smile and said, “Well, I don’t think it’s her phone Harper is in love with, so much as the boy at the other end of it.”

Aunt Martha gave a happy grin at that, tugging at the lace collar on her lavender sweater. “That Ryan sure is pretty.”

Both Aunt Jewel and Aunt May gave identical sniffs of disgust. “They’re broken up, silly,” Aunt May informed Aunt Martha. “Have been for ages.”

“Four months,” I clarified, getting out of my chair to grab the pitcher of sweet tea on the kitchen counter. As I refilled The Aunts’ glasses, I added, “Remember, Aunt Martha, I’m dating David Stark now.”

Frowning, Aunt Martha set her cards down and picked up the pack of Virginia Slims by her elbow. “Oh. That’s right. Saylor’s boy.”

I stiffened a little, hoping they wouldn’t notice. Just like with Bee’s disappearance, there was a spell keeping the people of Pine Grove from knowing what had really happened to Saylor Stark. Bee’s spell had clearly held—maybe too well—but Ryan should probably shore up the one that made everyone think Saylor was just on an extended vacation.