Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(58)

I thought again about my knife at his throat, the bright red of his blood when I’d jerked my arm, and felt my stomach roil.

There was another pulse of power, and the ground shuddered, a crack springing up a few feet away from me, snaking through the earth, sending up clumps of grass and red dirt. It was close enough to Bee that she had to scramble backward, tripping as the ground gave way underneath one shoe.

“David!” I screamed.

The power went out of him all at once, and he sagged to the ground so suddenly that neither Ryan nor I had a chance to catch him. David fell in a heap, and all three of us moved forward, but I got to him first, resting my palm against his cheek. “David? David, wake up.”

His eyes slowly blinked open, still bright, but nowhere near as blinding, and without thinking, I gave a soft cry of relief and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

“See?” I told him. “You’re fine, it’s all fine.”

But it wasn’t, and all four of us knew it. That much power . . . It felt like everything Saylor had warned me about, and I could see just how much it had taken out of David.

If I’d thought the ride to the golf course was awkward, that was nothing compared to the ride home. David sat on my left, his knees drawn up tight, his head resting against the window. I was holding his glasses, and he kept his eyes closed the whole way back. I could still see the light burning behind his eyelids, though, and his whole frame shook with occasional tremors.

“Should we take him to Alexander’s?” Ryan asked.

“No,” David replied. His voice sounded so thin and weak that it broke my heart. “I want to go home.”

“Fair enough,” Ryan said, and I reached over to hold David’s hand. He curled his fingers around mine again, but this time they felt cold and clammy, and all I could think of was him standing there on the grass, light and power pouring out of him.

? ? ?

David’s house was dark as I let us in, and even though he seemed a lot better than he had in the car, I kept my arm around his waist as we walked up the stairs. His room was, as usual, kind of a wreck, and I kicked clothes out of the way, clearing a path to his bed. That was also cluttered, but with books, and when I swept them all to the floor, David winced at the thump.

“Be careful with those, Pres,” he said, and I was happy to hear him call me that. Happy that he finally sounded like the David I knew and not some kind of mystical bigwig.

Now that we were alone, I had to ask. “David, what did you see tonight?”

When he turned to look at me, there were still dark circles underneath his eyes, and the hollows under his cheekbones seemed deeper. There were little pinpricks of light at the center of each of his pupils, and I had to try very hard not to shudder at that.

He shook his head, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “It wasn’t anything,” he said at last. “A jumble of stuff.” He glanced up at me, brows lifted. “Alexander’s spell must have worked in some way.”

He was lying.

There was no doubt in my mind. I had known David Stark most of my life, and I knew that look, knew from the way his lips twitched that he wasn’t telling the truth.

I didn’t press him—tonight had been rough enough on him—but I decided I would do a little truth-telling of my own.

“I had a vision, too, you know,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “The night of my second trial. I saw you like that, the way you were tonight. I . . . I saw me with you.” I couldn’t add the part about what I’d done to him in that vision. I wanted to, but the words were too awful, and I couldn’t seem to say them. Instead, I said, “The me I saw in the vision, she looked at me. She told me to choose.”

David blew out a very long breath, his shoulders sagging a little. “You’ve had a lot to choose between,” he said, reaching out with one hand and idly pushing his desk chair in a slow circle. “Your regular life, or life as my Paladin. Me as a person or me as an Oracle.” He glanced up then, the tiniest smile lifting one corner of his lips. “And of course the most important choice of all—plaid or paisley?”

I laughed, but it sounded a lot like a sob. “As if.”

Sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed, I reached out and took David’s hand, pulling him closer to me. As soon as he did, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in tight for a hug. He wasn’t shaking now, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck, breathing him in. I knew this was definitely not something we were supposed to do anymore—we were in boyfriend/ girlfriend territory for sure with this kind of hug—but it felt so nice, and I’d missed it so much that I couldn’t make myself stop. Not when every time I closed my eyes, I still saw him as the Oracle, not the boy.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out, and I let my hands drift up and down his back.

“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong tonight. We knew it might go like this, and—”

But he shook his head and pulled back. “No. I don’t mean for tonight. I mean, I am sorry for that. I know it was scary. But I’m sorry for all of it.” His hands came up to cup my face, fingers cold against my skin, but I leaned into him, resting my forehead against his.

“I’m sorry I told you we should take a break. I liked you for such a long time,” David continued, making me huff out a laugh even as I reached up to curl my fingers around his.