Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(9)

“They are connected,” he said at last, then nodded. “Now, if the three of you will come with me, all will be explained.”

“Where are the rest of you?” David folded his arms across his chest. “Aren’t there other Ephors here besides you?”

Alexander gave a tiny smile, revealing a hint of teeth. “All in good time.”

I thought David might argue with him some more—I knew I wanted to—but instead, he started off in the direction Alexander had indicated.

At my side, I felt Ryan gently take my elbow. “Come on, Harper,” he said in a low voice.

The hallway was lit with pretty little sconces covered with tiny burgundy shades, casting pools of warm light on the hardwood, but all I could see in my head was Bee. Bee, laughing with me at cheerleading practice; Bee, handing me lip gloss; Bee, tears streaming down her face as she’d kept me from killing Blythe.

Bee, vanishing right in front of me.

I’d wanted answers about the fight at the frat party tonight, but now, the only thing I cared about was knowing if Bee was here.

Alexander opened a doorway off to the left, ushering us into what looked like some kind of study. The decor here was even more extravagant: antique furniture, Tiffany lamps, carpet that felt lush and deep underfoot.

And three chairs sitting across from a gleaming mahogany desk.

The three of us sat, David between me and Ryan, while Alexander sank into the much larger chair behind the desk. “Well,” he said at last, fixing all of us with that smile again. “Here we are. Tea?”

There was a pot beside his elbow, I saw now, steam spilling from the spout, but tea was the last thing on my mind. “No,” I said, sitting up as straight as I could. “What we want are answers. Why are we here, what the heck did you have to do with David’s vision tonight, and where is Bee?”

Alexander flicked his dark gold hair out of his eyes, frowning as though I had disappointed him. “So we’re to skip the pleasantries, I see.”

“Pleasantries?” Ryan sat back in his chair, propping his ankle on his opposite knee. “I only came into this thing at the end last year, but didn’t y’all try to kill David?”

Alexander tilted his head in acknowledgment. “I understand how that may have looked, but we were never trying to harm David, merely to remove his Paladin from the equation.”

“Yeah, that’s not really helping on the trust front,” I said, suppressing a shudder.

Alexander ignored me. “We sent our Mage to perform Alaric’s ritual on the Oracle in the hopes that he would not prove as useless as we’d feared.”

Alexander turned back to David and spread his hands wide. “And now look at you! Everything we’d hoped for and more. Powerful enough to create Paladins, stable enough to have clear, helpful visions. All in all, the entire process went even better than we’d hoped.”

I couldn’t help but grit my teeth as I thought of Saylor, bleeding to death in the kitchen. Of Bee, vanishing before my eyes.

But I didn’t say anything. If this guy had Bee, I’d hold my tongue for as long as I could.

David had other ideas. “I don’t have ‘clear, helpful visions’ anymore,” he said. “All I can see are . . . minor things.”

Alexander’s pleasant expression didn’t falter, but something about him still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Did he know what Ryan and I had been doing?

“You have these powers,” he said, waving one hand, “but no idea how to channel them. You’re using them for trivial things, like ensuring that Miss Price’s friends don’t get their hearts broken.”

I started. If he knew about that, then surely he knew why those were the only sorts of visions David was having. But Alexander just kept going, his voice low and smooth. “With our help, you can reach your full potential, which is all we want for you, David.”

On my right, David rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, his shoulders tight. “And I’m supposed to believe that? After you people spent months—no, my whole freaking life—trying to kill me?”

Alexander’s green eyes blinked twice, and then he sat up abruptly, thrusting his hand out at David. “Take it,” he said, nodding to his palm. “Take it and look for yourself.”

David blinked at the outstretched hand, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “I can see the future, not read minds.”

Alexander’s smile widened the littlest bit. “Are you sure?”

Leaning forward in my chair a little, I studied Alexander. “Who are you? Like, chief Ephor, or head Mage? You clearly have some kind of crazy magic.”

Alexander kept his hand outstretched, his eyes on David. “Six of one, half a dozen of the other,” he replied, and I wanted to point out that he hadn’t given me much of an answer.

I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in the corner, could hear my own breathing, and as I watched, David reached over and very gently laid his hand on top of Alexander’s. I couldn’t see anything happen when their hands touched, but then David closed his eyes and there was the briefest hint of light behind his eyelids.

And then his hand fell back to his lap. “He’s telling the truth,” David said, almost wonderingly. “I . . . I don’t know how I know, but I know.”