Lady Renegades (Rebel Belle #3)(21)

Unfortunately, they did not look as impressed as I’d hoped. Bee frowned, a hand coming to her mouth. “Um. Harper. Under cons do you have, ‘Might get killed’?”

I looked back at the board, tapping that particular con with the end of my marker. “Well . . . yeah. I mean, it’s a possibility, so it wouldn’t be right to leave it off. Best we go into this thing with eyes wide-open, don’t you think?”

Both Bee and Ryan nodded in unison, but slowly, and I got the sense that they weren’t really listening to me. They’d both gone a little glassy around the eyes, and Bee was still staring at that one con, a deep V between her brows.

Turning back to the board, I put an asterisk next to “Might get killed,” and added at the bottom, “Extremely low possibility as we possess both magic and superstrength.”

When I looked back at her, eyebrows lifted, she just frowned more. “Your powers—” she started, but I waved a hand.

“For now, I’m fine,” I said. “Which of course means the sooner we find David, the better.”

I turned back to the board before she could say more about that. “Blythe said she can find David. That she has a plan,” I went on, “and while she’s not exactly forthcoming about what that is, it’s better than the plan we have.”

“Which is?” Ryan asked, eyebrows raised.

“Nothing,” I reminded him. “Our plan was basically nothing.”

Ryan took a deep breath, his chest expanding. “You’ve got me there.”

Uncapping the marker again, I drew a line between the list of pros and cons and the blank part of the board. “I talked to Blythe on the phone this afternoon and told her that our main challenge is time. We don’t have an indefinite amount of it to spend chasing David all over the country. School starts in four weeks, which means this road trip can take two, tops.”

“Why not the full month?” Bee asked, but before I could answer, she lifted one hand. “Right, because you need two weeks to get ready for school to start.”

As SGA president, I had certain school responsibilities that had to be dealt with before the year started. Helping with assigning textbooks, situating lockers, that kind of thing. Not even tracking down David could derail me from doing my duty to Grove Academy. A girl has to have balance, after all.

“So two weeks,” Ryan said, his eyes moving over the whiteboard. “That seems . . . doable.”

And then he took a deep breath and rose to his feet. “I can keep an eye on things here for two weeks, I think.”

Bee looked up, blinking. “What?”

Ryan huffed out a breath and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m not coming with you.”

“What do you mean?” Bee asked, standing up. “Ry, we need you.”

I used to call Ryan “Ry,” too, and it sounded strange hearing it from Bee’s mouth. Once again, I was reminded that this was from kind of a weird situation we’d all found ourselves in, even if you took the magic stuff out of it. And right now, I almost felt like I was intruding on something I wasn’t supposed to be part of, which was stupid, of course. This was totally something that involved me. And yet, I found myself stepping closer to my desk, fiddling with the big calendar.

I was staring hard at July 31 as Ryan said, “You need a Mage, and you’ll have one with you.”

“A crazy one,” Bee countered, and I had to admit she had a point there.

“Someone has to stay here,” Ryan said, and when I looked up, he had his arms folded over his chest, palms cupped around his elbows. He’d lifted his chin just enough to let me know that this was one of those hills he was going to die on. He and David could go toe-to-toe in the Most Stubborn Guy I Know competition. “David made one Paladin, but he could make more. That one is gone, but who’s to say another one won’t come after Harper? And if she’s not here? What happens then?”

I had to admit it wasn’t something I’d thought about, and I was suddenly grateful for Ryan and really liked having him on my team. It was a nice thing to know, actually, that you could break up with someone and maybe like them more.

“Bee,” I said, hoping I came across as gentle and not condescending, “that makes a lot of sense. I’d feel better if Ryan were with us, too, don’t get me wrong, but . . . someone has to keep an eye on things here, and we need Blythe to come with us.”

I was a little afraid that Bee might offer to stay with Ryan in that case, and the idea of being trapped alone in a car with Blythe for two weeks kind of made me want to die. But thank God, Bee proved, once again, that she was the best friend a girl could have.

“Ugh!” With both hands, she shoved her hair back from her face, and even though she was clearly frustrated, it was equally clear that she was coming with me. She looked at Ryan and reached out, lightly punching his arm. “Fine. Be right.”

With a grin, he slung an arm around her neck and pulled her in so that he could kiss the top of her head.

“Another girl who says I’m right like it’s killing her,” Ryan said with a lopsided grin. “What is my problem?”

“You have excellent taste as far as I can tell,” I told him briskly as I re-capped my marker. “But while you staying here is probably a good idea, I’d be lying if I said I was completely down with it.”