Lady Renegades (3 page)

N
OW MY
FEAR
was all for Bee, and as I heard the gasps and thunks of Bee fighting with the girl, I suddenly found the strength to move. Still weak, I crawled for the door, wanting to hit the lights, but unable to get to my feet just yet. It felt pathetic, shuffling over the carpet, my whole body aching, my throat raw, but lights would help Bee, and that's all I wanted to do right now.

I shrieked as something hit me hard in the side, and then I was flat on the ground as something fell on top of me. No,
over
me. In the dark, either Bee or the girl hadn't seen me and had backed right up onto me and tripped.

“Bee?” I cried out as I heard the sickening
thwack
of a head rapping against the lockers.

“I'm okay!” she replied, and while she sounded out of breath, she didn't sound hurt. I pushed myself to my feet and lurched for the wall.

I heard a cry of pain and whirled around. “Bee!” I called again, but she was close to me now, her voice winded.

“That was her,” she said, “but I didn't touch her.”

The girl cried out again, and I fumbled at the wall. What the heck was going on?

But before my fingers could hit the light switch, there was a movement off to my right, and someone shoved past me and out into the night. When I'd been fighting as a Paladin, I couldn't
stop
fighting until someone was dead. How could she have just taken off like that?

The lights flared into life, and when I turned around, Bee was standing near me, breathing hard. The terry-cloth cover-up she'd thrown on over her bathing suit was ripped at the neck, nearly hanging off one shoulder, but other than that, she looked okay.

From the way she was staring at me, I guessed I looked a lot
less
okay.

Raising one shaking hand to my head, I felt my hair. “Did she tear any out?” I asked, a sudden image of myself half scalped coming to mind.

Bee shook her head. “No. It's a mess, but I think it's all there.”

Crossing the room, she took my head in her hands, looking at my face. Then her eyes dropped lower, and her lips fell open a little bit. “Oh my God, she cut you.”

I thought there was a little sting on my neck, and I'd definitely felt the girl hold a knife there. But
thinking
I'd been cut and having actual confirmation of it were two different things.

Grimacing, I lifted a hand to my neck, and my fingers came away red. It was shallow, but still.

“We need to get out of here,” I told her, and Bee stepped back, glancing around the changing room.

“Should we try to go after her, or—”

There was no doubt in my mind that girl was long gone, and even if we did go after her, I'm not sure how much damage we could've done. I was trembling, Bee was clearly freaked out, and that girl had a lot of advantages over us.

Namely, that her Paladin strength was apparently working just fine.

“No,” I told Bee. “At least not now.”

We made our way out of the locker room, the pool quiet except for the occasional sizzle of a bug against the zappers. Bee locked the gate behind us before we walked into the parking lot.

“Do we need to go to the hospital?”

Every muscle in my body ached, and breathing hurt a lot more than it should have; but hospitals meant questions, and questions meant my parents, and my parents probably meant
more
questions and possibly the police.

So I shook my head, trying not to lean so heavily on Bee as she helped me out to the car. It was dark now, but the streetlights were bright, casting big, comforting pools of illumination on the asphalt as we wound our way through the parking lot. I tried to focus on the big moths battering themselves against the bulbs and not on how shaky and scared I felt. My limbs were tingling, something close to adrenaline moving through me, and I knew I was feeling my Paladin powers seeping back in. That was good. That helped me not feel like what I'd been for a second: a terrified, helpless girl at the mercy of someone I couldn't see.

Someone who had gotten away.

Bee must have felt me shudder, because she stopped, pulling back to look at me. Her brown eyes were wide enough for me to see the whites almost all the way around her irises. “Harper—” she started, but I waved her off.

“I'm fine.”

I was basically the opposite of fine, and we both knew it.

“Was she just stronger than you, or is something wrong?” she asked, and I swallowed hard. Bee's own powers seemed fine, and as much as I tried to pretend that mine hadn't faded, she'd never had to practically hold me up before.

“She just surprised me is all,” I said now. “And it was like I never managed to get off the back foot, you know?”

Bee nodded, but she didn't say anything. She just moved a little faster, and soon we were at her car, Bee gingerly helping me into the passenger seat. I was able to buckle my seat belt without wincing, so that felt like a minor victory, and it gave me the courage to sit up a little straighter. The sooner I convinced Bee I was okay, the sooner I would
feel
okay. Or at least that's what I hoped.

She got into the driver's seat, her keys jangling as she started the car, and I looked over at her. “Ryan,” I said. “We should go make sure he's all right, let him know what happened.”

Nodding, Bee glanced in the rearview mirror. “I was thinking the same thing.” Her damp hair fell over her shoulders as she shot me another look. “So that was totally another Paladin.”

The pain was almost completely gone now, but I could still remember just how hard that girl had hit me, how fast she'd moved in the darkness. “She said she was, and yeah, it sure
seemed she was telling the truth.” Grimacing, I rubbed my scalp where she'd pulled my hair.

Pine Grove sped by, a blur of trees and flowers and little shops that were closed for the night. I fished a hand-sanitizing wipe out of my purse to clean the wound on my neck—knew those things would come in handy working at the pool, but had to admit, this was not how I'd thought I'd be using them—and then leaned my head against the window, letting the cool glass soothe my scraped cheek. I knew I'd been right to hate that gross carpet in the changing rooms.

“If she was a Paladin—” Bee said, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

“David made her,” I finished, my head aching for a whole other reason now. “She told me so. She said . . .” I wasn't sure I wanted to finish that sentence. But no, denying a hard thing didn't make it not exist. So I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and said, “She said he sent her to kill me.”

To her credit, Bee didn't swerve the car off the road or gasp or anything, but I did think she suddenly looked a lot paler. “Why?” was all she asked, and I leaned my head back against the seat.

“According to our new friend back there, David thinks I'll kill him.”

That
was the time I would have liked to have seen some shock, maybe wide eyes, but Bee just took that in, too, and I could tell she was thinking hard. It was there in that nervous drumming—something David had done, too, I remembered—and in the way she chewed at her lip.

“You said he saw that once, right? In a vision?”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah, he did. But his visions don't always come true,” I reminded her. “Perils of male Oracle-dom. He sees not just what
will
happen, but what
could
happen.”

“That is so annoying,” Bee murmured, and I didn't disagree. David had never actually believed that vision anyway. He'd told me so, plenty of times.

But Saylor had warned me once that boy Oracles were notoriously unstable. If David had ridden into crazy town, making other Paladins and thinking I was out to hurt him, what was he capable of? He'd almost blown up Pine Grove when he left, and now he'd turned some random girl into a freaking
assassin.

“Is there anyone we can talk to?” she finally wondered aloud, turning into Ryan's neighborhood. Like mine, it was lined with tall oak and magnolia trees, and there was a tasteful brick sign reading “Amber Ridge.”

“No,” I answered, watching the elegant homes slide by. “Trust me, I wish there were, but . . .”

It had been David's “aunt” Saylor who'd first explained everything about Paladins and Oracles, who had trained me how to fight and told me what was expected of me. After she'd been killed, an Ephor—one of the people who controlled the Oracle—had come to town, and he'd told me a little more. But he was gone, too, died before my eyes, and with him had gone any chance of learning more. Alexander had been the last Ephor, which meant that we were completely out of adults who might be of any help.

Of course, after David left back in May, I hadn't thought we'd need any more help. It seemed like my days of chasing danger
were over. To be honest, I'd been a little relieved, even if David leaving had broken my heart.

“If he's making Paladins,” I said slowly, “it's because someone is making him do it. You know David would never do this on his own. Maybe Alexander was wrong and there are more Ephors. Maybe it's Blythe! We haven't seen her since Cotillion, and there's no telling what she might be up to.” True, some of the stuff Alexander said had implied that Blythe was probably dead, but whatever. I was grasping at straws right now.

Bee didn't answer right away, but I wasn't sure it was because she didn't agree. I suddenly wished she'd turn on the radio or something, anything to ease the heavy silence between us.

“Is this something you knew could happen?” she asked at last, just as we pulled into Ryan's driveway. “That David could be dangerous?”

It was right on the tip of my tongue to remind Bee that maybe I'd had more reasons to want David to stay in town besides him being my boyfriend. If she and Ryan hadn't helped him leave town, none of this would be happening. I knew they hadn't done it to hurt me; they'd thought it was for the best.

And it wasn't like I'd told them about David maybe being dangerous. I still wasn't sure
why
exactly, except that I hadn't wanted to believe it myself.

“Saylor said some things,” I told her, staying vague as I unbuckled my seat belt. “Let's talk to Ryan.”

If Ryan's mom was surprised to see her son's ex and his current girlfriend at the front door in bathing suit cover-ups, she didn't show it, although her eyes did drift to the cut on my jaw.
But maybe she just assumed it was a lifeguard-related injury, because she smiled and said hello before ushering us inside and calling for Ryan. Like her son, Ryan's mom had auburn hair and hazel eyes, although he got his height from his dad.

When Ryan came bounding down the stairs, taking in both me and Bee standing there, his eyebrows nearly disappeared underneath that shaggy reddish-brown hair. He was wearing a T-shirt and basketball shorts, but Ryan managed to make even sloppy clothes like those look pretty good. There was no twinge of jealousy as I looked at him—none of us had time for that kind of weirdness—but I still felt kind of wistful when he smiled at Bee. It was nice having someone smile at you like that, and while it didn't make me miss Ryan, it definitely made me miss David.

That in mind, I gave Ryan what I hoped was a significant look. “Can we talk about that project we're working on?” I asked him, and he shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing over at his mom. “Oh. Right, yeah, the . . . project.”

Ryan was the youngest of three boys, his older brothers off at college, and while I'm guessing there was a time his mom would have been a little more strict about her sons having girls over, she'd become a lot more laid-back by the time she'd gotten to Ryan.

“Why don't y'all head down to the rec room,” she said, waving us forward. “I'll find some snacks.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Bradshaw,” Bee said, tugging at the hem of her cover-up.

As Ryan's mom disappeared into the kitchen, he turned to me, eyes moving over my face. “Are you okay?” he asked in a low
voice. And then he reached out like he was going to touch my neck, only to think better of it at the last second, pulling his hand back. The cut just under my jaw still stung, and I tugged on the collar of my cover-up, wishing I could hide it better.

“We have a . . . situation,” I said, and Ryan looked over at Bee, who was still standing nervously in the foyer.

“Of the Paladin kind, I'm guessing?” he asked, and before I could answer, he walked down the hall, opening the door to the basement steps.

“Come on,” he said, gesturing for me and Bee to follow him. “And tell me what life-threatening crap we're dealing with now.”

“Y
OU'RE SUR
E
it's David?”

We were all sitting in the basement-turned–rec room of Ryan's house, Bee and Ryan on the couch, me leaning against the foosball table, arms folded over my chest. Like every other room occupied by Ryan or his brothers, it was covered in sports stuff. Posters of basketball players, dusty Little League trophies lining the shelves, old issues of
Sports Illustrated
lying around . . . I thought of the pink and flowery living room upstairs and suddenly understood Ryan's mom a lot better.

But now I glanced back at Ryan, running my thumb along the edge of the table. Sarcasm is never the most useful tool of communication, I know that, but I couldn't help but say, “I mean, the girl was pretty clear about it, but, hey, maybe someone else is creating magically powered superhero girls? Who can say, really?”

Ryan frowned and I think he would've taken the bait, but Bee laid a hand on his leg and shook her head.

His eyes fell to the cut on my neck, and he nodded tersely. “Right. Dumb question. Obviously it's David, but why?”

“The girl said David thinks Harper wants to kill him,” Bee supplied, and Ryan turned his gaze back to her. They really looked good together, I had to admit: Ryan in his T-shirt and shorts, Bee with her damp hair caught in a loosely curling braid, the torn neck of her cover-up sliding off one tanned shoulder. Take them out of this rec room, put 'em on a boat, and they could be cover models on
Attractive Couples Weekly.

“Why would he think that?” Ryan asked, slinging an arm around Bee's shoulders.

“There was this vision he had once,” I said with a little shrug, shifting my position against the table and reaching out to flick the little plastic ball between the rows of plastic players in red and blue. “And I . . . I saw something during the Periasmos, but Alexander said that wasn't something that would happen, just what I was most afraid of.”

At the mention of Alexander's name, all three of us went silent. None of us had liked him—he'd been an Ephor, one of the men who controlled the Oracle, and I'd never trusted his motives—but watching someone die in front of you is still a hard thing, and we'd done it too many times.

Clearing his throat, Ryan sat up a little on the couch and glanced between me and Bee. “So what does this mean, exactly? Why is this happening?”

I chafed my hands up and down my arms. I'd never told them about Saylor's warning, that this could happen to David, and now it seemed like I definitely needed to. So, as quickly and as calmly as I could, I told them what Saylor had told me, about male Oracles being dangerous, about Alaric going rogue and
killing Paladins, and about the threat that David could be on the same path.

By the time I was done, they were both staring at me with wide eyes, Bee pale underneath her tan.

“Why didn't you tell us this before?” Ryan finally asked, his hands braced on his knees. I made myself meet his eyes.

“Because I didn't want to believe it was something that could happen,” I replied, and even though he and Bee exchanged another glance, they didn't say anything.

“But,” I went on, “we can't be sure that's what's happening. Alaric destroyed Paladins; he didn't create them. And David ran away to escape Paladins and Mages and all of that. Do you really think he'd get somewhere else and then just start . . . conjuring up Paladins again? And why would he send one after me even if he did? That's never how this thing worked. I was there to protect
him,
not be . . . sent on assignments.”

The room was uncomfortably quiet, and I had the unsettling feeling that Bee and Ryan were communicating telepathically or something. Not that they could do that—even Ryan's magic didn't go that far—but just in the way they both looked at me, nearly identical expressions on their very different features.

“What?” I asked, raising both hands.

“It's just . . . ,” Bee started. “Maybe it's not really him, just the Paladin girl.
She
could've gone rogue or something. Getting rid of the competition.”

Ryan was nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah, exactly. All, you know,
there can be only one.
”

I stared at the two of them, sitting there on the plaid couch
Ryan's mom had deemed too ugly for upstairs, and took a deep breath through my nose. “Okay, I have no idea what dorky movie you're quoting, but that is not happening, so. Let's move on.”

They stole another peek at each other, and I found myself wondering if Ryan and I had ever done that when Bee was talking. Probably. There had been several times she'd complained about Brandon when I'd thought, “Just break up with him already!” Surely Ryan and I had shot each other looks over that kind of thing. Or maybe we never had, and that's why he and Bee worked better as a couple than Ryan and I had. In any case, neither of them argued with me.

“Moving on,” Bee said, flicking her braid behind her shoulder.

“Moving on,” Ryan echoed, and then frowned a little bit. “To . . . what exactly?”

It had already been one heck of a day, and I probably could have used a long bath and an early bedtime. But I was still too keyed up from the fight, still too excited that, finally, something was happening.

“First things first,” I told them, rising to my feet, “we have to find him.”

• • •

“So breaking and entering is a thing we do now?” Ryan asked, as we stood in the shadows outside David's house.

“I'm going to use a key,” I reminded him. “As soon as I find it.” I didn't mention that until a few weeks ago, I'd had my own key to David's house. I'd gotten rid of it in a fit of delayed break-up melodrama, but could kick myself for that now.

Saylor had always left a key under one of the big baskets of
ferns that sat outside the front door—ferns that I'd taken it upon myself to water this summer.

But when I lifted that surprisingly heavy wicker basket, there was nothing underneath it.

Undeterred, I tried the next one. When that came up empty, I flipped the welcome mat.

Still nothing.

“Harper, it's late,” Bee said in a low voice. “We can come back in the morning, look then, and—”

“It's got to be around here somewhere,” I insisted, and walked back down the porch steps to inspect the yard. We were out of flowerpots and little ceramic animals to check, and there was a part of me that just wanted to go home and follow Bee's advice.

But then there was the part of me I actually listened to.

Marching back up the porch steps, I faced Bee and Ryan, hands on my hips. “Look, if there's any kind of spell to track David, it's going to be in that house. And until we find him, we can't
stop
him or find out why rogue Paladin girls are suddenly after me and Bee.”

Neither of them replied to that, so I decided to take their silence as agreement.

“Okay,” I said, dusting my hands on the backs of my thighs, “we're going to have to improvise.”

Bee sighed, but Ryan folded his arms, staring at me. “If by that, you mean
actually
break and enter, no way.”

I didn't want to have to pull this card—okay, no, that's a lie. I'd been wanting to pull this card for a while, so I pulled it.

Hard.

“Y'all do realize this is your fault, right? That if you hadn't helped David get out of town, we wouldn't be dealing with this?”

The words were harsh, I knew, but they needed to be said, and guilt is a powerful weapon to have in your arsenal.

Ryan lowered his brows, and Bee stepped forward. “Harper, we were only trying to help you, and it's not like you were exactly forthcoming about what could happen—”

I lifted one hand. “I know. I do. But it doesn't change the fact that you lied to me, and now things are potentially more screwed up than ever. So. That said, are y'all gonna break this window with me, or not?”

They didn't answer, but then I didn't really give them a chance.

Turning back to the front door, I examined the panes of glass that bracketed it, hoping my Paladin strength wouldn't fail me now. The glass wasn't particularly thick, but I didn't have anything to wrap around my hand, so I'd have to hit hard and fast.

I did, and while I definitely felt the shock of the hit, the glass broke and my skin didn't.

Reaching into the hole I'd made, I groped for the dead bolt, so pleased with myself that I didn't hear the car pulling up to the curb. I
did,
however, hear Bee's and Ryan's frantic whispers behind me, and I turned to them, about to tell them both to hush already, when the blue and red lights flashed on.

Eff. Me.