Rebel Belle (22 page)

Today’s lesson involved the history of the Ephors and ancient Greece, even though I’d thought our last session before Cotillion might involve more fighting and training. But Saylor said it was important for me to conserve my strength, hence the studying. The day felt pleasant and fallish, and the sunlight was warm between my shoulder blades as I studied.

“This,” Saylor said, pointing to a picture of a stone fort at the edge of a cliff, “was the home of the Ephors. Or was. I have no idea if that’s where they’re still operating from.”

I ran my finger over the imposing building. It was huge and vaguely medieval-looking. There were even bars on the windows, and below, the Mediterranean, so blue it almost hurt to look at, crashed against a rocky shore.

“It’s . . . beautiful doesn’t seem like the right word.” “It’s not,” Saylor agreed, taking another sip of lemonade. “It’s awe-inspiring and terrifying and lovely to look at, but not beautiful.”
There was a wistfulness in her voice, and I glanced up. “You miss it.”
It wasn’t a question. Saylor’s eyes were practically misty as she looked at the photograph.
“It was all I knew for a very long time. And don’t get me wrong, Pine Grove is very nice, but it’s not . . .” She trailed off, her fingers brushing the edge of the page. Then she cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter. “Anyway, that’s the seat of the Ephors. And how many are there?”
Sighing, I leaned back in my seat. “Five. They used to be elected by the Greek people, but now they choose their own successors. And they pass their power on via super creepy kissing, just like Paladins.”
Saylor frowned. “That’s not exactly how I’d put it, but yes.”
When I didn’t say anything, Saylor reached out and closed the book. “You seem distracted today.”
There was absolutely no humor in my laugh. “Kind of have a lot on my mind right now, Miss Saylor.”
“David told me there was an issue at Cotillion practice yesterday. Something with you and Mary Beth?”
A breeze swept through the open door of the sun porch, making the wind chimes ring softly, and even thought I wasn’t that cold, I wrapped my arms around myself. “It wasn’t a big deal. But what was you not being there supposed to accomplish exactly?”
Leaning back in her chair, Saylor folded her arms. “Yesterday was actually another training lesson for you. I wanted to see how you did leading the girls by yourself.”
I snorted. “Oh, well, everyone turned on me and started snarking about my boyfriend and David, so that went super great.”
“What about David?” Saylor asked.
“Let’s just say it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that we’re spending a lot of time together, and people have the wrong idea, and . . . ” I trailed off. “Anyway, I can fix it.”
Before Saylor could reply, David suddenly appeared in the doorway, leaning his head out. “Say— Oh. Pres. Hi.”
“Hi,” I replied, turning all my attention back to my book. But he walked onto the sun porch, standing in front of me. “Is everything okay? After yesterday?”
I lifted my head then. David’s outfit today was another winner: a shrunken black V-neck sweater over a bright purple collared shirt, with blue and violet plaid pants. I didn’t even know where one purchased plaid pants. Still, looking at him, I smiled. Say what you would about David’s wardrobe—and I’d said a lot over the years—he was always a hundred percent committed to it.
“It was fine,” I told him. “I went over to Ryan’s and we worked things out, so . . . yeah, right as rain. Except for saving both of our lives and this entire town, of course.” I thumped the book in front of me.
David blinked a couple of times, the effect slightly owlish behind his glasses. “Oh, good. Not about us maybe dying, but you and Ryan. That’s . . . that’s good.”
“It is,” I said, rubbing my eyes. I felt like I hadn’t slept in years.
Silence fell and it lasted a second too long before David turned to Saylor and said, “Anyway, wanted to let you know I was home.”
“Anything to report?” Saylor asked, and even though I wasn’t looking at him, I knew David rolled his eyes.
“Nope. No one tried to kill me, I’ve had no bizarre visions of the future, and now I plan on making myself some pizza rolls. We good?”
“Go,” she said, waving a hand at him.
But there was affection in her voice, and her eyes followed him out the door.
“You love him,” I said, and she swung her gaze back to me.
“I do.” She smoothed her hands over her thighs, flattening imaginary wrinkles from the linen.
“Even though he’s not your family.”
Saylor laughed, a surprisingly husky sound. “Don’t you love people who aren’t your family, Harper Jane?”
“Of course I do. But you love him for more than the whole Oracle thing. You love him because he’s David.”
Saylor sighed, looking behind her. The sun was starting to go down, and her backyard was filled with soft golden light. Even in November, things were still green and blooming.
“Yes,” she said at last. “I love him because he’s David. That boy can be a pain in the backside, don’t get me wrong, but he has a good heart. And he’s actually handling this a heck of a lot better than I thought he would. Look at him. Whole life turned upside down, and he’s in there making pizza rolls.” She gave a fond snort. “He’s a good boy. So yes, I love him, whether he can see the future or not.”
My throat felt weird, so I opened the book again, flipping pages and trying to focus on the words in front of me.
Ephors were said to have magical powers of their own, but many people thought they were simply draining that power from the Oracles themselves and
—
“Harper, do
you
care about him?”
Closing my hand around my glass of lemonade before it could plummet to the patio, I shook my head. “David?”
“He was the boy we were speaking of, yes,” Saylor answered dryly. “And not just because he’s the Oracle, but because he’s David.”
I made a big show of resituating my lemonade glass on the table, wiping stray droplets from the book. “Of course I don’t,” I said, even as my heart hammered in my ears. “You’ve seen the two of us together. All we do is argue.”
“Passionately,” Saylor said.
“There is nothing  .  .  .
passionate
about me and David. I’ve spent most of my life despising him and while I’ll admit that this—this situation has made me appreciate him a little more, there’s nothing going on between us.”
I made myself meet her eyes, which wasn’t easy, seeing as how just thinking about him was making my skin feel weird and too tight.
“Nothing going on,” I repeated, but Saylor only squinted at me.
“Do you know, if it weren’t for your respective positions, I’d hope you were lying to me. I’d hope you felt the same way about David he’s felt about you all these years.”
I couldn’t keep myself from snorting. “You want me to loathe him?”
Saylor wrinkled her nose. “Is that really how you think David feels about you?”
I couldn’t have this conversation right now. Not when there were about a million other things going on that were way more important than feelings.
“Please don’t tell me he’s only been writing horrible articles about me because of a secret crush,” I said, getting out of my chair and going to stand by the window. A cardinal flew into the birdbath, a bright splash of red against all the green. Something about that bright red bothered me, reminding me of . . . something. Something in David’s visions. There had been red in that, a wave of it. Blood? The thought made me shudder.
Saylor came up behind me, watching the bird, too, and I suddenly remembered the other thing she’d said. “What do you mean that you’d be happy if we liked each other were it not for our ‘respective positions’? Is Paladin-Oracle romance frowned upon or something?”
She sighed. “There’s nothing expressly in the rules about it, but it’s generally acknowledged not to be the best idea. The relationship between Paladin, Oracle, and Mage is complicated enough without dragging the heart into it. And there’s always the chance that personal feelings can interfere with duty.”
The late-afternoon sun shone on her silver hair as I looked over at her. Saylor was still staring into the backyard, but her eyes were far away.
“Miss Saylor,” I said slowly. “The spell. What if . . . what if Blythe’s right and it just powers him up? No crazy times or power twisting his brain or any of that?”
Saylor kept staring in the backyard. In the fading light, I could see some of her fuchsia lipstick had bled into the tiny wrinkles around her mouth. “If that’s the case, it would be a miracle. The Ephors believed—I believed—there was a reason Oracles were almost never male. They’re . . .” She sighed. “It’s an ugly word, but they’re aberrations. And if Blythe does this spell on David, he’ll be every bit as lost to us, do you understand me? That much power, it will burn him up and eat him alive until he’s not David anymore, but a powerful, dangerous creature that absolutely must be put down.”
David’s dream. Both of us crying, something in my hand, him dying because of me . . .
Goosebumps had broken out over my whole body, and they had nothing to do with the cold. “I understand.”

Across town, my friends were all at Bee’s house, putting on their dresses together, laughing and doing each other’s makeup. I imagined them stepping into their white shoes, slipping on gloves, while I got ready by myself. I’d told Bee that Mom wanted it to be just us, a kind of mother-daughter bonding thing. Really, I just wanted to be alone.

Once I was done, I turned to stare into the mirror. The dress was every bit as beautiful as it had always been, but it was a smidgen too big. I’d lost weight these past few weeks. And then there was my face, pale even under the makeup. One way or another, everything would change after tonight.

The door opened behind me, and Mom walked in. As soon as her eyes landed on me, she drew in a soft breath. “Oh, Harper.”
I fiddled with my pearls. “It looks good, right? I wasn’t sure about these sleeves, but with the gloves . . .”
Mom crossed the room in a few strides and rested her hands on my shoulders. “It’s better than good. It’s beautiful.”
And it was. Or it would’ve been if I could stop thinking of it as the dress I might die in. The dress I would be wearing when I screwed this whole thing up and got everyone I loved and everything I knew blown off the map.
I swallowed those thoughts down, trying to smile. “You look amazing, too,” I told Mom. She was wearing a soft pink dress that brought color to her cheeks and made her dark eyes shine. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I turned around to hug Mom before she could notice.
“I’m so proud of you,” she whispered against my temple.
I gave a watery chuckle. “Why? All I’m doing is walking down some stairs and trying not to spill punch on my dress.”
But Mom shook her head and pulled back. “No,” she said, holding me at arm’s length. “Not just for Cotillion. For the girl— no, the woman—you’ve become.”
Now I didn’t have to worry about hiding tears. We were both a little weepy.
“I’m sorry for being so overprotective these past few weeks,” Mom told me. She smelled like Mary Kay makeup and hairspray, and I hugged her again.
“I’m sorry, too,” I told her, and nothing had ever been truer.
There was a soft knock at the door, and when Mom and I turned, Saylor was standing there. She was already dressed for Cotillion, too, wearing a navy dress, with a white rose corsage pinned to the bodice.
“Saylor?” Mom asked, confused.
Saylor met my eyes, and I nodded.
Satisfied, Saylor walked into the room and reached into her handbag. She pulled out the little pot of lip balm. “Hillary, don’t you look lovely?”
Saylor’s smile was bright as ever, and her accent seemed thicker than normal. “Where did you find that dress?”
I could tell Mom was still a little puzzled, but manners trumped confusion. “Nordstrom,” she answered, brushing a hand over the skirt. “I think it’s supposed to be a mother-of-thebride dress, but I guess that’s appropriate.”
She gave a nervous little chuckle, and Saylor laughed, too. “Mine is the same. But that color . . . here, let me get a closer look.”
And then she touched Mom’s hand. The scent of roses wafted over me as Saylor held onto Mom and looked deep into her eyes. “You are going to stay home tonight, Hillary. You and Tom both. You don’t feel well, and you can’t bring yourself to ruin Harper’s special night. Tomorrow, you’ll wake up and you’ll be so sorry to have missed it, but you’ll know it was the right thing to do.”
Mom swayed on her feet a little, and I gripped her other arm. But after a moment, she gave a faint nod. “I don’t feel very well. I think I’ll stay home tonight.”
Saylor gave her hand a pat. “Good girl. Now go on and change into something more comfortable.”
Mom didn’t walk out of my room so much as float. “Thank you,” I said to Saylor, even though watching my mother leave made my heart twist painfully.
But Saylor was still staring out the door. “Harper, if Blythe’s spell goes badly tonight, it won’t matter that your parents aren’t actually at Magnolia House.”
“I know.” I looked around my bedroom, wondering if this was the last time I’d see my purple bedspread, or the silver and cherrywood jewelry box that had been my grandmother’s.
“Everyone in this town is in danger if—”
“
I. Know
,” I repeated. “And I know that my aunts will still be there, and my friends, and my boyfriend.”
Turning back to the mirror, I pinched my cheeks in a lastditch effort not to look quite so much like death. Honestly, white really is a difficult color for anyone to wear. “But I had to do something.”
I thought Saylor would argue that, too, but she just sighed and sank down on the edge of my bed. “Don’t we all.”
“Have you been to Magnolia House yet?” I asked. “Any sign of . . . anything?”
She shook her head. “Everything is as it should be at the house, but Blythe is here.”
The words sent a shiver racing through me. “How do you know?”
“I felt my wards giving way this afternoon,” Saylor said, glancing up as she rummaged in her handbag. “I don’t know how she did it, but it has to be her.”
“What could she even be planning?” I asked, going to sit next to Saylor. “Is she just going to march into Magnolia House and start her mojo?”
Saylor shook her head. “I don’t know. She’ll need to be protected from you while she’s attempting the ritual, but she doesn’t have a Paladin on her side. And the ritual itself is surprisingly simple. It won’t take her long.”
Dr. DuPont, shoe sticking out of his neck, suddenly flashed through my mind. That had been six weeks ago. Six weeks to completely reorder my entire life.
And possibly end it.
“Hired assassins then maybe? Disguised as cater waiters?” “That’s a possibility,” Saylor acknowledged with a nod. “Keep an eye on them.”
Crossing over to my dresser, I picked up my lip gloss. I wasn’t forgetting that tonight, at least. “I will,” I said, swiping on a coat of Coral Shimmer.
Saylor watched me in the mirror. “Of course, there’s always the possibility she’ll try to kill you before she starts the ritual. That would probably be the easiest thing to do.”
My heart sank, and the hand holding the lip gloss trembled. “Well, yeah, there’s that.”
Rising from the bed, Saylor came to stand behind me, her hands on my shoulders. “You can do this,” she told me. “I know you can.”
“I have been rocking the training pretty hard,” I admitted, and Saylor tightened her grip.
“I’ve known you since you were a tiny little girl, Harper Jane Price. You are driven, and smart, and sharp, and there’s no other Paladin I’d rather have fighting for David tonight than you.” It was all I’d ever wanted her to say. Okay, so I hadn’t exactly wanted the Paladin part, but Saylor Stark praising me about anything was good enough for me. Reaching up, I took one of her hands and squeezed it.
“Are you ready?” she asked as the doorbell rang downstairs.
Ryan.
“As I’ll ever be.”