I opened my mouth to ask what, but David held up a hand before I could. “It wasn’t clear. It was like before, when my visions were all muddled and cloudy. But I think... I think with help...”

It was my turn to hold up a hand. “Even if Ryan and I did try to help you have a vision, Alexander would know, right? He’d...Who knows what he’d do? That could disqualify me from the Peirasmos. It could kill me. Or you, or—”

But David shook his head. “This will work,” he insisted. “And think about it—if I can override his powers, maybe I could override... I don’t know, everything. Maybe this could end. If Alexander doesn’t have any power over me, he doesn’t have any power over you either.”

It was tempting. Really tempting. But if David was wrong...

Like he could read my mind, David reached out and took my hand. His skin on mine felt familiar and good, and I fought the urge to let my fingers curl around his.

“Pres,” he started, then moved in closer. “Harper. Trust me.”

Behind me, Sara called my name, and I thought of what this would mean. I’d have to talk to Ryan, of course, and Bee, too, probably, since this affected her. The four of us—my two ex-boyfriends and my maybe-ex-best-friend—would have to work together.

It would be scary and hard and, if David was wrong, quite possibly fatal.

But in spite of all that, I squeezed David’s hand and nodded.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

I’M SURE there have been more awkward car rides than the one we took out to the golf course to have David’s vision.

I mean, Aunt May once told me a story about a funeral where the limo company screwed up and sent the same car for her cousin Roderick’s wife and his mistress, and they had to ride to the cemetery together. That was probably worse than this ride.

But not by much.

Ryan had agreed to drive since he had the biggest car, a nice SUV his dad had bought for him last year when the basketball team had managed not to come in dead last. But even with all that space, I still felt cramped, even though it was just me and David in the backseat. Apparently the weirdness between us took up a lot of space. Bee rode up front with Ryan, and she’d done a decent job of trying to keep small talk going, but after getting monosyllabic answers from most of us, she’d given up, and now we drove in silence.