My hand flew to my mouth, stomach clenching. “You put the wards where we’d put the other ones.” I looked at Ryan and saw the same realization dawning on his face.

“We put hundreds of wards on Magnolia House.”

I turned my head east, in the direction of the huge mansion where we’d had Cotillion, and saw a faint orange glow in the sky.

Without a word, Ryan turned the car that way.

Magnolia House was on fire. Cotillion hadn’t destroyed it—although it had come pretty freaking close—but this... this had finally done it.

We sat in the car for a while, watching flames lick out of the windows, racing along the white wood, wrapping the huge pillars out front in fire.

“How?” Bee asked, and the words almost stuck in my throat.

“Alexander put up different wards,” I told her. “To keep David here. But they... they didn’t work.” One of the upstairs windows suddenly burst outward in a spray of glass. That was the bedroom where I had kissed David for the first time, finally understanding what had been between us for all those years.

“We need to get to him,” I said, even though I hated to do this. “Alexander. Maybe he can stop David.”

I didn’t think that would actually work. I could actually feel David getting farther away from me, a steady pulse beating behind my ribs like a second heartbeat.

I’d failed.

The one job I’d had was to keep him safe, and I hadn’t been able to do that. Saylor had told me that one day, I might have to protect David from himself, but I’d never thought it would be like this. I’d imagined him having too many prophecies, burning up his mind. Never running from town—from me—and leaving this kind of destruction in his wake.

Silently, we drove out of town and onto the dirt road where Alexander had set up headquarters.

I waited for the house to loom out of the darkness, its windows glowing, but the closer we got, the darker it seemed to get. Frowning, I sat forward in the seat, squinting into the inky blackness.

“Where is it?” I said, then glanced over at Ryan. His hands were so tight on the steering wheel, it looked like he could snap it right off, and from the back, I heard Bee take in a sudden sharp breath.

“Harper,” she said softly. “Look.”

Chapter 35

Chapter 35

THERE WAS no house left.

It was like Ryan had described that first night, just a charred and broken chimney rising from tall grass, a few stray cinder blocks littering what appeared to be an empty field.

Alexander sat on one of those blocks, his head in his hands. His hair was a mess, his tie dangling limply from his fingers, and it looked like one sleeve of his jacket was singed.