David brought the car to a shuddering halt.

“A house like that?” he asked, and Ryan gave a slow nod.

The house in front of us looked a lot like Magnolia House back in town, but while that was just a reproduction of a fancy antebellum home, this seemed to be the real thing. White columns rose from the front porch to a wraparound balcony above, and tall windows, bracketed by dark shutters, stood on either side of the massive front door. Lights glowed in those windows, throwing out long rectangles of gold on the neatly manicured lawn.

“Maybe someone built a new place,” Ryan suggested, but his voice was faint. “In the... three weeks since I was out here.”

“This is the place,” David said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “I feel it, don’t you?”

I did. I wasn’t sure how exactly, but I definitely did. I don’t know what I was expecting the Ephor headquarters—if that’s what this place was—to look like. I mean, they were an ancient society that started in Greece, made up of people who wanted to control the world, so I don’t think I was too far off in imagining that they’d do business in something like a temple, or at least an old building made of stone. It looked like they’d decided to restore some of the local architecture instead.

So I thought I could be forgiven for doubting David. “Are you sure?”

David was still staring at the house, his wrists draped over the steering wheel. “Yeah,” he said at last. “That’s the place.”

As the three of us got out of the car, it was all I could do not to shiver. The house might not have looked magical, but it sure as heck felt like it. I couldn’t see any obvious markings, like the wards Saylor had put up around town, but power pulsed off the building in a steady beat that I could almost feel coming up through the soles of my feet. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my teeth ache.

“That’s intense,” David said, and I glanced at him. Reaching over, I threaded my fingers with his, squeezing.

“Do you have any kind of plan here? Are we just marching in, or...”

David squeezed my hand back. “No plan,” he said. “I have to be here. That’s all I know. It’s like... remember when you told me that if I’m in danger, you can’t do anything except save me?”

I nodded. That was part of the Oracle/Paladin bond. Even if an orphanage staffed by kittens was on fire right next to him, I couldn’t do anything but save David. So, yeah, I understood how mystical compulsions could make you do things that weren’t good for you, but I still didn’t like it.