I handed it to Bee as Ryan sighed and said, “I don’t know. This Mage stuff...” Trailing off, he opened and closed his hands. “It’s like I know how to use it, but it’s all instinct or something. Not real knowledge. I can do spells, but undoing them, or fixing them when they get screwed up?”

Reaching up, he scrubbed a hand over his auburn hair. I wondered if that was a habit he was picking up from David. “That I’m not so sure about,” he said.

Wiping her nose, Bee shook her head. “My parents remembered me. Not at first, but then after a minute or so, it was like I’d never been gone.”

“Maybe that’s because they’re your parents,” I suggested, leaning forward to rest my hand on her knee. Her skin felt clammy and cool. “You’d have a stronger bond with them than—”

“Than with my boyfriend?” she asked, her head jerking up. None of us said anything for a while, and the only sound was Bee’s harsh breathing and the rattle of David jiggling his leg up and down on the desk seat.

Finally, Bee wadded up her tissue. “I thought once I was back, everything would be fine. That’s all I thought the whole time I was with Alexander. That if I could get back home, this would all be over.”

She looked at me then, and I felt a lump rise in my throat. “But it’s not, is it? Hardly anyone can remember me, you’re a superhero who has to go through these... these things that might kill you, and if you do die, not only will I have lost my best friend, but I’m stuck protecting him.” Bee gestured toward David and then added, “No offense.”

“None taken,” he replied quietly. “Trust me, I’m used to being a pain in the ass.”

“You’re not,” I said automatically, but even as I did, I was remembering how I’d felt when Saylor had told me that my sacred duty was to protect David. I’d told her that I didn’t want to screw up my life to save someone else.

Once again, this helpless, choking feeling rose up in my throat. I wanted to pass the Peirasmos because I didn’t want to die, obviously, but looking at Bee, who, even though she was more than half a foot taller than me, looked so small and scared sitting in that chair, one knee drawn up under her chin, her eyes still red, I realized there was more than just my life at stake.

I hadn’t been able to protect Bee the night of Cotillion, but if I managed to survive the Peirasmos, she would be free from all of this.