The more I repeated it, the better I felt. In fact, as David got closer to Pine Grove, I was feeling almost . . . proud. My first real mission as a Paladin, and I had captured the enemy, learned something about the other side’s plans, and managed not to get too horribly injured. Of course, I’d still need to go to the hospital. My hand would need stitches, which meant coming up with a good excuse for my parents. But when I slid the sweater sleeve off my hand, I could see that the wound was already beginning to heal. It was puckered and red and ugly, but mostly closed. I turned my hand back and forth, marveling at it, and David glanced over.

“Whoa,” he murmured, and I nodded.

The “Welcome to Pine Grove” sign loomed in the distance, and I actually smiled a little bit. Yes. Today was definitely one for the win column.

David must’ve felt the same, because as we sped into town, he looked over at me and said, “You know, Pres, this was actually . . . I don’t want to say fun because of the attempted stabbing, but—”

“No,” I said. “I get what you mean. We did good work today. And once we get her—”

I turned to the backseat, ready to face Blythe’s sullen expression and found myself staring at . . . nothing.

The backseat was empty.

Chapter 23

THE CAR shook and shimmied as he slammed on the brakes and swerved off the road. Throwing it in park, he turned around in his seat and joined me in staring slack-jawed at the spot where Blythe had been. “How?”

“She’s a Mage,” I offered, too stunned to think of anything else. Saylor had said their magic was pretty low-level. Making yourself disappear was not what I considered low-level magic.

David made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a groan, and lowered his forehead to the seat.

“She wasn’t kidding about her alchemy game, was she?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

As I looked at the empty backseat, all I could see was Blythe leaping over that desk, Mr. Hall bleeding to death on the bathroom floor. They weren’t trying to kill David, they were trying to kill me, and I had let one of my would-be assassins go. One who had way more power than I’d prepared for, at that.

After a beat, David turned to me. “You wanna drive around for a little bit?”

Wordlessly, I nodded. David turned my car down one of the side streets leading toward Pine Grove Park, and we drove until we reached the little hill above the playground.