Blythe got off the bed, her dress bunched up in her hands. “Oh, this is nothing that needs fixing. This is perfect.” Her sweet little face practically glowed with excitement. “All these Paladins, and my very own Oracle. Now.” Holding out one tiny gloved hand, she crooked a finger at David. “Come along.”

His eyes still blazing, David struggled to his feet. “No.” The words sounded like they were being forced through broken glass, but he got it out. And then, again, stronger. “No.”

Blythe fisted her hands on her hips. “Now isn’t the time for stubbornness. I said—”

A thin bolt of golden light shot out from David’s finger, striking Blythe in the middle of her forehead. Shrieking, she stumbled back, landing on the little settee at the end of the bed.

“I am not yours to control, Mage,” David said in a voice that didn’t sound anything like his own.

Blythe slowly rose, staring at David with a mixture of shock and wonder. “Oh,” she breathed. “This is . . . unexpected.”

David’s hand shot out again, and Blythe winced as another bolt of light took her in the chest. “Very unexpected,” she said through gritted teeth.

Moving away from the settee, Blythe stepped behind Bee. “Well, if I can’t have an Oracle, at least I’ll have a Paladin.”

Before I could think, she had an arm around Bee’s waist. Blythe was so tiny, she barely came up to Bee’s shoulder blades. Sticking her head out from behind Bee, Blythe winked at me.

“I think I like this one best,” she said and then, almost instantly, they both vanished.

Chapter 41

“BEE!” I cried, staring at the spot where she and Blythe had been. Behind me, David put a hand on my shoulder.

“Pres,” he said softly, but I shook him off, leaping to my feet.

“No! They can’t be—she can’t be—”

But they were. She was. My best friend was gone, and I had no idea where Blythe might have taken her. Greece? To the other Ephors?

David reached up, brushing the tears off my cheeks, and I let myself lean into him for a moment. His eyes were still too bright to look directly into, so I focused on his hair, the places where it stood up in peaks and tufts. “If I’d known she’d take Bee, I would’ve gone with her,” he said, sounding like himself again.

I held on to his jacket tighter, the material wrinkling under my fingers. But as I held on to him, I could only be happy that at least David was still here. At least I still had him.

“Whoa,” Amanda said, glancing out the door. “What happened?”

David and I walked out onto the landing, the other girls trailing us. Downstairs, the main room was covered in bodies.

“Are they dead?” Mary Beth asked, but I shook my head.