Miss Mayhem

by Rachel Hawkins

  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.

  I made myself smile at David. “We got this,” I said, even though I had no idea what “this” was. But David and I had handled The Weird before and gotten through it. We could do it again.

  Turning his head, he smiled down at me. Well, his lips lifted in something that I think was supposed to be a smile, but he was either too tired or too freaked out to give it his best shot.

  I’d take it.

  From behind me, I thought I heard Ryan blow out a long breath, but I kept my eyes on the house, waiting for . . . I didn’t even know what.

  The three of us approached the building cautiously, like we were afraid we’d be rushed at any second. My Paladin senses weren’t tingling, so that probably wasn’t going to happen, but I still didn’t want to take any chances.

  The porch steps didn’t even creak under our feet although the potted ferns by the door rustled slightly in the night wind. Other than that, there was no sign of movement, nothing happening behind the windows or door, and we all stood there for a moment. I didn’t see an intercom button or anything like that, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to knock. Kick down the door, maybe?

  Before I could do either of those things, the door slowly swung open.

  “Cool,” Ryan said from behind me. “I was starting to think this crap wasn’t creepy enough.”

  David snorted, and when he cut his eyes at Ryan, he looked better. Less pale, for sure. Sharper, almost. “Sorry we got you involved in a Scooby-Doo mystery.”

  That made Ryan smile a little bit, and he shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “That is what’s happening, isn’t it? Which obviously makes you Shaggy.” He nodded at David, whose smirk turned into a grin.

  “Then you’re Fred,” he told Ryan. “And Pres here”—he bumped me with an elbow—“is for sure Daphne.”

  “For sure,” Ryan agreed, and I rolled my eyes at both of them.

  “Okay, if y’all are done being boys, can we please go in and see what the heck is going on here?”

  We walked inside. The house smelled nice, like furniture polish and expensive candles, with a hint of something warm and spicy underneath. Tea, maybe. And it certainly didn’t look like a lair of evil. Overhead, a chandelier sparkled, and the wooden stairs gleamed. There were vases of fresh flowers on long, narrow tables, and pretty artwork dotted the walls. It looked like the inside of a lot of these old houses: The outside might be all vintage and historical, but there was clearly some twenty-first-century interior decorating going on.

  “Maybe we died?” David suggested. “And ended up in Harper’s version of heaven?”

  “Well, the Ephors have good taste, even if they are evil.” I turned in a small circle on one of the lush rugs, glancing up. The house was quiet, but people had to be here.

  Bee might be here.

  I’d gotten so used to my Paladin senses kicking in when they needed to that it was weird to feel so . . . blank. I couldn’t get a read on anything, and not for the first time, I wondered if there was some kind of magic blocking my powers. “If they’re evil, why are we here?” Ryan asked, and I had to admit it was a good question. We’d spent last semester trying to hide David from the Ephors, and now we were walking into their . . . house? Headquarters? For a meeting? Still, that didn’t keep me from scanning the room for objects that could be used as weapons. There were several pretty hefty candlesticks on the mantel over the enormous fireplace. Those would work.

  I turned to ask David more about his vision, but he was studying one of the paintings on the wall. “Whoa,” he murmured softly, and I followed his gaze.

  “Whoa,” I echoed.

  The painting depicted a girl in a flowing white gown, her body floating in midair, her eyes bright and golden. On either side of her stood a man, one in armor, the other in a white robe, and kneeling all around the three of them were shadowy figures, their hands outstretched toward the girl. The paint seemed to glow, and I fought the urge to run my fingers over the canvas.

  “The Oracle Speaks,” a voice said from behind us, and David, Ryan, and I jumped, then whirled around.

  A man was standing there, but I had no idea where he’d come from. I hadn’t heard his footsteps approach or a door open. He was maybe forty or so, and handsome in the same old-world, expensive way the house was. Blond hair, high cheekbones, really nice suit. Like the house, power seemed to radiate from him, and I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.

  But his smile was perfectly pleasant as he gestured toward the painting. “That’s what this particular work of art is called. Felt appropriate to hang here.”

  “You’re an Ephor,” David said quietly, his hands clenching into fists at his side, and the man gave a slight bow.

  “I am. My name is Alexander. And you are the Oracle and, I take it, you are his intrepid Paladin and Mage,” he said, nodding to me and Ryan. There was a slight lilt to his words, an accent I couldn’t quite place. “So good of you to come.”

  He was acting like he’d invited us here, like we were expected, and I wasn’t sure why, but that gave me all of the creeps. Still, although I waited for my Paladin senses to kick in and tell me this guy was bad news, there was nothing. Magic, sure, a hint of power, yes, but none of the chest-tightening, muscle-tensing sickness I felt when David was in danger.

  The Ephors had always been the greatest threat to David, so why wasn’t I in attack mode? It suddenly occurred to me that they might be doing something to override my Paladin powers. Could they do that? After all, they’d somehow managed to break through the wards so that David could have an all-consu
ming vision. For probably the thousandth time, I wished Saylor were here to tell me what was going on.

  “I’m so pleased to have you here,” Alexander said, still smiling that bland smile, one hand extended toward a dim hallway off to the side. “Now, if you’ll come with me—”

  I was about to interject that we were staying right where we were, but before I could, David stepped forward, looked at Alexander, and said, “You people took a girl last year. Bee Franklin. I want you to tell me where she is.”

  Chapter 4

  “WHAT? IS BEE HERE? Did you see her?” Behind David, I saw my own surprise reflected on Ryan’s face.

  With a sigh, David turned to me, ruffling his hand over his hair. “No. Or not exactly, but she’s . . . close, or . . .” He opened and closed his free hand like he was trying to pull the words out of the air. “Something. I can feel it.”

  Sensing people’s presence wasn’t exactly part of David’s bag, and I’d certainly never heard him talk about anything like this before. Was he able to sense Bee because he’d juiced her up with Paladin powers before Blythe had taken her?

  But David looked back at Alexander, and the Ephor took a deep breath, his brow wrinkling slightly. “All in good time, I assure you,” he said at last, and then swept his hand toward the hall again. “First, we need to talk about what occurred this evening.”

  “The frat thing or David’s vision?” I asked, and Alexander’s green eyes flicked to me. His expression was blank, but I could still feel magic or power or whatever it was oozing from him, and I made myself hold his gaze.

  “They are connected,” he said at last, then nodded. “Now, if the three of you will come with me, all will be explained.”

  “Where are the rest of you?” David folded his arms across his chest. “Aren’t there other Ephors here besides you?”

  Alexander gave a tiny smile, revealing a hint of teeth. “All in good time.”

  I thought David might argue with him some more—I knew I wanted to—but instead, he started off in the direction Alexander had indicated.

  At my side, I felt Ryan gently take my elbow. “Come on, Harper,” he said in a low voice.

  The hallway was lit with pretty little sconces covered with tiny burgundy shades, casting pools of warm light on the hardwood, but all I could see in my head was Bee. Bee, laughing with me at cheerleading practice; Bee, handing me lip gloss; Bee, tears streaming down her face as she’d kept me from killing Blythe.

  Bee, vanishing right in front of me.

  I’d wanted answers about the fight at the frat party tonight, but now, the only thing I cared about was knowing if Bee was here.

  Alexander opened a doorway off to the left, ushering us into what looked like some kind of study. The decor here was even more extravagant: antique furniture, Tiffany lamps, carpet that felt lush and deep underfoot.

  And three chairs sitting across from a gleaming mahogany desk.

  The three of us sat, David between me and Ryan, while Alexander sank into the much larger chair behind the desk. “Well,” he said at last, fixing all of us with that smile again. “Here we are. Tea?”

  There was a pot beside his elbow, I saw now, steam spilling from the spout, but tea was the last thing on my mind. “No,” I said, sitting up as straight as I could. “What we want are answers. Why are we here, what the heck did you have to do with David’s vision tonight, and where is Bee?”

  Alexander flicked his dark gold hair out of his eyes, frowning as though I had disappointed him. “So we’re to skip the pleasantries, I see.”

  “Pleasantries?” Ryan sat back in his chair, propping his ankle on his opposite knee. “I only came into this thing at the end last year, but didn’t y’all try to kill David?”

  Alexander tilted his head in acknowledgment. “I understand how that may have looked, but we were never trying to harm David, merely to remove his Paladin from the equation.”

  “Yeah, that’s not really helping on the trust front,” I said, suppressing a shudder.

  Alexander ignored me. “We sent our Mage to perform Alaric’s ritual on the Oracle in the hopes that he would not prove as useless as we’d feared.”

  Alexander turned back to David and spread his hands wide. “And now look at you! Everything we’d hoped for and more. Powerful enough to create Paladins, stable enough to have clear, helpful visions. All in all, the entire process went even better than we’d hoped.”

  I couldn’t help but grit my teeth as I thought of Saylor, bleeding to death in the kitchen. Of Bee, vanishing before my eyes.

  But I didn’t say anything. If this guy had Bee, I’d hold my tongue for as long as I could.

  David had other ideas. “I don’t have ‘clear, helpful visions’ anymore,” he said. “All I can see are . . . minor things.”

  Alexander’s pleasant expression didn’t falter, but something about him still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Did he know what Ryan and I had been doing?

  “You have these powers,” he said, waving one hand, “but no idea how to channel them. You’re using them for trivial things, like ensuring that Miss Price’s friends don’t get their hearts broken.”

  I started. If he knew about that, then surely he knew why those were the only sorts of visions David was having. But Alexander just kept going, his voice low and smooth. “With our help, you can reach your full potential, which is all we want for you, David.”

  On my right, David rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, his shoulders tight. “And I’m supposed to believe that? After you people spent months—no, my whole freaking life—trying to kill me?”

  Alexander’s green eyes blinked twice, and then he sat up abruptly, thrusting his hand out at David. “Take it,” he said, nodding to his palm. “Take it and look for yourself.”

  David blinked at the outstretched hand, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “I can see the future, not read minds.”

  Alexander’s smile widened the littlest bit. “Are you sure?”

  Leaning forward in my chair a little, I studied Alexander. “Who are you? Like, chief Ephor, or head Mage? You clearly have some kind of crazy magic.”

  Alexander kept his hand outstretched, his eyes on David. “Six of one, half a dozen of the other,” he replied, and I wanted to point out that he hadn’t given me much of an answer.

  I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in the corner, could hear my own breathing, and as I watched, David reached over and very gently laid his hand on top of Alexander’s. I couldn’t see anything happen when their hands touched, but then David closed his eyes and there was the briefest hint of light behind his eyelids.

  And then his hand fell back to his lap. “He’s telling the truth,” David said, almost wonderingly. “I . . . I don’t know how I know, but I know.”

  I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it at all. How could David suddenly have new powers we didn’t know anything about? Saylor had never mentioned anything about mind reading, and, ugh, I was in no way ready to handle a boyfriend who could read my every thought whenever we touched hands.

  “There are all sorts of things we can teach you.” Alexander sat back, his chair creaking. “All sorts of powers locked away in that mind of yours.”

  “David doesn’t want to learn anything from you people,” I said, crossing my ankles.

  But David jerked his head to look at me, something like irritation in his face. “I think that’s one of those things I get to decide for myself, Pres,” he said, and in that second, he wasn’t the Oracle or my boyfriend—he was the annoying guy who wrote mean articles about me in the school paper, the boy who never stopped arguing with me.

  “Saylor said—” I started, only to let the words die in my throat. Saylor had told me that David’s powers could prove dangerous, and that the Ephors wouldn’t care. That his power was the only thing that would matter to them. I didn’t think she’d ever told him that, though, and this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have in front of Alexander.

&n
bsp; Ryan was looking down, frowning a little, but Alexander only watched me with those green eyes, brows drawn sharply together.

  Finally, he folded his hands on the desk, the cuffs of his blue shirt peeking out from his jacket. “The issue as far as I can see, Miss Price, is that neither you nor the Oracle nor your Mage”—Ryan’s head came up—“currently have any sort of guidance. With the deaths of Christopher Hall and the woman you called Saylor Stark, any assistance you could have had in protecting the Oracle—”

  “David,” I interrupted. “His name is David.” My voice shook the littlest bit, and I hated that. But I also hated anything to do with these people wanting to “help” David.

  Alexander inclined his head the tiniest bit, lips pursing slightly. “As you say. David.”

  Manners and graciousness dripped off those four words, but I knew when someone was being condescending, and I didn’t like it. Maybe that’s why my voice was frosty when I replied, “We don’t need your assistance. We have things totally under control. We have a Mage, an Oracle, and a Paladin. We don’t need anyone else.” It wasn’t true, not really . . . I was shaky and tired and completely in over my head. But I couldn’t take help from these people. Not the people who kidnapped Bee. As for everything else . . . we’d figure it out as we went.

  Alexander’s expression didn’t change, but a muscle ticced in his jaw and after a long pause, he reached for the teapot at the edge of his desk, filling a delicate china cup. Once he’d taken a sip, he fixed me with that gaze again.

  “I’m unsure of how you could control anything, Miss Price, seeing as how you are not actually a Paladin yet.”

  Chapter 5

  MY MOUTH went dry. “Excuse me?” I finally managed to croak.

  His fingers drummed on the mahogany desk. “Well, you have the powers themselves, of course. That’s not in any doubt, as Michael’s corpse attests.”

  “Michael?” I said, confused. Next to me, I could feel David tense, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was sitting up straighter in his chair now.