I nodded in agreement. “And logistics are the least of it,” I muttered, thinking about Ryan and Bee, both of whom had reasons to want me and David to spend less time together. Then something else occurred to me. Mr. Hall had died defending David. Bled out on the bathroom floor from a giant scimitar wound. Was I expected to defend David to the death? My death?
Something must have shown on my face because David squinted at me. “What?”
I shook my head. We could get into how far my protective services extended later. “Whenever you’re in danger, I can sense it. There’s this . . . jumpiness and pain and stuff. I can’t exactly miss it. Besides, this town’s not that big, and we only live a few blocks apart. And I am here at school every day. As for the rest of it, we’ll . . . I don’t know. Once we figure out what’s going on, maybe we can figure out some way to stop it.”
“Good plan,” he said, even as he gulped nervously. “Look, you said the internet didn’t yield much in terms of answers. But if this Paladin thing is ancient, maybe we should use . . . I don’t know, older sources.”
“By which you mean books?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“Exactly.” Now that some of the color was returning to his face, he looked more like the David I was used to. “When the debate club thing happened, I checked out a book from the library about . . .” He trailed off and cleared his throat a little. “Um, you know, people who see the future and stuff. Here.”
He reached into his backpack and pulled out a thin black book, handing it to me. They Saw the Future! was emblazoned on the cover in bright purple foil.
I studied it for a second, pressing my lips together. “It’s like you want me to make fun of you.”
Scowling, David went to take the book back, but I held it out of reach. “No, you’re right. There might be something in here. It’s better than nothing.”
David didn’t look much happier, but he nodded. “Right. I’ve marked some of the pages I thought were the most interesting. Plus we can go to the library this afternoon and—”
“No,” I said automatically. I’d already been caught spending one afternoon with David Stark. If we got caught two days in a row, even if it was in an unsexy place like the library . . .
David scowled, and I hurried on. “I only mean not today. I have . . . family stuff.”
I wasn’t sure David was going to accept that for an answer, but in the end, he gave a terse nod. “Okay. Maybe this weekend then.”
Today was Tuesday. Surely by Saturday, things with me and Ryan would be sorted out. “Saturday is fine,” I said, bending down to scoop up my backpack. “And that was a good idea. The book thing.”
“Maybe the next time you pay me a compliment, you can try not to sound like you’re about to hurl.” He smirked, a tiny dimple appearing in one cheek.
I rolled my eyes.
“Okay,” he said, going to open the door. “I’ll pick you up at around nine on Saturday.”
I shook my head. “I’ll pick you up. One ride in that death trap you call a car was plenty, thanks.”
“You know, it actually wasn’t a death trap until someone decided to drive it down a residential street at roughly a bazillion miles an hour.”
“To save your life,” I threw over my shoulder as I left the closet.
Luckily, David had enough sense to let me leave first. Also luckily, I only got one girl looking at me as I shut the door behind me. I gave her my brightest smile. “Wanted to make sure everything was spick-and-span in there!”
Chapter 12
I drove past Ryan’s house on the way home that afternoon. His car was there, but I didn’t have the guts to go up to the house. Instead, I went to the library. Maybe I could find out some of this stuff on my own, and then I wouldn’t need any more alone time with David.
Except you’re supposed to protect him , I reminded myself as I searched the shelves. That will probably require plenty of alone time.
Unless there was some way out of this whole thing. With that thought in mind, I grabbed two different biographies of Charlemagne. Between those and They Saw The Future!, maybe I’d figure something out.
Mom and Dad were both at work when I got home from the library, and aside from Bee texting me a few times, my phone was depressingly quiet, and I was, well . . . depressed. It seemed almost impossible to believe that yesterday, I was driving to school, happy and excited about my newfound superpowers. And now, after only a few days, I’d already killed a man (possibly more than one, actually, if the pool thing had worked), jujitsued my boyfriend, and made Saylor Stark, the one woman I lived to impress, think I was some kind of hot-rodding skank. And now David knew about them. David, who practically made a habit of ruining my life, knew the biggest secret I’d ever had.
To keep my mind off of all of that, I paged through the books. Unfortunately, they were about as helpful as the internet had been. The Charlemagne book mentioned Paladins, naming them as some kind of elite bodyguard force for the king. There was even a picture of them, looking entirely too skinny to be badass killers. As I studied the reproduced painting, I was at least grateful that their lame burgundy suits no longer seemed to be the official uniform. Burgundy washed me out, and velvet made me itch.
Other than that, there wasn’t much there. The book referenced the Paladins guarding the king, but it never mentioned noble causes or superpowers, so it seemed kind of useless. After all, I was pretty sure David Stark wasn’t a king.
But that thing with the debate club, no matter how stupid he thought it was, had to be important. It wasn’t like whether or not the debate club cheated was a major, world-changing event, but still. If David could see the future, no matter how small or insignificant those visions seemed to be . . . yeah, that might be something people would kill for.
Tossing that book aside, I picked up They Saw the Future! It was one of those Time-Life books they used to sell on TV. I was pretty sure my Aunt Jewel had a few, but I’d never seen this one before. I opened it up, scanning the chapters, muttering their titles aloud. “‘Visions Of Doom,’ ‘Seen Too Late,’ ‘Dreams of Destiny’ . . .”
David had put a little Post-it flag beside that chapter in the table of contents.
He’d marked another one, too. “Oracles.” I flipped the book to the page listed, snorting with laughter when I saw the picture taking up most of the page. It was a scantily clad girl, wearing what appeared to be a large, transparent handkerchief, her head thrown back, her eyes closed. “Okay, you weren’t marking this one for the information,” I murmured, but when I turned the page, I saw that David had actually put more flags on the pages not featuring half-naked ladies.
“‘Historically, Oracles came into their power in their teen years,’” I read next to one marker. “‘The visions often did not reach full potency until the Oracle was between eighteen to twenty years of age.’”
I turned another page, and found more little paper flags. “‘The original Oracles at Delphi were controlled by five men known as the “Ephors,” elected men who served as a sort of Parliament. Oracles were strictly female.’”
“Well, there you go then,” I said quietly. Unless David had a secret bigger than the debate club thing, it was looking like we could dismiss any chance of him being an Oracle.
But then another flag caught my eye. “Oracles were greatly prized commodities, and it was rumored that most of the great leaders of the world—Ghengis Khan, Elizabeth I, Charlemagne— all had Oracles at their disposal.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. David wasn’t a girl, that was for sure, but I knew Paladins were connected to Charlemagne. And if Oracles were, too . . .
I reached out for the Charlemagne book, flipping it back to the page on Paladins, my eyes scanning for anything about Oracles. There was nothing, but once again, I found myself staring at the illustration of the Paladins in their fancy little uniforms. Their fancy, burgundy uniforms embroidered with gold thread in the shape of—
I grabbed the psychic book again. There, over the picture of the half-naked Oracle, was a little symbol, like a skinny figure eight, turned on its side. It was the same shape embroidered on the Paladins uniforms.
“Holy crap,” I muttered under my breath.
“Harper?”
Startled, I looked up from the book. Ryan was there. Standing in my doorway. And he was smiling at me.
Okay, so the smile was kind of tentative, and he seemed a little . . . wary, hovering there by the door, but still. He was here.
I immediately pushed myself into a sitting position, shoving the books away and wishing I was wearing something a little more flattering than my sweats and one of his old basketball T-shirts. But his expression softened when he saw “Grove Academy Raiders” scrawled across my chest. “I wondered where that shirt ended up,” he said, lips lifting. There were shadows underneath his eyes, and his wavy hair seemed a little poofier than normal. It was the closest I’d ever seen Ryan to looking “rough” since the time he’d had the flu sophomore year.
“Oh my God, Ryan, I am so sorry about yesterday,” I blurted out. “I was afraid you were going to hit David, and I don’t know, get suspended or something, and I . . . freaked out. Did I hurt you?”
Sighing, Ryan came in and sat on the edge of my bed. “I really wish I could say no, because it kind of hurts my masculinity to admit my tiny girlfriend kicked my ass.”
“I didn’t kick it so much as throw it,” I said, wanting him to laugh. Needing him to laugh.
And he did. Kind of. It was more a huff of breath than his normal laugh, but I would take it. “Where did you learn how to do that anyway?” he asked. His eyes searched my face, and I twisted my fingers in the bedspread.
“Self-defense class. I guess I took it a little more seriously than I thought.” Lifting my head, I tentatively moved my fingers closer to his. “Is that why you weren’t at school today? Because I hurt you?”
Ryan shook his head. “I was a little sore, yeah, but I . . . I needed some time to think.” Hesitantly, he reached out and took my hands between his. His hands were warm and big, dwarfing mine. “Harper, believe it or not, the kung fu isn’t really what I wanted to talk about. I mean, it’s part of it, but . . .” He paused, looking down at our joined hands. “I just . . . things are weird with us.”
“No, they’re not,” I said immediately, and when he quirked an eyebrow, I sighed and rolled my shoulders. “Okay, yes, the past few days have been a little intense, with Homecoming and all, and Cotillion coming up, and the, uh, flipping you bit.”
Ryan shook his head, a tiny crease appearing between his brows. “No, it’s been going on a lot longer than the past few days.”
Okay, now I was confused. Sure, my superpowers had been throwing things off since Friday, but before that, everything with me and Ryan had been fine. Better than fine. We were happy.
“I’m not blaming you,” Ryan was saying. “You had a really rough year with—with your sister and everything, and I know getting college stuff together is freaking you out—”