“You’re okay,” he said, cupping the back of her neck in one big hand. “You’re fine.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to use magic to convince her of that, or if he was just saying it in the normal, comforting boyfriend sense. In any case, Mary Beth didn’t look fine. She was still blinking, her face flushed, her gaze muddled.
But it occurred to me that I might want to skedaddle before she came back fully and realized I was standing in her boyfriend’s bedroom.
I didn’t think that would go over particularly well, so I gave Ryan a little wave and mouthed, “Gonna go.” He gave a distracted nod as I walked away.
Once I was outside, I took a minute to dig in the bushes around his house, trying to find the little pot of lip balm (and hoping no one saw me prowling around in Ryan Bradshaw’s front garden). I finally felt it behind a camellia bush, and, pulling it out, rose to my feet. Ryan would definitely want the balm again, although maybe he’d be a little more careful with how much he used next time.
Chapter 11
“SO, THE MALL?” I asked, starting my car. Bee sat in the passenger seat, her sunglasses on, elbow resting on the open window.
“Yup,” she replied. “I need some normalcy.”
Bee’s second day back at school had been better than her first—fewer of the teachers seemed to think she was new, and Abi and Amanda had totally recognized her, which seemed to cheer her up. Brandon was still keeping his distance, though, and when I’d mentioned his name at lunch, Bee had cut me off with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
After school, I’d planned on going home and doing a little more work on college stuff. That talk with The Aunts had reminded me that I’d been meaning to add at least two more schools to my application list. But then Bee had caught up with me and asked if we could have a “girls’ afternoon,” so here we were, heading toward the Pine Grove Galleria.
“Are you weirded out by Ryan and Mary Beth?” Bee suddenly asked, and I glanced over at her.
“Why would I be?” I asked, and she cut me a look.
“Okay,” I acknowledged, turning right so that we could take a shortcut through downtown, “it’s a little weird, sure, but . . . not necessarily the bad kind of weird.”
“Mary Beth hardly speaks to you.” Bee twirled one long blond curl around her finger, still watching me, and I rolled my eyes.
“She barely spoke to me before except to be rude, so her dating Ryan isn’t making much of a difference. And why does this bug you so much anyway?”
Bee shrugged, pulling up one leg so that she could wrap an arm around her knee. “Doesn’t bug me. I’m just . . . curious. And an invested party, what with being your best friend and all.”
That made me glance over at her. “Ryan, David, and I are all superheroes—as are you, I might add—and it’s our romantic entanglements you wanna talk about?”
She laughed a little, more a huff of breath than a real chuckle. “I’m starting small.”
“Are you sure things are—”
“They’re fine, Harper,” she said, and then shrugged, pulling her knee in tighter. “As fine as they’re going to be, I guess.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so instead of saying anything, I turned up the radio.
We were rounding the main square when Bee suddenly sat up in her seat, pointing to the statue of Adolphus Bridgeforth, one of Pine Grove’s founders, that looked out over downtown. “Oh, man, someone vandalized poor Mr. Bridgeforth!”
I glanced over quickly, then did a double take, slamming on the brakes. Someone hadn’t vandalized the statue. Someone had gouged marks into the stone around the base.
Wards. Right next to the other ones, the ones Saylor had put up to keep David safe.
My heart pounding, I turned the car so that we were heading toward Magnolia House.
“Harper?” Bee asked, twisting in her seat. “We’re going the wrong way.”
“Tiny detour,” I promised.
Magnolia House, the huge mansion where Cotillion had been held, stood on a shady, oak-lined lane, but as we passed, I was able to see more marks on the wooden columns of the front porch. Another place where Saylor had her wards. They were still there, but now there were new ones next to them.
It had to be Alexander, or whoever he had working for him. But what did those wards do?
• • •
An hour or so later, I was the owner of two new pairs of shoes, a dress for Spring Fling, some new jeans, and a gorgeous Lilly Pulitzer skirt. Too bad none of that made me feel much better.
“You’re making that face again,” Bee said, nodding at me over a rack of cute rugby-striped shirts.
I shook my head, like that would somehow change my expression. I’d explained to Bee about the wards, but they were still on my mind. When Saylor had talked about the Ephors, I’d always pictured them in this more . . . administrative role, I guess. Guys in suits, pulling the strings, not guys with actual powers of their own. But Alexander had somehow managed to blow through the wards we’d put up, and now he was apparently setting up the Peirasmos all on his own. Were the new wards to help him, then? Or could wards, like, cancel one another out?
Adding to my irritation, I’d texted Ryan like five times about it, and had yet to get a reply. Funny how the one time I needed him to step up to the plate, he was missing in action.
“Lots on my mind,” I told Bee.
She gave a sympathetic frown. “Nothing new on the trials?”
“Nothing,” I said on a sigh. It had been a few days, and I knew we only had twenty-eight days—one full moon cycle, Alexander had said—to complete the Peirasmos, but other than Ryan’s false alarm, nothing weird had happened at all.
Which felt weird in and of itself.
Now, I walked around the rack of clothes and looped my arm through Bee’s, tugging her out of the store. “Come on. I have an angst only Cinnabon can cure.”
When we got to the food court, Bee went off in search of drinks while I grabbed us a couple of cinnamon rolls.
By the time I got back, Bee was already at a table near the carousel, two Diet Cokes in front of her, and she pushed mine toward me as I sat down, along with a pale pink flyer.
“Look what I found!”
I took the flyer from her, raising my eyebrows. “The Miss Pine Grove Pageant?”