But the door flew open with a splintering crack when the flat of my foot hit it. David stepped back with a muttered “Whoa,” but I was already moving into the house.
“Alexander!” I called. “Hey! Anybody home?”
“There’s no need for screaming, Miss Price,” Alexander said, appearing on the landing. He was wearing another suit, this one black, and smiling pleasantly at me like I hadn’t just kicked in his front door.
“I disagree,” I told him. “I usually feel pretty screamy when someone attacks my school.”
His brows drew together as he made an exaggeratedly puzzled expression. “Did I not tell you that the trials would be coming up very soon? Or are you confused as to what the trials entail?”
“Actually, yes, I am confused,” I said, my heart still pounding. Even though David was safe now, I could still feel a sort of residual ache in my chest. “Because I expected someone to come after me. I didn’t think you’d put my entire school in danger.”
Alexander gave one of those little smiles I hated so much. “Well, if we let you face the expected, that would hardly serve the point of going through trials, now would it?”
“You could have hurt innocent people,” I told him, my face hot. “You could’ve killed them. You could have made our school a smoldering pile of ash, and all for what? For some test?”
The smile vanished from Alexander’s face. “Not some test, Miss Price, I assure you,” he said, coming down a few steps, his shoulders rigid. “The most vital test a Paladin can face. And, in case this has not been made perfectly clear, I do not give a tinker’s damn about your school or the people in it. The main purpose of this exercise is to test whether or not you are an adequate Paladin for the Oracle. You passed that test today—quite well, I should add.”
“Are you going to give me a gold star?” I asked, and from behind me, I heard David’s warning: “Harper.”
“No,” I said, turning to face him. “You should be angry, too. What is the point of putting your Oracle in danger to prove that your Paladin knows her stuff?”
At that, Alexander sighed, straightening one of his cuffs. “Mr. Stark was never in danger,” he told me. “The situation was closely monitored, I assure you. Had you failed in your task, the Oracle would not have come to harm.”
I didn’t even know where to start with that, so I latched on to something else he had said. “Monitored by whom? And I smelled gasoline, so what’s up with that? Can’t you just, like, magic up some fire?”
Alexander flicked a strand of hair from his forehead, and I got the feeling he was rolling his eyes at me, like, in his soul. “The details of how we conduct these tests is not your concern.”
I moved closer, my shoes tapping on the hardwood. “You keep saying ‘we,’ but I gotta be honest, I’m only seeing you. If you’re going to do stuff like set a building full of kids on fire, I’d kind of like to talk to your supervisor.”
“Harper,” David said again, but Alexander held my gaze.
“As far as you are concerned, I am the alpha and omega of the Ephors, Miss Price. You do not dictate the boundaries of our tests, and there is no one you can talk to above me, I assure you.”
I shook my head and said, “School should be off-limits. Period.”
“Hmm,” Alexander said, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head. “I see. So when you protect the Oracle from people who may want to hurt him, there will be places in this world that are off-limits? When some despotic ruler learns there’s an Oracle in the world, ripe for the taking, if he approaches you at, say, your family’s home, you’ll simply inform him that this is not one of the agreed locations where an Oracle may be in danger?”
Faltering, I shook my head. “No, it’s . . . it’s not like that, but if it’s only for a test—”
“The tests are meant to assess your readiness for real-world situations, Miss Price,” he said sharply, all trace of that lazy elegance gone from his voice. “If you cannot be ready, then you cannot be a Paladin. This is not a hobby or an extracurricular activity.”
I wanted to argue that, but nothing I could think of seemed to work. He was right, and, ugh, I hated that so much. Still, I could at least try to get him to fix some of this mess.
“Fine,” I said. “You’ve made your point. Now if you could please”—I waved in his direction—“rustle up some magic or whatever so that my principal forgets that I hit him and my parents don’t freak out, I’d appreciate that. Ryan’s Mage skills are apparently on the fritz.”
But Alexander gave a tiny, elegant shrug. “They’re not ‘on the fritz.’ They’re gone for the time being.”
“What?” David asked, coming up to stand beside me, his sneakers squeaking on the hardwood.
“Gone,” Alexander repeated. “A simple ward I myself was able to create to keep Mr. Bradshaw from using his magic to assist you. It isn’t as though that particular use of magic benefited the Oracle.”
I swore I could feel my heart skip a few beats. Next to me, David scoffed, throwing up one hand.
“It benefits me plenty. Him helping Harper would help me. So let him do his mind-wipe thing, and let’s—”
“No,” Alexander said, his voice icy. He began to walk down the stairs, footsteps silent on the thick carpet. “Miss Price needs to learn that you cannot magic your way out of every obstacle. You hit your principal to save the Oracle. That’s what you should have done, but now there must be consequences. Being a Paladin means accepting the consequences that come as a result of doing your duty.”
Seriously afraid I was going to throw up, I clenched my hands. “So you chose to set one of the trials at my school, and now I’m probably going to be expelled, and there’s nothing I can do about it?”
Alexander sniffed, coming to the bottom of the stairs. “You’re a clever girl, Miss Price. I’m sure you’ll think of something. The Mage’s powers do not exist in order to make things more convenient for you.”
Please, I thought, but wouldn’t let myself say. Please don’t tell him.
Alexander’s eyes remained on mine, and while I didn’t think he could read my mind, I had a pretty good idea that he knew what I was thinking.