“It’s what we came here for,” I said softly.
David turned to look at me, his eyes already bright. The light cast strange shadows on his face, emphasizing his cheekbones and the dark circles underneath his eyes. “And if it goes wrong—”
“It won’t,” Ryan said, his voice firm. “Me and Harper are here, and it’s . . .” His eyes met mine over David’s shoulder. “It’s going to be fine.”
It was the first time since all of this had happened that I honestly felt like that might be true. It was nice, going through one of these with everyone. Even with the oddness that was Bee and Ryan, I felt better having her here.
Reaching over with my free hand, I took Bee’s and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go and taking Ryan’s other hand.
“Ready?” I asked both boys, and they nodded.
There was a feeling in the air, a slight electric tingle that I recognized but still hadn’t quite gotten used to. My hair felt like it was crackling over my shoulders, and on the other side of David, I heard Ryan suck in a breath.
David closed his eyes, but I could see the glow brightening behind the thin skin of his eyelids, and his hand shook in mine.
The electric feeling in the air got stronger, almost uncomfortably so, and I opened my eyes to see the flag stuck by the eighth hole snapping like there was a breeze, but the air was totally still.
Frowning, I held David’s hand tighter. The flag waved again, then stopped, almost like it was frozen. Another ripple, but there was something off about it, something unnatural.
“Harper!” I heard someone cry. I thought it was Bee.
And then I didn’t hear anything else as the world shattered apart around me.
Chapter 29
THERE WAS a sound like something tearing, and I felt David’s hand fall from mine, but I couldn’t see anything. Nothing except this bright golden light, so bright that I had to turn my face away, covering my eyes and crying out. Underneath me, the ground rumbled, and I felt like my whole body was about to shake itself apart.
It was still so bright that I could barely see, but I held my hand over my eyes and I could make out David on his feet off to one side.
There was a sound like wind or the ocean roaring in my ears, and I gritted my teeth against the hammering in my head. I’d seen David have visions lots of times now, had seen Blythe’s ritual take him over the night of Cotillion, but this was something totally new. Something terrifying.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and saw that the little pond next to the fairway was roiling, waves splashing onto the reeds by the shore, its entire surface practically bubbling. Bee followed my gaze, her eyes huge. “Harper!” she called out, but I only shook my head, my attention focused on David.
He was standing up straight, his arms rigid at his sides. At some point, his glasses had fallen off, but that didn’t matter since his eyes were just glowing orbs now.
David stared at me, and I waited for him to do his normal thing, spouting out a direction or a specific event we needed to beware of.
But he didn’t say anything at all. He kept looking at me, and I felt everything inside me go very cold. It was like what I’d seen in the Fun House, that same amount of power and that . . . I don’t know, lack of David. He wasn’t a person; he was a thing, just like I’d always feared.
The longer he stood there, saying nothing, but with power rolling off him in waves, the colder I felt. He’d broken through whatever it was Alexander had done to him. What did that mean? And what the hell was he seeing?
But David just watched me, the light burning and hurting. Still, I wouldn’t look away. I couldn’t.
“What exactly do you see?” another voice shouted. Ryan.
He moved closer to me, the wind or whatever the heck it was blowing his shirt away from his body as he looked at David, one hand lifted against the light. “Give us something here, man.”
David’s bright gaze swung to Ryan, and I saw Ryan flinch against it, but he still stood there, his shoulders back, his eyes trying to stay locked on David’s face.
“Harper, what’s going on?” Ryan shouted, lifting one hand to shade his eyes. “Why isn’t he saying anything?”
I could only shake my head, and then there was this feeling, almost like a surge of power. I felt my hair blow back, and swore I saw the ground ripple. Bee gave a little scream, and when I turned toward her, I saw a small section of grass was on fire.
Bee rushed over to it, stomping out the small flames with her booted foot.
David’s eyes swung to me, but they weren’t his eyes, not even a little bit. He didn’t say anything, but I could feel something happening. He was seeing something, something to do with me. I couldn’t say how I knew it. It was more like I felt it, this certainty that whatever vision he was locked into, it involved me.
I thought again about my knife at his throat, the bright red of his blood when I’d jerked my arm, and felt my stomach roil.
There was another pulse of power, and the ground shuddered, a crack springing up a few feet away from me, snaking through the earth, sending up clumps of grass and red dirt. It was close enough to Bee that she had to scramble backward, tripping as the ground gave way underneath one shoe.
“David!” I screamed.
The power went out of him all at once, and he sagged to the ground so suddenly that neither Ryan nor I had a chance to catch him. David fell in a heap, and all three of us moved forward, but I got to him first, resting my palm against his cheek. “David? David, wake up.”
His eyes slowly blinked open, still bright, but nowhere near as blinding, and without thinking, I gave a soft cry of relief and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
“See?” I told him. “You’re fine, it’s all fine.”
But it wasn’t, and all four of us knew it. That much power . . . It felt like everything Saylor had warned me about, and I could see just how much it had taken out of David.
If I’d thought the ride to the golf course was awkward, that was nothing compared to the ride home. David sat on my left, his knees drawn up tight, his head resting against the window. I was holding his glasses, and he kept his eyes closed the whole way back. I could still see the light burning behind his eyelids, though, and his whole frame shook with occasional tremors.
“Should we take him to Alexander’s?” Ryan asked.
“No,” David replied. His voice sounded so thin and weak that it broke my heart. “I want to go home.”