“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.
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.