The plastic creaked when I sat down, and Blythe glanced over her shoulder at me, still moving her feet lazily through the water. “You okay?”

I sighed, unsure how to answer that. Technically, yes, I was fine. The fight today at the flea market had been tough, but the soreness had already faded from my muscles. I still felt like I was about to crawl out of my skin, though. The sense that David was close, but that we were already too late, was making me crazy. I’d wanted to keep driving through the night, but Bee and Blythe were both exhausted, and pointed out that facing David tired was probably not the best idea. Plus Blythe had been quiet all afternoon, and since we needed her at her best for the spell, I wanted to make sure she had enough time to get ready.

Didn’t mean I liked it, though.

“I’m not . . . ideal,” I finally said, and that made Blythe give a snort of laughter as she pulled her feet up from the pool and turned to face me. Drawing up her knees, she wrapped her arms around her legs. “Your Paladin strength is finally gone. For good, I think,” she said, and it wasn’t a question.

With a sigh, I leaned back in the chair and looked up at the hazy sky. The air was muggy and thick, buzzing with the sound of insects and the hum of the overhead lights.

“My powers are gone,” I agreed. “Like you said they would be. Guess I’ve finally been away from David too long.”

Blythe was looking at me with something close to interest, but less than concern. That was kind of nice. Bee would’ve bitten her lower lip if I talked about this, a sure sign of worry, but Blythe? Blythe never seemed all that concerned about what might be bothering me, and that made it easier to actually say the things that were bothering me.

“But maybe it’s not that,” I mused. “Could David be draining me?” I still didn’t look at Blythe but focused on a moth currently flinging itself at the nearby sodium lights. “He was able to take Annie’s powers away from her.”

“Maybe,” she replied, a little too quickly for my liking. She could’ve at least pretended to think about it for a sec.

I sat up and scowled at her.

“He’s clearly making new Paladins for some reason,” Blythe said. “And if he’s making new ones, makes sense that maybe he doesn’t want the old one around anymore. Especially when the old one is so determined to keep him from being an Oracle.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” I fired back. “I don’t mind that David can see the future. I do mind that seeing the future hurts him. I mind that it could potentially turn him all explode-y and evil, and that if he’s anything like Alaric, Pine Grove will be his first target.”

Blythe kept watching me, not taking her eyes from my face even when she reached over to slap a mosquito on her arm. “Right,” she said. “But he’s already all explode-y. And possibly evil, for all you know. And”—she added when I opened my mouth to protest—“you have no way of stopping that. This isn’t some kids’ movie where the power of love is going to save him from what he really is, Harper. He’s a male Oracle. The only other one there’s ever been? Explode-y and evil. What makes you think this is something you can control?”

“I can control anything I set my mind to,” I replied automatically, and Blythe tipped her head back and laughed, her bright white teeth gleaming. “Oh my God, that sounds like an answer you give to the Model UN or something.”

Rolling my eyes, I settled back into my lounge chair. “Fine, make fun,” I said. “But it’s true. I don’t . . . Look, I’m not saying that love can save him, or that it will. I’m not saying he isn’t already gone. Not in, like, the physical sense.” I sighed and looked up at the sky. There were clouds overhead, tinted orange in the streetlights’ glow. “The person David was might be gone. I know that. But I have to try.”

When I lifted my head, Blythe was watching me, one foot still trailing in the pool. “Can you get that?” I asked her. “That sometimes you have to try even if it seems doomed?”

She looked at me and nodded. “That’s what I’m doing,” she said at last. “I’m trying something that I’m not sure will work.”

“That spell clearly worked,” I reminded her. “Dante was powerless and couldn’t remember his past. So if we can just find David—”

But Blythe shook her head.

“I’m trying to redeem myself,” Blythe said, turning back to slip both feet into the water, kicking them back and forth, making little waves. Again, it was so easy for me to imagine the girl she must have been before.

“I did this,” she continued, her tone matter-of-fact. “I made him into something unstable and dangerous. Sure, he might’ve gotten there eventually on his own, but let’s not pretend that I didn’t speed things up a bit.”

She had a point there.

“So, what?” I asked, coming to sit by her and slipping my sandals off. I still wasn’t so sure about the less-than-clear aquamarine water of the pool, but I’d take my chances. Sitting next to her, I mimicked her position, hands braced on the concrete, feet dangling in the water. “You think by doing this spell on David and making him not an Oracle anymore, all your sins will be forgiven or something?”

Blythe turned her head and smiled at me, but it was sad. “A spell that has maybe a twenty percent shot of working,” she said. “You saw what happened with Dante. You saw how badly that went, and he wasn’t some scary, juiced-up super being. Just a boy.” She shrugged. “If you still had your powers, maybe I could’ve pulled it off. Maybe. Or if we’d gotten to him before he went in that cave . . .”

I blinked at her. “The spell,” I repeated, almost dumbly. “We found the spell that can drain his powers.”

“A spell I might not be able to do,” Blythe said, “which means this is going to fall on you in the end.” She sounded so calm, so certain, that despite the muggy night I suddenly felt cold.

“What does that mean?”

But I knew the answer before she even spoke.

“You’re going to have to kill him.”

Chapter 29

“KILL HIM?” I repeated, my voice shooting up about half an octave.

“Mm-hmm.” She gave a little nod. “It’s our best shot now that he’s already in the cave.”

For a long moment, I just stared at her, wondering if she was screwing with me. But, no, the moment stretched on without her giving a little wink or breaking at all, until finally I said, “We brought you on this trip to help us.”

With a roll of those big brown eyes, Blythe turned to look at me again. “Which I am, duh. Have you missed the part where David is trying to kill you?”

“He isn’t,” I answered, but that just made her laugh.

“Okay, sure. All those Paladins he’s sent after you are the Oracle version of the singing telegram. Got it.”

It was beginning to dawn on me that Blythe was most definitely not kidding, and I stood up so fast I nearly slipped on the edge of the pool.

Blythe, however, stayed right where she was, looking up at me like she was legitimately confused. “Harper . . . you knew this was a possibility. At Alexander’s, when Bee asked why they didn’t just kill Alaric, I saw your face.”