Keeping my eyes on the crown of her head rather than David’s body, I took a deep breath and said, “It was, in the end. It was the only way. You were right, Blythe. I’m not sure there was any spell that could’ve saved him.”

And then I felt Blythe’s hand on mine and tried to ignore the heave in my stomach at how warm and sticky her grip felt, her palms still smeared with blood. “I could still try,” she said, and I opened my eyes then, blinking at her.

“Blythe—”

“No, I can,” she said, one hand still on mine, the other on David’s chest. “It isn’t too late, I don’t think. I can try . . .”

I just shook my head. “He’s dead, Blythe.”

But Blythe only turned back to David, hand still pressed to his chest. “Just a little bit,” she replied, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like someone could be “a little bit dead.”

And then she looked back at me. “Do you trust me, Harper?”

Weirdly enough, in spite of everything, I did. Or maybe because of everything. Blythe had never lied to us. She had earned at least a little trust.

I nodded, and she reached out to clasp my shoulder, leaving a bloody handprint behind.

Turning back to David, she kept her hands on his chest, murmuring low, but nothing seemed to be happening.

She pressed her hands harder, started speaking again, a little louder this time, and I waited.

But there was nothing. No sound, no breath, no sense in my chest of that pull between me and David, and on the third time, I decided I couldn’t just sit there and watch this, couldn’t let myself even start to hope that she was right. It felt easier to get up, to walk out of the cave and into the sunlight.

Bee followed behind me, and once we were outside, she looked at me for a second before stepping forward and wrapping me in a hug so tight I swore my bones creaked. She was so much taller than me that my nose was smushed against her collarbone, but I didn’t care. For a long while, we just stood there on the path outside the cave, our arms locked around each other.

“We did it,” she said, her voice thick. “You did it.”

It should’ve felt like a triumph, but all I felt was hollow. I’d kept David from turning any more hapless girls into Paladins, and ensured that he’d never be another Alaric, a dangerous Oracle who could wreak havoc and hurt the people I loved.

But I’d lost him, so what did it matter?

“You don’t believe her, do you?” she said to me once we parted, and I could just shake my head. I wanted to believe it, and Blythe had definitely used some powerful magic in the past, but I’d hoped too many times now for miracles or easy fixes, and been disappointed every time. In the end, I’d done what I came here to do, and it was over now.

Over.

Bee and I trudged back down the trail, and I made sure to roll up the sleeve of my T-shirt to hide the bloodstain there. I’d left the sword back in the cave, and I hoped I’d never have to see it again.

We were all the way to the bottom of the mountain when a sort of booming vibration stopped us both in our tracks.

Turning, I looked back up the mountain and saw a flock of birds whirl screeching into the sky, and I waited there, wanting to feel . . . something.

Some sign that that sound had come from a cave tucked deep in the woods where Blythe had worked a miracle. I waited to feel the tug to David that I always felt, like an invisible cord was connecting us.

But there was no feeling, no sense of anything other than loss and exhaustion. I felt the same way I had when I’d plunged that sword into him. He was gone, and I could sense it with every cell. No Oracle, no David.

Nothing.

And after a long while, I turned to Bee and said, “Let’s go home.”

Chapter 36

THE FIRST DAY of senior year dawned hot and sticky, the way the beginning of every school year started. August in Alabama was a real beast, but there was something nice about it, the way that first blast of air-conditioning hit you when you walked into the school buildings, the way we were all still in summer clothes, the sharp scent of just-cut grass in the air.

This was the year I’d been looking forward to since I’d started school. The year I’d always dreamed that everything would happen for me. Another Homecoming crown, college acceptance letters, cheering at fall football games . . .

But as I made my way through that first day, I couldn’t escape the feeling of something missing. And of course, there was something missing. Or rather, someone.

Lord knew I’d spent a lot of time thinking of David lately. Once we’d gotten safely back to Pine Grove, once some of the shock of all that had happened had faded, I’d felt ashamed of how I’d left things in Tennessee. I should’ve gone back to the cave, shouldn’t have let my grief and my fear of seeing him lying there—really, truly dead—keep me from saying good-bye. From seeing him one more time.

But I was determined to put those thoughts out of my head. I had a senior year to ace and a school to run. It was time to turn my attentions back to those responsibilities.

The twins were in the parking lot, as usual, both in the same color—pink today—and while Amanda’s hair flowed loose over her shoulders, Abi’s had been chopped into a cute bob over the summer.

“I like!” I told her, gesturing to my own hair, and with a little shriek, she ran toward me, Amanda close behind. They both threw their arms around me, locking me in a hug that smelled like Clinique perfume and lavender. To my surprise, I almost teared up.

“Girl, we missed you!” Amanda said, and Abi nodded, nearly bumping the top of my head with her chin.

Before I’d left, the twins had been avoiding me, either from the weirdness last spring, or just because they hadn’t exactly been high up on my list of priorities, either.

The twins pulled back, watching me with identical hazel eyes, and then Abi frowned a little and said, “You’re going to help tutor me in AP Government, right? I have no idea why I signed up for that.”

Laughing, I nodded. “You got it.”

Leaving the two of them at the courtyard, I walked into the main building, waving at a couple of people—Lucy McCarroll; Bee’s ex, Brandon—and made my way toward the lockers.

Ryan and Bee were already waiting for me, and I rolled my eyes at them even as I smiled. “Y’all gonna walk me to class?”

“Yes,” Ryan said immediately, and Bee elbowed him in the ribs. “We were hoping not to be so obvious,” she said, moving her bag to her other arm, “but . . . okay, what he said.”

“You remember the part where I said that I really am okay, right?” I asked both of them, looking up into their faces. “How we had this whole moment when me and Bee got back, there at the Waffle Hut, and y’all were like, ‘Are you okay?’ and then I confirmed I was indeed okay, and we all said the word ‘okay’ so many times, it stopped sounding like a word? Remember all of that? It was quite a moment.”

Ryan reached out and, honest to God, ruffled my hair. “Hey!” I said, laughing a little as I stepped back. “We’re not dating anymore, but that doesn’t mean you get to treat me like your rapscallion cousin.”

“‘Rapscallion,’” Bee scoffed, and I gave a shrug, smoothing my hair back into place.