Free Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins

that. But how many times do I have to say this?” Tilting her head down, she fixed me with a look over her sunglasses. “I. Am. Not. Doing this. For. You.” As if to punctuate the statement, she shoved her glasses back into place with one perfectly manicured finger. “This is not about saving your boyfriend or helping you all become one happy, magic-doing, future-seeing, butt-kicking threesome—
not
like that,” she added when it was clear Ryan was about to protest.
    â€œIt’s about me undoing the thing I did for people who never deserved my powers in the first place.”
    There was something cold in her tone when she said that, something so bitter about the words, I felt like I could almost taste them. I didn’t know what had happened to Blythe after the Ephors took her, but whatever it was, it had clearly been bad.
    â€œBlythe wasn’t there,” Bee suddenly said, and I turned to see her standing just behind me, arms folded tightly. “When I was with the Ephors, she wasn’t there.”
    It was weird, remembering that Blythe and Bee had that in common, being held by the Ephors, and when I looked back to Blythe, a muscle twitched in her jaw.
    â€œYeah, let’s just say they made sure I was out of sight,” she said. “It wasn’t until Alexander died that I was even able to get out of that place.”
    â€œHow did you know he died?” I asked then, and Blythe gave another one of those eye rolls that suggested we were all wasting her time.
    â€œI could feel it. There was a lot of magic going into keeping their headquarters running, and even more into making sure I couldn’t get out. When it just went away, I knew Alexander was gone. It was the only explanation.”
    That made sense, I guessed, but this was all moving so fast—and I was very aware of curious eyes on us as people made their way to the parking lot—so I decided to cut to the chase.
    â€œOkay, but why should we go with you when we already have a Mage?” I said. “
You
may not be impressed with Ryan’s powers,but he’s still every bit as useful to us as you would be, with the added bonus of not being insane.”
    Throwing her hands up in the air, Blythe made a disgusted sound. “He can come, too, for all I care. But you need me. I’m the only one who can find the spell we need to stop him.”
    People were starting to leave the country club now, my parents and aunts among them, and I gave them a quick little wave before gently taking Blythe’s arm and leading her closer to the tennis courts. There was no way I was going to be able to fake smile at her while my parents watched.
    â€œWhat kind of spell?”
    Blythe shrugged out of my grip and pulled at the skirt of her yellow dress. “Why, so I can tell you, and then you and your friends can run off and screw it up? You people don’t exactly have the greatest track record with magical nuance.” She shook her head, making her ponytail swing. “Nuh-uh. We’re either all in this together, or we’re not in it at all.”
    â€œWhatever you’re doing, we don’t want a part of it,” I told Blythe, and when I folded my arms over my chest, Ryan and Bee mimicked my pose. Blythe looked at the three of us for a beat before scoffing and putting her sunglasses on top of her shiny brown hair.
    â€œOkay, fine. Be the Three Musketeers and solve this on your own. I mean, that’s clearly worked well for you so far. We’ve got a Mage who has no idea how to use his powers”—a flick of her hand at Ryan—“and two Paladins who are losing theirs.” She moved her hand to gesture to me and Bee, her lips pursed slightly.
    â€œHow did you know about that?” I asked without thinking, and then from beside me, I heard Bee suck in a breath.
    â€œWait, that’s true?” Ryan asked.
    I ignored him, keeping my eyes on Blythe. One corner of her