Where we left off in the last book, David had come into his full powers as an Oracle, Harper was still his Paladin, Ryan had become a mage when Sailor died the night of Cotillion, and Bee had been kidnapped by the Ephors. Since Ryan and Harper broke up, Ryan had begun dating Mary Beth, and Harper was dating David. David's visions had been giving him really bad headaches, and they were big things, like earthquakes in other countries, things that they couldn't really do anything about. So Ryan had put up some wards to try to restrict David's powers to only small visions. Visions that they'd used to try to help their friends. Including trying to keep one of the twins from meeting a really douchey frat guy and marrying him, and basically ruining her life. Maybe. At least that's how Harper sees the vision that David has about it.
It is on their way back from rescuing the twins that David gets a feeling that he needs to be somewhere. And Harper can't get him to not go, so they get in the car with him and go. Turns out they show up at this old house that was in ruins, but now seems to be magically rebuilt on the outskirts of town. Here they meet one of the Ephors who tells Harper she must pass a big test that all Paladin's must pass, or that she will die. And then he brings out Bee. Bee has been being trained as a Paladin, but she is let go when they all show up. David is of course curious about what the Ephors might have that he can use to help him. And once again Harper is feeling like the Ephors may choose another big event for the final test to be a dramatic thing, this time the Miss Pine Grove pageant. Something that she would normally never enter, but Bee convinces her to enter.
The tests happen, and while Harper does her best, in the psychological one, she sees things that she doesn't know how to deal with. Once again it is the vision of her having to kill David when the Oracle powers take over. Of course all of the events put a strain on David and Harper's relationship, and all the time that Harper and Ryan have to spend together causes problems for Ryan and Mary Beth. While I kind of saw what was going to happen with Ryan later in the story, it still didn't go down very well. And Bee coming home wasn't the homecoming they'd all expected. Sure, everyone thought she'd been gone at Cheerleading Camp, but at first people didn't seem to even remember her. Including her boyfriend Brandon. There's something Bee does towards the end, that was kind of something I'd wondered if she'd do, but it is for a totally different reason than I'd been expecting.
This time I'd say we were left with kind of a big cliffhanger. And I need to know what happens next! If this book had really been an egalley on Edelweiss like I saw last week before it disappeared, I'd be all over it reading it before ones I needed to read probably! Definitely a fun series, although I did cry in this one for sure!!!
