“It definitely said that.” He pulls out his phone and shows me the screen. Curb your instinct to snap at people.

“Well, now it’s just trolling me.”

Lars laughs, and Perry creeps closer. “What does mine say?”

“Aries, right?”

So help me, Perry lights up. “You remembered.”

“Not a single thing you do lets me forget,” Lars mutters as he looks up, I’m assuming, Perry’s horoscope. “Okay. Aries. Everything seems like a mess right now”—Lars throws me a smug grin—“but that’s only because you can’t see the end result. You’re in the middle of a major life upheaval. Stop doubting yourself and tap into your natural inner confidence to see this through to the end.”

Perry’s jaw drops. “Wow.”

Lars whistles and looks back toward the tree they were shooting. “Looks to me like you have no issue with confidence.”

“That’s just shooting. It’s not hard.”

“It’s very hard.” Lars lifts his gun, takes aim, and then, a moment later, shoots. He clips the edge of the circle he drew. “See?”

Perry tilts his head. Other than Lars’s shot, the other two are right in the middle. “Maybe you’re not very good.”

Instead of getting annoyed with him, Lars looks like he can’t believe what he’s hearing. “I’m actually very good. You’re … perfect.”

“Huh.”

Lars studies him. “How long did you say you’ve been practicing?”

“Umm …” Perry shrugs. “Arlie took me out for a few practices like the week before I shot St. Clare.”

At first, I think Lars’s wide eyes are reacting to the casual mention of my aural casualty, but his words don’t match my assumption. “Only a few weeks? Never before that?”

“Nope.”

“Wow.”

Oh, good. Looks like we’ve moved on from caring that Perry shot me and I’m now missing an ear. So great we can be casual about it.

“Wait.” Lars presses his hand to his head like it hurts to think. “Were you always this good?”

“I mean, Arlie had to give me a few pointers initially, but yeah.”

“And you missed St. Clare?”

Perry shrugs. “And the two others before him.”

“And the guys who attacked you yesterday?”

“Accidentally got one of them in the foot.”

“But you didn’t hit the other?”

“Nope.”

Lars is thinking about something hard now. He paces over toward the fire, picks up a chunk of firewood, then throws it into the air. It goes high and arches over before starting to fall again. “Shoot it.”

Perry jumps to attention, his tongue poking out between his lips as he takes aim …

And hits the damn thing right before it reaches the ground.

Lars only stares at him.

“Sorry,” Perry says, shifting under Lars’s gaze. “I wasn’t ready.”

“You got it though.”

“Well, yeah. It was … I mean …”

“Have you ever shot a person?” Lars pushes, and I sigh.