Guilt is such a weird feeling, a combination of sad and sick that I was getting too used to feeling. I’d had Ryan set up the wards to block David’s visions because I’d thought it was the best thing for him—I still thought that, if I was being honest—but I knew I should have talked to David, should have tried to make him see that it was only because I wanted to keep him safe.

I slid into the passenger seat without a word, still lost in my thoughts, and David started the car, heading back out toward town.

David’s fingers were curled tight around the steering wheel, so tight that his knuckles were turning pale.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, rubbing my eyes. “I... I should have told you what Ryan and I were doing. And I wanted to. I was going to, I promise.”

“When?” he asked, a muscle working in his jaw.

I didn’t have an answer for that, not really, and I didn’t think “eventually” was going to cut it.

And then, David suddenly jerked the wheel, pulling the car off the road, gravel and dust flying up in a cloud behind us as he came to a stop right past the “Welcome to Pine Grove!” sign.

Throwing the car in park, David opened his door and got out, walking a little ways away.

I watched him pace for a few seconds before getting out of the car, too.

“I don’t know what else you want me to say,” I told him, leaning one elbow on the open door. “I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you, David, I genuinely am, but part of my job is to protect you, and that’s what I was doing, okay?”

David had his back to me, and didn’t turn around as he tipped his head to look at the sky.

“All that time, I thought I was a crappy Oracle. But it was you. You keeping me from being what I’m supposed to be. And the fact is, if you’d left me alone, I might have been able to help you before this whole thing even started.” He shook his head, a quick, angry series of jerks.

It was weird, how quickly guilt gave way to anger. “Did you hear the part about how I was doing it to keep you from going insane? Did you look at any of those Oracle pictures back at Alexander’s?” I flung my hand back in the direction of the house. “Not sure if you noticed, but none of them exactly looked like people anymore, David. They were... things.”