David glanced over his shoulder at me, hands low on his hips, elbows jutted out to the side. “But I am one of those ‘things,’ Harper. And you made a decision for me that you had no right to make. And by making a decision like that without talking to me, you pretty much treated me like a thing, didn’t you?”

It had been a very long day, and my head was still spinning with everything that had happened, so it took me a sec to say, “No, right? This is part of what being a Paladin means. Keeping you safe, making hard decisions—”

The lines around his mouth looked deeper than normal and he waved a hand between us. “Hard decisions you didn’t bother letting me in on. Because why would you? This is what you do, Harper, you... freaking steamroll everybody. You decide it’s the best thing to do because it’s what you want to do.”

Slamming the car door, I walked over to David, the tall grass brushing my ankles. “That’s unfair, and you know it.”

David watched me warily. “Is it? What about all the stuff you had me do for your friends? Saving Abi from meeting that guy—”

I blinked, feeling his words like a punch to the gut. “That will make her life better,” I snapped, but David threw his hands up, looking at the sky again.

“Will it? You don’t know. You don’t ask people what they want.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. “Don’t start on the Paladin duty thing again, please. If you want to argue that you were doing what was best for me as an Oracle, fine, whatever. But that’s not all I am to you, and you didn’t take that into consideration at all.” He shook his head. “Pres, you have to admit, us being an us has made things more complicated.”

I wasn’t sure how my heart could be fluttering and sinking all at once, but that seemed to be what was happening, and I wrapped my arms tight around me.

“It’s made things better, though,” I said. “Or has being my boyfriend only been a chore for you?”

David rolled his eyes, looking back up at the sky again. “No, of course not. I’m just saying that maybe... maybe we should rethink some stuff.”

“Rethink?” I repeated. This could not be happening. I could not be getting dumped by David Freaking Stark on a country road in the middle of nowhere.

But behind the disbelief was another emotion.

Anger. Lots of it.

“Let me get this straight,” I said, holding out one hand. “I made a call to keep you from having visions that would burn your brain up, and you dump me for it?”

David dropped his head to look at me, eyes slightly narrowed. “I didn’t say I was dumping you, I said—”