But there was affection in her voice, and her eyes followed him out the door.

“You love him,” I said, and she swung her gaze back to me.

“I do.” She smoothed her hands over her thighs, flattening imaginary wrinkles from the linen.

“Even though he’s not your family.”

Saylor laughed, a surprisingly husky sound. “Don’t you love people who aren’t your family, Harper Jane?”

“Of course I do. But you love him for more than the whole Oracle thing. You love him because he’s David.”

Saylor sighed, looking behind her. The sun was starting to go down, and her backyard was filled with soft golden light. Even in November, things were still green and blooming.

“Yes,” she said at last. “I love him because he’s David. That boy can be a pain in the backside, don’t get me wrong, but he has a good heart. And he’s actually handling this a heck of a lot better than I thought he would. Look at him. Whole life turned upside down, and he’s in there making pizza rolls.” She gave a fond snort. “He’s a good boy. So, yes, I love him, whether he can see the future or not.”

My throat felt weird, so I opened the book again, flipping pages and trying to focus on the words in front of me. Ephors were said to have magical powers of their own, but many people thought they were simply draining that power from the Oracles themselves and—

“Harper, do you care about him?”

Closing my hand around my glass of lemonade before it could plummet to the patio, I shook my head. “David?”

“He was the boy we were speaking of, yes,” Saylor answered dryly. “And not just because he’s the Oracle, but because he’s David.”

I made a big show of resituating my lemonade glass on the table, wiping stray droplets from the book. “Of course I don’t,” I said, even as my heart hammered in my ears. “You’ve seen the two of us together. All we do is argue.”

“Passionately,” Saylor said.

“There is nothing . . . passionate about me and David. I’ve spent most of my life despising him and while I’ll admit that this—this situation has made me appreciate him a little more, there’s nothing going on between us.”

I made myself meet her eyes, which wasn’t easy, seeing as how just thinking about him was making my skin feel weird and too tight.

“Nothing going on,” I repeated, but Saylor only squinted at me.

“Do you know, if it weren’t for your respective positions, I’d hope you were lying to me. I’d hope you felt the same way about David he’s felt about you all these years.”

I couldn’t keep myself from snorting. “You want me to loathe him?”

Saylor wrinkled her nose. “Is that really how you think David feels about you?”