“I’m doin’ fine protecting myself, and gettin’ me an earth candle and stuff is not a stupid errand.”

“Yeah, okay, but you deserve better than a guy who doesn’t know shit about protecting his woman.”

Stevie Rae’s brows went up to meet her curly blond hair. “Did you just call me your woman?”

“Well, yeah.” He fidgeted, and then added, “But in a good way.”

“Dallas, you couldn’t have stopped what happened on the roof,” she said truthfully. “You know how those kids are.”

“I should have been with you; I should be your Warrior.”

“I don’t need a Warrior!” she yelled, exasperated at his stubbornness and hating the fact that he was so upset.

“Well, you sure as hell don’t need me anymore.” He turned his back on the Bug and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

Stevie Rae looked at his hunched shoulders and felt terrible. She’d done this. She’d hurt him because she’d been pushing him and everyone away to keep Rephaim a secret. Guilty as a rabbit in a carrot patch, she got out of the car and touched his shoulder gently. He didn’t look at her.

“Hey, that’s not true. I do need you.”

“Sure. That’s why you’ve been busy shoving me away.”

“No, I’ve just been busy. Sorry if I’ve come across as mean,” she said.

He turned to her. “Not mean. Just not caring anymore.”

“I care!” she said quickly, and stepped into his arms, hugging him back as tightly as he was hugging her.

Dallas spoke softly into her ear. “Then let me come with you.”

Stevie Rae pulled back so she could look at him, and the “no, you can’t” she’d been ready to say died on her lips. It was like she could see his heart through his eyes, and it was clear that she was breaking it—breaking him. What the hell was she doing hurting this kid because of Rephaim? She’d saved the Raven Mocker. She wasn’t sorry about that. She was sorry that it was affecting the people around her. Well, that’s it, then. I’m not hurtin’ the folks I care about most.

“Okay, yeah, you can come with me,” she told him.

His eyes instantly brightened. “You mean it?”

“ ’Course I mean it. I do need that earth candle, though. Well, and the sweetgrass, too. And it’s still not a stupid errand.”

“Hell, I’ll get you a whole bag of candles and all the grass you want!” Dallas laughed, kissed her, and then, yelling that he’d be right back, sprinted away.

Slowly, Stevie Rae got back into the Bug. She gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead, reciting her mental to-do list aloud like a mantra. “Conjure earth with Dallas. Find out what I can about the cows. Bring Dallas back to the school. Make an excuse. A good excuse to leave again, only this time alone. Go to the Gilcrease and check on Rephaim. See if he knows anything else that might help Stark and Z. Come back here. Don’t hurt your friends by shoving them away. Check on the red fledglings. Clue in Lenobia and the rest of ’em ’bout what’s going on with Z. Call Aphrodite back. Figure out what the heck to do ’bout the bad fledglings at the depot. And then try, real hard, not to hurl yourself off the top of the nearest tall building . . .” Feeling like she was drowning in a big ol’ stinkin’, stagnant, Okie pond of stress, Stevie Rae lowered her head until her forehead pressed against the steering wheel.

How in the world did Z deal with all of this bullshit and stress?

She didn’t, the thought came unbidden to her mind, it shattered her.

“Wow! It looks like one of those super tornados cut its way through Tulsa,” Dallas said. He was gawking as Stevie Rae maneuvered the Bug carefully around yet another pile of fallen tree limbs. The entry road to the park was blocked by a Bradford pear tree that had been split almost perfectly in half, so Stevie Rae ended up stopping beside it.

“At least some of the power is comin’ back on.” She gestured at the streetlights that ringed the park, illuminating what was a total mess of ice-damaged trees and flattened azalea bushes.

“Not for those folks, though.” Dallas jerked his chin at the neat little houses near the park. Here and there a light shone bravely through a window, proving that some people had had the foresight to buy propane generators before the storm hit, but mostly the surrounding area remained dark and cold and silent.

“It sucks for them, but makes my life easier tonight,” Stevie Rae said, getting out of the car. Carrying a tall green ritual candle, a braided length of dried sweetgrass, and a box of long matches, Dallas joined her. “Everyone’s all hunkered down and won’t be paying any attention to what I’m doin’.”

“You’re definitely right about that, girl.” Dallas draped his arm familiarly over Stevie Rae’s shoulders.

“Aw, you know I like it when you tell me I’m right.” She threaded her arm around his waist, sticking her hand in the back pocket of his jeans like she used to do. He squeezed her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

“Then I’ll tell ya you’re right more often,” he said.

Stevie Rae grinned up at him. “You tryin’ to soften me up for somethin’?”

“I dunno. Is it workin’?”

“Maybe.”

“Good.”

They both laughed. She bumped him with her hip. “Let’s go over there to the big oak. That looks like a good place.”

“Whatever you say, girl.”

They made their way slowly to the center of the park, walking around shattered tree limbs and sloughing through the cold, wet muck that was left from the storm, trying not to slip on the patches of ice that had begun to refreeze in the chill of the night. She’d been right to let Dallas come with her. Maybe part of her confusion about Rephaim had happened because she’d gotten kinda isolated from her friends and was focusing too hard on the weirdness of their Imprint. Heck, the Imprint with Aphrodite had seemed totally bizarre at first, too. Maybe she just needed some time—and space—to deal with the newness of it.

“Hey, check it out.” Dallas pulled her attention back to him. He was pointing at the ground around the old oak. “It’s like the tree made a circle for you.”

“That’s cool!” she said. And it was! The solid tree had weathered the storm well. The only branches it had lost were a smattering of limb tips. They’d fallen onto the grass, forming a perfect circle completely around the tree.

Dallas hesitated at the edge of the circumference. “I’m gonna stay out here, okay? So it really can be like this is a circle cast especially for you, and I haven’t broken it,” he said.

Stevie Rae looked up at him. Dallas was a good guy. He was always saying sweet things like that and letting her know he understood her better than most folks did. “Thank you. That’s really nice, Dallas.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly.

His arms tightened around her, and he held her closer to him. “Anything for my High Priestess.”

His breath was warm and sweet against her mouth and, on impulse, Stevie Rae kissed him again, liking that he was making her feel all tingly inside. And liking that his touch was blocking thoughts of Rephaim from her mind. She was more than a little breathless when he reluctantly let her go.

He cleared his throat and gave a little laugh. “Be careful, girl. It’s been a long time since you and me been alone.”

Feeling kinda giggly and light-headed, she dimpled at him. “Too long.”

His smile was sexy and cute. “We’ll have to fix that soon, but first you better get to work.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Work, work, work . . .”

Smiling, she took the sweetgrass braid, the green candle, and the matches he’d brought her.

“Hey,” Dallas said, handing her the stuff, “I just remembered something about sweetgrass. Aren’t you supposed to use somethin’ else before you burn it? I was kinda good in Spells and Rituals Class, and I swear there was more to it than just lighting the braid and waving it around.”