Burned

and if you see some sweetgrass in the temple, bring it here, too, would ya? Don’t know where my mind’s been, but conjuring earth is definitely easier with an earth candle, and I totally forgot one, not to mention the sweetgrass for drawin’ positive energy.”
    She was surprised when Dallas didn’t say ’kay and jog away for the stuff. Instead, he just stood there, watching her, with his hands shoved down in his jeans pockets and looked kinda annoyed.
    “What?” she asked.
    “I’m sorry I’m not a Warrior!” he blurted. “I’m tryin’ the best I can to learn somethin’ from Dragon, but it’s gonna take me a while to get decent at it. I’ve never really cared about all that fightin’ stuff, and I’m sorry!” Dallas repeated, looking more and more upset.
    “Dallas, what the heck are you talkin’ about?”
    He threw his hands up in frustration. “I’m talkin’ about me not being good enough for you. I know you need more—that you need a Warrior. Hell, Stevie Rae, if I’d been your Warrior, I could’ve been there for you when those kids attacked you and almost killed you. If I were your Warrior, you wouldn’t be sendin’ me off on stupid errands. You’d keep me close to you, so I could protect you during all this stuff you’re goin’ through.”
    “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