A Beautiful Dark (16 page)

“Devin, come home,” she said quietly.

“I have to finish this. We’ll be together when I get back—”

“
If
you get back.”

“When.”
Devin’s voice was firm. “When I get back. If I do what they ask me to, I’ll have their respect. This will be a good thing for us.”

“And if—when—you come back, we’ll have the ceremony? We’ll be bonded?”

“You know that we will.”

There was a pause. Then Raven said in a low growl, “If you don’t fix this, I’m going to.”

I couldn’t hear anything else. My hands, holding Devin’s jacket, were shaking. Who was this girl?
You know what kind of mission this is.
I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded like she was the same thing as Devin: a Guardian. I couldn’t shake how strange it was that they sounded as if they were supposed to be together, and yet . . . something about the exchange creeped me out.

Suddenly Raven walked by, so fast that her blond hair flapped sharply and I could feel a lingering breeze in her wake.

Steeling myself, I stepped out from behind the lockers. Devin was still standing over by his. His locker door was open, but he was just staring into it. One hand rested limply on one of his textbooks, as if he’d been about to take it out.

I approached him slowly. I wasn’t sure if I should mention what I just overheard. But before I had a chance to open my mouth, Devin whirled around. Staring daggers at me, he slammed his locker door, grabbed his jacket from my hands, and stormed off.

Chapter 19

Y
ou look distracted,” Cassie said before taking a bite of a steamed carrot. The cafeteria bustled around us. “You’ve got, like”—she motioned under her eyes—“bags or something. Are you okay?”

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” I said, yawning.

“Maybe it’s post-traumatic stress. You know, from being an avalanche survivor. Maybe you should talk to the counselor, see about getting into a support group. I shudder every time I think about what happened to you.”

I seriously doubted that there were support groups for avalanche survivors, but it was pointless to argue. My problems were far greater than surviving the avalanche.

“No, I’m completely over that,” I said. Involuntarily I glanced across the cafeteria. Asher sat at his usual table, surrounded by another crowd of girls. But today there was something different about him. When he looked up and caught me staring, the sly façade dropped, and his eyes went soft, serious.
“Hi,”
he mouthed. He waved slightly.

Instinctively I looked away. Why did he make me so nervous? Why couldn’t I just say hi back?

“Skye,” Cassie said. “Soooo, aren’t you going to ask me about
my
day?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you know, we have been talking an awful lot about you lately. Not that it wasn’t deserved, what with everything you’ve gone through, but . . .” She was chewing her bottom lip. I knew what that meant.

“Oh god,” I said. “I’m so sorry. Don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad, I’m just saying.” She fiddled with a carrot. I looked at her.

“You’re kind of mad.”

“Okay.
Kind
of.”

I put the sandwich down and put my elbows on the table, chin in hands.

“Cassie,” I said. “How was your day?”

“Great! The Mysterious Ellipses have a gig next week at the Bean.”

“The what?” I asked.

“The Mysterious Ellipses. It’s the new name of our band. You like?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s very . . .”

“Trey thinks it’s funny.” She looked bored, though, as she said it, and I knew her interest in him was already half forgotten. “I think it has a catchier ring to it. No one knew what The Somnambulists meant.”

“But why are the Ellipses mysterious?”

“Because when you put ellipses at the end of a sentence, they automatically make whatever you are saying sound mysterious.”

I couldn’t argue. How many times had Cassie and I stayed up all night composing the perfect text message? Probably seven out of ten had ellipses at the end to cultivate an air of mystique.

“So when are the Ellipses playing?” I asked.

“The
Mysterious
Ellipses,” Cassie corrected.

“Do I have to say the full name every time?”

“Yes,” Cassie said. “Otherwise it makes no sense. Anyway, you have to come. It’s going to be awesome.”

“Of course,” I said. “How could I miss the Mysterious Ellipses’ first show?”

“See?” Cassie beamed. “You’re catching on.”

I nodded, an awkward silence settling between us. It was hopeless. I couldn’t make conversation with my thoughts so far away. And Cassie looked distracted, too. She kept looking over my shoulder every time someone walked past, but I was too tired to think about what was bothering her. I yawned again.

“Where’s Dan?”

“What?” Cassie’s head snapped back to me. “Why?”

“Um, no reason. Just wondering where he is.”

“Who knows what that boy does with his free time,” she grumbled.

I wished I could tell Cassie about the conversation I’d overheard between Raven and Devin. Things kept getting stranger, more confusing, harder to believe. I had to talk to Asher. I knew that he would tell me the truth.

Just as I was loading my backpack with books to take home at the end of the day, they cornered me: Asher at my left elbow and Devin at my right.

“Come on,” Asher said. “Let’s walk down the hall while we have a secret conversation.”

“Another one?” I smirked, trying to maintain some semblance of cool. But inside my stomach was sinking. I wasn’t sure how much more secret information I could take.

“There’s more you need to know,” Devin said. “It will help you in all this.”

“All
what
, exactly?” My voice was getting louder. “What do you mean by ‘all this’?”

“Calm down.” Asher was cocky as ever. “There’s more to the story than we told you yesterday. Maybe if you didn’t have such a weak stomach, we wouldn’t have had to schedule a Part Two. But you were all, ‘nooo, to be continued’ . . .”

“You’re a real pain, Asher,” I pointed out.

“And don’t I know it.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Anyway, don’t look so panicked. We’re here to help you.”

“It sure doesn’t—”

“I know, I know, it sure doesn’t seem like it. But trust me. We don’t want to hurt you. And you’re going to want to hear what we have to say.”

We were at the front doors to the school at that point, and the sharp sunlight hurt my exhausted eyes. I lifted a hand to shield them.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To practice,” Devin said gruffly.

“Practice? Practice what?”

“Your po—” Asher started to say, but Devin’s head whipped around, and he gave Asher a stern glare. Asher looked sheepish. “Stuff,” he said.

“Great,” I mumbled under my breath. “My ‘stuff’ was getting rusty, anyway.”

“Come on,” Devin said, putting on sunglasses. “You’re driving.” He headed toward the parking lot.

“Skye.” Asher turned to me when Devin was a few feet ahead of us. The after-school crowd swarmed around us, and he leaned in close so that he didn’t have to raise his voice. “I know this is all a shock to you, and you have every right to be wary and freaked out. But I want you to do me a favor. Trust me. Can you do that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, instantly thinking about Ellie—and Jordan. I didn’t know if I could trust Asher, not yet. What did I really know about him?

He looked a little offended. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, and walked down the steps.

After a pause, I followed.

We drove a few miles outside of town, to a field where Devin was convinced no one would see us. He led the way as we crunched across the icy grass. I walked behind him, and Asher held up the rear. None of us said much. I didn’t know about the two of them, but I was too nervous to string words together coherently.

The light was bleak, the field colorless and anemic. As we approached the start of a path where it forged ahead into the woods, a winter bird perched on a nearby tree alighted in a flap of wings. The noise echoed across the empty field.

Devin stopped and faced me.

“Seems as deserted a spot as any,” Asher said under his breath as he scanned the empty clearing.

“Before we explain anything else, let’s get some things straight. Your parents are the nomads in the story Asher told you. On that we’re clear?” Devin asked.

I nodded, my heart pounding. “And me?”

“Yes, you know what I’m going to say. You are their child. And—” He glanced at Asher, who nodded in some kind of agreement.

“Skye, for this to make sense, we need to tell you the truth,” Asher said.

“Meaning what? You’ve been lying to me up until now?”

“You’re being difficult.”

“You’re tearing apart everything I’ve ever known to be true. Did you think I wouldn’t rebel a little?”

He gave me a warm grin. “Actually, I do appreciate the rebellion.”

“You would,” Devin said cuttingly.

“Okay. Enlighten me.”

“The Order,” Asher began. “They oversee Earth . . . but they’re not exactly, uh,
from
Earth.”

“Obviously.”
I didn’t bother to hide my impatience. I was ready for straight-up honesty between all of us.

“We’re unearthly beings,” Devin cut in. “We’re—”

I closed my eyes. I already knew what was coming. “You’re angels, right?”

“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” he said. “It’s complicated. I suppose if it’s easier for you to classify us that way, you can, though I barely know what that word means anymore. We are also known as
Malakh
, messengers. We believe we are the ones who keep Earth running.”

“But yeah,” Asher chimed in. “The wings are the same in any language.”

“A lot written about us is pure fiction,” Devin continued, ignoring Asher. “There is so much that’s glossed over or interpreted in various ways for the sake of convenience.”

Remembering all of Devin’s complaints about Asher’s aversion to following rules, I turned to Asher. “You’re a Rebel?” He nodded. “You broke off from the Order and left Paradise? So what is that, like a
fallen
angel?”

“We’re not exactly ‘fallen,’” Asher said huffily. “I guess you could say we jumped.”

“So my father, he was one of you?”

“Yup. Right up until the day he—”

“Met my mother, yeah, I know.” It was beginning to come together. “Are you a messenger, too?”

“I often am,” he said. “I’m often sent out on what you could call, like, counterintelligence missions. You know one of the basic laws of nature: for every action there is an equal and opposite
re
action?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Well . . . if you think of the Guardians as messengers of fate, keeping order, balance, manipulating destinies—then we’re dispatched to, you know,
stop
that from happening. We’re like our own system of checks and balances.”

“
Manipulate
is a strong word, Rebel,” Devin argued. “Are you sure you want to start this now?”

“I’ll start it up any time you want, but I think we’d better keep our focus on Skye at the moment,” Asher spat.

“Uh, guys?” I shouted. “Enough? I have another question. A big one.”

They looked at me.

“Ask it,” Devin said.

“Well, if my mother was a Guardian, and my dad was a Rebel, and they were both angels but they were both mortal when I was born . . . what does that make
me
?”

“That,” Devin said, “is exactly what we’re here to find out. You are different. Special. The daughter caught between the Order of the Natural World and the chaos that tries to unravel it. Your destiny and your powers are completely unknown.”

“My powers?”

“Oh yes,” Devin said, smiling for the first time all afternoon. “Your powers.”

Chapter 20

A
cold wind blew through the trees and swept across the field. Asher looked dubiously at the sky.

I shivered. “What kind of powers?”

“We’re not human,” Asher reminded me. “Of course we have powers. Some we were born with, some we developed out of what I’d call necessity.”

“That’s skipping ahead a bit,” Devin said, placing a tense hand on Asher’s shoulder. “But the gist of it is true. The Gifted are born with the Sight, as we’ve told you. And the Guardians in turn have other gifts. Nothing like foreseeing destinies but a few cognitive and precognitive abilities. A subtle influence on people’s minds. One of the most useful ways this manifests is in our ability to intuit—to connect with—pain. And heal it.”

“So you did heal my ankle?” I cried. “I knew it wasn’t crazy!”

“Far from it. Though I shouldn’t have revealed myself to you so soon, before you knew and understood the true extent of your heritage. I’m sorry for—”

“Freaking her out?” Asher cut in with a wry smile.

Devin bristled. “Precisely.”

“You’re one to talk,” I said to Asher. “You freaked me out when you did the fire thing in the cave. Remember?”

Devin wheeled on him. “You showed her your ability to bring forth fire?”

“She was freezing. What was I supposed to do? Let hypothermia kick in?”

“You’re incredible,” Devin said, his tone indicating the opposite.

“Says the guy who healed her broken ankle.”

“I’ve been ordered to protect her.”

“So have I.”

“Hey, guys, could we take the chest beating down a notch and get back to explaining to me how all this stuff works?”

They both averted their gazes.

“What about the Rebellion’s powers?” I prodded Asher. “Did anything change when you left the Order, or are yours the same as Devin’s?”

“Skye, watching out for you is about the only thing Devin and I have in common,” he said. “When the Rebellion formed and broke away, their original powers were lost. I don’t know if the Order reclaimed them or if they simply faded when the Rebellion made their home on Earth. Over time, Rebels developed their own unique set of powers. Powers that they took from the earth itself and use to give back to it. Elemental forces. Water, fire, rain. We can create storms. The ultimate physical arsenal, to combat the Order’s mental manipulation.”