A Beautiful Dark (30 page)

I couldn’t have stopped it even if I’d wanted to. The power raged within me, and I felt everything pouring out of me all at once. Anger for disrupting my perfect world. For being forced to abandon my friends. My home. For not having an easy choice, and for caring about Devin and Asher when they only wanted me for the power each side stood to gain. For looking into the unknown and not having any idea how it would unfold. For not ever realizing what I would become.

Clouds rolled menacingly across the clear blue sky, shrouding us in darkness as rain began to pummel the ground. And I realized what it was I was capable of. The Order had mental control. The Rebellion had taught themselves to control the elements. And me? I could disrupt all of those things. Blur out the Order’s control over destiny. Disrupt the Rebellion’s power over the elements, draw power from the earth itself, heat from its core, shifting the weather. And what else? Because I knew somehow that this strange mix of powers didn’t stop there. I was capable of much more. More I didn’t even know about yet.

My life had been controlled by someone else since the very day I was born. Call it fate, call it manipulation, call it the choices of others. The Order and the Rebellion had always watched me. They’d molded and shaped my life to unfold exactly how they’d wanted. How it would best suit them. My birth, my parents’ death, coming to live with Aunt Jo—my friendships with Cassie and Dan.

Even falling in love.

Everything I thought had been real—everything that made me
me
—had been a lie. Both sides wanted me. Both sides were at fault. The Order wanted to keep me under close watch to prevent the Rebellion from grabbing hold of me. And the Rebellion wanted to use me to fight the Order every step of the way.

That’s what Raven had meant this whole time. That’s why no one would tell me. It was all part of the plan. And both sides had one.

The wind howled, rising to a gale. The rain slanted sideways.

Trees were cracking more rapidly now, falling into the clearing as the earth shuddered violently. As one tree fell just feet from where I was standing, a flock of crows rose as one from the branches, flapping over us in a dark blanket. Their frantic caws echoed above us even after the birds had flown away.

“Skye?” Devin said uncertainly, moving toward me with arms outstretched, palms outward, like one might move toward a wild beast. He reached out his hand for me to take as another crack ripped through a nearby tree. As if in slow motion, it began to fall toward us. Devin stretched his hand out farther to me. “Skye!”

I stared into the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. I couldn’t move, trying to figure out exactly what I saw in them. I was rooted to my spot. The tree fell faster, roaring through the air.

I saw everything flash before me. Devin yelling for me to take his hand. Oriax’s huge black wings as he lifted himself into the air to avoid a tumbling rock. Astaroth’s intense, unflappable gaze as he stared at me from the very edge of the clearing. The world tilted on its axis, turned dark.

But where was Asher?

Strong arms wrapped themselves around me tightly, knocking the breath out of my lungs. Black feathers grazed my hair and batted against my cheeks, and I was enveloped by the warm, earthy scent I knew so well. I was lifted up and up, above the clearing, into the air as the tree finally fell. The mountain echoed as the tree crashed right into where I’d been standing moments before. We touched down on the other side of the clearing, close to the Gifted One.

Asher held me close to him. “Shh,” he whispered, squeezing me. The quaking earth subsided, and a sudden quiet blanketed the mountaintop once again. I looked up into his eyes, shaking. He brushed the hair off my face, let his fingers trace down my neck. “I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” he said. “I wasn’t lying about that.”

Several steps away from us, Devin was watching us with a look that I couldn’t read.

Astaroth took a step forward, smoothing his robes from the storm. “So it’s true,” he said gravely. “Your powers are uncontrollable. Your refusal to join a side also makes them dangerous. Not just to us but to humankind as well.”

“Yes.” Oriax nodded once next to him.

I watched in awe, still wrapped tightly in Asher’s arms. From beneath his robes, Astaroth drew out a long sharp blade. He held it in front of him, and the sun filtering through the cracks in the clouds above hit the polished silver at an angle, filling the clearing with a blinding light. In the glow, it looked like no form of metal I’d seen on Earth. It was otherworldly.

The Gifted One showed no emotion. In a movement that was so fast and fluid I almost missed it, he whipped the sword high above his head, and drove it deep into the heart of the Rebel Elder by his side. Oriax’s eyes filled with fear and confusion, before he vanished into the swirling rain.

Asher gasped. He let go of me suddenly, bounding to the place where his mentor had disappeared into the elements. He whipped around to face Astaroth. “What have you done?” he cried. “There is a truce in place! You’ve broken your bond!”

With unearthly calm, Astaroth turned to face Devin. “You know what your orders are.”

“No,” Devin whispered, his face growing pale. “I take it back. I’ve changed my mind!”

“If you don’t, you know what will happen.”

“I won’t do it!”

Astaroth lifted himself to his full height, towering above us. “You have no choice.” Every inch of him, from his cruel eyes to his long elegant fingers seemed to radiate a terrifying light.

Asher, still crouched on the cold ground, looked wildly from one to the other. Devin’s arm moved slowly to the hilt of the sword at his side, his jaw set in a grimace.

“Get her out of here!” Devin yelled to Asher. “Now!”

Before I knew what was happening, Asher sprang toward me. Devin dropped to his knees, shuddering in obvious pain. His shoulders shook uncontrollably. I ran to him.

“Devin!” I cried. “What’s wrong with him?” I wasn’t thinking; I couldn’t for the life of me understand what was happening. All I knew was that Devin was on the ground, and he was in pain. And while I hated him, felt betrayed by him—I couldn’t stand back and let him die. He looked up at me, not bothering to hide the struggle in his eyes. Asher reached me, pulling me back.

“Stay away from him, Skye. Don’t you understand?”

“Let me go!” I screamed, but Asher held me tighter. I couldn’t see anything but Devin before me, writhing on the ground as Asher pulled me away.

“Skye . . . stop . . . struggling!” Asher yelled, pulling me back with all his strength. I broke free from Asher’s grasp.

In the flap of a wing, Astaroth had Asher in a hold around his neck.

“Skye,” Devin whispered, his body wracked with pain. He was beginning to shake. His face was obscured by the shadows cast by fallen trees, the branches creating intricate patterns on his face. “I—I can’t. . . .” Suddenly he reached out for my hand.

Should I take it?

“Don’t, Skye!” Asher called from behind me. “I don’t care if you’re mad at me, just don’t believe him!”

I stood my ground in the middle of the clearing. Asher struggling in Astaroth’s grip on one side and Devin on his knees across from me.

“Everyone, enough!” I cried, and the trees shook. Thunder boomed. I didn’t know how my heart could take it all in and still survive, not burst. From across the clearing, I could see the muscles in Devin’s jaw clench.

“Skye!” Devin called, mustering strength in his lungs. “I have to warn you!”

My limbs went numb.

“Warn me?” I stood there, immobile, rooted to the ground like a tree. “About what?” I called to him over the wind.

“About what happens next,” he whispered, and suddenly he was gone.

“Devin!” I cried.

He reappeared inches from my face.

“You’re—” I started, but I never got to finish my thought. A cold blade, icy and sharp, plunged through my stomach.

I couldn’t feel the pain, though I was sure that would come momentarily. All I could feel was the same sense of falling that had gripped me every morning after my parents had died. The world before me lurched and tumbled forward. And I fell to the ground with an icy thud.

Stricken, I looked up into Devin’s eyes.

Helplessness. That was all. The hunger, the ambition—all of it, gone. This is what he had to do. This is what he’d been sent here for. Not to protect me. Not to study me. Not to control my powers. To kill me.

He’d been fighting it all along.

“I’m so sorry, Skye. I had no choice,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “And falling in love with you was one more thing I couldn’t help.”

Devin pulled the blade from me. I was surprised at how sudden the pain was when it came on.

I was floating, cold, feathers brushing my cheek and hair. My eyes were closed, but I could feel the wind rushing past me and smell the winter sky. When I opened them, it was like a newborn opening her eyes on the world for the first time. In the clearing far below me, a wall of fire rose from where I’d fallen next to Devin. But the Guardian and his Gifted superior were gone. A black spiral of smoke curled into the air. I could smell the acrid burning of pine and sap.

The scene grew smaller with distance, but whether it was moving farther away or I was, I couldn’t tell.

Sounds came in and out of focus, like someone was turning the volume on my car stereo up and down too quickly. I heard my name.

It was Asher’s voice, that much I knew.

“Stay with me, Skye,” he implored, his voice cracking. As we flew higher, he grasped me tightly in one arm and pressed a hand over my wound with the other. “Don’t die. You
can’t
die. Not yet.”

I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t there, but somewhere else, somewhere not of this world. I realized that the hand that was grasping me was grasped in my own.

“I can’t heal you.” His voice was thick, shaking. “You know I can’t. I wish I could. I’ll find someone to do it. I swear.”

The wind rushed past me, harder.

“No matter what.”

The air grew thinner, the world below me, smaller, until everything disappeared, all sound ceased to exist. All I could hear was Asher’s breathing as I clung to him, and the sound of my own faintly beating heart.

We were past the clouds, into the beautiful dark.

Acknowledgments

I
OWE THE HUGEST
debt of gratitude to the following people:

My brilliant editor and friend, Maria Gomez, for believing in this project—and in me—from the beginning. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you tirelessly did for ABD.

Barbara Lalicki, for your guidance, insight, and knowing exactly what needed to be fixed, when.

The whole team at Harper, but especially: Elise Howard, for the inspiration and the leap of faith; Susan Katz and Kate Jackson for your support; the powerhouse marketing, publicity, and sub rights teams; Erin Fitzsimmons, for the unbelievably gorgeous and thoughtful design. Also Ray Shappell, for spending a whole day with me waiting for the perfect lighting.

My publishing families at HarperCollins and Penguin, for inspiring, conspiring, listening, encouraging, understanding, commiserating, and jumping for joy with me on a daily basis.

Rachel Abrams, for talking with me about this book more than any reasonable person should have to.

My endlessly talented, amazingly supportive (not to mention witty and charming) writer friends in New York.

The Elevensies, and all of my new online friends, for sharing the journey with me.

Micol Ostow, for first making me realize I could be a published author.

Jessica Regel, for believing in me and being so, so patient.

Kari Sutherland and Shelby Trenkelbach, for your creativity, imagination, and brainstorming prowess (for which I’m endlessly grateful)!

My friends—near and far—for providing hugs, meals, bus trips, distractions, wine, big blue to crash on when I needed to get away, dancing, laughing, Lloves with two Ls, and being the very best of people, always, no matter what.

My sister, Shelby Davies, for things too numerous to list, and too important to try. That’s for the book we’ll cowrite.

And my parents, Jody and Lee Davies, with love and gratitude and everything else that can’t be put into words.

About the Author

Jocelyn Davies
edits young adult fiction at a publishing house in New York, a job that has allowed her to cultivate a keen interest in all things angsty, hilarious, and/or unrequited. She is a graduate of Bates College, and lives in an apartment overflowing with books. Visit her online at www.jocelyndavies.com.

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Credits

Jacket art © 2011 by Colin Anderson

Jacket design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright

A Beautiful Dark

Copyright © 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-06-199065-6

Typography by Erin Fitzsimmons

EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062093189

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