A Radiant Sky (32 page)

If I had understood then what was going to happen, I would never have let him go. I would have said the same thing. I would have meant it.

And it wasn’t too late.

“I choose you, Asher. I want so much more than just memories. I want more than just one moment of happiness. I want to live and not know what the future holds.”

We leaned into each other, and the wind and light raged around us, blinding us, and we kissed in the middle of that vast expanse of beach as if we were the only two people in the world. Suddenly, a searing pain sliced through my back. Asher’s face contorted in a grimace. Silver liquid pooled with blood in the sand at our feet. And then, our wings were gone.

I held out my hand to him. He took it.

“Partners,” he said.

“For always.”

I looked into his eyes. We both knew that Astaroth was right. In the course of time, war would break out again, cities would fall and be rebuilt, and people would be born and live and die, and we would always fight for the balance, and that’s life. It existed in cycles, ebbing and flowing, and this might not be the end. But maybe it was a new beginning.

And I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.

We held hands and looked at each other.

“Are you ready?” I said. “To jump?”

“I’ve been ready for a long time,” said Asher.

And together we closed our eyes and let ourselves fall.

29

I
opened my eyes.

The tiny, glowing lights, the click of high heels against the gymnasium floor.

The taste of punch and the sound of laughter.

My boyfriend’s dark brown eyes, smiling as they realized I was awake.

It all came rushing back to me.

“We’re back,” I said. “We’re at prom. We made it.”

“I knew we would,” said Asher. He offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet. The hem of my ethereal dress swept across the floor. There was not a trace of the battle on it—the sand, the surf, the blood, all of it, gone. Left back in the other world.

“How did it—”

“I don’t know.” He smiled. “But we’re lucky, Skye. We’re so, so lucky.” He pulled me into his arms, and I pressed my face into his chest. The familiar gray T-shirt. The beat-up army jacket. The scent of cinnamon and pine, the woods, my home, washing over me.

It was over. It was all over.

Somehow, incredibly, and against all odds, I had saved the world.

“Get a room, lovebirds!” Cassie came bounding up to me, her pale pink dress shimmering in the light and a prom princess tiara perched on her head. I grinned. “You did it, Skye! You really did it! Dan, come here! They’re back!”

“Babes,” Dan yelled from across the floor. “Leave them alone. They’re having a moment.”

Cassie pouted. “But I want to be part of it.”

“Come here, Cass,” I said, pulling her into our hug. “Dan, you can be part of it too!” Dan came sprinting over and pounced on us.

“Dad!” A little voice cried. I turned my head, and Earth was running full-speed across the dance floor. I followed her path to where Aaron stood by the door to the gym. Beside him was Aunt Jo, her hand in his, her head resting on his shoulder.

“Hey, Trouble!” he cried, kneeling down so Earth could jump into his arms. “Were you good for Cassie?”

“Duh,” she said. “You were only gone for, like, a minute.”

She caught my eye and winked at me. “
Thank you
,” I mouthed.

Behind them, James Harrison looked around. Suddenly, his face lit up. Ian was standing by the punch bowl, grinning at his dad.

“Ian!” Cassie cried, waving him over.

“Ian, what are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought—”

“Rogues live on earth, right?” He said with a wink. “Maybe I’ll be the first Rogue in my family to graduate high school, stick around. Besides,” he said. “Can’t I keep the peace from homeroom?” We laughed.

“We made it through the battle,
and
junior year, guys,” I said. “Can you believe it?”

“It didn’t seem so daunting back in September,” said Ian.

“Senior year is looking pretty good, huh?” I grinned at him.

“Ooh,” Cassie cried, “this is our song. Daniel, shall we show them what we’ve been practicing?”

“I believe,” he said, extending his hand, “we shall.” Cassie put her hand in his, and he twirled her out onto
the dance floor. And then, before my very eyes, Cassie ran toward Dan and he lifted her up into the air. She squealed, the light from the disco ball reflecting off her pale pink dress, as she spread her arms wide like she was flying.

“We did it! We did it! We—” Dan’s footing faltered beneath her. “Ah! Put me down! There’s no river to catch us this time!”

I watched them tumble to the ground with the biggest smile on my face. Asher was right. We were so, so lucky.

“Hey, Skye?” Ian put his hand on my back and smiled. “I knew you could do it,” he said. “Even when you didn’t. I always believed.”

I watched him make his way across the gym to where James was waiting for him. And when I turned around, I realized someone was waiting for me. He stood on the edge of the dance floor, in the shadows.

And then he stepped into the light. His eyes were dark and dizzying. His hair was as black as the Colorado sky at night. He grinned and raised an eyebrow as he held out his hand.

“Skye,” Asher said. “Will you dance with me?”

But the screech of an amp feeding back made us turn suddenly to the stage. Cassie stood up there with an acoustic guitar, the rest of the Mysterious Ellipses behind her.

“Girls and boys, for the last dance of the night, I have a surprise for my best friend. This is a song about being brave.”

She began to sing, her voice high and clear as a bell. The band strummed softly, filling the gym with slow, beautiful music.

Asher and I grinned at each other. I took his hand without a word, and everything I’d ever felt for him came rushing up inside me. He pulled me close, and I rested my forehead against his chest as he guided us across the floor.

“This is what I would wish for,” I whispered, “if I could go back to that night we met. I may not have known it then, but I do now.”

We’d already had our last dance before the battle, but now, this felt like our first. We had a whole life ahead of us, one that was messy and beautiful and entirely up to us.

As we turned, I saw Aunt Jo, Aaron, and Earth smiling at me. My family. Maybe now that the store was gone, Aaron and Aunt Jo could build a new life—something from scratch, together. Dan stood by the stage, nodding his head to the music and beaming at Cassie. Ian and James stood in the corner by the punch bowl, talking. Everything seemed right with the world. I knew it might not last, I knew it couldn’t be perfect forever. But right now,
this? This was a perfect moment. And I never could have seen it coming, not with all my visions of the future.

Asher twirled me, and the world glowed. I would always have a trace of my powers—I would never really lose them. But I had a chance at a real life, and I was going to take it.

We would make mistakes, we would argue, we would make up. We would lose the people we love and find new ones, and hold our memories close. We would fight for each other, again and again. We would keep living. We were in love.

And we were only human, after all.

Photo by Ray Shappell

JOCELYN DAVIES
is the author of
A BEAUTIFUL DARK
and
A FRACTURED LIGHT
. She 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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A Beautiful Dark

A Fractured Light

Cover art © 2013 by Colin Anderson
Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

A
RADIANT SKY
. Copyright © 2013 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.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davies, Jocelyn, 1983–

A radiant sky / Jocelyn Davies.

pages cm

Sequel to: Fractured light.

Summary: “As the leader of the Rogues, Skye must fight to maintain the balance between order and chaos—and for a way for her and Asher to be together”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-06-199069-4 (hardback)

EPub Edition July 2013 ISBN 9780062119650

[1. Angels—Fiction. 2. Supernatural—Fiction. 3. Good and evil—Fiction. 4. Colorado—Fiction.] I. Title.

13 14 15 16 17
CG/RRDH
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1