A Beautiful Dark

group. I watched as he strolled over and joined Asher on the other side of the fire.
    Cassie clapped her hands, drawing everyone’s attention. Her eyes took on a mischievous glint. “Let’s tell campfire stories. . . .” She picked up a gnarled piece of kindling from next to the fire and tossed it to Dan. “Dan, tell us about that time you snowboarded off the mountain and it turned out the ski patrol who saved you was dead.”
    “She wasn’t dead,” Dan huffed. “She had no face, okay? And now there’s not much left to tell.”
    “Okay, then, I have one.” Asher spoke up from across the fire. Next to him, Devin’s eyes barely reflected the dancing flames as he stared at them.
    Dan passed the stick to Asher.
    “Stage is yours, man,” he said. “Though beating the faceless ski patrol story? I dunno. . . .”
    Asher gave him a cocky grin. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”
    I watched him carefully. The firelight flickered across his face, catching a dimple near the left side of his mouth. His eyes held a spark of excitement. “It’s a legend we tell in my family,” he said carefully. Devin’s jaw clenched, but he kept his eyes trained on the fire and didn’t say a word.
    “Once upon a time,” Asher said with a flourish, “there was an all-important council that ruled over the people of Earth. It was higher than the president of the United States, higher than the powers of all the world. It was called the Order. Older than time itself, the Order was responsible for one thing: to keep the world in check.
    “Its members fell into ranks. The highest were gifted with the Sight. The ability to foresee people’s destinies. And the Gifted saw it as their duty to guide the lives of those who roamed Earth. While the lower rank”—his eyes flashed with controlled fury—“were forced to carry out the orders of the Gifted. They were known as the Guardians of the Natural Order. Or Guardians, for short.” Asher took a breath. “They had no free will. They were essentially slaves to the Gifteds’ commands.”
    The faces of those surrounding the campfire were rapt, their eyes unblinking. Asher had that kind of power. Devin avoided everyone’s gaze, but I saw his hands clench into fists as his cousin continued.
    “A small group began to emerge who refused to adhere to the Way of Things. They believed the world would be better if those gifted with the Sight didn’t meddle in the fragile balance of Earth and its people. The world would be better if chaos was allowed to bloom every now and then. If people could make mistakes and live a life that was messy and beautiful. The group formed, fought, lost, and left the Order. But as punishment, the rebels, banished from the Paradise in which they lived, were forced to walk among the people whose lives they used to control.”
    “The rebels spent their time on Earth harnessing their own powers. To counter the Sight of the Gifted, they honed their control of the elements. They learned to create chaos.”
    Asher poked his stick into the flames, and sparks fanned out into the darkness. Devin flinched, something I’m sure no one else noticed. Slowly he lifted his gaze to me. His eyes were unreadable but definitely not tranquil. I realized I’d been watching the two of them too closely. I looked away.
    “That was how things were, anyway,” Asher continued, regaining his command of the circle, “until something unprecedented occurred that rocked the natural order of things.” His voice hooked on to the word rocked , sounding almost like a growl. “Upsetting both sides, the Order and the Rebellion.” He looked right at me, and I heard myself take a sharp, involuntary breath. “ Love . The great destroyer of worlds.”
    Cassie gripped my arm. She was the biggest sucker for epic love stories.
    “Eighteen years ago, a Rebel fell in love with a beautiful, lonely Guardian. The Guardian had a predestined soul mate chosen for her by the Gifted. Like all Guardians, she had been raised to hate the Rebellion and everyone in it. But in spite of everything, what she felt for this Rebel went deeper. Maybe he had sexy eyes, I don’t know. Or a great smile.” Asher winked at me, and my stomach dropped away. He had a great smile, and he knew it. “Unable to act on her feelings, she tried in vain to hate him. But she soon realized that she had a choice to make: stay in Paradise and allow her destiny to unfold as the Gifted had planned—or forge a new path. One that