A Beautiful Dark

capacity for fear.” Her tone was simple, matter-of-fact. Like she was saying she wasn’t very good at math.
    “Because you’ve been sheltered by the Order. You don’t understand how dangerous it is out here.”
    “I can understand the danger without being afraid of it. It’s you I’m worried about. That’s why I’m here.”
    “And you shouldn’t be. You have no choice except to let me see this through to the end,” he said flatly. “Neither of us does.”
    “But—”
    “I was picked for this. It’s an honor that I will not turn away from.”
    My heart was pounding, and I could hear Raven’s voice shake as she spoke.
    “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