A Beautiful Dark

when he was looking at me. “Last night was . . .”
    “Yeah.” He looked like he was either searching for the right words or contemplating kissing me again. I was thrumming, every single fiber of my being alive and happy. “It was intense. A little too intense, actually.”
    I jerked away from him as if I’d been slapped.
    “What?”
    “I just think, you know, we should be careful. Maybe cool it for a little while. I don’t want either of us to lose our focus. This is so important, Skye. It’s bigger than we both know.”
    “That’s not what this is about,” I said, my hands beginning to shake. “You’re just scared.”
    “That’s not true, Skye. I—”
    “No, you’re right,” I said, cutting him off before he could say anything else. “This whole thing was just a giant mistake. We shouldn’t have kissed in the first place.” I could feel tears pricking my eyes, and I tried not to let them spill over.
    Whatever I had been feeling for him, whatever I wanted to keep feeling, shriveled within me into a cold, hard pit. And I walked away. As I turned the corner to the staircase, I caught Devin’s eye from where he’d been standing, watching the whole thing.
    After school, Devin was waiting by my locker. I was relieved to see Asher was nowhere to be found.
    “Hey,” I said as I approached. “Where’s your other half?”
    “Indisposed.” He sized me up. “You seemed stressed today. Do you want to go for a walk or something?”
    “With you?”
    “Yes, of course with me.”
    “Um, okay,” I said, wondering if I was walking right into a trap. Raven’s warning echoed in my ears, but she didn’t control me. Devin was sent here to protect me and help figure out what kind of strange powers I might be developing. I couldn’t just stay away from him. Besides, it was nice that he’d noticed I was upset. I needed a friend who understood what I was going through, and at that moment, I felt so far away from Cassie, Dan, Ian, and my normal life.
    We ditched my car by the entrance to one of the trails that Aunt Jo always took people out on. It was one of my favorites—well maintained but not too heavily trafficked. It was a nice afternoon. Devin listened as I told him how freaked out I was about everything.
    “I don’t get it,” I said, dejectedly kicking a tree branch that had fallen under the weight of a pile of snow. “This isn’t working.” I knew I was being petulant, saying things just to be difficult. “Maybe I’m not as special as you think—maybe I’m really just a normal person after all.”
    “Do you really believe that?” Devin asked. “Because I don’t.”
    “Yes. No. Probably not.” I bit my lip. “It’s just not going well. None of this.” I paused and snuck a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. “And I don’t know why.”
    “He’s impulsive.” I looked up, surprised at his words. “He says and does things without thinking.” Was Devin trying to give me advice? About Asher? “It’s . . . stupid.”
    I did something kind of inappropriate. I couldn’t help it.
    I laughed.
    “What’s so funny?” He looked confused, and then slowly the firm, unwavering line of his mouth broke into a shy smile. “Are you laughing at me?” His smile widened, and then I was smiling and laughing harder.
    “Sorry.” I gasped. “Sorry! It’s just, you, trying to give advice . . .”
    “Hey,” he said. “I give good advice. That was good, right?”
    “Well, it was okay. But you didn’t really tell me what to do.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You just commented on something. You didn’t offer any constructive feedback.”
    Devin looked thoughtful.
    “How can I tell someone what to do?” he asked.
    I looked at him. He really was from another planet or something.
    “You just say, ‘Skye, suck it up,’ or ‘Skye, stop falling for idiots.’ It won’t work, but hopefully I’ll have learned something for next time.”
    “I can’t do that,” Devin said. A note of sadness crept in there somewhere.
    “Why not?”
    “I can’t tell anyone what to do. I can’t give orders.” It dawned on me what he was saying, and my smile faded. “That’s the Gifteds’ job, not mine.”
    “Oh,” I said. “Sorry.”
    “It’s certainly not your fault,” he said stiffly. I sighed. How could I get him to laugh again?
    I looked at him sideways, thinking.
    “So, unlike Asher, you’d never do anything impulsive,” I said.
    “Absolutely not. I follow my