A Beautiful Dark

orders. I never stray from them.”
    “What do you do when something unexpected happens?”
    “The Gifted can see our destinies so we always know what is going to happen.”
    “Soooo . . . you know that I’m going to do this?” I scooped up a mound of snow, quickly packed it into a ball, and hurled it at him.
    It broke apart, leaving a burst of snowflakes on his jacket.
    He stared at me as though I’d lobbed a fireball at him. “What did you do that for?”
    Now it was my turn to stare. “You’ve never been in a snowball fight?”
    “Why would I?”
    “Uh, because it’s fun?” I gathered up more snow and tossed it at him.
    He sidestepped.
    “Now you’re getting it.” I attacked again. “Throw some snow at me. Or can you not—if you haven’t been ordered to?” I taunted.
    “We can defend ourselves,” he said, slowly breaking into a grin.
    “Oh yeah? Show me.”
    As he bent down, I took cover behind a tree—which apparently confused him, based on the deep furrow of his brow when he looked up. “Why did you hide?”
    “Because we’re at war and my strategy is to hide.”
    He dropped the snow he’d been gathering, threw his hands up, and all the snow that had been on the branches above my head cascaded over me. With a shriek, I backpedaled away from the tree.
    “Not fair!”
    He was laughing. Deeply and richly. He didn’t stop even when my next snowball hit him square in the face.
    Snow was suddenly swirling around me, a whirlpool of white. I was at a disadvantage. My fledgling powers couldn’t compete with his. So I lowered my shoulder and charged toward him.
    It was something else the Gifted apparently hadn’t foreseen—because I smacked into him and we both tumbled into the snow. His laughter abruptly stopped. Everything stopped.
    As I straddled him, I was acutely aware of the stillness: his, mine, the woods. His arms were around me, holding me to him. Our faces mere inches away. His eyes were that incredible blue beneath a layer of ice. I wanted to fall into them. Find the peace and tranquility they offered. Leave schoolwork and bruised hearts and insecurities behind.
    “What’s your world like?” I asked.
    “Beautiful,” he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “We know our destinies so we don’t have to worry about the future. We all follow the rules, so no one is hurt and there are no unexpected consequences. It’s an eternal state of bliss. Nothing is unplanned or unexpected.”
    “And you’re happy there?”
    “I love it there. We have no jealousies, no pettiness. When I walk through the school here, I’m bombarded with anger and envy. I overhear people saying unkind things about one another. Here people are mean, cruel. Selfish. With the order, there is a beautiful lightness to our being.”
    “Your zen state,” I said, smiling.
    “Something like that. Yes.” Tentatively, he reached up and cradled my cheek in his hand. His palm was warm, his fingers gentle. His thumb neared the corner of my mouth and I had a feeling that he wanted to trail it over my lips. The blue in his eyes deepened. “My descriptions don’t do it justice. I want to be able to share it with you. I want to share so much with you.”
    He blinked as though he’d been in a trance. The intense moment between us faded. He shook his head. “I guess this means you won.”
    “Yeah, of course,” I said, forcing myself to disguise the shaking in my voice. My body quivered.
    I thought I’d felt confused before, but now it was even worse. I thought I’d been falling for Asher—but now, here with Devin, I wasn’t sure what I felt.
    They were so different. Light and dark. Peace and chaos. If I had a choice, I didn’t know which I would choose. Would my powers choose for me?
    Gathering my wandering thoughts, I smiled brightly. “I knew I’d kick your butt.”
    I rolled off him and shoved myself to my feet, avoiding eye contact as he got up. I wondered if he’d been able to read my thoughts. How embarrassing that would be. I glanced around.
    The sunlight peeked through the cracks in the trees as it sank lower in the sky. It was nearing sunset.
    “Hey, do you want to try something?” he asked hesitantly, and I wondered if he was grappling with the same emotions that were overwhelming me.
    Slowly I turned around. “Sure. Okay.”
    “Over here.”
    He took my hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do. We walked toward one of the largest trees and stopped at a