A Beautiful Dark

been hard for you, but I want to see you make a breakthrough today. I want you to impress me. Show me what you can do .”
    “Come on,” Asher said, spreading his enormous wings and shaking off a dusting of snow. “Enough with the speeches. You know what you have to do, Skye. Remember what I told you. Close your eyes. Find the switch. Flip it.”
    “Why do you guys care so much? If I fail to ever demonstrate any control, is someone going to shout, ‘Off with her head!’”
    They both shuffled their feet, looking uncomfortable.
    I planted my hands on my hips. “Seriously? Is that what’s going to happen?”
    “No,” Devin assured me. “It’s just important that your powers emerge. What they are will decide your destiny.”
    “You mean my powers will decide who I get to fly off into the sunset with? What if I don’t want to go with either one of you?”
    “You have a choice only if you have powers associated with both the light and the dark,” Devin said, his voice losing some of its cool detachment.
    I flung my hand at Asher. “The Rebellion originally had powers of the light and they chose to jump into the darkness. So if I have only one power why can’t I jump into whichever path I want?”
    “You can,” Asher said. “But if you jump to the opposite side, you’ll lose that power.”
    “But I have a choice.”
    “Yes,” he said.
    “No,” Devin said at the same time.
    He glared at both of us. “If you exhibit the power of the Gifted, you belong with the Order.”
    “It doesn’t matter at this point,” Asher said, clearly frustrated. “The Elders are wise. They know things. Things they haven’t told Devin or me. Our mission is to help you find your powers. So please, try to call forth your powers.”
    So I did.
    I closed my eyes and searched the darkness behind my lids for what I hoped was there. I had no idea what I was looking for.
    When I opened them, Asher and Devin were staring at me.
    “Did I do anything?”
    I thought I could actually hear crickets chirping in the woods surrounding us.
    “No,” Devin said with a sigh, his brow furrowing. “Try it again.”
    I stared at him in anger, my frustration pulsing just beneath my skin. If only I could focus that energy, I could get rid of Devin and my problems would go away. If I could just flip the switch and with one swift motion . . .
    At that precise second, a boulder resting on the edge of an overhang above us rolled over the edge, tumbling right toward Devin. And everything happened so fast, it felt as if time were overlapping back on itself, everything occurring all at once .
    My hand shot out instinctively in front of me.
    Something was surging out of my palm.
    Asher shouted something in a blur of winged blackness.
    Devin suddenly wasn’t where he’d been.
    And the boulder stopped in midair. Stopped. Just like that.
    Stopped in midair and reversed direction. It lofted on the wind and was borne back to its perch on the overhang, where it sat calmly, as if nothing had happened.
    Asher and Devin stood with their mouths agape, staring at me.
    “What did you do?” Devin demanded. “How did you do that?”
    “Not bad,” Asher said, smirking. “Maybe next time, you could forget to reverse the rock, though, save us all from Devin.”
    “Do it again,” said Devin, ignoring Asher. “Whatever you just did, I want you to do it again.”
    I tried over and over again to recreate the moment, but I couldn’t—what ran through my head was the fear that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from letting the boulder run Devin over this time.
    “Try harder!” Devin yelled, and several small icicles fell from the branches as his voice echoed across the clearing. “You have to try harder !”
    “I am!” I cried. “I don’t know what else you want from me! I am doing the best I can !”
    “I won’t accept that,” Devin said, his eyes shifting behind me, unfocused. “You have something in you. . . .” He paused, and I suddenly realized what a struggle this was for him. He looked like he was barely in control. Across the clearing, Asher was watching us. “I know it’s there, Skye. Why don’t you?” Devin’s eyes glittered, and I was reminded of how different he was when it was just the two of us. The night I slept on the far side of the bed and woke up in his arms. “You must”—he paused between each word—“keep trying . Or else I don’t know—”
    “Are we done?” Asher sauntered up. He fixed