A Beautiful Dark

There were a few other couples dancing around us. I didn’t usually slow dance at the Bean, and something about the whole thing felt awkwardly formal.
    Even so, as I let his cheek brush against mine, I remembered how nice it felt to wake up in bed next to him. To let him hold me.
    “Not bad, Devin,” I said, grinning.
    “Years of practice.” I couldn’t see his face.
    Decades? Centuries? Millennia? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know exactly how long he’d been around.
    He paused, slowing us down mid-turn so that we were barely moving. “I know I’ve been difficult. I’m not—I can’t do things as easily as Asher can. But I only want—” He pulled away from me, and the look in his eyes was intense. “I care about you, Skye. I don’t want you to make a bad decision.”
    “One that might lead me to the dark side?” I teased.
    But Devin didn’t laugh.
    “Just know that you’re important, and I’d do anything for you.”
    His gaze never strayed from mine. In his, I read honesty and something much more.
    When the music shifted into something with a faster beat, Devin let go of my hands. He walked away then. And like Asher, he didn’t look back.
    During the set break, Cassie jumped off the stage and ran to us. Her hair had fallen out of its bun, and her cheeks were red. “Guys!” she crowed. “What did you think?”
    “Um, Cassie, you guys are good !” Ian said.
    She did a little bow. “You like?”
    Dan was suddenly quiet, as if he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. He just kept pushing his floppy hair back and then smoothing it down, and then pushing it out of his face again. So I jumped in. “Yes! Amazing. You know we need to celebrate.”
    Cassie smiled brilliantly. “I know. I was hoping you’d say that. With your Aunt Jo away, I was thinking . . .” She glanced at Dan and then back to me.
    “Oh, no,” I said. “No way. She’ll kill me.”
    “Come onnn, Skye! We haven’t had a party since your birthday, and your house is totally empty ! Didn’t you even say yourself that it was too quiet?”
    Why was I hesitating? I’d been stressed out and anxious since my birthday, and Aunt Jo was away all the time, which was basically like asking for her kid to have a party. Didn’t she know that’s what would happen if she went away for weeks at a time?
    “Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
    “Really? Yay!” Cassie squealed. She ran back to the stage and jumped onto the platform, grabbing the mic with a little shriek. “Hey!” She called out, raising one arm to get everyone’s attention. “Party at Skye’s after the show!”
    I turned to Dan. “This is either going to be the best idea ever or a very, very bad one.”

Chapter 31

    I t turned out that my house was the perfect party spot. The big windows let the moonlight in, creating a romantic ambiance, and the lack of partition between any of the rooms kept the party traffic flowing. I made a mental note to invite everyone back in the summer when we could spill out onto the big deck that looked out over the mountains, ignoring the nagging voice that wasn’t sure where—or what—I’d be by the time summer rolled around.
    Maggie Meltzer’s older brother brought over a keg, and we stashed it in the kitchen, under the window where Raven’s face had appeared not too long ago. I hated that everywhere I looked now, my old life was peppered with reminders of my new one. No matter how much I tried to push them away.
    I stood by the keg, sipping from a red plastic cup and talking to some of the girls from the ski team. Things with Ellie had been a little tense for me since the ski trip, but she didn’t bother me quite so much anymore. Of course, the memory of walking in on her and Asher by the ice machine still made me feel nauseous. But so did the thought of Asher going back to the Rebel camp when this was all over and leaving me forever.
    Cassie came bounding up to me, sloshing beer over the side of her cup and pulling me away into a corner of the kitchen.
    “Okay,” she said. “So are you okay with everything?”
    “Mm-hmm.” I smiled.
    “I haven’t said anything all year because, well, we’re all such good friends, and I didn’t want to, you know, upset the balance.”
    “Cassie, I promise, you don’t have to worry about that.”
    “So you’re okay with it? I mean, I guess if he feels the same way, too?”
    “Are you kidding? I’m more than okay with it! And trust me, he feels the same way. You should