A Beautiful Dark

“Mine! I lived and they didn’t! I did this to them! And you have no right—”
    And then it all came crashing down on me. Coincidence? What had Devin said—the Order works in circuitous ways? They caused Cassie’s car accident. Was it possible that . . .
    “The Order killed my parents,” I said numbly. “They orchestrated that car crash. Just like they did Cassie’s.”
    “Bravo.” Raven burst into applause. “You deserve a big gold star.”
    “They wanted me dead, too, didn’t they? They saw something about me, and they wanted to prevent my powers from ever emerging.”
    “Oh, they were right about you!” Raven cooed. “So very smart.”
    “But I didn’t die.”
    “No, you didn’t die.”
    “How come?”
    For the first time, Raven looked slightly uncomfortable. “No one knows. The Gifted saw that you would die alongside your parents. But then . . . you didn’t. It was the first and only time this has ever happened. It’s why they wanted to watch you so closely. To see what would develop. Until . . .”
    “Until what?”
    “Now they can’t read your future at all anymore.”
    “I already know that.”
    “Good for you. But did you already know, ” she said this mockingly, “that they can’t read the future of those around you, either? You’re blurring the destinies of others.”
    I inhaled sharply. “I am?”
    “You’ve certainly changed Devin’s destiny,” said Raven, leveling me with an even gaze. “The Gifted can no longer see it. And it’s only since he’s been around you.”
    I swallowed hard.
    “He used to be mine,” she snarled. “And you took him from me.”
    “I didn’t take him!” I protested. “He isn’t mine.”
    “You’d be surprised,” she said, “how much he is.”
    Silence echoed between us.
    “What?” I whispered.
    “Devin is a Guardian, like me. We do not act on our own whims. The choices we make are not our own.” She paused, and I thought I detected a sadness creeping into her voice as she said, “Everything is decided for us. And whatever feelings are growing inside of him are going to destroy him. I know him well enough to know that.” Her eyes grew hard again.
    “Feelings?” My heart hammered at my rib cage. What was she talking about?
    “Yes. You’re causing him to do things, things he’s not supposed to do. They ordered him to sabotage the brakes. Luckily I checked. If they found out he disobeyed a direct order . . . I don’t even want to think about what they’d do to him. It would not be pleasant. I can tell you that.”
    “If they can’t see his destiny, then how do they know that what he’s feeling for me isn’t what he’s supposed to feel?”
    “Because they could see it at one time. They lost sight of it only right before your seventeenth birthday. It’s got something to do with your eyes.”
    Flashing silver. Little silver bells. When they ring, we’ll know.
    “That’s why they’re watching you so closely. Because you are a dangerous girl, Skye Parker. Very, very dangerous to them.”
    “Why would they wait until my sixth birthday to try to kill me?”
    “Oh, Skye, silly Skye. They tried to kill you lots before then. That one just had the most . . . collateral damage. The Gifteds’ sight is perfect, but sometimes sloppy Guardians come and mess. It. Up.” She held up the brakes to the car.
    “And they haven’t tried to kill me since.”
    “Well, after that day, they knew you were more special than they’d ever realized. They wanted to see what happened.”
    “Why are you doing this?” I asked.
    “Because,” she said. “Someone has to. And they told me to.”
    “I thought Devin was the Guardian they sent to watch me.”
    “ I thought you were catching on, Skye. They sent Devin for an entirely different reason. Think about it. Haven’t you gotten all of your information from me—not him?”
    Could she be right? My heart hammered away. What if Devin wasn’t sent here to protect me after all?
    “He was supposed to lure you—make you want him enough that you would willingly come over to our side.”
    Could he have been playing me all along? But if so, why hadn’t he followed the order about Cassie’s brakes?
    “Anyway,” she said. “Hope your Aunt Jo’s okay. Pity about that trip leader of hers breaking her leg in that nasty fall. What was it? A faulty carabiner? And now Jo is out in the woods with no way to reach you? I do hope nothing happens to her.”
    Anger unlike