A Beautiful Dark

blur destiny. It must be. But then what was it about my flash at the hospital parking lot that had made Raven call them, bring me here? What had that been?
    It was clear to me why the Order wanted me. I had a power that they wanted to control and to keep safe. Because if they didn’t, it could cause chaos for them. Chaos that the Rebellion, I was sure, would love to get their hands on.
    The truth hit me so fast I never saw it coming.
    Asher didn’t care about saving me from the Order. He wanted to use me as a weapon against them. He’d said as much, but I hadn’t fully understood it.
    “No!” I shouted before I had a chance to think twice.
    “No?” The collective murmur rose from the group.
    “I choose neither!” I cried. “You killed my parents!” I pointed at Astaroth, letting my gaze fall in the process on Devin. He flinched. I turned to Asher. “And you don’t care about me at all. You’ve been using me. You lied to me this whole time.”
    Asher looked like I’d smacked him across the face, but I didn’t care. “I want nothing to do with either side. I want my life back!”
    “I’m afraid that’s impossible,” the Gifted One said. “But if you refuse to choose—we will choose for you.”
    “Get her!” The Rebel Elder said frantically, turning to Asher with a rising fury.
    “Don’t touch me!” I flared at him.
    “He has a mission,” the Elder growled. “He must complete it.”
    Asher stepped forward, between us, one hand on my arm. I flung him away. A day ago, I couldn’t let him go. But now I never wanted him to touch me again.
    “What about your ability to choose? Or is that only when it’s convenient?” I demanded.
    “There’s so much you don’t understand, Skye.”
    I felt my temper rising.
    “Oh, I understand. Much better than you think. So tell me. Is that all I am to you?” I cried. “A mission? Some way to earn cosmic brownie points for the Rebellion?”
    “Skye, no!” Asher saw it just before I began to feel it. My temper. The rumbling of the earth underneath us. I felt something overwhelming rush through my body. “Control it! Flip the switch!”
    Everything I’d been holding inside since this whole thing began finally burst out of me. I knew my eyes were flashing silver. I could feel the electricity surging through them just as the earth began to quake.
    Astaroth was staring me down from the opposite end of the clearing. The earth shook beneath us, and outside the clearing, I could hear a tree or two cracking thunderously as it fell to the ground.
    I couldn’t have stopped it even if I’d wanted to. The power raged within me, and I felt everything pouring out of me all at once. Anger for disrupting my perfect world. For being forced to abandon my friends. My home. For not having an easy choice, and for caring about Devin and Asher when they only wanted me for the power each side stood to gain. For looking into the unknown and not having any idea how it would unfold. For not ever realizing what I would become.
    Clouds rolled menacingly across the clear blue sky, shrouding us in darkness as rain began to pummel the ground. And I realized what it was I was capable of. The Order had mental control. The Rebellion had taught themselves to control the elements. And me? I could disrupt all of those things. Blur out the Order’s control over destiny. Disrupt the Rebellion’s power over the elements, draw power from the earth itself, heat from its core, shifting the weather. And what else? Because I knew somehow that this strange mix of powers didn’t stop there. I was capable of much more. More I didn’t even know about yet.
    My life had been controlled by someone else since the very day I was born. Call it fate, call it manipulation, call it the choices of others. The Order and the Rebellion had always watched me. They’d molded and shaped my life to unfold exactly how they’d wanted. How it would best suit them. My birth, my parents’ death, coming to live with Aunt Jo—my friendships with Cassie and Dan.
    Even falling in love.
    Everything I thought had been real—everything that made me me —had been a lie. Both sides wanted me. Both sides were at fault. The Order wanted to keep me under close watch to prevent the Rebellion from grabbing hold of me. And the Rebellion wanted to use me to fight the Order every step of the way.
    That’s what Raven had meant this whole time. That’s why no one would tell me. It was all part of the plan. And both sides