A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

for never being able to understand. And most of all, my fear of all of this—of being the powerful blend of light and dark that would sway the outcome of a war. Of becoming Great with a capital G. Being Great wasn’t going to bring my parents back. It wasn’t going to make me closer to my friends. And it really wasn’t going to make it any easier for me to let myself trust anyone.
    A gentle warmth began to bloom in the palms of my hands. I opened my eyes.
    Entirely on my own, I had created fire. I held it in front of me like it was an offering to Asher and Ardith. They looked at each other.
    “I need to go home,” I said.
    “Okay.” Asher relented. “Okay. We’ll take you home. But we’re going to need—”
    “Gideon,” said Ardith, quietly. “We’re going to need Gideon.”

Chapter 6
    W e’d officially made a decision, and Asher and Ardith kicked into gear.
    “We’ll fly you home,” said Asher. “No one can see us unless we reveal ourselves to them. We’ll be able to get you back there safely.”
    “I’ll summon Gideon,” Ardith said. “He can go ahead and secure the area, and we’ll meet up with him there.”
    “You sure you want to do this, Skye?” Asher put both hands on my shoulders and looked at me pointedly. “Home won’t be like it used to. It’s not the River Springs you knew and loved. It’s not yours anymore. It’s the Order’s. Guardians will be everywhere. You have to be aware, everywhere you go.” His eyes were serious and deep as he searched mine. “You’re on borrowed time.”
    I took a deep breath. “I know what I need to do.”
    Asher nodded. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll go tonight.”
    Ardith went off to contact Gideon, and Asher took my hand. “I almost don’t want to leave this cabin,” he said. “There’s something about it—”
    “I know.”
    “It’s like our little place. Where we can just . . .”
    “ Be ,” I finished.
    “Yeah.” He pulled me toward him and wrapped his arms around me. I lay my cheek against his chest. “I just want to protect you, Skye. All I want is to keep you safe. But I also want to see you be as awesome as I know you can be, and if that means going back to River Springs and all the things that might come between us, then that’s what we have to do. But . . . can I just show you one thing before we go?”
    “Of course,” I said.
    I looked up into his eyes, and the air grew suddenly misty and cold. Now that we’d stopped talking, a deafening roar crashed in my ears.
    “Asher, what—” I turned around to take in my surroundings, and my jaw dropped. “Where are we? How did you do that?”
    We were at the top of a huge cliff. Water spilled down over the side in huge, driving waves, pounding into a whirlpool below.
    “Do you like it?” Asher asked.
    “It’s unbelievable,” I said, letting the mist fall against my face. “It’s gorgeous.”
    “This is what I did while you were unconscious.”
    For just a second my heart stopped. “You what?”
    “Before you woke up,” he said, eyeing me, tentatively gauging my reaction. “I couldn’t sleep. When it was Ardith’s turn to watch you, I would come out here in the woods, at night. I needed to do something. To feel like I could control something . The thought of losing you . . .” He grazed his thumb along my cheek.
    I squeezed his hand. “You made this for me?”
    “I made it because I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was struggling with so many . . . feelings, I guess, and I had no idea what to do with them.” He paused and looked around, surveying his work. “I could have kept going, but you woke up. And then I needed to be with you.”
    “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
    He had told me he loved me, but it wasn’t until this moment that I really knew what that meant. The water crashed around us, wild, impossible to control. He shrugged. “Don’t say anything.” He gestured at the waterfall, the cliff, and the jagged rocks below. “Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “This way.” We wended our way down a path in the side of the cliff that took us to the bottom. Asher held back branches for me when they hung too low, so they wouldn’t snap back in my face. Something had changed while I’d been unconscious. Asher had certainly never held back during our training or treated me in any special way. Now, it was almost as if he was afraid of breaking me. All of a sudden, I was fragile to him. Something that needed