A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

the main road. “What do you mean?”
    “Well.” Cassie took a deep breath, her eyes glinting mischievously.
    “Um, have you been gossip starved or something?”
    “I’m only getting started. There was a chemical contamination at River Springs High, right? And they had to shut it down, for like a month or so. They merged with us until it’s safe to reopen.” She met my eye in the mirror. “Some cuties, Skye,” she whispered. “That’s all I’m gonna say.”
    “Again, sitting right here,” muttered Dan.
    “I’m in a relationship, not blind, okay?” She gasped. “And now Skye is, too! We can double-date!”
    “Yay,” said Dan with mock enthusiasm.
    “Cass, what about Devin? Finish the story.”
    “Right. Anyway, he has a new girlfriend, or maybe they were even already dating . She came in with the RSH students. Her name is weird. Some hippie name. Sparrow or something.”
    The wind grew suddenly colder as it whipped through the open windows.
    “Raven?”
    “Yes! That’s it. Anyway, she must have been really popular at RSH because she doesn’t talk to anyone at Northwood. Just Devin and some kids from her school.”
    Guardians.
    “Whoa, Skye, you okay? You look like you’ve just seen . . .” But Cassie’s voice faded out, along with the houses and the swings and the tall evergreen trees ticking past. My grip on the steering wheel loosened. The wind around us picked up, lifting dead leaves into the air and surrounding us in a tunnel of wind and leaves. Suddenly I was in a dark room, with thousands of tiny lights illuminating my way. Someone’s hands were on my waist, and out of the darkness, a face took shape. First I saw the ice-blond hair. Then the blue eyes. And then I realized I was staring up at Devin. I drew him closer.
    “Have you thought any more about what I said?” I asked. His hands on my waist guided me to the right, and then again to the right, and I realized we were dancing in a slow circle. There were lights flashing around me. Was it lightning? As we danced, I grew aware that we were being watched.
    “Yes,” he said quietly. His voice was low in my ear. “I have.” The music was faint, and I struggled to place the song but I couldn’t.
    He looked down at me, but he was already fading, and the darkness was fading, and the lights were growing dim. I opened my eyes to Cassie screaming and Dan leaning across me, grasping the steering wheel.
    “Are you okay?” Cassie’s voice rang out, and her reddish hair wisped into my vision. “What’s wrong with you?”
    “Oh my god.” I exhaled, grabbing the wheel and righting it. We swerved momentarily before straightening out again on the road.
    “Skye, pull over,” Cassie said stonily. “Dan, you’re driving.”
    “I’m fine,” I muttered, pulling the car to the side of the road. “The change in altitude coming back here just hit me hard, that’s all.”
    But as I switched seats with Dan, I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. That wasn’t one of the dreams I’d been having. Those dreams always ended with Devin stabbing me. Those dreams ended with blood staining my vision red and my life flashing before my eyes.
    In this one, we seemed to be having a normal conversation. We were dancing. We were—
    It wasn’t a dream at all. It was . . . a vision. Some manifestation of powers in my mind’s eye. Like the vision of walking on the beach in my beautiful dress, of finding the dead body—it couldn’t have been real. But what were they visions of? What did they mean?
    As I sat up, a white feather smacked into the windshield before it tumbled off and was sucked away by the wind.
    In the blink of an eye, two things were suddenly clear to me:
    The first was that I had to figure out what part of me was causing these strange visions. What if I was alone in the car the next time one of them overtook me? If Dan hadn’t grabbed the steering wheel, I’d have wrapped my car around a tree. I had to figure out how to control them. If they were in any way related to my powers, maybe I could teach myself how.
    And the second thing I realized? Devin and I were going to have a reunion.

Chapter 10
    S tanding in the parking lot staring up at school felt both the same and like being in another world. I had been away only for a little more than a week, but it felt like a lifetime had gone by. The big stone arches had always felt vaguely gothic to me, and now, as I anticipated what might be waiting on the other side, they felt