A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

a second. It was like he was here and, at the same time, so many miles away from where we stood. I shifted slightly, my feet crunching on the gravel. His eyes refocused on me as if suddenly remembering I was there. “Come on. I’ll walk you home. It’s dark.”
    I was grateful for his company. He was smaller than Asher but tough and wiry. The intense look in his eyes remained. An idea was already forming in my mind. I just hoped he’d agree to go along with it.
    When we got to the front door, I turned to him.
    “Ardith told me . . . about your past,” I said, trying to think of a way to say what I was thinking.
    “Yeah,” said Gideon, adjusting his glasses nervously. “I thought she might.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s okay. It’s good that you know.”
    “I was hoping,” I began. “Would you help me? Will you teach me the tricks you learned? How to fight them?”
    The look in Gideon’s eyes folded inward to some private place. Pain flashed across his face, like he was reliving something terrible.
    “It isn’t easy,” he said finally. “It took me a long time to learn. And there are . . .” He paused. “Side effects.”
    “Please,” I said plaintively. “I need your help. It’s the only way I can take control of all of this.” I spread my arms to encompass, well, everything. “I don’t want to be vulnerable again, Gideon. What if next time you aren’t there to fend him off?”
    He looked at me as if trying to appraise whether or not I was worthy. After a couple of seconds, the look in his eyes softened, and he was once again the boy I’d met at school. Poor Gideon. My heart felt so heavy with the weight of his story, I almost wished Ardith hadn’t told me.
    “I—I want you to be as strong as you can be,” he said. “But I don’t know if I—if I’m ready. I have to think about it. I need some time.”
    My hopes fell.
    “Okay,” I said. “I understand. But when you’re ready? I hope you’ll find me.”
    “I will,” he said. “I will.”
     
    There was a strange energy buzzing through me as I stalked around the house that night. It all felt finally within my grasp—so close I could reach out and touch it. I was taking steps to control my own destiny. Soon I wasn’t going to be confused anymore.
    Aunt Jo was still tense and standoffish. I didn’t know why. She had been okay the night I’d come home—mad but happy I was safe and alive. Was it only just sinking in for her? Or was it something else? This new tension had started right around the night Asher had come over. Was it possible her anger had something to do with him? It didn’t make any sense. Asher was charming—even the most difficult of teachers loved him. So why didn’t Aunt Jo?
    I locked myself in my room to try to tackle some of the mountains of catch-up work I’d been assigned, but my mind wandered and I couldn’t focus. Eventually I gave up and got ready for bed early, wondering if Asher would come. I hadn’t seen him since study hall, and I realized, laughing to myself, that I missed him. So this is what it feels like , I thought, a small private smile stealing across my lips.
    I didn’t want to spend my time away from him. Every minute that passed was one minute closer to the next time I’d see him again.
    When I got back from the bathroom, freshly showered and with my hair knotted on top of my head, I paused. There was something dark resting on my pillow. As I drew closer, I noticed it was a small, delicate, purple flower—the kind that grew along the side of our house in the spring.
    It was the same kind of flower that Devin had tried to get me to resurrect. My powers had failed me, and when I’d opened my hands, the flower was still cold and lifeless, a withered brown. The flowers around our house didn’t appear to be in bloom yet, so they definitely wouldn’t be as purple or alive as the flower that lay on my pillow now. This one had been brought back to life. By a Guardian.
    Was it a threat? Or did it mean something else? My mind reeled as I wondered if it was Devin’s way of asking for a chance to explain. Did I really want him to?
    I placed the flower with the other artifacts I’d been collecting on my dresser: the white feather and the notebook. The confusing ephemera of my life.
    I got under the covers and switched off my bedside lamp, but I couldn’t quiet my mind. The energy from my run and the adrenaline from everything after pulsed in my ears. Where was Asher?
    If Gideon