A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

could she possibly give me advice like that about Asher? She didn’t know him at all! She thought she had him pegged, but there was so much more to him than what she saw.
    I looked up, and Asher was standing by the railing. His foot was tapping.
    “I thought I’d surprise you after practice,” he said, shrugging.
    “How much did you hear?” I asked.
    “Oh, everything.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I have no idea why she’s being that way.”
    “Don’t be. She’s just being protective. I’m the same way.” He looked a little sheepish. “Do you forgive me?” he asked. “For the other night? I don’t like keeping things from you, but honestly there’s not a lot I know.”
    I looked down. I felt so, so terrible. Asher would never betray me the way Devin had. Why was I suddenly acting this way all over again?
    “I know,” I said. “And I do. Forgive you. I’m sorry, too.”
    “Come here.” He sat down and pulled me into his lap in the Adirondack chair, wrapping his arms around me. We stared out at the mountains as the peaks began to turn pink with the sunset. I leaned my cheek against his chest and sighed.
    “I think this is my favorite place,” I said. “Here, with you. It may be my favorite place in the whole world.”
    “Yeah,” Asher said. “Mine, too. And I’ve been a lot of places.” He squeezed me. “But only as long as we’re together. Otherwise it’s just a sunset.”
    “I don’t want to watch any more sunsets without you,” I said quietly. I felt him kiss the top of my head.
    “Me either, Skye,” he whispered into my hair.
     
    I tried so hard to keep my focus the rest of the week. It was difficult, and there were a lot of rainstorms because of it.
    Asher loved creating fire—it was his signature move. But my favorite element to control was the weather—the storms in particular. I could feel the lightning aching in my fingertips and surging across the sky. For once, my name didn’t feel like such a coincidence. It felt like something massive, so much larger than me or my problems. When I could think a simple thought and cause rain to fall from the sky, I felt so connected to the earth and to the forces of nature surrounding me.
    Standing in the middle of the field, soaking wet and beaming, I would look at Asher and see his eyes flashing. With the lightning crashing around me, the sheer force of everything I felt for him would threaten to topple me, and I drew from it. I knew my feelings for Asher made my powers stronger, and he knew it, too. We fed off each other.
    “You’re killing it,” he’d whisper into my ear as he helped me draw the strength I needed to inspire a clap of thunder so loud it knocked my teeth together. “You’ll be the strongest Rebel yet.”
    “Tell me what we’re preparing for,” I asked over and over again. “Tell me what’s coming.”
    “I don’t know,” he kept repeating. “I don’t know what’s coming, yet.”
    I knew he was hiding the truth from me. And my annoyance would cause the sky to crack, and Asher would grasp my hands tightly in his, and the power surged between us, so that there was no difference between love and anger, frustration and joy. It was all the same when we were together. It was exactly what he’d said that day back at the cabin. It was a partnership.
    I hadn’t yet told him about what, exactly, I’d seen in my visions. I wasn’t sure he’d understand. I hadn’t had one in a few days, and I was thinking about this one day in the field as we worked silently, side by side, at manipulating the size and shape of raindrops. If I concentrated hard enough, could I force myself to have a vision? And if I could, what would that mean? Did any other Guardians have the same kinds of visions? I knew I shouldn’t, but I needed to talk to a Guardian about what I was seeing. I still needed to talk to Devin.
     
    When the house was dark and quiet that night, I opened the door to my room just a crack. No light shone under the door of Aunt Jo’s room, which meant she wasn’t up late reading. Here was my chance. I needed a way to talk to Devin outside of school, where Guardians and Rebels might be watching us. I’d blurred his destiny—the Gifted wouldn’t be able to track where he was. As long as we met outside of school, we were fine.
    At least that’s what I told myself.
    I waited ten minutes to make sure Aunt Jo really was asleep before tiptoeing through the front door. Summoning my dark powers, I caused a