A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

me, I’d seen it with my own eyes. And if it would be anyone there beside me, it would be Ian. Loyal, observant Ian, always watching, noticing when something was wrong, just a step or two behind. A strange and sudden thought occurred to me, then. Could Ian be a Rogue, like Aunt Jo? A little bit alone, a little bit out of sync, and quick to notice angelic powers like my eyes—even if he didn’t know what he was seeing? They both shared a particular hatred for Asher, that’s for sure. A Rogue’s hatred.
    “I’m behind you one hundred percent, Skye,” he said, moving beside me and Raven. “And I always have been. I’ll die fighting alongside you.” He put his arm around me and grinned.
    “So will I,” said Aunt Jo. “I always said you should follow your own star. And I don’t belong to either faction—the Rebellion or the Order. I’ve always been somewhere in between.”
    “Skye?” Asher said, and I turned to face him finally. He looked like he was fighting back something massive within him. My heart ached. In a perfect world, there would be no Order and no Rebellion. There would be no division of sides, nothing standing between us. But I knew I was making the right choice. “I love you,” he said. His voice shook with effort. “I love you so much, it’s like my whole life was just leading up to the moment I met you. And then as soon as I did, I lived in fear, every day, that you would be taken away from me.” He looked down. “I just never thought you’d be the one to do it.”
    “I love you, too, Asher,” I whispered. Somewhere, by the edges of the clearing, I could hear Cassie sigh, and the shards of my heart were breaking into smaller, sharper pieces. I felt like my whole body was breaking. But I had to stay strong. “I have to do this.”
    Asher’s hand fell, finally, to his side, and hung there without purpose, as if its entire reason for being had suddenly been taken away. Beside him, Devin put a hand on his back. I was finally able to see all of the emotions in his eyes, everything he could now let himself feel. And beneath the concern, I saw something else. Hope. But was it hope for me? For the Rebellion? For the fate of the universe? Was he hoping I could save it—or hoping that there was still a chance for us now that he was free to love?
    I couldn’t think about those things just yet. They would have to wait. I had a mission now, of my own.
    I looked at Ian and Raven and Aunt Jo. They stood on either side of me, hands poised at their sides, and for the first time, I felt purpose. I finally had a clear direction. I knew who we were and the journey we were about to embark on.
    We weren’t light, and we weren’t dark. We were the in-between. We were something fractured and put back together again, better, stronger, illuminating the night.

Acknowledgments
    H EARTFELT THANKS (AND HUGS) go to:
    The team at Harper, especially Karen Chaplin, Andrea Martin, Barbara Lalicki, and Marisa Russell.
    Colin Anderson and Erin Fitzsimmons, for your breathtaking vision.
    Maria Gomez, for being a phone call away.
    The readers, bloggers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers who supported A Beautiful Dark —and all of your wonderful emails, tweets, postcards, and messages!
    Dark Days cohorts extraordinaire Amy Vincent, Kiersten White, and Amy Garvey, for being the best late-night-empty-Italian-restaurant-dinner-company a girl could have, and providing inspiration, support, and raucous, delirious, sleep-deprived laughter.
    Anne Heltzel, Jess Rothenberg, Leila Sales, and Rebecca Serle, for rooftop wine, stoop coffee, cheese anytime, advice, tips, photo ops, horse-dancing, puns, panicked phone calls—I’m so glad we found one another.
    My friends near and far—from Boston to Snug Harbor, from Chicago to DC to San Fran to right down the block; from the booth at Heidelberg to the halls of Page to caaandyhouse to sharing a cubicle wall. Whether I take the subway, the B63, or the Bolt Bus to see you, thank you for reading, for cheering me on—and reminding me that life is meant to be lived (in addition to being written about). If I know how to write about friends convincingly, if I understand friendship at all , it’s because of you guys.
    And always, Jody and Lee Davies, Shelby Davies, Sandra and Mark Messler, and the Sigler clan. With so much love.

Credits
    Cover art © 2012 by Colin Anderson
Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright
    HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins