A Radiant Sky

23

Clouds obscured the moon that night, shrouding my room in darkness. I lay in bed for hours, but I couldn’t sleep. Earth tossed and turned in her sleeping bag, and the house seemed to creak and groan more than usual. I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one having trouble quieting their mind.

Everything was in place for prom—but it wasn’t the battle I was thinking about. Weirdly, it was something Ian had said. I guess now would be an inappropriate time to ask you to prom, huh?

If I went to prom at all, I always pictured myself going with Asher. But the next time I saw him, we were going to be fighting against each other. I never thought it would get this far.

Before I knew it, dawn was casting its wide net of light across my room.

There was a knock at my window.

At first I thought I was dreaming. Earth turned over and mumbled something in her sleep. I pulled my jersey comforter up over my head to block out the light and the noise, and burrowed under the covers. I only had a few hours left before everyone else in the house woke up. And the day of the battle would begin.

Then I heard it again, and my heart leaped into my throat. Because there was only one person I could think of who ever appeared at my window like that.

An inky black feather danced across the floorboards. . . .

I threw the covers back and vaulted out of bed. I didn’t care that I was in boxers and my old River Springs Community College sweatshirt that was faded and pilled and had holes in the wrists from sticking my thumbs through. I didn’t care that my hair was a mess, and my eyes were bleary and red from lack of sleep, or that I wasn’t wearing any makeup. I had been waiting for this. He had come back. Maybe we wouldn’t have to fight against each other after all.

Maybe, finally, this was all over.

I flung the window open wide, and let the spring air rush into my lungs. I couldn’t wait to see his face, to feel his hands on my cheeks, his thumb brush across the freckles on the bridge of my nose. I couldn’t wait to see his devious grin.

But the face that met me was kissed by the sun, his hair golden and his eyes serious. He wasn’t grinning. Because it wasn’t Asher.

It was Devin.

I must have looked confused, because he smiled sheepishly. “You were expecting someone else.” It wasn’t a question. I was too baffled to even respond. I half expected him to offer me a hand to pull me up to the roof, like Asher always did, but instead he said, “May I come in?”

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “Shouldn’t you be with the Rebels, buffing your swords or whatever?”

“Buffing our swords?”

“You know what I mean. You’re consorting with the enemy. The half-asleep enemy.”

“Um.”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “I haven’t had my coffee yet.” Devin raised his eyebrows. He looked a little bit amused. With a sigh, I stepped aside and motioned for him to climb through the window.

“Look,” he said once he had maneuvered his way between Earth’s sleeping bag and Cassie’s fortress of blankets and pillows. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now. And I don’t blame you. But since you left so upset the other night I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I told you I would make it up to you. I made a promise to you, a promise I’m going to keep.”

“Devin. Slow down. What are you talking about?”

“You told me to put my money where my mouth is. I couldn’t stand the thought of us going into battle against each other, and you thinking I’m some horrible monster.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Do you know why you never felt the coldness or the emptiness when you were with me, before—only the good feelings? Have you figured it out?”

“I . . . I don’t know,” I stammered.

He looked up at me. Pain flashed in his eyes. Something about it reminded me of Gideon. The darkness behind the crystal blue, the trauma that lingered and tortured him still.

“I found a way to take it away from you.”

For a second, I was so shocked I was sure I’d heard him wrong. When I didn’t say anything right away, he continued.

“I knew that Gideon was teaching you and that you knew how to tell if you were being influenced. When Astaroth realized that the plan didn’t work—that I didn’t kill you after all—he commanded me to keep you close, to find a way to win your affection back. I had to find a way to make you want to spend time with me, to trust me, when I knew you didn’t. Skye, I know this is going to sound weird, but if they hadn’t forced me to, I don’t know if I ever would have spoken to you again.”

“It’s not weird,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m . . . I’m grateful for it.”

His mouth twisted in a painful smile. “I found a way to do it without you knowing. But it meant I had to sacrifice something for you. I was able to pull away your emptiness, to take it out of you, so all you felt when you were with me was good. I’m the one who felt cold and empty. I took your pain as my own. And you never knew.”

All I could do was stand there quietly, letting his words sink in. Earth turned over in her sleeping bag, and Cassie snored loudly.

“Can I ask you something?” I said finally. “The early days? The ones before you—” I paused, and he nodded uncomfortably before I had to say more. “Everything between us then—that was all real?”

“Every minute of it,” he said. “But so much has happened since then. I know those moments are lost now, forever.”

My eyes began to fill with unexplainable tears.

“I know,” I said. “It wasn’t always easy, but—I’ll always keep those memories someplace safe.” He had been looking at the ground, but now he looked up at me. Those blue eyes of his always had a way of piercing right to my heart. When our eyes met, I knew it was true. I would always hold them close.

“So will I,” he said.

“I guess I’ll see you next in battle.”

“What?” He frowned. “Skye, I’m here because I’m leaving the Rebellion.”

“Where are you going?” I gasped. “You mean you’re not going to fight?”

“Oh, I’m still going to fight. But I’m going to fight with you.”

For a second, I was sure I hadn’t heard him right. But as the words sunk in, I thought I understood.

“You really are a Rebel now, aren’t you?”

“It would appear so, yes.” He grinned at me, almost shyly. His eyes were so impossibly blue. “Who’d have thought that I would finally become a real rebel, just as I’m leaving them?”

The floorboards creaked behind me, and Devin looked up sharply. I whipped around to see Raven, hovering in the doorway.

“Devin?” she said softly, standing there self-consciously in her borrowed T-shirt and pajama pants. Her lower lip trembled. When I turned back around to Devin, his eyes looked glassy.

“Hey,” he said. He moved toward her quickly and they stood facing each other.

“You came.”

“I had to. Raven, I—I’ve been so confused. I didn’t know what love, real love, was until I jumped from the Order. For so long, I confused love and longing. For what I couldn’t have. And who I couldn’t be. But Skye was right—I didn’t know what it meant to love, not really. I thought it was winning. But love is falling, isn’t it? It’s giving up what you’ve fought so hard to control—and being okay with that. Since being free, I’ve realized something, Raven. We’re a team. We always have been. And I—I need you.” She crossed her arms and snorted. “I know, you probably never want to see me again after what I did to you,” Devin continued. “But if there’s a chance . . . even a small one . . .”

Raven looked up at him, a bewildered expression on her face.

“What do you want, Devin?” she asked.

“We were forced together by fate. But somewhere along the way, I fell for you, Raven. I want to be able to choose you.”

She put her hand on her hip.

“Do you mean it?”

Devin’s eyes lit up and a smile tugged tentatively at his lips.

“Do you forgive me?”

She opened her mouth to argue, but suddenly seemed to change her mind. Instead, she grabbed his face and pulled him toward her, and he wove his fingers through her glossy blond hair, and they kissed. And when they pulled away, they were both smiling.

“I’ll think about it,” Raven said. “But only because we’re about to go to war.”

My heart filled with an ache I couldn’t control. It was both happy and sad, full of contentment and a deep, gaping emptiness. Love doesn’t have to destroy worlds. It can bring them together.

Something tugged at my sweatshirt, and I looked down to see a pair of messy brown pigtails. And then, Earth’s innocent face tilted up at me.

“You don’t have to wait for him,” she said.

“Wait for Devin? I think it’s safe to say that’s over, Earth.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Not him. Asher. You don’t have to wait for him to come back.”

That sounded familiar. Hadn’t Aunt Jo said almost the exact same thing?

Remember what I said, Skye? About following your own star? You don’t have to wait for him.

I’d thought she’d been telling me to forget about Asher, to move on with my life. But now I understood that she had meant the exact opposite. She was telling me to go get him. Devin had done it, even though the odds were stacked against him. Couldn’t I? There was a chance that Asher had turned, that he believed in the Rebellion more than he believed in us. There was a chance that he had hurt me and that he might do it again.

But if there was a chance for us—even a small one—it was a chance I had to take.

And suddenly, I couldn’t stand there another second. I could make my own destiny.

“Devin.” It was painful for me to say it. “I need your help. One last thing, while you’re still kind of a Rebel.”

“Of course,” he said. “Anything.”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t know if the past was real or what the future held. But right then, in my heart, I knew what I needed to do.

I needed to find him. I needed to fight for him. In the time I had left, I had to show him how much I cared.

I needed to prove it.

“Help me find Asher.”

Devin and Raven looked at each other and squeezed hands. Then Devin turned to me and grinned.

“Let’s go get him, Skye,” he said.