A Radiant Sky

by Jocelyn Davies

There was a phone number listed next to it. I took out my cell phone and dialed. The phone rang a couple of times, and then a little girl’s voice picked up.

  “Hi, you’ve reached the Wards. We’re not here right now . . .” In background, I heard a man’s voice prompt:

  “But if you leave a message . . .”

  “Oh, right. But if you leave a message,” she continued, “we’ll call you back!”

  I opened my mouth to leave a message, but thought better of it and hung up quickly. What exactly was I planning to say?

  As I stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder, a thought suddenly occurred to me. What if the girl had a mom? How could I not have thought of it before? What if Aaron Ward had a whole new family out in Rocky Pines, and was perfectly happy to never see Aunt Jo again?

  What if he didn’t want to come back?

  Below me, the bell rang for the end of the period. That meant I had ten minutes until the next one began. I had the whole rest of the day to figure out what to do about Aaron. I didn’t have to have an answer right now.

  I kicked the brick aside and let the door close behind me, then snuck back down the stairs and into the crowded hallway.

  Someone grabbed me from behind.

  By instinct, I elbowed them in the stomach and turned around.

  “Jeez,” Ian panted. “I was going to tell you to watch your back, but it looks like I didn’t need to warn you after all.”

  “Sorry!” I cried. “Are you okay?”

  “You might have broken a rib. Other than that, some wounded pride maybe. Nothing a little flattery won’t fix.”

  “Your freckles are looking especially handsome today, Ian.”

  “That’s a good start.”

  “How about this? I think I know where Aaron Ward is. Will you come with me to find him?”

  Ian batted his eyelashes. “Li’l old me?”

  “I haven’t asked anyone else. Not even Cassie.”

  Ian grinned. “Okay, my pride has totally healed. I’ll definitely come.”

  “You’re the best!”

  “Hey,” Ian said, his face growing serious. “Speaking of that, can I talk to you for a second?”

  I glanced at the clock. “I’m going to be late for—”

  “Just a minute.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “It was driving me crazy all night. The name James Harrison—it sounded so familiar. I thought he was a politician. A president or something.”

  “I think you’re thinking of James Madison,” I said.

  “Yeah, I realized that. I was racking my brain. Finally when I got home, I asked my mom if maybe he was an old doctor or a family friend or something.”

  I paused. Suddenly, my heart was pounding.

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  Ian took a deep breath and met my gaze.

  “He was my dad.”

  5

  “What?”

  The white noise of the hallway was ringing in my ears.

  “That was my dad’s name,” Ian said. “He left, you know. I don’t know if I ever told you. I had just turned seven. The timing works.” No, he had never told me. And he knew it.

  “How come you never said anything?”

  “Look, the third Rogue you’re looking for—that could be my dad.”

  Ian never talked about his family. I knew he lived with his mom, but he never talked about her. We hadn’t been friends since kindergarten like me, Cassie, and Dan. We’d all started at Northwood freshman year, and he and Dan had become buddies through track. We’d been to his house a couple of times, but mostly we all congregated at mine.

  “I—I didn’t know that,” I said. “I guess I—”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ian cut me off quickly. “I just thought you would want to know, in case it helps.”

  I hesitated before asking the next question. “Ian,” I said. “You know this means . . . that you could be part . . .” I wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence. How do you just blurt out to someone who has spent his whole life thinking he was just a normal human that he . . . well . . . might not be?

  Asher and Devin did the same to you, I reminded myself. And look how it changed your life forever.

  “I know what it means,” he said quietly. He looked up at me and smiled grimly. “I gotta get to class.”

  Before I could say anything else, he started to walk away.

  “Ian!”

  “What?” He turned around.

  “You’d be okay if . . . we looked for him? If we found your dad?”

  The look on his face was hard to read. “I kind of have to be, huh?” he said. “I’m not going to get in the way of your plan.”

  I caught up to him and threw my arm around his neck. “Thank you. You really have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “No problem, Skye. It’s cool.”

  I narrowed my eyes, again wondering if he was telling the truth. But he just patted me on the back and dashed off down the hall.

  “So, after school?” I called.

  “I’m working at the Bean,” he shot over his shoulder. “Tomorrow?”

  I nodded as he ran off, but I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable.

  First Aunt Jo’s ex-fiancé, then Ian’s dad. Two guys with a lot of unfinished business back in River Springs. And why River Springs? What was it about this place that drew my parents, that seemed to draw so much angelic activity? My heart fell into my stomach. I had my work cut out for me—getting these guys back to town was going to be harder than I realized.

  What if the universe didn’t want me to bring these three powerful Rogues back together, after all?

  I was so lost in thought that I didn’t pay attention to where I was going, and knocked into someone on my way to class. When I looked up, I was staring right at Devin.

  “Oh,” I said. He looked down, and our eyes met. His were blue pools of light. Like Raven, the frosted layer of ice that usually shut him off from me, from the world, had all but melted. And when he looked at me, I could see the confusion that he felt, too.

  “Skye,” he said. “Hey.”

  He seemed so uncharacteristically at ease, so comfortable in his own skin. He looked radiant, his face glowing and warm, his hair even blonder. He wore a plaid button-down flannel and khaki-colored work pants that hung off his hips. Such a contrast to Asher’s olive skin and dark hair, thermals and jeans, boots and beat-up army jackets. Everything about Devin now exuded light.

  So that’s what happens when you give someone the ability to feel.

  I glanced down, grasped the handle of my book bag so tight that my knuckles turned white.

  Since my seventeenth birthday, Devin and I had been through more than I had with anyone else in my life. I’d gone from bristling at his unrelenting pressure for me to manifest my powers to near-death when those very powers inspired the command for him to kill me. He had to follow it, was programmed that way. He didn’t mean it and never could. He had taught me how to embrace who I was, to feel proud of what I could do. He showed me how to use my powers of the light, and he was the one who figured out what my visions meant—that my mother was a Gifted One. But ever since his betrayal, he held me at arm’s length. Who knew what he was capable of under the Order’s ruthless thumb?

  The last time I had seen him, he had told me how much he loved me. But his words, so perfect, seemed so empty. Telling someone you loved them didn’t make it true. Showing me—proving it—that’s what would make me believe. Even when Devin jumped from the Order and became a Rebel, Asher had been holding a sword to his throat, threatening to kill him if he didn’t.

  But whether or not he did it for me, Devin had jumped. Things would be different now. He was a Rebel, and anything was possible. Especially if we were enemies. Again.

  The bell rang to signal the beginning of class, snapping me out of my reverie.

  “I’m late.”

  “Skye,” he touched my arm, and it sent goose bumps
shooting across my skin. I pulled away. The look in his eyes the last time I saw him was too imploring, too hopeful that there was some kind of future for us. “Can we talk? Not here, but later. At our spot, on the trail?”

  The hall had emptied out, and we were the only two people left. He looked harmless enough, but as Asher had pointed out, I knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  “Please. I want—” He paused, and swallowed. “There are some things I need to get off my chest.”

  Did I want to hear them? Something told me it would only make things harder.

  “I have to go,” I said. When I got to the classroom door, I turned around. He was still standing there, watching me. He lifted his hand in a wave. I took a breath and went inside, leaving him behind. But I could still feel the weight of his gaze, even when I closed my eyes.

  There’s some law of nature that says when you don’t want to see someone, you suddenly see them everywhere. After that moment in the hall, everywhere I went I saw Devin. Sometimes he was alone. Sometimes he was flanked by Ardith and Gideon. The three of them must have been assigned to stake out the school. They formed an imposing unit, one I didn’t want to cross. And I didn’t know if it was just in my head or if the barometric pressure was changing, but when I passed them and they turned to look at me, the air around me grew darker, heavier.

  At lunch they sat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, and it was impossible to forget that Asher used to sit with them. I could still feel his absence acutely, like a splinter in my heart that I couldn’t get out.

  “Skye,” Cassie leaned over the table to get my attention. “Don’t be mad, but I kinda sorta joined the prom committee.” She winced and ducked.

  “I don’t even have anything to throw at you,” I said. “This apple?” She straightened.

  “I know we have kind of bigger fish to fry right now. Angel Fish, and everything—”

  “Really? Angel Fish?”

  “At least they’re not Clown Fish,” Dan said, sliding in next to Cassie and planting a kiss on her cheek. “I hate clowns.”

  “But I’ve always wanted to be on the prom committee! Besides, it seems like we could all use a little levity now more than ever, and I am happy to fill that role.”

  I grinned at her. “You are the queen of levity.”

  “If the gray suede bootie fits.” She winked, then her face clouded over as she caught me glancing at the table in the corner. “Don’t let them intimidate you, Skye,” she said. “You’ve got a posse, too. We’ve got your back.”

  I looked back at them. “I know,” I sighed. But knowing the angels were there, watching, waiting to attack, just made me want to find the remaining two Rogues even faster.

  “I’m not hungry,” I said, standing up. Cassie looked worried, but she didn’t argue. A few months ago, she wouldn’t have let me leave this table until she’d exhausted all possible angles of interrogation about why. The fact that she let me go meant she was really growing.

  “Call me later?”

  “’Course.”

  A vague, uneasy feeling had been following me since my vision that morning. There were Guardians stalking Aaron Ward. That meant they knew something—but what? That he had been working with my parents before they died to thwart the Order, and that made him a target? Or was it possible they knew we were trying to find him again? To reunite the powerful three?

  If the latter was true, that meant all of the former team were being watched. Not just Aaron, but Ian’s father, too. And Aunt Jo.

  Instinctively, I ducked into an empty classroom, whipped out my cell phone, and called the number for Into the Woods Outdoor Co.

  “Skye,” Aunt Jo said breathlessly, as if she’d run to pick up the phone. “Are you okay? Why are you calling me in the middle of the day? Did something happen?”

  “No,” I said quickly. “No, no everything’s fine. I just . . . how are you?”

  “I’m fine, Skye. I’m just holding down the fort at the store.” She paused. “You’re sure everything’s okay?”

  I took a deep breath. “I had a vision,” I said. “On purpose. I think—I mean, I know where Aaron Ward is. In Rocky Pines.”

  Aunt Jo was silent on the other end of the line.

  “You saw him?” she said softly.

  I nodded, then remembered that she couldn’t see me. “Yeah.”

  “What did he—I mean, how did he . . . ?”

  “He looked good, Aunt Jo.” Should I tell her about the little girl? I wondered. How could I begin to start that conversation?

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s being watched,” I said. “You might be, too. By the Order. I need to go to him soon, before anything . . . happens.”

  She sucked in her breath. “They know.”

  It made me think of what Aunt Jo had written in her journal when she worked with my parents at the cabin.

  Guardians stalk these woods. They know.

  I shivered. “So you agree,” I said. “We need to find him, no matter what? He’s safer with us than out there in Rocky Pines, right? At the very least we need to let him know what’s happening. I have to warn him.”

  I could almost see the worry crease between her brows.

  “Of course,” she said. “Do whatever you can. Bring him here, if you need to.” Was it me or did she almost sound excited? “Hey, Skye? Be careful, okay? You’re all I have left.”

  “I will, Aunt Jo,” I said. “I promise.”

  I hung up the phone. I would go after school today, whether Ian could go with me or not. I would find him before they did. I only hoped I was doing the right thing, bringing him back to Aunt Jo again. Was heartbreak worth the price of saving his life—of saving the world from a clash of powers that would certainly destroy it?

  A door slammed, and suddenly Ardith was standing in front of me.

  “I just want you to know,” she said, “that this works both ways. You really betrayed us, Skye. And so here we are, enemies now.”

  “It’s not personal,” I said. Before I could think twice, I willed the silver power to my hands in case I needed to defend myself—or attack. “We were friends. Maybe we still could be.”

  “We weren’t friends. Please, everything is personal. Making friends, falling in love, breaking hearts, becoming enemies—we take risks and we make mistakes and we mess up and it is all personal. You betrayed us.”

  “I swear I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not against you. I just have to do whatever I can to keep the balance of power.”

  “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”

  “I’m not. Listen—”

  “No, you listen. Once Gideon risked everything in the world to save my life. And it scarred him. He will never be free of that darkness the Order put in him, how they tortured him. It will follow him wherever he goes. And I have to do whatever it takes to destroy the Order and anyone who stands in my way. That, Skye, is personal. And that is why we’re enemies now, you and I.”

  Her words stung, like a slap across the face. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

  “No,” she said. “No one ever does.”

  She turned on her heel, her patterned maxi skirt billowing around her ankles, bangles jingling on her tanned arm. I got up and followed her out the door, but she was already halfway down the hall as the bell rang and students began to filter in around us.

  She caught up to Gideon and said something in his ear.

  Gideon turned slightly and looked at me.

  If you didn’t know his past, had no idea he was a Rebel angel who had been brutally tortured by the Order, that his mind had been manipulated and infiltrated, and that he had learned, with every bit of strength he had, how to protect himself from it—had held out, kept his secrets, saved Ardith’s life—if you knew none of these things, you would think Gideon was just a normal seventeen-year-old guy. He had a mop of curly hair, and even today, was
wearing his signature band T-shirt under a blazer, wire-rimmed glasses. He could have been in Cassie’s band.

  But I knew who he was. I knew about his past. His eyes usually looked tormented and haunted. But from across the hall, at that moment, they smoldered and glowed. They burned. I had never seen anything like it.

  He looked away quickly, and before I could do anything, he and Ardith had turned the corner and were out of sight.

  6

  Gideon’s eyes haunted me all day. I knew that Ardith meant business. This was going to be war.

  It also meant that I didn’t have any time to waste when it came to finding Aaron. As soon as the last bell of the day rang, I booked it out the door and to my car. The sky was so dark it was almost black—a heavy storm was brewing.

  “Hey!” A girl’s voice called as I neared the car. “Where are you going?” I whipped around to find Raven rushing after me, a sheet of silky blond hair flying behind her in the wind.

  I hesitated. I knew Raven was on my side now, but some small part of me still wasn’t used to trusting her. “I have to go find Aaron Ward,” I said.

  “Alone? In this weather? Are you crazy?” She looked scornfully up at the sky. “Those Rebels are so obvious. No subtlety whatsoever.”

  “If you’re so worried, here.” I tossed her my keys. “I’ll handle the storm.”

  Raven met my gaze coolly. A two-hour drive alone in my car would be the most one-on-one time we’d spent, like, ever. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but I needed to go to Rocky Pines, tonight.

  “I have a better idea,” she said. “Come with me.” She took off, back through the parking lot, winding her way between the cars toward the school.

  “Hey!” I cried, following her. “Where are you going?”

  Everyone was leaving school, flooding past us in the opposite direction. But for whatever reason, Raven led me back inside, through the halls and up the stairs.

  At last I stumbled past her through the fire door and onto the wide, white cement of the roof.

  “Okay,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a faster way to get to Rocky Pines.” She raised a challenging eyebrow. “I know you haven’t had them that long, but have you already forgotten?”