"Then let's go for a hike or something." He winked at me. "Where no one will see us."

I felt my cheeks redden. "Let me just run in and drop my stuff." It took me a few minutes to convince Aunt Jo I was responsible enough to go on a hike with Asher, but I finally met him out back, and we hiked out to a trail I rarely used. It was a warm morning in early March, and the sun crept through the heavy evergreen trees, throwing beams of light across our path. We hiked single file, not speaking much. Every now and then, Asher would grab my hand and spin me around for a kiss. When he did, the sun burned brighter, making the trees shimmer with thousands of tiny evergreen flames. So much snow had melted and the purple alpine flowers were blossoming once again. I tried not to think about what they meant to me, but the purple flowers, like seeing Devin in the halls at school, reminded me that I wasn't just a Rebel. There was Guardian blood in me, tooa"my mother's. No matter what the Order stood for or what they had tried to do to me, the more I thought about the notebooka"that small piece of her, the only piece I had lefta"I felt I couldn't just abandon the part of me that she was responsible for.

Just because that part was harder to see didn't mean it wasn't there.

I was now sure that my visions were my mother's powers flowing through me in some way. Those were powers of the mind, vaguely precognitive in some sense, even though I wasn't manipulating anyone else. It was my own mind I was controlling. My own thoughts. I just had no idea how, or what they meant.

"Have you had any word from the Rebellion?" I asked Asher as we neared a clearing in the trail. "Do they know what the Order is planning?"

He avoided my gaze.

"Asher?"

"No, nothing yet. They're biding their time, waiting for you to get stronger. Killing Oriax was sort of the first shot fireda"the official end of the truce. But the Rebellion will come back with something fierce, don't worry."

"How will we know when they do? Aren't the Guardians nervous?"

"We'll know," said Asher. "And yes, I imagine the Guardians are just as concerned about the coming war as we are. They know we'll retaliate, but they don't know howa"because of you. Don't forget, Skye, your powers are making it impossible for them to foresee the outcome of this war. Thanks to you, they don't know what we're planning. That's one of the reasons why the Rebellion needs you."

An uneasy feeling made the hair on my arms prickle. I'd known this in the clearing in the woods the night that the Order had tried to kill me. Whichever side I chose to align myself with would have untold power. I didn't want to believe that was the reason Asher wanted to be so close to me, but a small part of me couldn't help but feel it was awfully convenient that we were suddenly inseparable right when the Rebellion was trying to hide plans for a retaliation.

I shook my head. No, that couldn't be it. Asher loved me. He just wanted to be with me as often as I wanted to be with him. I couldn't believe that he would use me for the Rebellion's purposes just to win a war. Wouldn't that make the Rebelsa"my friendsa"just as bad as the Guardians?

This was a dangerous train of thought. I had to wipe it from my mind.

"Asher," I said suddenly.

"Yeah?" His eyes were focused on the edge of the woods at the far end of the field.

"Think fast." He whipped around just in time to dodge the fireball I lobbed at him. He grinned and threw it back at me with lightning-fast speed. Rather than ducking, I closed my eyes and raised my arms high in the air, calling an enormous gust of wind that carried the fireball into the sky. It dissipated into the thinnest wisps of smoke.

"Not bad!" Asher called. He walked toward me slowly, an evil grin tugging on the side of his mouth.

"What?" I said, backing away. My voice was shaking slightly, but not because I was afraid. "What is that smile for?"

He reached me, running his hands up my waist and pulling me close. The sun burned bright through the trees, too bright, blinding, until the thousands of tiny evergreen needles erupted with real flames.

"Oh," I said under my breath.

"I think," Asher said, the evil smile widening, "that we need to work on your control when this happens." He trailed his hand up my neck until it was cupping the back of my head. I drew in a shallow breath. The fire consuming the pine needles began to crackle inward, trickling along the branches toward the trunk of the tree. Asher leaned in slowly. He touched his forehead to mine and tilted my neck up so I was gazing into his startling black eyes. Dizzying eyes. "Focus," he said, his voice no louder than a whisper.

"On what?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Your emotions." His lips grazed my earlobe. "Use them to fuel your power. Put that fire out."

I closed my eyes, trying to block him out. I could feel the tickle of his breath on my neck, his eyelashes flutter against my cheek. I swallowed.

I could do this. Focus.

The crackle of the fire was growing into a roar. I opened my eyes, and the tree was ablaze. Panicking, I broke away from Asher.

"Come on, Skye," he said, pulling me back to him. "I believe in you."

Okay, I had this. All I had to do was conjure up a storma"something big enough to put out the beginnings of a forest fire. I'd done it before, right? In the car with Ardith, I'd controlled the streaks of lightning. I'd kept our small car from getting struck by the blinding flashes that touched down all around us. Flashes that my own volatile mood had caused.

As I turned in a slow circle, taking in the fire that was now raging through the trees, Asher wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear. "Focus, Skye. Make the fire stop." It was almost impossible to focus on anything with Asher's hands running up my back, but I closed my eyes again and I thought of rolling black clouds, thunder rumbling so hard it shook the mountains, cracks of lightning that lit up the night. When I opened my eyes, darkness had fallen like a blanket across the Colorado sky, and I knew that they were glowing liquid silver.

Lightning flashed across the black, starless sky. It touched down a few feet away from us.

"Come on, Skye!" Asher's voice grew louder.

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, letting every ounce of energy that I had flow through me.

That's when the rain came. A freezing, fast rain that drove down in heavy sheets, soaking us. I started to laugh as the thunder rumbled beneath us.

Asher took my hand, and we stood there, watching the rain wash away the fire. It soaked my clothes and plastered my hair against the sides of my face; made Asher's hair look even wilder and matted his eyelashes together like he was crying. I gripped his hand tighter, and he turned to face me. I wasn't laughing anymore.

The look in his eyes was so strange. A fierce mix of love, fear, pridea"and something else. Something that made me shiver in the icy rain.

Possession.

And that's when I dropped to my knees.

The rain swirled around me, so densely that soon it blocked everything out, and suddenly it was daytime and the rain had stopped and I was sitting on a rock overlooking the field on my favorite trail. I'd sat there so many times before. The last time I'd sat there had been with . . .

I looked up, and Devin was sitting next to me.

"Try it," he said softly. His voice was gentle, so calming. As always. "You have this. Just focus." I looked down at my hands. I was holding a small withered flower. Just a tiny, dead thing.

"I am focusing," I said.

"Focus harder." I closed my eyes. And when I opened them again, the flower that I held in my hands was purple, vibrant, and alive.

"You did it," he said, his voice quiet with awe. "I knew you could."

"Skye?"

I opened my eyes. I was lying on the soaking wet ground, completely drenched. My teeth were chattering, and I coughed up a lungful of water.

"Hey," Asher said, kneeling next to me. He brushed his hand against my cheek. "What happened? Another vision?"

I nodded.

"Can you sit up?" he asked.

"I think so." He put his strong hand on my back and helped me to a sitting position.

"Maybe things got a little intense," he said. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I really thought you could handle it."

"Ia"I can handle it," I said, blinking slowly.

"I just thought . . ." He swallowed, and suddenly he looked nervous, vulnerable. Such a departure from his usual mask of confidence that, for a moment, I worried that something was really wrong. I reached my hand out and touched his cheek lightly.

"What?" I asked.

"I . . . hate that I can't be close to you without something bursting into flames. I feel responsible, like it's my fault." He looked at the ground. "I thought if we worked on controlling it, we could . . ." He took a breath, and I realized his hands were trembling slightly. "I wanted us to be able . . . I mean, one day, you know, I was hoping . . ." He coughed, and a shadow of the old cocky smile returned. "Be together, you know?"

"Asher," I said, taking his face in both my hands and drawing his eyes up to mine. There were no witty retorts left in me. All I wanted was to be honest with him. "Me too. We'll get there. It will happen." I kissed him, a soft, tender kiss. "I promise."

"I love you," he whispered.

And all the snappy comebacks in the world couldn't compare to that.

Asher put my arm around his neck and helped me back down the trail. About ten yards from the house, I heard something snap behind us. When I whirled around, there was nothing there.

"What was that?" I asked, trying not to let my voice give way to fear.

"It was nothing," he said, but his eyes grew dark. "Nothing."

Chapter 18.

Cassie had outdone herself. Love the Bean was decked out for the ME showa"but not in her signature fairy-tale twinkle lights. It felt darker somehow. Everything had a kind of edge to it. There was a lot of black. "She's still working through the accident," Dan said as Asher and I walked up. "It's some pretty dark stuff."

Ian had rigged a ramp to the stage, and Cassie hobbled to the microphone on her crutches. The Bean was filling up, and the Mysterious Ellipses began to warm up with an instrumental version of the theme song from Super Mario Brothers. It was secretly a little fun to see how Cassie worked her outfits around her cast. Tonight she wore a black, stretchy knit miniskirt with one cobalt-blue tight and her signature ankle bootie on one leg, the darker blue cast on the other. A few long drapey tank tops finished the look.

Behind her, the band paused.

Cassie grabbed the mic, and we cheered loudly.

"Go, Cass!" I shouted.

"Oh, thank you, thanks, guys," she said with the fakest modesty I'd ever seen. Dan and I shared a look and laughed. "No, please, stop. Thank you for coming out tonight. We've been working on some new stuff, and it's a little different than usual. I hope you like it."

"We already love it!" Dan shouted.

"I hope those of you who aren't my boyfriend like it." Cassie grinned at the crowd. Trey, the ME drummer, counted off on his drumsticks, and then the band burst into their first song. The crowd fell to a hush. Cassie was mesmerizing to watch.

Dan was righta"the music was way darker than it ever had been before. A thumping bass line kept the rhythm, and Cassie's voice was a low growl.

Then the rhythm picked up, and she started singing faster, wilder. We were all hooked, moving in time to the music. Her voice rose to a high, sharp clarity. She sounded like wind chimes on speed. Whatever dark issues Cassie was still working through, it was doing wonders for her music.

It was the best the Mysterious Ellipses had ever played. We danced crazily, like the end of the world was coming and we had to let loose one last time before it did. What only Asher and I knew, though, was that it might. Soon. And that I was the one who might have to bring it.

Ardith and Gideon walked in, their faces serious. Ardith wore another long skirt that swept the floor, heavy boots, and an armful of gold bangles. Gideon wore jeans and a faded Rolling Stones T-shirt under a corduroy blazer. They looked so unassuming, like kids I might go to school witha"but I couldn't help feeling nervous as they scanned the Bean, as if looking for trouble. When they spotted Asher, he stopped dancing and stood straighter. "Be right back," he muttered.

My heart beat fast as I turned around to face the stage. Was something happening? I tried to listen to the music but kept sneaking glances at the back of the room, where the three of them had their heads bent in serious conversation. Not one of them looked up at me. I turned my attention back to the stage.

"Man, I missed her," I said to Dan.

"She missed you, too," he said. "You know, she was really torn up about it."

"I just want things to go back to normal between us."

"Then you may have to tell her the real reason why you left," he said, turning to me.

"Ia"I didn'ta"there's nothinga"" I sputtered. Of all the people in my life, somehow, in that moment I remembered why Dan was my oldest friend. He didn't talk much, but when he did, he meant every word.

"Skye," he said. "You were acting strange long before you left. You don't think we know something's going on with you? All she wants is for you to tell her the truth."

"I did tell her the truth," I lied. Dan looked at me pointedly.

"Give me some credit."

I swallowed. "You don't want to know the truth, too?"

"I know you'll tell me when you're ready. I don't need everything right this minute like Cassie does. You've been my friend since kindergarten. I'm not afraid of you abandoning us. But Cassiea"you know her, everything is drama, drama, drama." He rolled his eyes, but he said it with love. "She needs to be reminded sometimes that you're her best friend."

I looked around. The Bean was packed. People were dancing, music was playinga"and there were, I was sure, Guardians everywhere. Across the room, where he was busy ringing up someone's coffee, Ian glanced up and met my eye, frowning slightly. I turned to Dan. "Will you believe me when I say that I want to tell you, I just can't right now?"

"Look, are you in trouble?" he asked. "Because telling me will help. We'll get you help, Skye, whatever you need."

"No," I said. "But I may need your help later. Will you promise to help me?" I knew I was asking a lot of him. Dan couldn't possibly know that "help" might mean slashing at celestial beings with angelic swords or standing back as I lobbed a fireball at someone who was trying to kill me. But I knew that I would one daya"soona"need his help. And Cassie's and Ian's. Even if it was just understanding when I needed to make a choice once and for all about what my future held.

"Of course I promise," he said. "I've got your back, Skye. Worry not." And somehow, just these words helped to ease some of my constant fear.

I glanced back at the bar, where Ian was counting change for someone. He looked up at me again, and this time he cocked his head to one side. He didn't look angry, more like he was lost in thought. It struck me that he was always watching. Always tentatively observing me when he thought no one else was looking. I'd always thought, somewhat sheepishly, that he'd just been checking me out. But there was something else going on right now that made me wonder. . . .

Dan slapped his hand on my back and set off to maneuver his way to the front of the stage. My friends aren't mad at me, I realized. They're worried about me. I decided to go apologize to Ian. He didn't deserve the way I'd treated him. I didn't think I'd ever led him on, but somehow he'd never stopped believing that we might end up together. He should go out with Ellie, I thought. He should give someone else a real chance.

I made my way through the crowd. Ian was wiping off the counter and bouncing along to the music. When he noticed me coming, he tried to back away into the supply closet, but he knocked into a broom and it clattered to the floor. He rushed to pick it up.

"Hey," I said, hopping up onto the counter.

"Hmm? Oh, hi." He averted his eyes.

"Look," I said. "I think you should date Ellie. She's a really good skier. And . . ." I tried to think of more compliments. "She's pretty, in kind of, like, an obvious sort of way, anda""

"Skye," Ian interrupted. "You suck at this."

"I mean it," I insisted. "I think you should date her. I'm not mad. I'm happy for you."