"And the vision," Devin said. "What happened in it?"

"I had a sword," I said. "And . . . this is the weird part. Ian was right there next to me."

"You had a sword?" Devin asked, drawing his eyebrows together. "An angelic sword?" I nodded. "Was it yours?"

"Yes," I said. "I'm pretty sure it was."

"Skye, you're seeing visions of the future."

"How do you know for sure?" I asked.

"Because you were wearing the dress that Aunt Jo gave you."

"I could have just been dreaming about it."

"And Ian was with you."

"It could have been for anything. We could have been hanging out. It might have been proa""

"You had a sword," Devin said, his voice urgent. "Angelic swords are made from the single feather of an angel's wing. You don't have your wings yet, Skye. You saw a vision of the futurea"after your wings have grown in."

"But how?" I asked. "How is that even possible?"

"There's only one explanation," Devin said, awe filling his eyes. "Only one way you could possess the sight. Your mother wasn't a Guardian. She had to have been a Gifted One."

"But," I stammered, "thata"that doesn't seem right. That would mean my blood is so much stronger in favor of the light. And my powersa""

"Your powers are a blend of both. But visions of the futurea"that's the strongest power of the light that there is. It may outweigh any other power you have." His face softened. Suddenly he looked so much like the Devin from before. "Skye," he murmured.

"What?"

"It's amazing."

Somethinga"a sixth sensea"was prickling up the back of my neck.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I can't do this anymore. I can't take it. Why don't you see it? Why can't you see what I see?"

"What do you see?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer, but positive I needed to.

"You belong with the Order. We can teach you how to refine your visions. We can show you how to see what will happen to youa"to everyone you know! You can hold the future in the palm of your hand."

"The Order tried to kill me," I said. "I could never join them."

"Then do it for me," he begged.

"Why?"

"Because I love you! Do I really have to say it? Don't you believe me by now?"

My heart almost stopped beatinga"because the last time he'd said something like that was only seconds before I felt the cold steel of his blade spear through me. I tensed, getting ready to fight if I had to.

"You don't love me," I said. "You couldn't possibly. It's not real love. You've never made it possible for me to love you back. You push me away every chance you get." His eyes were so sad, helpless, but I had to keep going. "You hold yourself at arm's length, bottle everything up inside. You think it's love, Devin, but it's not. Not really. You admire my strength. You want to help me. But you're not even my friend."

"How do you know?" he asked, his voice perfectly controlled. "How could you know what I'm feeling? I wear a mask to keep it from you. From everyone. I would do anything for you. All I've ever wanted is to get you to the Order, where you'd be safe from any more Guardians trying to kill you."

He moved toward me, and I saw that Raven had been standing behind him the whole time. My heart pounded wildly. Had she followed us to the woods? Was she alonea"or were there others?

"Well, that was sweet," said Raven. Devin spun around. "We all knew it, of course, but I didn't think you were stupid enough to say it out loud. You broke the biggest rule. Do you know what the Order is going to do to you? Do you understand what has to happen now?" For maybe the first time, I could detect real anger, real emotion in Raven's voice. What had happened to make her so close to losing it?

"No," Devin said. "There's still a chancea"if she comes over, if she joins the Order, then nothing has to change."

"What about us?"

"There is no us." Devin was shaking, his hands balled into fists by his sides. "It's all just a big lie. The Order can't see my destiny, thanks to Skye. She changed everything, blurred our fate so much that it doesn't matter anymore. She changed the course of time! She's one of us, Raven. Don't you see it? She was supposed to die, and she healed herself."

I had? That would explain how quickly I'd gotten better, the lack of scar anywhere on my body. But it would also bea"

"You poor, sad fool," Raven sang, her voice fierce. "You really believe she healed herself? She could barely control her own dark powers. What makes you think she was so skilled with her light ones?"

"Then who did?" Devin yelled. The intensity of his voice surprised me, echoing through the trees. "It wasn't me! It couldn't have been any Guardian!"

"I did!" Raven's eyes brimmed with tears. It was shocking to see someone so strong, so terrible, on the verge of breaking down. "I did, for you! Because I couldn't stand the thought of you having to live the rest of your days knowing that you killed the one person in this world you love."

Devin stopped cold. He tilted his head and stared at her.

My jaw dropped as I realized she looked almost human. She did have a heart. She had a soul. All of the Guardians did. No wonder their eyes always looked so full of emotion but their faces remained stoic. They couldn'ta"weren't allowed toa"express any of it. It made so much sense.

"You did?" he said quietly.

"Yes, Devin, I did. I would keep my archnemesis from dying, just to keep you from pain. I would defy every order I've ever been given just so you wouldn't have to live the rest of your life with the guilt of killing someone you love. But it's too bad," she said, her voice taking on a terrifying edge, "that I won't be so lucky."

"What?" Devin said.

"No!" I yelled. "Stop!"

But it was too late. Raven's wings had unfurled in the blink of an eye, and before anyone could stop her, she'd plucked a single white feather from them. As she held it in her hands, I watched in awe as it grew longer, shinier, sleeker, and before I knew it she was holding a sword. An angelic sword.

She rushed at him as Devin produced his own sword.

"Raven, don't do it!" I screamed. "Don't kill him!"

But she swung violently. I heard the sickening slice of metal against skin, and suddenly all I could see was blood. I fell to my knees, sobbing. "No," I choked. "No!"

"Oh, stop it," Raven said, her voice heaving in ragged gasps. "Don't waste your tears."

I looked up. And that's when I knew something had changed; something strange had shifted around us. It had only just been early afternoon, but now, under the darkening evening, the first stars were beginning to blink on through the canopy of trees, casting menacing shadows over everything. I noticed Raven first, crumpled on the ground. The twilight and shadows were playing tricks on my eyes, and at first I thought they had cast an awkward angle on her wings, making them look broken, oddly twisted. Then, with horror, it dawned on me. Raven's gorgeous white wings were no longer attached to her body. They'd been cut from her back. Now they lay next to her, ragged, mangled, and streaked with red.

As my eyes adjusted to the image, Devin's hulking figure came into focus. He stood above her, looking down, breathing hard. His sword was raised above his head, where it glinted in the starlight. Blood ran down the blade, dripping onto the ground.

Raven shuddered. "Well, who could have predicted that?" She smirked ruefully, wincing a little and holding her hand to her side. "You've cast me out! Cut off my wings, banished me to Earth forever. Don't you see what you did? The Order won't take me back like this."

"He sees," Ardith said from the edge of the clearing. "He's never going to stop, Skye. It's how he was programmed. He's a machine. He's just a pawn."

Ardith marched over to me and picked me up off the ground. I shook my head, sobbing. "He'll never change," she said. "He'll always do their bidding. Always. He'll keep feeling bad about it and keep the pain hidden away deep inside where no one can see it. But he'll keep doing it all the same."

"I don't believe you!" I cried. "We can save him!"

"No, we can't," Asher said. His voice was colder, sharper than I'd ever heard it before. I hadn't even seen him approach.

He extended his blade, the edge of it dangerously close to Devin's throat. "But we can stop it from happening again."

Chapter 30.

"Asher!" I yelled. "What are you doing?"

"It's better this way," he said. "Trust me. I swore I would protect you. I made a promise to them that I would. With Devin gone, you'll be happier. Safer. You won't have to worry about him anymore."

"You made a promise to them?" I repeated, and it took a full second for the meaning of his words to sink in. "To the Rebellion? This was just another mission to you? Protect mea"and kill Devin? And you kept it from me?"

"You know it's always been more than that for me." I remembered what he and Ardith had said that day in the cabin, when I'd first woken up. Passion is our way, but love can drive an angel mad, Asher. It can disrupt the heavens, change the outcome of a war. Ardith had been warning him not to let love interfere with his mission. This mission.

"How can you ever separate duty and love?" Asher asked now. "How can you ever make that distinction? How can you choose? I protect you for both of those reasons and more." I opened my mouth to say something, but he said, "Don't call me a traitor. Don't say that I betrayed you. Everything I do is for you. Killing Devin will be, too."

I noticed Cassie, Dan, and Ian standing just behind him. Their mouths were hanging open in shock, and they looked terrified.

"Stop," I said, faltering. "You should have told me."

"I couldn't, Skye. You'd never have let it happen."

"Of course not!" I yelled. "But I deserved to know!"

"If you'd stopped it, it would have been fighting against usa"against yourself. He was trying to win you over to his side! He didn't care about you! He never did. You think if he loved you, he would have stabbed you in cold blood? I'm trying to protect you. It's all for you!"

"He doesn't know what he's talking about." Devin spoke suddenly, and I whipped around. "It's so much more complicated than that. I never had a choice. Not about any of thisa"but especially not when it came to you."

I no longer knew what to think or who to believe. But instead of the confusion I'd felt all winter, I was suddenly seeing things with an aching clarity. The time had come for me to stop listening to all the noise around me and focus on what my own blood was telling me to do.

Devin turned to me. "Skye," he said quietly, simply, "I'm sorry for everything. They made me do it. They keep making me hurt the people Ia"" He stopped abruptly. Then he turned to Asher and fell to his knees. "Forgive me," he whispered. He lowered his head. "Just do it. Get it over with."

"What?" I gasped. "No, stop!"

Asher didn't look at me as he stepped back. Then, he took two running steps forward and brought his sword down in a swooping arc. "No!" I yelled. "He just needs to be free of the Order! If he can make his own choices, you'll see he isn't bad." But I couldn't watch. I looked away, covering my face in my hands.

I didn't hear anything. I opened my eyes.

Asher's sword was just inches from Devin's neck. He was looking right at me. "Okay," he said, his voice low and even. "Jump."

Devin looked up. "What?"

"Jump," Asher said again. "Become a Rebel. Or I'll kill you."

Slowly Devin stood. Asher backed up a step, but he kept his blade level with Devin the whole time.

"If I join the Rebellion," Devin said, "you'll let me live?"

"If you join and fight with us, if you pledge to help us destroy the Order and restore freedom to the world, then yes, I'll let you live."

"Jump, Devin," I pleaded.

His massive white wings folded in on themselves, withdrawing into his back. He closed his eyes and placed a hand on the flat blade of Asher's sword. "I pledge myself to chaos," he said. "To passion, disorder, and renewal. I pledge myself to love. To the freedom to love." As he said his last words, he raised his eyes and met mine.

And when his wings unfurled again, they were a deep, rolling black. Feathers like the night.

I released the breath I'd been holding. Asher stepped up to Devin until their noses were almost touching. Please don't, I thought desperately. Don't kill him anyway. Slowly Asher extended his hand.

"Welcome to the Rebellion," he said. Devin brought his own hand up and shook Asher's. He looked like he was in shock.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I'll devote myself to your cause."

Raven cried out in pain behind him, and Devin turned and ran to where she was still crumpled on the ground.

"I'm so sorry," he said, kneeling beside her. "Raven, I never meant for this to happen." He looked around helplessly. "I can't heal you," he said. "I'll find somebody who can. I promise."

The last time I'd heard those words, I'd been attacked by a Guardian and a Rebel was trying to find me help. This time, the Rebel was Devin.

"I'll do it." I stood up. Everyone turned to look at me. It was the last thing I'd ever thought I'd volunteer fora"and yet, it felt right. "Raven saved my life. I owe her." I had a feeling our lives were inextricably linked from here on out. Devin looked so gratefula"and for the first time, his eyes softened.

"Thank you," he said, taking my hands. "Here. Like this."

He placed my hands on her. We closed our eyes, and for a moment, everything was still. Raven sat perfectly rigid while I summoned all of my powers of dark and light, everything I had been working to control. I felt something stir beneath my hands.

"Your eyes," Devin said, holding my gaze. "They're silver."

I could feel it. I looked down. Something silvery, light, and quick was flowing from the wounds on Raven's back. The mercurial liquid streamed from her wounds, taking shape into something huge and fluttery. New wings were emerging where her old ones had been. But they weren't white, and they weren't black.

They were a glistening silver.

"You did it," Raven whispered, standing slowly and letting the feathers unfold behind her. "You really did it. I shoulda"" She stopped herself just short of saying something snarky. She met my eyes and nodded, slightly. "Thank you. They're beautiful."

I had done it. I had gone from failing at restoring life to a tiny alpine flower to healing great, gaping angelic wounds. As if thinking the same thing, Devin caught my eyes. He looked so prouda"happy, for the first time since we'd met.