"Please," said Cassie. "That rumor was the work of an amateur. If I had started one, it would have been way more interesting." She shifted on her crutches. "Hacks." Someone opened the locker door next to hers, whacking her arm. "Ow!" she said loudly. "Hello! Invalid here!"

The locker door closed, and Cassie was face-to-face with a guy I'd never seen before. He had dark, perfectly messy curls, and was wearing jeans and beat-up sneakers, wire-rimmed glasses, and a faded T-shirt in some kind of stoner-skater-mathlete look. A hot skater-stoner-mathlete. Cassie's eyes widened involuntarily.

"Oh," she said in a small voice. "Hi." She may have been smitten, but my stomach clenched. Was he a Guardian? He didn't have blond hair. . . .

"Guys," Asher said. "This is my friend Gideon. He's one of the RSH transfers."

"Hey," said Gideon. He smiled at us. Next to me, I could almost hear Cassie gulp.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Skye."

"I know," he said. "Asher's told me all about you." His smile seemed genuine, and I felt instantly that I could trust him. But there was a playful quality to his voice that made me think Asher had told him about more than just my powers.

"Oh, really?" I made a face at Asher.

"All good things," he said.

"That's what I'm afraid of." I turned back to Gideon. "I wish I could say the same, but Asher's been very tight-lipped about you." Gideon glanced at Asher.

"Oh," he said as we closed our lockers and began walking down the hall. "Well, we'll get to know each other soon enough." He grinned at me knowingly, and I was startled to realize there was something dark in the depths of his eyes. He may have been smiling, but Gideon had something bottled up deep inside him. I knew that look, because I saw it every day in my own mirror. "Later," he said and peeled off into a classroom on our left.

Cassie, Asher, and I continued to homeroom. As we paused outside the door, all I could think of was the first time that I'd stood between Asher and Devin. The look in their eyes could have cut diamonds as they glared each other down. I'd been so innocent then. I had no idea, standing in that hallway on the first day of the semester, how much that feeling of being caught in the middle would continue to haunt me.

"Come on, Skye. You made it this far," Cassie said. She nudged me reassuringly with her elbow and hobbled in ahead of me.

"I'm right behind you," Asher whispered into my ear.

I took a deep breath and walked through the door.

Cassie was making her way to our usual seats by the window. Ardith sat at the front of the room in a floor-grazing skirt and boots, her armful of bangles jingling softly every time she moved. She caught my eye and winked at me in the most imperceptible way. At the front of the room, Ms. Manning eyed me coolly.

"Skye," she said. "Welcome back. We have some recent additions to the class, so you'll find your usual seat is currently occupied. You can take a seat in the back, where I've brought in extra chairs."

I cast my eyes toward my usual seat behind Cassie, and my heart lurched. As if in slow motion, a sheet of glossy blond hair swung to one side, and I found myself meeting Raven's piercing glare. I knew it was just in my head, but I could have sworn I almost saw the shadow of wings beating menacingly behind her. Trying not to shake, I turned toward the back of the room.

Ms. Manning had indeed brought in extra desks, and the back row was crowded. I spotted an empty seat and made my way toward it, focused only on getting away from Raven. I could feel Asher moving right behind me, shadowing me, focused on another empty seat in the back row. He must have noticed Raven, too, because I heard him take a sharp breath. But after that, I wasn't concerned about what Asher was doing anymore.

Because in the seat next to mine, sitting stick straight and watching me intently, was Devin.

His eyes, as always, were the bluest blue and so hard to read. I had no idea how he felt to see me, but as I sat in the empty seat and tried not to look over, I was overtaken by a rush of emotions. Fear, panica"and something else. Something harder to define. I felt trapped in my own confusion.

On my right, Asher threw his arm around my shoulders possessively. Devin didn't even flinch.

It was starting again.

When the bell rang to signal the end of homeroom, Asher stood up with me. Devin stayed seated, avoiding all eye contact with either of us. At the front of the classroom, Ms. Manning held up her hand for me to stop.

"Stay and chat for a minute, Skye," she said. "I'll give you a late pass for your next class."

I hesitated. Asher glanced from Devin, still sitting in the back of the room, to Ms. Manning and back to me. He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Go ahead," I said. "I'll see you later." Glancing back at Devin again, he clenched his jaw and left. Ms. Manning cleared her throat.

"Devin?" she said. "Would you come up here for a minute?" Devin looked up, carefully avoiding my gaze. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked to the front of the room. I felt something electric thrum in the air between us, but he stared straight ahead. Every fiber of my being wanted to run, to get as far away from him as possible. Ms. Manning sat on her desk, facing us.

"Do we need to talk about this?" she asked. My pulse quickened. It's like she's reading my mind.

"What do you mean?" I said slowly.

"Those are some interesting rumors circulating about you. I heard you had Devin's baby last week."

"What?" That was a new one. So I guessed people had noticed that we used to hang out.

I glanced at Devin, but he stayed remote and resolute.

"That is clearly not true," I said.

"I didn't think so," she said. "But at any rate, you need someone to catch you up on the work you missed last week. You two are friends, right? Devin, I thought you could spend study hall with Skye. Fill her in on what we've covered." My heart raced. No. I couldn't be alone with Devin.

"Devin and I don't exactly . . ." I struggled for the words.

"We used to be close," he said suddenly, breaking his silence. It felt like years since I had heard his voice, and its calming effect washed over me immediately. "But we're not anymore." He kept his eyes trained straight ahead, never once looking at me. My pulse quickened, but I said nothing.

"Well," Ms. Manning said, "in that case, all Skye needs is a tutor. Nothing more." She scribbled down something and handed each of us a late pass.

We left the room one after the other. In the empty hallway, Devin finally looked at me.

Maybe it was the shock of eye contact after all this time. Maybe it was fear. The hallway faded. Oh no, I thought. It's happening again. I was having a vision.

In a flash, Devin's body was pressed against mine, backing me into the row of lockers. But it wasn't cool, smooth metal that I felt behind me. The floor had prickled up into frosted grass, and I was leaning against a tree under a canopy of night. Devin's blue eyes flashed intensely as he let his hands trail down my arms. His lips were so close to mine. I could feel the feathery touch of his breath as it grazed my neck, leaving a trail of tiny shivers in its wake.

He's going to kiss me, I thought. I want him to.

Then the hallway came rushing back, and Devin was still standing there, several feet away from me. He gave me one long look. If he had been capable of expressing any kind of emotion, I might have understood. His eyes might have been mournful, or guilty, or apologetic. Instead, his features were still as calm and Zen as ever. Impassive. His face was empty.

Then he turned and walked down the hall away from me.

I realized I'd been holding my breath, and now I struggled to catch it. Behind me, the sound of boots on the linoleum floor drew closer as Devin disappeared around the corner.

"Hey," Ardith said, her bangles jangling softly as she came to a stop. "Come on. I'll walk you to your next class."

Neither of us said anything, but I knew she'd seen the moment between me and Devin. I got the sense that she knew exactly what I was feeling, and I was grateful that she didn't try to talk to me about it. I knew she wouldn't tell Asher. I don't know how I knew, but I did.

For once, it was nice to have a friend who really understood. Even if she wasn't human.

I couldn't focus for the rest of the morning. I kept replaying the vision, absently touching my neck when I thought no one was looking. His eyes haunted me, lifeless, empty.

At lunch, I found Cassie, Ian, and Dan already sitting around our usual table in the cafeteria. I grabbed my typical luncha"a turkey sandwich and an applea"and slid in next to them.

"You're so famous," Cassie said, beaming. "Or should I say, infamous?"

"And just think, we're in your inner circle." Dan grinned. "I feel so lucky."

"Privy to all your secrets," Ian joked.

"I know." I smiled and unwrapped my sandwich and took a bite. "I kinda like it," I added through a mouthful of turkey.

As the four of us joked, I glanced around the cafeteria. People did seem to be glancing over at us more than usual. The table where the skiersa"my former teammatesa"usually sat, was no exception. Ellie, in particular, was eyeing us. When she caught me glancing over, she turned to Meredith Sutton and whispered in her ear. They both looked up at Asher, who was waiting in line. My hands curled involuntarily into fists under the table.

Ardith strolled up then, her tray hovering tentatively above our table. "Is it okay . . . ," she said softly, "if I . . . ?"

Dan blushed. Ardith was clearly the most stunning girl in the room, with her glossy chestnut hair and flawless olive skin. Dan wasn't the only guy staring at her. "Of course," he said, moving down on the bench so that Ardith could squeeze in. As she was about to sit, someone hip-checked her from the side, and her tray went flying forward, spilling buttered pasta all over the cafeteria floor. Suddenly Ardith went from soft-spoken and earthy to angry goddess. She turned on the person behind her, eyes flashing and hair spiraling out in a fan. The guy was one of the new kids from RSH, tall, with a lean, wiry build and shoulder-length blond hair.

"Do you have something you want to say to me?" the guy asked.

"Only to watch where you're going," she spat. By the salad bar, Gideon and Asher looked up from their trays and tensed. Two of the other new kids walked up behind the blond guy, flanking him.

"Is there a problem, Lucas?" one of them said.

"Your friend needs to watch where he's going." Ardith's tone was shockingly tough.

"I think he was watching just fine," the other said. I thought, for a moment, that I detected a slight lilt to his voicea"almost like an accenta"before it faded away into the din of the cafeteria.

Dan stood up and moved to her side.

"Hey," he said. "Are we all cool here?" He was making his voice deeper, and Cassie coughed back a laugh. Before he could say anything further, Gideon and Asher were there, and Dan fell back.

Gideon stepped forward, eyeing Lucas. "I think you guys better get out of here," he said. Lucas glared at him but took a step backward.

The tension in the air was thick. To the rest of the cafeteria, it looked like the new guys clearly felt they had to stake their claim on the school or else. But I knew the truth. They were Guardians, and this was our first warning.

It's only a matter of time. That's what the notebook had said, right? Not for the first time, I wondered who had written it.

Lucas made an I'm Watching You gesture to Gideon, and he and his friends turned and stalked toward the soda machines.

The Rebels looked livid.

Dan sat back down at the table and stared at his stack of fries.

"You gonna eat those?" Ian asked.

"What? Oh, yeah," Dan said. "Help yourself."

Cassie's face clouded over. "Oh my god, Dan, really?" Dan looked up.

"Really, what?"

"I get that you think she's hot, but you don't have to be all obvious about it!"

"What? I didn't even say anything."

"No, but I can tell. It's, like, oozing out of you."

"Oozing? Really?"

"Shut up," Cassie said, standing up and shoving a fry into his ear. Ian and I burst into laughter. "I've got things to do after school today," she said crisply. She grabbed her crutches and huffed off.

"Cass, come on!" Dan scrambled after her, leaving his fries untouched on the table. "Don't be like that!"

"Oh, so now I'm like that!" Cassie's voice trailed after her.

"His loss." Ian grabbed a fry off Dan's plate.

No matter how much we try to keep things around us from changing, I realized, standing up and walking my tray over to the conveyer belt, the universe tends toward chaos.

"Let that be a warning to you," a cold voice said, low in my ear. I turned around, and found myself face-to-face with Raven. "Your little Rebel boyfriend can't protect you all the time," she said. "So you better start learning to protect yourself. Because wherever you go, whatever you do, we're watching you." She turned to leave, winking at me over her shoulder just before she pushed through the cafeteria doors.

Chapter 11.

As I walked through the crowded halls, my hands were shaking so hard that I had to grasp the handle of my book bag to keep them steady. I felt so distant from every other student pushing past me. The thought occurred to me that I might never feel like one of them again.

I kept pushing and didn't even realize that the bell had rung until the hall cleared out and I found myself walking alone.

Devin was already sitting at a table in the library by the history stacks. He looked up when I walked in, then looked back down at his notebook. I slid into a chair across from him.

My heart beat uncontrollably. I didn't want him to sense my panic, but it was hard just to breathe. Even so, the longer we sat there in silence, the calmer I began to feel. It was his Guardian presence, the serenity that always radiated from him. I'd forgotten what that felt like. I closed my eyes, and realized that my hands had stopped shaking. When I opened them again only a second later, Devin was looking at me. He closed his notebook.

"I'll let Ms. Manning know this isn't going to work," he said, looking away. "She'll find someone else to tutor you." Then he stood up, shifted his backpack from one shoulder to the other, and walked out of the library without once lifting his eyes.

I stared after him, watching the door swing on its hinges.

I drove Cassie and Dan back to Cassie's right after school, leaving them to sort things out. By the time I pulled out of the driveway, they were kissing, so the effects of their lunchtime fight must not have been very lasting. I headed home, letting relief overtake me when I pulled into my own driveway. I threw my backpack down by the front door and collapsed onto the porch swing. A breeze blew in from the mountains, bringing another tantalizing hint of spring. Maybe winter would thaw soon. The sky would stay lighter longer, and the nights wouldn't feel quite so dark.

My arms and legs felt restless, and there was a burning energy inside me. I couldn't go into town, and no one had gone over the catch-up homework with me. I felt like if I didn't get up and do something, my restlessness was going to eat me alive. If this had been a normal winter afternoon, I'd have been at ski practice. But I'd quit the team, too scared of how my powers might manifest if I lost control on the slopes.

I needed to move.

As if the energy was guiding me, I got up off the porch swing and jogged inside, calling a hello to Aunt Jo, taking the stairs two at a time to my room. Not waiting for a response, I threw off the sweater dress and boots and dressed in leggings and a sports bra, a long underwear top, and a fleece vest. I bent to lace up my sneakers. I hadn't been for a run in a long time. But I had to do something.

My breath formed clouds of steam in the gray afternoon light as my feet pounded against the ground. I pushed myself up the trail in the woods, pumping my arms and breathing in short, regulated breaths the way I did when I was skiing. It felt amazing to be working my body again, to be so in control of it.