On the other side of the room, by the stairs, was the stack of boxes that I’d knocked into the night before, spilling their contents everywhere. In the darkness, I hadn’t had a chance to go through them. But I knew who they belonged to.
My parents.
Last night, a small metal object had gone rolling across the floor. When I’d bent to pick it up, the ball of fire Asher held in his hands showed that I was holding a baby’s rattle. The silver was dented and old, tarnished from disuse. But in the dim glow of the fire, I could just make out that it had once been engraved with something significant.
The letters Sk.
And beneath them, a string of numbers. My birthday.
As the rattle jangled softly in my hands, I realized that it wasn’t just a childhood toy. It was a message. A sign.
Little silver bells, my parents used to sing me to sleep at night, as light from the moon cast shadows of branches and leaves on the walls. When they ring, we’ll know.
I used to think it was just an old folk song, its gentle rhythm lulling me to sleep. But as I listened to the faint silver jangle in the dead of night, something clicked.
Silver, for my eyes. For the strange mix of powers that surged within me, stronger by the day. For the flashing wings that had finally grown in fits of stabbing pain from beneath my shoulder blades.
I always wondered what, exactly, the lyrics meant. When they ring, we’ll know.
But last night I figured it out, as sharp and clear as the rattle’s bell. When all the silver forces in my life converged, we’ll know it’s time. To fight.
It was the final sign I needed to have the courage to reject both the Order and the Rebellion. To start off on my own. Since turning seventeen, everyone in my life had tried to control me. But now it was time to take matters into my own hands.
I wrapped the rattle carefully in a T-shirt and packed it in my backpack. I opened the flaps of the box that had fallen on its side and began to sift through what was left. There had to be more clues. Something to tell me what I was supposed to do now.
The sun was beginning to set. As it aligned with the window, it cast an orange beam of light in my eyes. I stood and raised an arm to shield them from the glare. Motes of dust swirled around me as I struggled to slide the window open, letting the fresh mountain air gust into the tiny room.
The sky was a pale, crisp blue, fading to a pinkish glow as the sun hovered above the jagged outline of the mountains on the horizon. I closed my eyes and the light swept across my nose and eyelids, touched the tops of the trees below. The world glowed on the other side. The light shone brightest at the center, seeping into darkness as I squeezed my eyes tighter. Dark and light. I was neither. I was both. I was all of it.
The sun was setting on one chapter of my life. But it was rising on the next. The world was waking up, and I felt like I was waking up with it.
2 
“Planning on jumping?”
My eyes flew open.
I didn’t have to turn around to know who was behind me. I’d heard his voice so often that it had become a living, breathing part of me, as real as the cells in my skin and the oxygen in my blood. He was repeating the very same words I’d said to him that moment on the roof of Northwood School, when I’d learned who I really was.
The child of a member of the Order and a Rebel angel who had broken away. The daughter of dark and light.
Except now I knew that there was more to this story than I’d ever dreamed possible. My mother wasn’t just a Guardian, but a Gifted One who possessed the Sight. Now I finally understood the visions I’d been having. They were glimpses of the future.
The breeze coming through the open window smelled like spring. Spring meant renewal. Well, maybe I could bring renewal to the world. For too long, two groups had vied for power over the world and the people who walked it: the Order, responsible for controlling human fate; and the Rebellion, who believed in the passion and chaos of a life messy and lived to the fullest. But neither group was perfect. Neither was right. I couldn’t let the Order control human life forever, but a world controlled by the Rebellion would mean chaos and anarchy. I stood between them now. Maybe I did have the fate of the universe in my hands.
“You’ve been waiting for a chance to say that back to me, haven’t you?” I asked, gathering the courage to turn around.
“You sort of gave it to me on a silver platter this time.” I could hear the smirk in his voice, and I turned to face him.
“I’m not going to jump,” I said. “Don’t worry.” He wasn’t smiling. His lips didn’t even twitch. “Even if I did, I could catch myself now. Wings and all.”
In the fading light, his dark features began to blur, to fade along with the sun into the corners of the attic already cast with twilight shadows. He grabbed at an invisible speck of dust in the air, crushed it in his fist, looked away.
“Asher—”
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” So many things burned in his coal-black eyes. Anger. Betrayal. If I looked deep enough, maybe even pain. Instead, I let my gaze drop to the warped planks of the wooden floor.
“I have to do this.”
“I protected you, Skye. I devoted myself, every waking second, to keeping you safe from the Order.”
“I know—”
“I gave you a family with the Rebels. I was ready to commit my life to fighting with you. Side by side.”
“I—”
“A team.”
“Me too, but—”
He looked up then, and that look sent lightning crashing through my heart.
“I loved you.”
What was I doing? Not for the first time, I wondered if I was making the right decision. It was too hard. Shouldn’t it be easier to follow your own star?
“I loved you, too,” I said. I walked up to him, took his hands. They uncurled from fists, shaking ever so slightly in mine. “I still do.”
“Then how,” he said through clenched teeth, “can you leave me?”
The mountain wind blew between us. The sun sparkled through my eyelashes.
“Because I have to do this. It’s who I am. Can’t I love you but not believe in what you believe in?”
“It’d be a whole lot better if you believed.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, and I smiled, despite myself. “That’s not funny.”
“I know.” He sighed, grabbed my hands in his, and pulled me closer. I let him wrap his arms around me, and I rested my cheek on his chest. “It’s just that I really did think you were a Rebel. I thought we were in this together. For always.”
I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes, and was glad he couldn’t see. I forced them down.
“I wish that we could be,” I said. “But it’s impossible.”
“Skye, you know I have to do the right thing, too—don’t you? I have to go back to the Rebellion. We’ve fought so hard for this; I can’t turn my back on them now. Ardith and Gideon are counting on me. I let them down once, I can’t do it again. It’s not about the rules. It’s not like the Order. It’s about honor. It’s about loyalty. I thought you understood that.”
“Don’t talk to me about loyalty,” I said, my face growing hot with frustration. “I’m loyal to my family. To my friends. To my own blood.” I took a deep breath. “So, I guess that means we’re against each other now.”
“Maybe.” He looked thoughtful. “Maybe not. Looks can be deceiving. You of all people should know that.” He took a step back, and lifted my chin so he could look into my eyes. He raised an eyebrow.