Read Online A Radiant Sky by Jocelyn Davies - Free Book Online Page A

Didn’t know what they were. They tracked her as a threat to me—to keep me in line, to prevent me from ever going back to Josephine and James, finishing what we began. Or from starting some kind of uprising on my own.” He looked pained. “I couldn’t live like that, with the constant fear anymore. I went back to River Springs, to beg your aunt to think about joining forces again. She said no, andby the time I got back, my wife—” He broke off, his voice going for a moment. “They killed her.”
    I sucked in a breath. “No,” I whispered.
    He nodded.
    “Earth found her, in the car with the windows up. Those bastards made it look like she did it herself, but I knew it was them. The kid’s learned to grow around the pain, push it down. But she’s a special one. Strange, but special.” He looked at me. “I think you two have quite a bit in common.”
    “I could teach her,” I said. “I know she has powers. She must. I can show her how to use them.”
    “I told her about the angels at a young age. Didn’t want to lie to her about how her mom died, you know?”
    “Please come,” I said. “It’s safe with us. We’re protected.”
    “Are you?” He looked skeptical. “How protected are you, really?”
    I felt a chill spread across my skin, prickling it with goose bumps.
    “You don’t know what they’re capable of,” he whispered.
    I stood up quickly, suddenly scared to be away for too long. “I have to get back,” I said. “You’ll come, right? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
    He sighed deeply. “Just give me some time to think,”he said. “For my daughter.”
    When I got to the door, I paused. “They killed my parents, too,” I said without looking at him. “I don’t know about you, but I have to fight.”
    Raven and I stood on the sidewalk in front of the house. A light still glowed in the kitchen window, but otherwise it was dark. We could see Aaron’s silhouette behind the curtains, sitting with his head in his hands.
    What are you doing, Skye? I asked myself. Is this worth it?
    But I knew that it was—that any small pain I caused now would save us all from the greater pain that would be caused when the Order and the Rebellion clashed.
    “Well, that was productive,” Raven said. “You caught up with Aaron Ward, and I got to read a bedtime story.”
    I pressed my fingers into my eyes and breathed deep.
    “Skye,” she said. “Are you okay? I swear I’m not being bitchy when I say this, but you look awful.”
    “It’s been a long day,” I said. “Let’s just go home.”
    But even as I said it, the edges of my world began to blur out of focus, into something darker, hotter.
    Tiny, dark stars bloomed into life in the air around us. They smoldered like the glowing embers of a fire, igniting the air, causing smoke to unfurl in plumes.
    “Skye?” Raven’s voice faded into the snap and crackle of flames.
    My heart beat faster.
    My vision began to swim, to fill with thick, black smoke, as the rest of the street faded away.
    Please make her be all right , I found myself thinking.
    Who?
    Flames exploded around me, shattering glass, filling the air with acrid, heavy smoke so thick it felt solid. Sirens shrieked somewhere off in the distance, and someone was yelling. Wooden beams above me glowed bright with fire, raining sparks and ashes down around me, and glossy papers burned and fluttered to the ground. Panic and smoke filled my throat and lungs. All I could think—the one thought that rang through my every fiber—was I have to save her.
    “Skye!” Raven’s voice pierced my thoughts, and the vision dissolved into wisps of smoke. Sycamore Street was quiet and dark. A dog barked in the distance. “Are you okay? Was it a vision?”
    I blinked. “There was a fire. I had to save someone.”
    “Did you see who?”
    I shook my head.
    “Well.” She paused. “There’s no use standing aroundhere, is there? Can you fly?”
    “Yeah,” I said, suddenly itching to get back home.