Fragile Darkness by Ellie James Page B

generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.”
    Dylan stopped, reaching back to catch me by the waist and pull me into the shadow of a double-trunked oak.
    Grace slipped in beside us. “The Book of Revelation,” she whispered.
    Mixed with the quiet sound of Kendall begging Will to stop.
    â€œAnd then they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath is now at hand.”
    Grace frowned. “He says he’s protecting her.”
    Dylan glanced back. “From what?”
    Her eyes went really dark. “Me.”
    I went to pull my hoodie tighter, not realizing until that moment that I’d run off wearing Dylan’s T-shirt and sweats. “You?”
    â€œAnd you, and everyone else who’s following him,” Grace said.
    Dylan stepped closer, the unexpected blast of heat drawing me back against him before I even realized I was moving. I started to shift away, but before I could move, his hands were there, sliding from my shoulders along my arms, warming.
    â€œHe’s out of his mind,” Dylan muttered.
    I twisted around, our eyes meeting.
    I’d been out of my mind, too.
    â€œMaybe that’s what I was picking up on.” But even as I said the words, they rang hollow. If I flashed white for every stranger who drank too much or took things they shouldn’t, my world would be an eternal North Pole.
    â€œIt’s more than just him tripping,” Grace said, echoing my thoughts. “There’s something else, a confusion or desperation, like he’s afraid of something.”
    The white flash, I thought again. It meant something.
    Bad.
    â€œAnd then four angels stood at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree!”
    Dylan turned me by the shoulders, leaving his hands curled there as he talked. Very little moonlight leaked through the tangle of vines, but I could tell the silver gleamed really dark.
    â€œI need you to talk to him,” he said. “Can you do that?”
    I looked up at him, at the curtain of hair cutting against his cheekbone, and reminded myself to breathe. I wasn’t sure why it was so hard, but it was like I’d been holding my breath forever, waiting for the world to start turning again.
    Now it turned, but the direction was wrong.
    â€œWhat are you going to do?” I asked.
    â€œGet them down.”
    â€œYou want me to distract him?”
    With a quick nod, he pulled away and disappeared among the shadows.
    For a crazy second I wanted to drag him back.
    Knowing that was the last thing I should do, I looked back at Grace. She stared off in the darkness, her pretty white poet’s shirt torn at the sleeve and smeared with blood.
    â€œI’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I said.
    Tangles of hair streaked across her face, but when she glanced back at me, she smiled.
    â€œYou didn’t drag me anywhere. I’m where I’m supposed to be—and so are you and—”
    I’m not sure what made her stop. Maybe the quick flare of my eyes, or maybe the realization that there was no and, that any and there might have been ended the second the steady rhythm of hospital monitors fell into the scream of silence.
    We could never go back to before.
    â€œKendall?” Slipping from the shadows, I emerged into a puddle of moonlight. “Kendall! Where are you?”
    The Revelation recitation stopped. “Who’s there?”
    I ran toward Will’s voice, searching the branches. “Kendall! Answer me!”
    â€œStay away,” he warned.
    Near the base of the tree, a shadow slipped, and I knew Dylan was close.
    â€œAre you okay?” I called to Kendall.
    My only answer