Free Gives Light(Gives Light Series) by Rose Christo

know how to play Ring of Fire or Greensleeves, not yet, anyway, and he knew it; he was teasing me, in his characteristically gruff way.  Whenever he made requests like those, I liked to lean over and blow air in his face from the end of the flute.  He'd laugh--surprising me the first time, because I'd expected him to smack my shoulder instead--and I'd get a glimpse of his rare smile, wolfish and boyish and radiant.  I really liked his smile.  I'd never particularly admired a smile before, and it mystified me when I realized that I admired Rafael's.  I guess what I liked about it was that it was honest.  It was a look into his heart and soul, both of which he typically kept hidden behind dark scowls and curtains of knotted black hair, fearful that exposing them to the world meant exposing them to pain.  It was Rafael.  And he wasn't afraid of exposing his heart and soul to me.
     
    And that was the most amazing experience, the most amazing gift that anyone had ever given me.  Even my father, my only friend for most of my life, had been guarded and private with me, taciturn about his family, evasive about my mother no matter how desperately I had wanted to hear about her.  Rafael hid nothing from me.  Similarly, I was incapable of hiding anything from Rafael:  He always knew what I would have liked to say, and with startling and increasing accuracy as we spent more time together.  One time, for example, I was wondering exactly how he had lost that tooth at the back of his mouth when he saw my eyes on his waning grin and replied, "Ran into a fence when I was twelve."  And then I wondered how the heck he could have missed the giant fence standing right in front of him and he said, "Shut up."  The thing is, I don't think I would have hidden anything from Rafael even had I had the ability.  He shared everything with me; I wouldn't dare deny him the same courtesy.
     
    But not everyone shared my enthusiasm about all things Rafael.  Annie, in particular, had something to say about it. 
     
    "Skylar," she said one evening, "there are so many nice boys in Nettlebush...  Are you sure you want to be friends with him?"
     
    To begin with, it was weird where I had found her--on the front porch with Granny, the two of them sitting in rocking chairs.  I never would have pegged those two for friends.  But I thought I knew what Annie was hinting at.  Rafael's father had killed my mother.  It was a sickly, unsettling truth that would never go away.  I couldn't begin to imagine what Dad would say if he knew that Rafael and I were friends.
     
    I didn't think Rafael deserved to be judged for the things his dad had done.
     
    He's kind , I signed to Annie. 
     
    Annie nodded, distracted, chewing on her fingernail.  She said, "He fights a lot--with the boys from school.  He put William Sleeping Fox in the hospital once." 
     
    I knew Annie wouldn't lie to me--and I knew Rafael didn't get along with the other kids in Nettlebush--but I had a hard time imagining Rafael as a brute.  Sometimes he would hit me on the shoulder or the arm, but playfully.  Except for when he dragged me around the reservation like a tugboat, he was never anything but gentle with me.
     
    That same night, Rafael grabbed my hand and tugged me into the woods.
     
    "You have to see this," he said.
     
    He wasn't following the trail to the lake.  In fact, I didn't know where he was taking me.  I only knew that I trusted him.
     
    Rafael didn't seem to know where he was headed at first, either.  Every now and then he'd stop, look around, and start off in a completely different direction.  Watching him was an amusing way to pass the time, but puzzling.  Usually Rafael was a lot better at remembering and following directions.  It took me a while to realize he wasn't lost, but following the changing winds.
     
    He stopped, suddenly, and pulled me behind a beech tree.
     
    "Look," he hissed, leaning around the trunk.
     
    It was a pack of wolves,