A Beautiful Dark

that Asher saved your life,” Ian said.
    “I wouldn’t go that far.” Or maybe I would. Without him, they might have never found me. He and Devin both seemed to have an uncanny ability to sense when I was in trouble and come to my rescue. But then again, I never used to get into so much trouble before they arrived.
    Cassie shooed the guys away from the door. “Come on, come on. Let the invalid pass.”
    To the left of the lodge, a dirt path snaked downhill through the woods. As I followed it through the dark, Cassie’s flashlight bouncing off the pine trees, the motion reminded me of the snow slipping out from under me. My vision swam, and for a moment, I felt dizzy. I stopped abruptly, waiting for the forest to stop spinning.
    “You okay?” Ian whispered, coming up next to me.
    “Fine,” I said, shaking my head to clear it. “I’m fine.”
    “Maybe hanging out tonight is too much, too soon after your fall? Do you want me to walk you back to the room?”
    But going back to the room would accomplish nothing. I didn’t need a night to rest. What I needed were answers. I had to discover if I was going insane or if there was even the smallest possibility that the strange things that had been happening to me were real.
    The path opened into a clearing, where a fire was already crackling away and Ms. Manning was just finishing up laying out the rules for the restless crowd.
    “Remember, no alcohol, of course, and no smoking. Keep the area clean; put the fire out when you’re done.” She smiled and held up a plastic grocery store bag filled with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. “Because we had an exciting day,” she said, eyeing me.
    As Dan, Ian, Cassie, and I spotted a log on the far side of the fire and headed toward it, I was bombarded with questions from my classmates. Apparently the rumors had been raging out of control. Though I was happy to be safe, happy even to be alive , how could I explain to them what had happened on the mountain or in the infirmary? I would have to be convincing about whatever lie I told. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I opened my mouth, about to make something up.
    “She was incredible.” Asher’s voice cut in from behind me, and all eyes focused on him as he walked up next to me. “You should have seen it. A huge chunk of ice broke off the side of the mountain and gathered this momentum of snow. Yet Skye was totally outmaneuvering it,” he said, shooting me a sideways grin.
    “Until I fell,” I added.
    “But even then,” Asher told the group. “Heroic. No wonder she wins all those medals.”
    I groaned at the melodrama. “It wasn’t heroic.”
    “Well, you hit your head pretty hard. You might not remember it all exactly how it happened.” He gave me a pointed look, and I shut up. I had promised to keep his secret. It had happened. So the only question left was, How?
    Playing along, I pinned him with a fake smile. “You must be right,” I said lightly. “I don’t even remember how we got back. Maybe after the campfire, you can fill me in.”
    Then Ellie was there, grabbing Asher’s arm. “Glad you’re okay, Skye,” she said over her shoulder as she pushed him toward the other side of the fire. I caught his eye, but he just shrugged and gave me a what-can-I-do? look.
    “Looks like you’ve totally lost out with Asher,” Cassie said under her breath as I sat down next to her.
    “Cass, it really doesn’t bother me.”
    But secretly I was seething. What was wrong with him? How could he be the way he was with me in the cave and then, the next minute, scamper off with Ellie like nothing had happened between us? Maybe the chemistry between us was all in my head.
    I settled onto the log next to Cassie, and Ian sat beside me. Within a few minutes, we were roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.
    “So I guess we have you to thank for this,” Ian said, licking chocolate from his fingers. “Maybe you should try getting sent to the infirmary more often.”
    “I think Ms. Manning was just trying to make me feel better.” She’d been the one handling all the paperwork for me at the infirmary, and had tried Aunt Jo’s cell but hadn’t gotten through. Finally, I called the office; they’d been in regular touch with her via satellite and promised to let her know what had happened. I was exhausted just thinking about how hard it was to track her down.
    After all the s’mores had been devoured, Devin showed up at the edge of the