A Beautiful Dark

could to manifest and control my powers? I just felt like a time bomb, ticking down the seconds until I was ready to explode. And it didn’t help that the only people who really understood, who knew what I was going through, weren’t people at all.
    Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped a plush towel around me and wiped my hand across the mirror above the sink. This girl stared back at me. She had wet black hair, a swollen pink mouth twisted in confusion, a splotchy red face, and silver eyes. Not gray. Silver.
    I put on my flannel boxers and T-shirt and got into bed, letting myself slip under the covers. I curled into as small a ball as possible, trying with all of my might to disappear into the soft folds. What I wanted, more than anything in the world right then, was my mother.
    Early the next morning, I became aware of Aunt Jo hovering in the doorway, stepping one foot past the doorframe and then edging back into the hall, afraid to commit one way or the other. I had no idea when she’d gotten home, though it must have been sometime last night after I’d already fallen asleep. I eyed her warily through a little gap in the cave I’d made under my comforter.
    “Skye?” she finally called. “Are you awake?”
    I mumbled something unintelligible.
    “I’ll take that as a yes. I have to head back out to the Collegiate Peaks this afternoon. I’ll be gone for ten days. How about I fix breakfast to make it up to you?” she asked brightly, as if pancakes with syrup would solve all of the world’s problems.
    Ten minutes later, I was shuffling into the kitchen in sweatpants, snow boots, about four different long-sleeved shirts layered on top of one another, as well as a huge knit scarf that I’d wrapped around my neck three times. I couldn’t decide if going to school was worth it.
    Aunt Jo took one look at me and her eyebrows crinkled. “Oh dear,” she said. “Are you auditioning for a horror movie after school?”
    “I plead the fifth,” I muttered as I parked myself at the kitchen table and smothered a short stack in syrup.
    She sat down across from me. “My late hours and all the time I’m away are getting to you, aren’t they?”
    “No.”
    “Guy troubles?”
    I sighed. “Sorta. There are two. . . . I don’t want to talk about them.”
    “Do I know them?”
    I shook my head. “New guys at school.”
    “The ones you mentioned before.”
    I nodded
    She raised a questioning eyebrow but didn’t press the issue further.
    “Listen, uh, did Mom ever tell you about . . . her family?”
    “Only that she didn’t have one. She was an orphan. I’ve told you that.”
    Aunt Jo was an orphan, too. It was one of the reasons they’d bonded when they’d met. A common thread.
    “Are you feeling a need to connect with your roots?” she asked.
    Was I? I hadn’t even stopped to consider that I might have a set of grandparents on each side: one in the Order, one in the Rebellion. I wondered if they were rooting for me. Why hadn’t they made contact now that Asher and Devin had? They must have known about me.
    “I don’t know. I’m just . . . thinking about a lot of things lately.”
    “I wish I had some answers for you, hon.”
    I wondered how she’d feel if she knew some of my questions. I poured more syrup on the pancakes. “I think a lot of the answers are right here.”
    I popped more pancake into my mouth.
    She laughed. “They can cure just about anything.”
    “Definitely,” I said.
    After finishing my pancakes and giving her a big hug, I walked out the door. No one was more important in my life. As long as I had Aunt Jo, I could make it through anything.

Chapter 30

    I was taking some books out of my locker that morning when a folded-up piece of paper fluttered to the floor. I bent to pick it up, thinking, reflexively, that it might be from Asher or Devin. But when I saw my name scrawled across the front in familiar, loopy script, I knew it was from Cassie. She never just texted me like any of my other friends did. She didn’t believe in texting. She believed in calling and ceremonious note writing. Say what you would about Cassie, but she did everything with major flair.
    The note read:
Cassie and the Mysterious Ellipses request the pleasure of your company at our very first GIG!
Tonight! 8:30 p.m.
Love the Bean
75 Main Street
River Springs, Colorado
Kindly RSVP by returning this note to my locker by 3 p.m. SHARP so we can give Ian a head count.
Accepts with