A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

realized that I’d ruined the barely-there fabric. The dark sand and seawater stained the hem and at my knees where I’d fallen.
    Nothing perfect ever lasts , I found myself thinking.
    I stood up, collecting the folds of the beautiful dress in my arms to keep from falling. I leaned forward into the wind, into the mist, as I took one step and then another. And then my feet hit something solid.
    My heart beat fast, and I swallowed the wet air, bending to see what I’d stumbled upon. Feet , I realized. Those are feet. The mist drew out with the tide, and now that my vision was clear, dread descended on me. I was looking down at a body. It lay unmoving on the beach, but I couldn’t make out the face.
    And then the mist returned, like the ocean was sucking its breath in with me, and the whiteness expanded into the sky, until it eclipsed everything else.
     
    When I opened my eyes again I was inside, lying on a worn velvet couch, staring up at Ian.
    “Hey,” he said, his freckled face expanding into a huge grin. “You’re awake.”
    “Ian?”
    “Welcome back,” he said breathlessly. “But give a guy a break, Skye. I already thought I’d never see you again, then I have to go and find you passed out in the street?”
    I looked up, alarmed that he really was angry with me, but the grin was still plastered across his face. Before I knew what was happening, I was smiling and laughing and holding back tears while Ian scooped me up in his arms and held me against his chest.
    “Oh my god,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t know if I would ever hear that laugh again.”
    “I didn’t know if I would ever see those freckles again!” I cried.
    He smiled and brought a hand to his face in mock self-consciousness.“What, these things? My mom says I’ll grow out of them by the time I graduate. She says then I’ll be ever so handsome.”
    “No! Don’t you ever grow out of them,” I said. “They’re the most reassuring sight in the world.” Under his freckles, Ian’s cheeks turned red.
    “Oh, man, Skye,” he said, taking my hand in his. “You’re really here, aren’t you? I’m not just dreaming this?”
    “I’m here,” I said. I raised an eyebrow. “Ian, have you been dreaming about me?”
    “Every night.” As with most conversations Ian and I had, I knew he wasn’t exactly kidding when he said things like that. I let my hand fall from his, and he noticed. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “Are you still, you know, with . . . ?”
    “Yeah,” I said, dropping my voice, too. “Asher.”
    “Asher. Right.” He looked up at the clock, probably just to avoid my gaze. Then he looked back at me. “You know, he wasn’t out there on the street when I found you. No one was. You were just lying there, passed out, alone. What happened?”
    He’d been there, of course. We won’t reveal ourselves yet. They were here, watching everything. Asher would never leave me. But I couldn’t exactly tell Ian that.
    “Skye,” Ian prodded. “I’m serious. What happened? Are you okay?”
    “I don’t know,” I said, suddenly really tired. I thought about all the questions that were awaiting me now that I was back. “I was awake and then . . . I was here.” I paused. “Maybe it was exhaustion. I was traveling. . . .”
    “Traveling,” he repeated.
    “Yeah.”
    “Do . . . you wanna tell me where you were?”
    I looked up at him again. There was a steaming mug of something delicious-looking on the coffee table next to him. Oh, Ian. He was always there for me when I needed him. Not for the first time, I wished I could be there— had been there—for my friends in the same way. But, no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t see a way that I ever could.
    “I do want to tell you,” I said finally.
    “But?” His smile was lopsided, a little sad. He knew me that well.
    “I can’t. I’m so sorry. I wish I could.”
    “Hey.” He took my face, suddenly, in both his hands. I was caught off-guard, and my body responded before I was ready. There was something so aggressive, yet gentle, about his sudden forcefulness. So unlike Ian. “You never need to apologize to me.” His green eyes flashed with an intensity I’d never seen in them before. “I know you need your space. And I know that, when you’re ready, you’ll tell me everything.”
    I felt the tears well up in me again, and for a couple of seconds, I couldn’t say a word. Finally I whispered, “Thank you.”
    In another surprise move, he bent