A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

jogged inside, calling a hello to Aunt Jo, taking the stairs two at a time to my room. Not waiting for a response, I threw off the sweater dress and boots and dressed in leggings and a sports bra, a long underwear top, and a fleece vest. I bent to lace up my sneakers. I hadn’t been for a run in a long time. But I had to do something .
    My breath formed clouds of steam in the gray afternoon light as my feet pounded against the ground. I pushed myself up the trail in the woods, pumping my arms and breathing in short, regulated breaths the way I did when I was skiing. It felt amazing to be working my body again, to be so in control of it.
    Halfway up the trail, a clearing opened up into a view of the valley below. I stopped there to rest and stared out over the mountain panorama. The light began to shift, and clouds moved in, tempting me.
    Focus your energy. Find the switch.
    The clouds took the shape of rolling waves, resembling the sea. I rocked back and forth on my heels, and the clouds rolled back and forth with me. I crouched low, and the clouds descended on the valley, so thick I couldn’t see a thing. I stood up, and they wisped out into a fine mist, swirling around me. I closed my eyes and wished for snow. When I opened them again, snowflakes floated from the sky, catching on my eyelashes.
    It didn’t let up. More snowflakes followed as I jogged back down the mountain, coating my ponytail and soaking through the sleeves of my shirt. By the time I got back home, it was flurrying, accumulating on the ground, a soft layer of white drowning out every other thought but one: I had done this.
    I vowed to go for another run again the next day. I was grounded, after all. I had all week.
     
    When I walked into the kitchen, shaking snow from my hair, I stopped short. Aunt Jo was sitting at the kitchen table with Asher. The two of them were stiff and awkward. Aunt Jo’s eyes were narrowed suspiciously. They looked up when they saw me.
    “Skye,” Aunt Jo said. “Asher just came by to drop off a book you left at school.”
    “Oh,” I said, still breathing hard from my run and marveling at the awkwardness I’d stumbled into. “Thanks. Come on, let’s go upstairs.” Asher smiled politely at Aunt Jo, and followed me upstairs to my bedroom. I closed the door behind us.
    “Wow, I don’t think she likes me,” Asher said, falling onto my bed. “That’s a first.”
    “How could she not like you?” I asked. “Didn’t you charm the pants off her like you do everyone?”
    “I tried,” Asher said, bewildered and annoyed. “It didn’t work.”
    “Huh.” Maybe she thought he’d been with me at the cabin. Maybe she still blamed him for my running away.
    “Hey,” Asher said, a slow smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as if noticing me for the first time.
    “What?” I grinned.
    “You look kind of sexy in those running clothes.”
    “These? This spandex is like a million years old.”
    “I so don’t care. Come here.” He reached out his hands to pull me toward him, and I leaned down for a deep, intense kiss as he ran his hands up my legs. Even through the fabric, my skin prickled at his touch. I still had the energy from the clouds pulsing through me, and I felt alive, connected to the earth, to Asher’s spicy scent. As if sensing this, he pulled me on top of him on the bed, deepening the kiss with his hand on the back of my neck.
    “Wow,” he whispered. “What’s gotten into you?”
    “I just feel good today. Is that so bad?” I batted my eyelashes against his cheek.
    “Bad? Hell, it’s amazing.”
    I glanced out the window behind my bed. The stars were moving in the night sky, twinkling on and off, rearranging themselves.
    I’m doing that , I thought. I watched them move in different directions, trying to control the pattern of stars. I frowned and stared hard. I had to focus my thoughts. I could do this. I could control this. The stars came together, pulled to the center of the sky as if by some great magnetic force. They formed letters. They were spelling something.
    Asher pulled me back down before I could see what.
    “Hey,” he said. “You okay? Where did you go just then?”
    Suddenly I heard footsteps in the hall. Aunt Jo. I broke away quickly. Asher groaned.
    “Man,” he said under his breath, “that sucks .”
    We sat up.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “She’s . . . been strange since I’ve been back. Or maybe I’ve just been used to her being away all the