A Fractured Light (Beautiful Dark)

myself with would have untold power. I didn’t want to believe that was the reason Asher wanted to be so close to me, but a small part of me couldn’t help but feel it was awfully convenient that we were suddenly inseparable right when the Rebellion was trying to hide plans for a retaliation.
    I shook my head. No, that couldn’t be it. Asher loved me. He just wanted to be with me as often as I wanted to be with him. I couldn’t believe that he would use me for the Rebellion’s purposes just to win a war. Wouldn’t that make the Rebels—my friends—just as bad as the Guardians?
    This was a dangerous train of thought. I had to wipe it from my mind.
    “Asher,” I said suddenly.
    “Yeah?” His eyes were focused on the edge of the woods at the far end of the field.
    “Think fast.” He whipped around just in time to dodge the fireball I lobbed at him. He grinned and threw it back at me with lightning-fast speed. Rather than ducking, I closed my eyes and raised my arms high in the air, calling an enormous gust of wind that carried the fireball into the sky. It dissipated into the thinnest wisps of smoke.
    “Not bad!” Asher called. He walked toward me slowly, an evil grin tugging on the side of his mouth.
    “What?” I said, backing away. My voice was shaking slightly, but not because I was afraid. “What is that smile for?”
    He reached me, running his hands up my waist and pulling me close. The sun burned bright through the trees, too bright, blinding, until the thousands of tiny evergreen needles erupted with real flames.
    “Oh,” I said under my breath.
    “I think,” Asher said, the evil smile widening, “that we need to work on your control when this happens.” He trailed his hand up my neck until it was cupping the back of my head. I drew in a shallow breath. The fire consuming the pine needles began to crackle inward, trickling along the branches toward the trunk of the tree. Asher leaned in slowly. He touched his forehead to mine and tilted my neck up so I was gazing into his startling black eyes. Dizzying eyes. “Focus,” he said, his voice no louder than a whisper.
    “On what?” I asked, my voice shaking.
    “Your emotions.” His lips grazed my earlobe. “Use them to fuel your power. Put that fire out.”
    I closed my eyes, trying to block him out. I could feel the tickle of his breath on my neck, his eyelashes flutter against my cheek. I swallowed.
    I could do this. Focus.
    The crackle of the fire was growing into a roar. I opened my eyes, and the tree was ablaze. Panicking, I broke away from Asher.
    “Come on, Skye,” he said, pulling me back to him. “I believe in you.”
    Okay, I had this. All I had to do was conjure up a storm—something big enough to put out the beginnings of a forest fire. I’d done it before, right? In the car with Ardith, I’d controlled the streaks of lightning. I’d kept our small car from getting struck by the blinding flashes that touched down all around us. Flashes that my own volatile mood had caused.
    As I turned in a slow circle, taking in the fire that was now raging through the trees, Asher wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear. “Focus, Skye. Make the fire stop.” It was almost impossible to focus on anything with Asher’s hands running up my back, but I closed my eyes again and I thought of rolling black clouds, thunder rumbling so hard it shook the mountains, cracks of lightning that lit up the night. When I opened my eyes, darkness had fallen like a blanket across the Colorado sky, and I knew that they were glowing liquid silver.
    Lightning flashed across the black, starless sky. It touched down a few feet away from us.
    “Come on, Skye!” Asher’s voice grew louder.
    I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, letting every ounce of energy that I had flow through me.
    That’s when the rain came. A freezing, fast rain that drove down in heavy sheets, soaking us. I started to laugh as the thunder rumbled beneath us.
    Asher took my hand, and we stood there, watching the rain wash away the fire. It soaked my clothes and plastered my hair against the sides of my face; made Asher’s hair look even wilder and matted his eyelashes together like he was crying. I gripped his hand tighter, and he turned to face me. I wasn’t laughing anymore.
    The look in his eyes was so strange. A fierce mix of love, fear, pride—and something else. Something that made me shiver in the icy rain.
    Possession.
    And that’s when I dropped to