Free Fractured by Erin Hayes

guide for her a few weeks earlier. Bash was willing to try skiing without one, but Seth insisted on having one look after her. After all, he reasoned, the last time she hit the slopes, she broke her arm.
    “You guys go on ahead,” Bash told everyone. “It’s going to take a while to get acquainted with my guide anyways.”
    Maria opened her mouth to protest, but Darius sensed Bash’s embarrassment about the situation. “We’ll see you up there, Bash,” his warm voice said.
    “You sure you’re okay with this?” Seth asked after they left, a question he’d asked her many times before.
    “I’m good,” she told him. “I just wish Lily would get her panties out of a wad.”
    “It’s her problem,” Seth said.
    Was it though? Wasn’t Bash supposed to be the older sister, the one who took care of her younger sibling? A part of her wondered if there was a way she could repair whatever was wrong between them. She was sure she could, if only she could figure out what it was.
    A few minutes later, her guide arrived, a laidback young man by the name of Rodney. They shook hands and greeted each other. Seth gave him the overprotective warning not to lead his fiancée off a cliff. Rodney had laughed uncomfortably, yet Bash had the feeling that Seth wasn’t joking. He was already tense from having to wait.
    Not the best way to start a day skiing.
    They grabbed a lift on the gondola up to the top of the mountain, Bash and Seth on one side of the cage, Rodney on the other.
    “You’re a pretty advanced skier?” Rodney asked her, his ski bum drawl breaking the silence.
    “Yep,” she answered. “Or at least I was,” she amended under her breath.
    “Bash broke her arm last time she went skiing,” Seth added.
    Bash felt the heat in her cheeks. Seth was treating the accident like it was proof that she was made of glass.
    The movement of the gondola slowed as they reached the top of the mountain.
    “Whelp, we’re here,” Rodney declared.
    Seth grabbed her gloved hand and helped her out of the cab. He handed over her skis. “Promise me you’ll be careful,” he whispered.
    “I will be,” she promised. “You should worry about yourself.”
    She strapped on her skis, waited for Rodney’s signal, and took off down the slopes after him, hearing his calls for her turns and carving. Her muscle memory took over, and soon, she was shooting past other skiers.
    There was something about the wind blowing past her and the smell of the mountains that calmed her. It was soothing, being on top of the world and traveling on the slopes and through the trees at a speed she forgot she could go. She was far better at skiing than she remembered. It came easily to her. She already had to have a bit of faith that she wasn’t going to die, so she was able to take risks with her technique that she knew would be hard for someone new to the mountain. Once she made peace with the terrain, it was easy.
    Seth wasn’t having as good a time—he kept falling or veering off course. His colorful language always alerted Bash to where he was, and she caught herself wondering if he was going to get kicked off the mountain for all the expletives issuing from his mouth. That wasn’t the case for her. It felt like she had always been skiing. She nudged her skis and followed where they went. She didn’t want it to end.
    Her thoughts drifted off to Lily, who would either be still asleep or just sitting at the Duck Creek Bar back at the lodge throwing back a few. It was going to be interesting to see how drunk she’d be by the time they were done skiing.
    Bash...
    Something flickered in her eyesight, and her mind reeled, trying to figure out what, or how, she was seeing something. She went completely still as she skied down the mountain. Her heartbeat pounded heavily in her chest. She was holding her breath.
    Had she actually seen something?
    It flickered again. Unfamiliar, brightly colored shapes flashed across her vision, throwing her brain into