Chapter 15
Selene clutched her purse tightly as she moved through the shadowed forest. It contained not one, but three crosses.
After the incident at the shop, she wasn’t taking any chances.
Natalie had been happy enough to bring them over, and she’d been sympathetic about Selene’s request for wooden crosses rather than silver.
After all, the invitation to the pagan festival had come from Fenris.
She didn’t want to offend him by showing up with a purse full of silver.
Natalie’s insistence that no vampires would be at the rite of Beltane hadn’t altered Selene’s resolve to keep crosses with her for the entire evening.
“I’m serious, Selene,” Natalie had assured her. “Vamps don’t get into the pagan-holiday cycle. They see themselves as above the old rites. They hate being reminded there are things in the universe more powerful than they are. Plus, it’s Fen’s event. They’d keep their distance no matter what.”
Selene smiled weakly and turned the cross over in her hands. Its solid weight was comforting.
“Are you going to tell Fen what Daniel did?” Natalie asked.
Selene shook her head. “I want Daniel to stay away. I don’t know that I want him dead. Yet.”
“Then you can’t tell Fen.” Natalie had offered her a thin smile. “But if Daniel tries something again, I think you’ll have to.”
A gust of wind rustled the tiny spring leaves on the trees. She shivered and pulled the shawl more tightly over her shoulders.
Thanks, Tim. I’m freezing my ass off out here.
The spring day had been pleasant enough, but with the sun setting, the temperature was already plummeting.
She wore a moss-green silk wrap dress that swirled around her in the cool breeze. Gooseflesh rose on her calves. At least her feet were warm in the soft leather ankle boots she’d deemed sturdy enough for an outdoor event.
After Daniel had vanished from Arachne’s Web, Selene sank to the dressing room floor.
Her heart raced and her mind spun as she tried to regain her bearings.
A vampire had attacked her. She felt sick and stunned, but she won.
That was what mattered. She had the means to protect herself, and she didn’t hesitate to use them.
More than that, she no longer had any ambivalence about Daniel.
He was a predator. Dangerous. Manipulative.
It wouldn’t be an easy conversation to have with Allie, but she would be honest, and Allie would be safer and, in the long run, happier because of it.
It still took a good fifteen minutes for her to gather her composure, change clothes, and find Arachne. As much as she’d loved the shirt-and-skirt combo she was wearing when Daniel surprised her, his comment about it and what followed made it unwearable.
Now she was tromping through the woods in green silk, trying to find a pagan festival.
She’d considered staying home, but she didn’t want to dwell on what had happened with Daniel.
She was resolved to put that, and him, behind her.
She also didn’t want Fen to misinterpret her choice if she stayed away.
As much as she was wary of a romantic entanglement with the pack leader, she couldn’t deny the strength of her feelings for him.
It was time to . . . explore that. The festival seemed like a good place to start.
Selene stopped on the path and glanced at the crinkled page upon which Natalie had jotted down directions to the grove.
East at the standing stone, then follow the path.
And there it was: a hulking gray column just off the trail, slightly obscured by the stately trees that flanked it.
She wandered to the eastern side of the rock and peered into the woods, which grew darker by the minute.
As she moved deeper into the trees, she forced herself to believe she was following a path, because she certainly couldn’t see it.
It was no more than a narrow space between the tall oaks and a noticeable lack of underbrush.
Selene walked east through the lengthening shadows and hoped she was headed in the right direction.
The forest began to change. Tree trunks thickened, becoming wider than her Prius was long. The branches snaked over her head and twined around each other, so her path—and it was a path now, clearly—was canopied by a latticework of bark and spring leaves.
She didn’t know how far she’d walked when darkness began to cover everything, obscuring her vision.
She stumbled over tree roots that snaked across the thin trail.
Her heart beat erratically, and she fought for calm breaths.
Black shadows took shape through the tree trunks, alive and moving, watching her.
She couldn’t see the path at all and didn’t know if she was even still walking on it.
I’m lost.
Selene reflexively dug in her purse for her phone, then remembered it was in her car because of the no technology rule. Bringing a flashlight hadn’t so much as crossed her mind. Did a flashlight count as technology? Was she supposed to carry a torch?
Feeling ridiculous and a little frightened, Selene was about to turn back and hope she’d somehow find the jogging lane, when a sparkle caught her eye. The winking light flashed and was gone. She stared into the ink-dark woods, wondering if she’d imagined it.
Another flash. Then another.
Selene moved warily toward the tiny lights. A silver haze spilled over the ground. Her eyes turned skyward, and she gasped.
The rising moon took up most of the sky.
Its fullness dominated the heavens in a way she’d never seen.
The growing light pushed back creeping shadows, and Selene saw that she was indeed still on the path.
Moonlight kissed her skin, and a frisson of awareness traveled through her. It felt like a greeting. A welcome.
She moved forward with faster, more confident steps.
The lights danced and flickered, and she saw they were a multitude of colors, ranging from pale rose to electric blue.
The path widened and opened into a broad space the size of a football field but in the shape of a perfect circle.
The trees that ringed the grove were larger than she’d believed any deciduous tree could grow, taller and broader than the sequoias she’d marveled at when visiting Kings Canyon National Park.
At the center of the grove was an immense bonfire, and the clearing was filled with people.
Laughter and music filled her ears. The air was full of the scent of spring flowers: lilac, honeysuckle, tulip, lily of the valley.
She saw many dancers, though the styles of dancing varied widely.
Some couples waltzed in the grass, and others were jigging.
She even caught sight of a cluster of breakdancers next to a group that was line dancing.
Come as you are, do as you will, Selene thought, and smiled. She pulled her shawl from her shoulders and wrapped it around one of her purse straps. The temperature had risen at least twenty degrees the moment she’d stepped into the sacred grove.
She walked forward and tried to convince herself that she could fit in at this gathering.
Not too bad. Not scary at all. Selene glanced around the clearing. Bonfires. Costumes. It’s like a college party. Or Burning Man.
She ignored the little voice that tried to remind her she’d been at least a decade younger for each of those. Even so, nothing about this pagan festival seemed that extraordinary.
She looked at the string of colorful lights that hung like a web over the grove. Then she frowned. The lights weren’t hanging at all. They were moving, zigzagging across the sky.
Fireflies, she thought with delight. She’d never seen so many at once.
A lime-green ball of light swooped down and hovered before her eyes. Selene froze.
The twinkling light had wings. And a body. A tiny naked man wiggled his antennae at her, buzzed closer, and kissed her nose. Then he giggled like the tinkling of bells and flew away. Selene stared at the mass of tiny beings that flew above her.
Not fireflies. Mini Marleys.
She walked farther into the grove in a stupor, unable to take her eyes off the sparkling winged creatures.
That was when the gnome headbutted her knees.
“Hey, lady, watch it,” the gnome groused.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
There was no mistaking him for anything other than a gnome. He even had a pointed red hat and a pipe caught between his teeth. The smoke that curled up toward her smelled of cloves, cinnamon, and peat moss.
The gnome glared at her and tottered off. Selene stared after him.
“Avoid the gnomes if you can!”
Selene turned to see Tim waving at her. He was shirtless and had a wreath of flowers on his head. “The little buggers are cranky as hell.”
When she reached him, she lowered her voice. “They look just like the garden figurines.”
“Yeah, they’ve got the patent on that image,” Tim replied. “Keeps them from having to work.”
She didn’t know if he was joking.
“Selene, you made it.” Glamour-free Marley, green and leafy as ever and wearing only a kilt with silk pleats that looked like flower petals, fluttered over on his dragonfly wings and pecked her on the cheek.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she murmured, even as she wondered if it would have been wiser for her to stay at home with Allie. She felt like she’d walked into Oz on steroids.
Tim grinned at her. “You’re going to love it. Beltane is my favorite Sabbat in the wheel of the year.”
“The year is a wheel?” Selene replied, puzzled. Her year was a grid calendar, phone alerts, and spreadsheets.
“Absolutely,” Marley said. “We have eight holidays, and they are all so much more fabulous than your commercialized human variety. Though they did manage to get their hands on Samhain and muck it up beyond recognition.”
“Samhain?” Selene wasn’t any less confused.
“Halloween,” Tim answered.
“Ugh.” Marley shuddered.
“Blessed Beltane, Selene.” Natalie walked up, wearing a broad smile, and embraced her.