Chapter 15 #2
A long silk dress, a white nearly as luminous as the moon above, skimmed over Natalie’s body. The fabric was caught at her waist by a wide girdle, woven with intricate Celtic knotwork patterns in gold and green.
“Hi, Nat.” Selene was relieved to see her friend. “Nice party.”
Natalie laughed. “Always is. Wanna dance?”
“Sure,” Selene said, but she quickly scanned the crowd.
Tim smiled knowingly. “Sorry, sweetie. Fen’s got official duties for this gig. You probably won’t see him tonight.”
Selene sputtered with embarrassment, and Natalie frowned slightly.
“We’ll keep you occupied. But Tim’s right,” Natalie told her. “You won’t see Fen before the ritual.”
“That’s fine,” Selene said, wishing they’d find a new topic. “Let’s go dance.”
There was dancing. There was drinking. There was an abundance of luscious fruit and edible flowers that tasted better than Selene expected. Marley and Tim were vigilant, steering her clear of anything they deemed problematic or unpredictable when it came to side effects on mere mortals.
The night wore on, and the chaos of swirling bodies around them thickened.
Took strange shapes. There were people around her, but there were other things too.
Things with wings, with horns, with the heads or legs of beasts.
Things with body parts she couldn’t name.
Things that looked friendly. Things that didn’t.
Any time Selene’s eyes rounded or her heart tried to crawl out of her throat, Natalie would squeeze her hand and Tim would wink at her. And everything would be okay again.
She couldn’t find the source of the music.
It seemed to be coming from the earth itself, spouting up into her feet and carrying her body with its own rhythms. They’d been dancing for hours, and she had yet to lose her breath or feel tired.
She was twirling in ecstatic circles when out of the corner of her eye, she caught Natalie halt in the midst of her belly dancing gyrations.
Tim and Marley broke out of their two-step and stiffened.
All three of her friends stared at something just behind Selene.
Their bodies tense, eyes wide. She was about to ask what was wrong when a familiar voice answered the question for her.
“Good evening, Selene.”
She spun around. Fenris stood a foot away from her. He was flanked by four solemn-faced men, and all Selene could think was brawn.
Like Marley, Fen wore only a kilt. But where the faerie’s garb was brightly colored silk, Fen’s kilt was leather and resembled armor more than festive clothing. The imposing quartet that stood just behind him also wore leather. They all appeared ready for battle—Bronze Age battle.
Her mouth went dry as she took in Fenris.
Every inch of his bare torso looked like it had been chiseled from gleaming stone.
His skin was covered by a pattern of tattoos in vivid blue paint that mirrored the knotwork on Natalie’s girdle.
A crown rested upon his head composed of twisted material that curled and stretched out in sharp points.
A crown of antlers. He was frightening and beautiful, almost inhumanly so, as though he’d stepped out of some heathen pantheon.
“You look like a god,” she murmured, then mentally kicked herself for speaking aloud.
At her back, Natalie sucked in a sharp breath.
Fen’s mouth twitched into the ghost of a smile.
“I wanted to apologize that my obligations will keep me from your side tonight, as much as I’d like to be there,” he said and took her hand. “I’m pleased and honored you accepted my invitation.”
His touch made her shiver. Warmth traveled from her fingers up through her arm and spilled into her body. Selene didn’t trust her voice, so she nodded.
He brought her fingertips to his lips. They brushed over her skin, featherlight. Her knees tried to buckle, and she had to close her eyes and draw a steadying breath.
“Enjoy the night, Selene,” he said softly, releasing her.
When she opened her eyes again, Fen had turned away. The four men alongside him simultaneously inclined their heads to Selene, then followed their leader’s exit.
“Wow,” Tim said quietly and began to fan himself. “Just wow.”
Marley fluttered to Selene’s side. “You must work fast, Selene. I’ve never seen anything like that. Nice job.”
Selene didn’t reply. She couldn’t take her eyes off the rippling muscles of Fen’s shoulders, remembering how they’d felt when her fingers gripped them. The way he looked without a shirt . . . She didn’t have words.
“I’m pleased and honored you accepted my invitation.”
Her heart was doing somersaults, and she felt a bit lightheaded. It was wonderful.
“Shit.” Selene heard Natalie mutter as she watched Fen and his entourage melt into the shadows.
“What?” Selene turned to face her.
There was a tightness around Natalie’s eyes as she took in Selene’s expression.
“I have to tell you something, Selene.”
Selene frowned. “Tell me what?”
“About the ritual.” She sighed. “There are things that might happen . . . things you won’t like. You need to understand it.”
“Why do you think I won’t like it?”
“Because of the way you look at Fenris,” she said. “I didn’t realize . . . If I’d known, I would have told you not to come.”
Selene’s somersaulting heart rolled into a ditch with an unpleasant thud. “If you’d known what?”
“That you’re falling for him. Falling hard.”
“I never said that.” Selene looked away, her chest suddenly tight. “You can’t know that. I don’t even know that. I barely know him.”
Natalie looked at her sharply. “It doesn’t always work that way. You may have known him before. You recognize your soul’s true mate.”
“What are you talking about?”
“In another time, another life,” Natalie said quietly. “On another plane of existence.”
“Oh, please.” Selene stifled a laugh, but Natalie’s face was somber.
“I’m sorry, Selene,” she said. “But you need to accept that the rules have changed now. You’ve stepped into our world, and it seems to have claimed you.”
Natalie frowned and scrutinized Selene. “I can’t figure it out. That doesn’t always happen.”
Selene took a step back, uncomfortable with Natalie’s probing gaze. “What doesn’t always happen?”
“You’re part of our circle. Not an outsider,” Natalie said. “I think you might have ties to us in your past that you don’t know about.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Selene said, but she was finding it difficult to breathe.
What Natalie was suggesting couldn’t be true.
Past lives. Soulmates. That was fiction.
Fantasy. She wasn’t part of this. Nothing about Selene was magical.
She might be an unwitting spectator, but she was not a willing participant.
Natalie sighed, shaking her head. “Well, there isn’t time to look into it now. But you should come to my shop soon. I’ll do a reading. Tea leaves. Maybe cards. Now about the ritual—”
Her words were cut off by a deafening roar of the bonfire. Flames leaped toward the sky, a pillar of searing heat that reached impossible heights. The column grew and changed, the tower of flame morphing into a gargantuan tree, its blazing branches stretching toward the full moon.
“Damn.” Natalie gazed at the fiery display. “I have to go, Selene.”
“What’s happening?” Selene stared at the gargantuan tree of flames.
“The ritual,” Natalie said. “It’s time. I have to assist.”
She gripped Selene’s hands. “Remember, Selene. No matter what you think you’re seeing, it is sacred. The ceremony honors the goddess—whomever is chosen. It’s not about you and Fenris. Don’t take it the wrong way. I can explain more after it’s finished.”
Selene stared at her friend, hundreds of questions crowding into her mind.
Natalie gave her a quick hug before she turned and wove through the crowd toward the bonfire.
Even as she moved, the massive crowd of paranormal beings began to part.
A path opened that Natalie walked along, but the eyes of the throng didn’t follow Natalie.
They were fixed on a cloaked figure who stood before the fire, arms raised.
The figure, shrouded in dark, heavy robes, was bent and spindly.
Natalie stood to one side of the cloaked person.
A young girl Selene didn’t recognize stood to the other side.
An arm slid around Selene’s waist.
“Come on,” Marley whispered. “You don’t want to miss this.”
He pulled her forward into the crowd.
The figure raised its arms again, and the hood fell back.
It was a woman. Her face was ancient, riddled with lines that made patterns on her face like intricate cobwebs.
Her hair cascaded down her bent back almost to her ankles—its waves shifted and undulated as though it were composed of both the leaping flames of the bonfire and the pour of moonlight from the sky above.
When she spoke, her voice wasn’t that of an old woman. Instead, it was clear and resonant. A chorus.
“From whence comes the Great Hunt?”
Natalie and the girl spoke in unison. “The hunters appear.”
Selene gasped as Fen and his warriors stepped out of the great flaming tree, seemingly untouched by the fire. They ringed the three women so that Fen stood directly in front of the oldest woman.
“Hunt well, and the goddess will honor the consort,” she said and seemed to be speaking only to Fen.
He dropped to one knee and removed the crown of antlers from his head, placing it in the old woman’s hands.
She lifted the crown above her head. It shimmered, becoming one with the moonlight, then vanished.
“Prove your worth that you may be crowned once more,” the woman said.
“Let the goddess choose her vessel that I may serve her in the Hunt,” Fenris replied.
“The goddess chooses her priestess on this May Eve.” The old woman reached into her cloak and began chanting.
The flames of the tree began to pulse, and the moonlight intensified.
A silver spiral, a double helix of light, stretched from the heavens to encase the three women and the circle of hunters.
The old woman’s chant reached a feverish pitch, and the spiral spun around her, so bright that Selene had to avert her eyes.
There was a flash, a crack of lightning.
The chanting stopped abruptly, and the light became a soothing glow.
Selene returned her gaze to the ring of men and the three women. The old woman had dropped to her knees. She was staring at several small objects on the ground.
“What’s happening?” Selene leaned into Marley to whisper.
“She’s reading the bones,” he replied.
The old woman stood and turned from Fen to face the crowd. Her face was filled with a shimmering radiance, and she wore a mysterious smile.
“The goddess has spoken,” the old woman called. “Let the chosen step forward to receive her blessing.”
She stretched forth a long, bony finger. The crowd parted and turned. There was a moment of absolute silence, followed by gasps and murmurs.
Selene stared at the old woman and the age-gnarled finger pointing directly at her.
“The Triple Goddess names Selene Rhiannon Jones. Come, daughter of the Lady, chosen vessel of this holy night. Come forward and claim your place in the rite of Beltane.”
Allie curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, aimlessly scrolling through movies and TV shows.
She sighed for the millionth time, so bored and wishing she was with her boyfriend at the Beltane festival instead of stuck at home.
It was so annoying that Aunt Selene made her stay home.
She wasn’t a kid anymore, and somehow Aunt Selene and Fenris didn’t get that.
Josh did. He never treated her like a kid.
She’d hoped he would skip the festival to hang with her at home, but apparently whatever was going on in the sacred grove tonight was more important than her.
How old did she have to be before adults took her feelings and opinions seriously?
The doorbell rang. She set the popcorn down and rushed to the door, feeling a thrill of hope that Josh had changed his mind.
It would be so romantic if he’d come to surprise her, to sweep her off her feet and into the night to a wild pagan party.
And he could literally carry her all the way to the sacred grove.
Allie wasn’t embarrassed to admit that Josh’s strength was super hot.
She opened the door, grinning with anticipation, and her spine curled in on itself. Her smile vanished.
“Heya, Alley-Cat.” As Daniel grinned, his eyes began to glow. “Got a minute for your dad?”