“So what? Doesn’t mean we can’t do the spiral dance naked under the stars. The guys will join in after their party is over, and then…”
I can’t help a sarcastic chuckle at my previous thought.
Evangeline, indeed, just okayed an orgy.
“Is this what Ariel wants?”
June just laughs. “Who wouldn’t want this? It’s going to be beautiful and lusty and out of this world! Come on. You can help me set up.”
“Setwhatup?”
June’s eyes sparkle, like she’s been dying for someone to ask. “The moon altar. The flower path. The candle ring. We’re doing it in the courtyard, so we’ll be near the house if we need… You know…”
I blink. “You’re serious.”
“As a stolen virginity.” She grins like this is the best ideashe’s ever had. “We’ll need white silk, big lanterns, and incense burners. I already snagged some eucalyptus and ylang-ylang oil from the spa.”
Of course she did. Where she thinks she’s going to find white silk, I haven’t the foggiest. I suppose she could use the spa bathrobes. And incense burners? Hardly Evie’s style.
“June…” I start, unsure how to explain that I’ve just gotten a message from a monster, and she’s planning a moonlight sex ritual like we’re in a damned fairy tale.
But she tilts her head, watching me too closely.
“You’re pale. Paler than usual, I mean.” Her voice is softer now, not playful, not mocking. “And that’s saying something, considering you’re normally pretty darned white.’”
Has she forgotten I was sick and dehydrated earlier? And that next to Evie—or even Emily, for that matter—I look like I overdosed on tanning pills?
“I’m fine,” I say.
“If you say so,” She steps back, her expression sliding back into the usual mischievous smirk. “Then come help me. Unless you’d rather hang out alone. That does seem to be what you do best.”
Back to her usual self.
At least it keeps my world constant.
My mind keeps circling back to the message, to the onesie, to my father’s voice echoing inside my head like a curse I can’t unhear.
But if I don’t keep myself occupied, I’ll spiral. And not in the sensual, naked-under-the-stars way June has in mind.
“I’ll help,” I say.
“Good girl.”
We walk in silence toward the back door. June hums something vaguely witchy under her breath, and the wholetime I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s following us. Watching us. Smiling.
Not the sexy kind of smile.
The kind that saysI know exactly where you are.
And I’m coming.
EPISODE 239
SMOKE ON THE WATER
River
Twenty Years Earlier…
