A smile spread over her face. “Let’s toast.”
The four of them formed a circle around the table in the common room, and Isobel raised her glass. “To doing things differently this time.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Sean said. “Tonotrepeating history.”
“And making better choices,” Autumn added.
“And exceeding expectations,” David murmured.
Sean’s blue eyes slid his way, but then the four of them were clinking glasses and drinking deeply.
The wine was complex, vaguely sweet, with a strange electric aftertaste that cascaded through his nervous system and slithered between each cell of his body.
“Whoa.” He stared at the deceptive liquid.
“Told you it was a good year,” Bel said with a sly smile. She set down her glass and slipped her fingers through Sean’s. “Come on. They’ll be waiting for you.”
With that, the two of them disappeared through the door.
David pointed after them. “Tell me that was weird.”
Autumn was staring at his half-empty glass, but she startled at his voice.
“You okay?” he asked, then downed the rest of the wine.
She started to say something, raising her hand as if to stop him, but then just sighed. “I’m fine. You’ll be drunk before we get down there.”
“Doubt it. Let’s go.”
Outside, the night was hardly dark. Between the blue-and-purple nebulae in the sky and the bonfires dotting the forest, it might as well have been midday. His vision smeared so Luster permeated everything and colors fused. The world condensed to a kaleidoscope of glitter mixed in rainbow water.
Fucking hell. He should have known Bel wouldn’t warn him the wine was trippy.
Hot hand wrapped around his, Autumn dragged him through the trees, the air thick with the scent of woodsmoke. Music that reminded David of careless touches and sweaty sex drifted over them. Strangers dotted the woods, and each of them pelted him with hateful tension so taut, his very nerves felt stretched to their limits.
Why had he come? They didn’t want him there.
His attention caught on the throng ahead, the one surrounding Sean and Isobel. Sean stood, face inscrutable, emotions a wreck of turmoil, while the surrounding strangers worshipped him. They bowed. Whispered into his ear. Kissed his hands, his temples, his mouth. Outside his circle stood his cousin, Cole, laughing with Anna Ainslan.
Huh.
“Come,” Autumn murmured near his ear. “Let’s dance.”
Her fingers interlaced with his, and in a blur of red and gold, she set her hands on his shoulders and swayed like the couples surrounding them. The fire gilded her edges, and he held the flame of her in his hands, the same as his ancestor had many times before. They found a rhythm to the music, a tempo that pulsed with the earth itself.
Time dissolved and the night darkened, escalating the revelry.
Autumn laughed, danced, her moves streaking red in his hazed eyes. He followed her, matching her movements, catching her waist as she leapt into his arms. He’d done this before. The memories flowed through his mind easily, years of revels shared with his brother, his lover, his best friend.
They spun, breaking apart, then whirled again.
He caught her hand.
She threw her hand around his neck.
They laughed.
The music ended. She smiled, burned. “You remember?”
