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Visir turned from Kai and held out his arms to me as I strode into the dance circle, the beat of the drums guiding my steps and the flow of my body. Grinning, I took his hands, and we whirled each other in a controlled circle, like the elegant fall of a spinning leaf pod. The onlookers cheered and clapped, and Kai shouted, “Visir and Istil are going to show us how the forest dragons dance!”
At once, space was made for us. The other dancers cleared out of the circle, and the drums went silent. Visir and I grasped each other by the forearms. I glanced at Makoa, and he nodded.
“Hup!” he shouted, cueing the beat, and brought his sticks to the hide.
His drum thumped at a slow, galloping rhythm, quiet and low like a gathering breeze before a gale. Visir and I circled each other as if we were about to fight, our eyes locked in a fierce gaze as we mirrored each other’s movements. We changed direction and widened the gap between us. We hunched low and stretched up tall, moving quicker as the beat rose with us. We stomped our feet into the sand and spun around and around, faster and faster as the crowd cheered us on, and at the height of the rhythm, we shifted out our tails and slammed them together with a loud crack—the climax of our battle dance.
A collective gasp went up, and then an explosion of applause. Visir and I exchanged a smile.
“Congratulations, cousin,” I told him.
“You seem to be in a much better mood,” he said. “Did you get everything figured out?”
“More or less.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Ari standing near the front of the crowd, his glasses glowing in the firelight. He turned his head just enough that the reflection flashed away, and I saw he was looking right at me. Or scowling—it was impossible to tell.
“Fantastic!” said one of Kai’s clan members, a silver-haired alpha with deeply tanned skin. “Now join us! We’ll show you how the sea dragons like to move!”
Makoa stood up and smacked his drumsticks together. “Hiare tatou! Let’sgo!”
A gut punch of a drum beat started and another cup of luyu appeared in my hand. I happily drank the entire thing in one go to a roar of approval.
“Olioli, konaka!” shouted the silver-haired alpha, waving his hand. “Kikaha i’iko kakou mau hoa!"
“What did he say?” I yelled to Kai.
Before he could answer, two more alphas jumped out of the crowd, their bare chests gleaming in the firelight, and hoisted me up onto their shoulders. Dancers poured back onto the sand, including all of Kai’s cousins—except Ari. As the two alphas carried me around the bonfire, I searched the crowd for him. I just wanted to know what the grumpy bastard was doing and why he wasn’t dancing.
They took me down, and one of the alphas leaned in and said, “You’re a really good dancer.”
“Thank you!” I yelled to him.
Over his shoulder, I caught another glimpse of Ari. He was talking to someone, an omega. Ari said something, and the omega laughed and offered him a drink from his cup.
What the hell are you doing? The party is over here.
The dance circle moved around the fire, me included. Everything was a whirl of light, the throbbing pulse of the drums pushing me forward, controlling me like the strings on a children’s toy. The two alphas were speaking to me and I hardly knew what they were saying. I melted into the music and let it carry me completely. My feet flew across the sand with my arms spread like wings. I felt the ocean air pour across my skin, where it mixed with the breeze spilling in from the surrounding jungle and the bonfire’s heat. I closed my eyes and danced with the luyu rushing through my body, faster and faster, laughing at the frenzy of the rhythm.
“Istil!” Visir shouted.
I opened my eyes and was too late to stop myself from sweeping my foot against the coals. I cried out, more in surprise than in pain, and stumbled onto the sand. The drums stopped.
“It’s okay, I’m fine,” I said.
The two alphas leaned in to help but were suddenly pushed aside by none other than Ari.
“That was quite the dance,” he said, crouching beside me. “Let me see it.”
“You’re a bit late to join,” I told him. “I’m fine. It was just a graze. I’ve dealt with far worse.”
“I don’t doubt that,” he said. “But—”
I used his shoulder to pull myself up—and promptly fell back onto my ass. It was just a graze that had happened to singe the pad of my foot. Then, Ari did something I could never have expected.
“You’re coming with me,” he said. “That burn needs to be treated.”
He slung my arm around the back of his neck and picked me up.
