* * *
The closer May Day got, the more intense the preparations were. The Maypole was erected in a field near the main fire pit. It was a huge pole with long colorful ribbons attached to the top. They were tied at the end for now. One day, the dancers got to practice with the actual Maypole, and Nora had to admit the intricate dance made much more sense to her at that point. Visual art set up huge fire baskets all over Helicon. They were gorgeous metal sculptures, depicting dancing men and women with wings. Sawyer finished all the dresses the afternoon before May Day, and she and Maddie helped him deliver them to all the dancers. They were positively beautiful, just like everything Sawyer made.
The dresses were not too long so that they would have room to move. The skirts descended to just below their knees. They were a simple design, with fitted bodices and flowing skirts, but they’d all been enhanced with frills and laces. They were comfortable and easy to move in, but they were also quite elegant and beautiful. When Nora put hers on, she felt like a princess.
The night before May Day, the visual art enclave distributed crowns of flowers and ribbons at the council meeting. Nora got one with daisies and yellow ribbons. Maddie’s was yellow daffodils. Sawyer got one with lilacs. “Who doesn’t like purple?” he said, grinning.
Maddie was buzzing with information about May Day, since Nora had never experienced one. “May Day is one of the days that divides the year into quarters,” she told her. “There’s May Day, the Summer Solstice, Halloween, and the Winter Solstice. May Day is the opposite of Halloween, but it’s an important day because it’s a transition from spring to summer.”
“It’s always summer here,” said Nora.
Maddie rolled her eyes. “There will be blossoms and stuff tomorrow. You’ll see. Anyway, the veil between the worlds is supposed to be really thin on the quarter days—May Day and Halloween. It’s a time of magic. Anything’s possible.”
“What about what Himeros said?” asked Nora. “It’s all about fertility?”
“It’s spring, silly,” said Maddie. “New birth. New growth.”
“Yeah,” said Nora, “but why are all the Maypole dancers traditionally virgins?”
Maddie looked uncomfortable. “Well, we don’t really do that anymore.”
“Do what?”
“Apparently,” said Maddie, “thousands of years ago, the idea was that the Maypole dancers were sort of new brides, and on May Day, they began their journey towards being fertile mothers.”
Nora felt a little alarmed. “So the Maypole dancers were supposed to stop being virgins after dancing on the Maypole?”
Maddie nodded. “But it’s not like that anymore. Well, I’m not saying people don’t have sex on May Day, because they do. But no one has to, you know?”
Did Owen know all this? Nora kind of hoped he didn’t. She certainly didn’t mention it to him when they hung out that evening. He liked her Maypole dress, though, and said he was excited to see her dance the following day.
At Maddie’s urging, Nora went to bed early. Maddie said the festivities would get started right away when she woke up, and her excitement was always infectious.
Morning came, and Nora was awoken by Maddie, who dragged her out into the grass next to their tents, fell to her knees, and began rubbing her hands in the grass.
“What are you doing?” said Nora.
“The first thing you do on May Day,” said Maddie, “is wash your face in the dew.” She rubbed her wet hands over her face.
Nora laughed but did the same thing. “Why are we doing this?”
“Why do you have to always know why?” said Maddie. “There’s a charm you can say if you want to meet a boy in the coming year, but you already have a boy, so I don’t guess you’ll want to say it.”
“You think stuff like that works?” said Nora.
“If there’s a day that it works, it’s today,” said Maddie. She murmured something under her breath.
Nora giggled. “You totally said a charm.”
Maddie smiled back. “Well, maybe this is the year, right? I don’t want to be the oldest muse in Helicon ever to have a first kiss.”
Nora hugged her friend. “Your first kiss is going to be amazing.”
They ate breakfast, put on their new dresses and flower crowns and met Sawyer to go to the dance enclave. The procession would start there. True to Maddie’s word, every tree in Helicon had blossomed overnight. Instead of being decorated with leaves of green, they dripped flowers of all colors, a gleaming rainbow. There was excitement in the air, and Nora felt herself caught up in it. The breeze seemed a little crisper, though still warm.
Once in the dance enclave, they were all given a torch. It took some time for all of the muses to appear, and for a little bit, everything seemed to be a disorganized mess. But once the area around the enclave’s fire pit was crowded with muses, Himeros—in a green-velvet, tapered coat and tails—clapped his hands over his head and yelled for quiet. “Everyone gather together, putting your torches together.”
The muses crowded in, all placing their torches in the middle of their crushed together bodies so the torches touched.
Himeros’ voice rang out. “Together, on this May Day, we welcome the spirit of spring into our midst. The fire of passion is lit again, and we bring the fire to Helicon.”
At once, a flame roared up in the center of the cluster of muses, igniting all the torches. As they all pulled away with lit torches, the muses cheered.
“Let the procession begin!” said Himeros.
The muses lined up, with Natalia and Himeros leading. They were representing the May Queen and the Green Man in the dance. Behind them, Nora, Maddie, Sawyer, and the other Maypole dancers in their white dresses. And behind them, the rest of the dance muses. All of them held their torches high over their heads. Natalia and Himeros linked arms and started off. They paused near every fire basket that the visual art enclave had put up to light it. When the fire burst out, it made the metal sculptures glow.
The procession went to the music enclave first. Natalia and Himeros marched into the enclave’s main area, right next to their fire pit. Together, they put their torches to the fire pit, lighting it.
“The fire of spring is lit,” yelled Natalia. “Who joins our celebration?”
At once, the muses of the music enclave poked their heads out of their tents, cheering. They brought their musical instruments. Drums were slung over shoulders, guitars strapped to their bodies. Whooping and yelling, they fell in behind the dancers, and they began to play their music.
Now the dancers moved with the beat of the drums, swinging their hips as they walked. The swell of singing propelled the procession forward, and on it went. They visited each and every enclave, lighting the fires and calling the muses forward. Soon the procession was very long, and the fires of Helicon were all lit. Eventually, the procession ended at the Maypole. The muses wound around it.
There was a center ring, right around the Maypole, consisting of the Maypole dancers. The rest of the muses made circles outside the ring, until every muse was standing around the pole. The drums beat fiercely, and the muses all cheered.
Phoebe stepped into the center of the ring. Nora was struck by how regal and beautiful she was. She wore a long violet dress with flowing sleeves. Her white hair was in brilliant contrast to her smooth dark skin. She threw her hands up, her head back, as if she was drinking everything in, and it was glorious. “Happy May Day!” she cried.
The muses went crazy, screaming back at the top of their lungs, beating the drums in a frenzy. Nora felt buoyed up by it, somehow connected to everything and everyone, like electric jolts were sizzling through her. She couldn’t stop smiling.
“Let the dance begin,” said Phoebe. She moved out of the way.
The Maypole’s ribbons had been laid out on the ground all around when they arrived at the pole. Nora knelt and picked up her ribbon as musicians began to play their instruments.
Natalia and Himeros stepp
ed forward. Their part of the dance was about to begin.
Natalia, representing the May Queen, darted away from Himeros, moving elegantly to the music, her body lithe as she sprung over the grass.
Himeros gave chase, but his movements were stylized as well, meant to move with the flow of the music.
Natalia darted in around the ribbons of the flagpole, stopping occasionally to glance over her shoulder at Himeros and giggle.
This, Maddie had explained to Nora, was the chase. The May Queen ran from the Green Man, taunting and teasing him, but eventually she allowed him to catch her, because the union of earth and rain or male and female was necessary for growth and the cycle of life.
Natalia and Himeros were beautiful to watch. Their movements seemed careless, but they were quite deliberate, and they worked together as the perfect team. They danced, but they also told the story well, as they scampered and leapt in and around the Maypole.
Eventually, Natalia paused just outside the circle of Maypole dancers. She ran her hands through her hair, shook her hips, and beckoned to Himeros.
He leapt toward her gracefully, like a gazelle. When he reached her, he lifted her into the air and, balancing her as her body arced beautifully over his head, spun her in a circle.
Then they danced together. The movements were sensual but beautiful. Their bodies pressed tightly together, they moved like one being, as if they had one mind. They gyrated around the circle, finally together. As they made their final orbit, the Maypole dancers began their dance.
Their dance was simple. One group of Maypole dancers moved clockwise around the circle. One moved counterclockwise. Using the ribbons they were holding, they drew one ribbon over the first dancer they encountered, and then ducked under the ribbon of the next dancer they encountered. The dance was up and down, ebb and flow. It circled the pole. They had moves to make with their feet, though, ensuring that they made a precise number of steps. And there were moments they all paused with the music for effect. And while all this was going on, they waved their free arms in synchronized patterns and undulated their hips in time to the drum beat.
Nora half-wished she could see what it looked like. She knew it felt amazing, being part of this human machinery that was weaving a beautiful pattern of ribbons around the pole. Because the way they weaved through each other wove the ribbons, making them braid themselves around the pole.
As the ribbon wound around the pole, it shortened, tightening their circle, and making the dancers get closer to each other. The music sped up in time as their steps got smaller and smaller. When they were so close that they couldn’t weave under each other anymore, and the music had reached a frenzied pace, they stopped weaving the ribbon and simply walked in a circle, winding the last of the ribbon to the pole, finishing it.
The music finished with a flourish, and the surrounding muses stomped their feet, clapped their hands, and yelled.
Phoebe came forward amidst the cheering. She had ten or fifteen ribbons of various colors draped over one arm. She raised the other arm in the air for silence. “Will the couples who wish to be handfasted this May Day please come forward?”
There was a shuffling, and then muses began to step up in pairs. Nora felt the dancer next to her touch her arm and realized that the Maypole dancers were all sitting down on the grass now, so she did as well.
Phoebe lined up the couples facing each other. Nora watched. Maddie had told her a little bit about this. Apparently, muses sometimes chose to commit to each other for a year and a day at May Day. It was sort of like marriage, Maddie said.
Phoebe addressed the gathered muses. “These couples have expressed a wish to make a commitment to each other publically, in the eyes of the community. They will be bound to each other for a year and a day, in accordance with the tradition of Helicon.” She turned to the couples. “Repeat after me, please. You cannot possess me, for I belong to myself.”
The couples looked into each other eyes and repeated Phoebe’s words, which Nora thought were a little strange for the beginning of a vow of commitment.
“But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give,” said Phoebe.
The couples repeated. Nora considered. Actually, it was very nice, she thought. She wasn’t especially familiar with wedding vows, but she liked that this differed because it was an affirmation of choice.
Phoebe walked between the couples, stopping as she passed the first couple but still standing in the middle of the row of them. “Join hands,” she told the first couple. They did. Phoebe took a ribbon from her arm and wrapped it around the couple’s joined hands. “As I bind your hands, so may your hearts be bound for one year and one day.” The couple kissed.
Phoebe walked to the next couple and repeated the process.
As she proceeded down the line, the bound hands prevented her from walking back the way she had come, and so she walked through the couples, binding their hands with ribbons, until all were bound. After she finished, she said in a loud voice, “May your unions bless you creatively and inspire you as we seek to inspire!”
Everyone cheered again. The couples wandered off, their hands still tied together.
Phoebe was smiling. “Though we have had a trying year thus far in Helicon, we have much to celebrate. Enjoy yourselves today and create!” She paused while the muses applauded again. “Also, I think the food’s ready.”
After that, music started again, and muses rushed into the grass to dance. Others filled plates from the loaded tables near the main fire pit. Still others filled tankards and glasses with wine and ale, which the wine and spirits enclave had brought in large quantities. Nora was heading to get food with Maddie and Sawyer when Owen wound through the crowd and grabbed her arm, his face stormy.
Without saying a word, he dragged her away from the gathering, down below the Maypole, past the musicians playing. Once they were out of sight of the rest of the muses, he dropped her arm. “What was that dance?”
Nora was confused. “Dance?”
“I don’t want you dancing like that in front of all of these people,” Owen said.
“Like what?” Other muses had gone to dance to the music, but she’d been headed for the food. She really wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“The Maypole dance was very suggestive,” said Owen. “You looked like a slut up there, jiggling all over the place.”
What? “It’s the Maypole dance, Owen,” said Nora. “It’s supposed to be about fertility and stuff.”
“That’s disgusting,” said Owen.
Nora was starting to get tired of this. Owen always seemed to find something to blow up at her about. She didn’t feel like dealing with it. It was a festival for goodness sake. She wanted to get some food, dance a little, talk to her friends, and have fun. She really didn’t want to deal with Owen’s drama. She sighed heavily.
“It would be one thing if we were actually doing it,” said Owen. “But we’re not. You always say no to me. And then you’re up in front of everyone in Helicon, doing this dance that makes you look like you’re saying, ‘Come and get it.’”
“That’s not how the dance looked!” Nora glowered at him. Owen was overreacting. “And anyway, I see what this is all about. You’re pissed off because I’m not sleeping with you. Well, get over it. The way you’re acting these days, I don’t know if I ever will sleep with you.”
“You’d do that, wouldn’t you? Just to spite me.” He shook his head at her.
“Not to spite you, Owen,” said Nora. But she didn’t feel like arguing about this anymore. She’d hoped Owen could be part of her good time today. More and more it seemed like Owen was never in a good mood, however. “I’m going to go eat food and dance and have fun, okay? This is supposed to be a party.”
“Oh, great,” said Owen sarcastically. “So what am I supposed to do, then? How am I supposed to have fun? It’s your fault I feel like this, and you aren’t even going to apologize?”
“I didn’t do an
ything wrong!” Nora felt like the words ripped out of her. Owen was always accusing her of doing thing to make him angry, and sometimes she could see his point of view, but this seemed completely ridiculous. “You’re the one who’s getting bent out of shape over nothing.” She turned on her heel and started to walk back to the May Day festivities.
Owen put a hand on her shoulder. “Nora—”
“Don’t touch me,” she said, shaking him off. She kept walking.
He didn’t follow her. She went back to fill up a plate with food and joined Maddie and Sawyer, who were already eating.
“What was that about?” asked Sawyer.
“Owen was being an ass,” Nora muttered.
“Seems like a pattern with him,” Sawyer said.
Nora wondered if he was right. But she didn’t feel like dwelling on unpleasantness, so she did her best to distract herself with food and dancing. She even managed to snag a drum for a while, and she joined in the music, pounding out the drum beat along with other muses. The afternoon wore into evening, and the sun began to sink behind the horizon. The fires all over Helicon burned brightly, dotting the growing darkness with flashes of orange. She hadn’t seen Owen since their argument, and she began to wonder if she should go to him and try to patch things up. Maybe she’d been too curt with him. She looked around for him among the other muses, but she didn’t see him anywhere. She wondered if he’d gone back to his tent.
Then she noticed something strange. She saw a spark of light fly up out of one of the fires and hover there, like a hummingbird. It darted up away from the fire, flying through the air of its own volition. She stood up.
There were more of these sparks, suddenly, swarming out of the fires, flying haphazardly throughout the gathering, like demented fireflies that never switched off.
She felt Maddie at her side, clutching her arm. “The fairies,” Maddie whispered. “The fairies are here.”
Nora turned to her sharply. “What?”
“It’s a cross-quarter day,” said Maddie, still speaking softly. “May Day and Halloween both are. At dusk and dawn on a cross-quarter day, the divisions between the worlds are flimsy and thin. It means that things from other worlds can cross into ours. And the fairies have crossed over into Helicon. They’re here to share our May Day celebration.”
“Fairies are real?” said Nora. Considering she was a muse, and that a few days ago, she’d met a Greek god, this seemed like a stupid question. So. There were fairies. She’d have to keep making these little adjustments.
The whole of Helicon seemed filled with spots of brilliant light. The fairies lit up the sky like stars, but they moved quickly, flying in and around the muses and their surroundings.
Maddie tugged on Nora’s hand. “Let’s go dance with them.”
Nora let Maddie lead her into the swarm of glowing dots. The music of Helicon had grown more ethereal suddenly, and then Nora realized that there were different musicians than the muses. They were small people with pointed ears and wide child-like eyes. Their skin had a greenish tint to it. She watched as their spindly arms plucked oddly shaped string instruments and fingered gleaming flutes. The music swelled around her and Maddie.
They clasped hands and spun in a circle, fairies flying around their faces and limbs. Up close, Nora could see that they were no bigger than insects, but that they did have human-like bodies. Their wings whirred around them, propelling them through the air. They were all manner of colors—from purple to gold to bright orange.
As long as she danced to the fairy music, Nora had no thoughts of Owen. No thoughts of any kind, in fact. She was mesmerized by it, pulled into its haunting rhythms and airy melodies. She and Maddie twirled and pranced through the grass, fairies alighting on their limbs from time to time. It was magical and beautiful. Nora’s heart soared.
Then Sawyer was next to them, pulling them both away. “I just saw Phoebe and Dionysus go off alone together. We’ve got to go see what they’re saying.”
“What?” said Nora. “Why?”
“To make sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the portals, of course,” said Sawyer.
“But fairies,” said Maddie.
“Come on,” said Sawyer, dragging them past the fire pit.
Phoebe and Dionysus were standing in the darkness beyond Phoebe’s tent. Sawyer, Maddie, and Nora crouched behind it so that they could observe and listen out of sight. The two appeared to be arguing. Phoebe’s arms were folded over her chest and Dionysus’ face didn’t have its usual carefree expression.
“No one else can tell,” said Phoebe, “but as head of the council, I can. And I remember a promise you made to me that you would stop.”
“Come on, Phoebe,” said Dionysus. “It’s only for a little fun now and then.”
Phoebe shook her head. “We don’t have the energy to spare here, Dionysus. Helicon can’t afford to be drained in this way.”
Sawyer looked back at the both of them. Nora swallowed. Were they talking about the portals? Did Phoebe know that it actually was Dionysus doing it?
“You used to like to have fun,” Dionysus said. He reached for her. “Remember fun, Phoebe?”
She backed away from his hand as if he had the plague. “I don’t see what’s enjoyable about stealing energy from Helicon. You’re hurting people.”
“This place is full of energy,” said Dionysus. “You have lots to spare.”
Phoebe laughed bitterly. “That’s not true, and you and I both know it. Or had you forgotten what got us into this mess in the first place?”
Dionysus sighed. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to leave,” said Phoebe. “I want you to stop abusing the privileges I foolishly granted you so long ago. You’ve done nothing but cause harm to this community. I have to protect it.”
Dionysus’ jaw dropped. “You’re kicking me out? So much for muse hospitality, huh?”
“You know I can’t kick you out, although I certainly would if I could,” said Phoebe. “But I’d rather you weren’t here. I think you’ve outstayed your welcome.”
“Can’t I at least stay until the end of May Day?” asked Dionysus. “This is the best part. Drunk fornicating in the fields. It’s what I live for.”
Phoebe looked disgusted. She put a finger in his face. “You leave tomorrow morning. And you stop what you’ve been doing and never do it again, like you promised.”
Dionysus’ shoulders slumped. “Okay, okay. But I don’t know when you turned into such a killjoy, Phoebe.”
Phoebe shot him a murderous glance and swept past him.
Sawyer, Maddie, and Nora pulled back into the shadows so that she wouldn’t see them when she passed by. They held their breath as she disappeared into the darkness. When they looked again, Dionysus was gone too.
Sawyer looked pleased with himself. “I told you it was Dionysus. He’s creating the portals. It was obvious, wasn’t it?”
Nora had to admit it had certainly sounded that way. The portals drained Helicon of energy, and Phoebe had accused Dionysus of doing that. He’d also admitted that he was draining Helicon for fun, like they’d theorized.
“If Phoebe knew it was him,” said Maddie, “why didn’t she say something before? Why is she talking to him in secret?”
“She defended him at the council meeting.” Nora chewed on her lip. “Do you think she’s in on it?”
“It didn’t sound like it, did it?” asked Maddie.
Nora shared with the two of them her conversation with Coeus about Phoebe. “She apparently doesn’t particularly like being the head of the council. It’s a thankless job. That’s what Coeus said.”
“But she was telling Dionysus to stop,” said Sawyer. “It seemed like she was protecting Helicon.”
“Right,” said Maddie, “and it also seemed like she was protecting Dionysus at the council meeting.”
“We need to find out more answers,” said Sawyer. He started walking back in the direction of the main fire pit. Nora an
d Maddie followed suit.
“How are we going to do that?” asked Nora as they walked. “Besides, if it was Dionysus, maybe he’ll stop making portals now that Phoebe told him not to.”
“Maybe,” said Sawyer. “But I think this is deeper than that. There’s something weird going on with them.”
The fire pit came into view, still surrounded by swirling fairies. Nora caught sight of Agler on the other side of the fire. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he sprinted over to the three of them. “Hey, what are you guys up to?” Agler asked.
They exchanged a glance. Should they tell him what they’d found out?
“Um...” said Sawyer.
“Because the veil between the worlds is thin,” said Agler, “so a bunch of us are going to slip into the mundane world for a few hours. You guys want to come?”
“What?” said Nora. “You’re going to the mundane world?” She guessed it made sense, sort of, that if the fairies could get here, the muses could get to the mundane world, but it didn’t sound safe. “What about the Influence?”
Maddie shook her head at Nora. “The Influence is weak on cross-quarter days. Tweens like to go over to the mundane world on May Day and Halloween. But it’s usually older tweens. I’ve never done it.”
Nora did remember Maddie saying something about muses going to the mundane world. And Sawyer had been born to human parents, which was also part of it, right? Muses sometimes visited the mundane world and made half-muse babies? So this was how they did it.
“So,” said Agler. “Do you want to come?”
Nora shrugged. “Um, you know, I did sort of just escape that place. I don’t know if I’m really excited about going back there.” She turned to Maddie and Sawyer. “But you two can go if you want.”
“I think I’ll stick around Helicon,” said Sawyer. “Thanks, though.”
And then Maddie shocked Nora by saying, “I’ll go.”
Nora gaped at her. Maddie didn’t even drink. She was volunteering to go with a group of tweens out of Helicon?
Agler looked a little surprised as well. “Okay. Come on, Maddie.”
He and Maddie walked away, heading towards the tweens and rebels enclave.
“I can’t believe she just did that,” said Nora, still reeling.
“Our Maddie’s growing up,” said Sawyer in a mock-adult voice, putting his arm around Nora. He made fake sniffling noises.
“You sure she’ll be safe?”
“They do it every year,” said Sawyer. “I went last Halloween. Nothing happened.”
“You did? What do you even do once you’re there?”
Sawyer looked at the ground. “Well, I went alone. I focused on my mother, and I found her. I kind of watched her for a few hours. I didn’t talk to her or anything. I wanted to make sure she was okay, I guess.”
Nora squeezed his hand. “Was she?”
Sawyer nodded. “Yeah. She had another kid. A little girl. She was dressed like a princess.”
Nora wasn’t sure what to say.
They were both quiet for some time, gripping each other’s hands and staring into the fire.
Then Sawyer took his hand away to point. “Is that Jack?”
“I think so.”
“I can’t believe he didn’t go into the mundane world with Agler,” said Sawyer. “You mind if I go say hi to him?”
Nora grinned. “Of course not.”
Sawyer ambled off, and Nora watched from a distance. Within minutes, she saw that Sawyer and Jack were engaged in a smiling conversation. When Jack threw his head back and laughed, she decided maybe she should find something else for herself to do.
Before the fairies, she’d been thinking about going to find Owen and making up after their fight. The problem was that in order to make up, she was probably going to have to apologize, and she wasn’t sorry. Owen didn’t have any right to be angry with her for being in the Maypole dance. And when she thought about it, he really didn’t have any right to be angry with her for not having sex with him either. She wasn’t ready. He should respect that.
But maybe he’d realized all of that and wanted to apologize. Maybe if she went and found him, he’d tell her he’d been wrong, and they could actually salvage the rest of May Day. They could have a nice time together.
She set off. First she wandered through the celebrating muses, looking for Owen’s face in the throng. He wasn’t near the fire. He wasn’t near the Maypole. He wasn’t with the musicians. Then she began searching the outskirts, where it was darker, but she only found couples in the grass kissing. Then she realized some of them were doing more than kissing, and she ran back in the direction of the fire as quickly as she could, embarrassed. It was a fertility holiday, she supposed. And the muses were not a particularly shy group of people. Still, Nora thought there were some things that should not be done out in the open like that.
She was in such a rush to get away from it that she wasn’t as careful at looking where she was running as she could have been.
She tripped over something and went sprawling.
Then she realized she was tangled up in the limbs of another person. She’d tripped over a two people doing it in the grass out here. Nora did her best to untangle herself. She didn’t think she’d ever been so embarrassed in her entire life. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m so sorry.”
She didn’t want to look at the people she’d tripped over, so she averted her gaze, pushing herself to her feet to start running again.
But the light from a nearby fire basket reflected against blue eyes, and Nora froze.
It was Owen. She let her gaze travel over him, making sure.
Yes. And he’d been lying on the ground with one of the fairy women—not one of the tiny ones with wings that flew around—but one of the others. The greenish ones with the spindly limbs. The fairy looked up at her with huge eyes. She was beautiful in her own strange way.
“Nora?” said Owen. He was yanking his clothes back on. The fairy didn’t bother. Her thin lips twisted into a smile, like she was taunting Nora.
Nora was rooted to the spot. She shook her head. She hadn’t seen this. She couldn’t have seen this.
“Nora,” Owen said again.
Nora didn’t say anything. Was there anything to say? Were girls supposed to come up with scathingly witty remarks when they found their boyfriends with other women? She tried to keep her breath steady. Owen had cheated on her. She’d caught Owen cheating.
She tore her gaze from him, turned, and walked back towards the main fire pit on shaky legs.
Dancing Days Page 30
