A slow drumbeat rolled through the clearing, and the crowd hushed. Frieda walked forward and thrust a lit torch into the stack of wood. Once it caught fire, she backed away.
The drums beat steadily. Louder, then softer, like deep breaths. The scantily clad dancers linked hands around the growing fire.
My heart leaped when I glimpsed Aiden. His tan, muscular back with its scars and single falcon tattoo drew me in like a beacon. His black pants rode low on his hips, and his bare feet glided through the snow.
He looked as he had the night we met.
The dancers swept inward, blew on the fire, then drifted back. Kindling the flames like a bellow in a forge.
But only one kind of weapon was forged here. Something stronger than steel or sunstone.
Love is the strongest weapon of all.
The dancers circled and repeated the motion. As the fire grew, they danced faster. Eventually, they broke hands and leaped and spun, as if urging the fire with their movements.
Warmth trickled through my body as I watched Aiden. The way he bowed to the fire and kept time with the drum. His facewas a flickering mirage. He looked as wild as these mountains. He looked as regal as a king. He looked like the man I loved.
My fingers wandered along the scarf he’d made for me. No matter what happened, Aiden would always be the right choice.
My heart lifted with the rising beat of the drum.
“Almost time,” Yarina whispered next to me, her eyes glowing. “Are you ready, princess?”
I grinned. “Let’s go.”
More drums joined the song, and Yarina swept out of the woods. I followed her, dancing through the crowd. Everyone smiled and clapped.
The first dancers backed away as we approached. Aiden beamed more brightly than the bonfire, his chest heaving, his skin flushed.
I smiled back before concentrating on the dance. We formed our own circle around the fire, twirling back and forth. Then, one by one, we threw our fireseeds into the flames.
The crowd cheered every time the fire roared higher. The heat caressed my skin, making my body feel languid and powerful.
Once all the fireseeds had gone into the fire, it rose as tall as the trees.
Then it was time to find our partners.
Yarina hurried over to where Maz sat on a throne of furs and waved her scarf at him. Everyone else clasped hands with their people.
Suddenly, Aiden filled my vision. He looked more beautiful than the god of love himself.
He offered his hands, his emerald eyes sparkling.
I clasped his fingers, and together, we danced the same push-and-pull fire dance we’d done apart.
“You look beautiful, Kiera,” Aiden said as we pressed together. “Somehow more beautiful than the last time I watched you dance.”
I quirked my eyebrow. “You mean when you spied on me?”
He chuckled. Gods, how I’d missed that sound.
“Yes,” he admitted. He twirled me, and then I him.
“Did you know I wondered what it would be like to dance with you?” I asked breathlessly. “When you blindfolded me?”
The heat in his eyes burned more fiercely than the fire at my back. “Did you?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes. But then I told myself we would only end in betrayal or death. But as fate would have it, we now dance beyond both.”
