I ignore her advice and stop watching the other couples with all their spins and turns and extra footwork. We don’t need to be fancy. We need to finish this cursed lesson so Skye and I can have an uninterrupted conversation as ourselves.
Yet the longer we dance, the calmer I feel. Skye and I begin to move as one, our bodies matching rhythm making me think of other more pleasant activities we could be doing instead. My grip on her tightens, pulling her closer than a waltz allows. Skye relaxes in my arms, her curves soft and beguiling every time our thighs touch.
Reduced to human, I only have one cock, but it rouses with interest as I breathe in the sweet and spicy scent that clings to the little witch’s skin and hair. I never expected to enjoy dancing, having never done much of it before. Dragons used to attend elfin balls back in the Faerie of old, but when the doors of Faerie closed, such things were lost to memory and time.
With Skye in my arms, I finally see the appeal.
After an eternity, the music eventually stops, and Miss Michelle calls for the end of class. Good. As soon as we’reback in the real world, I’ll be able to talk to Skye, tell her I find her attractive.
Yet instead of the golden sparkles of her magic, something else grips me. The book takes over, and inanities fall from my lips. “Yo, babe. We just worked up an appetite. What are you feeding me for dinner?”
Ah, that’s right. The cat-in-a-tree incident.
“Oh, you.” Skye gives a high giggle and looks up at me through her eyelashes, blinking so rapidly I worry she’s got something in one of her eyes. But she continues without any other signs of distress. “I made fried chicken with coleslaw and mashed potatoes and gravy.”
The people around us fade into the background as we walk out the studio’s front door. Instead of opening on the chaos of Skye’s raw magic, this time it lets us step out onto Main Street, Ferndale Falls. The shops are as brightly colored as their real-world counterparts and built in the same Victorian style with ornate trim, yet their signs look too hazy to be legible. The dance studio seems to be in the building that holds the jewelry store Bling It On in the real world.
“Why does it look like Ferndale Falls?” I ask, able to speak for myself at the moment.
“I don’t know,” Skye whisper-hisses. “Maybe the description in the book just says ‘small town’ without any details, so my magic pulled the setting from my mind.”
We walk toward a blue pickup truck, and I’m the one who pulls out a set of keys. I unlock the passenger door for Skye. The second the book’s plot releases me for a moment, I climb in after her, using my greater weight to slide her across the truck’s bench seat until she’s the one in front of thesteering wheel.
“What are you doing?” She shoots me a puzzled look. “You’re the one who owns the truck in the book, not me.”
“I’ve never driven.” I shove the keys into her hand. “I don’t think now is the time to start.”
“What if the magic won’t let me drive because you’re supposed to?”
“What if I try to drive and we wreck?” I counter.
“We’d probably start the scene over instead of getting hurt.”
“Even if we don’t get injured, how much of the scene do we repeat? Are we sent back to this moment, or do we go all the way back to when we entered the dance lesson?”
“Fudge, you’re right.” She starts the truck and pulls away from the curb without the spell sending us back to earlier in the scene, so the book must not specify who’s driving.
There are no other cars on the road. In fact, there aren’t any other people visible at all.
“Where is everyone?” I ask. “I understand that in an all-human book, there won’t be pixies or gnomes or shadow fae, but where are all the humans?”
“Oh, I didn’t notice.” Skye takes a quick glance around at the empty sidewalks, and her tone grows sad. “This is how town used to look before the fae got here.”
I grunt, not liking that this memory has upset her. “Well, that’s no longer the case. Ferndale Falls is a vibrant, healthy town.”
“It is.” She shoots me a small, thankful smile. Then it widens, and her eyes begin their rapid blinking once again. Both of her hands leave the steering wheel to wrap aroundmy biceps. “Oh, Luke, you’re such a good driver. I feel so safe when I’m with you.”
The truck immediately swerves toward the edge of the pavement.
My hand snaps out and grabs the steering wheel, correcting our course, but we still barrel down the road at speed. I want to snap at her to take her foot from the pedals, but when I open my mouth, the book character’s words pour out of me. “Of course you’re safe with me, babe.”
Oh, the irony.
Skye giggles, pulling my gaze to her face for a split second before I look back at the road, yet it’s long enough to see the panic hiding in her eyes beneath their fluttering lashes.
“Keep trying to take your foot off the gas,” I growl. “That way we’ll slow the moment the book releases you.”
Her fingers flex on my arm in silent agreement… or her book character is feeling my muscles. It’s one of those two things, and I prefer to believe it’s the real Skye sending me a message.
