Sasha snorted a laugh. “Oh my god, I love her.”
“Up to your old tricks, I see, Ms.Caldwell,” April said, hands on her hips.
“At my age, dear, all I’ve got is tricks,” Ms.Caldwell said, waving her daisies at them before wandering off along the trail.
“I’ll have what she’s having,” Sasha said as the three of them approached the table.
“Me too,” Daphne said, laughing. Suddenly the idea of it all—fairies and flowers and dancing—made Daphne feel giddy. She wanted to be more like Ms.Caldwell, it was true. Up for anything, carefree, and wild.
She took a deep breath, forgot about her tarot card of Death, and wove a crown of lavender and sunflowers, the dreamy purple and bright yellow fitting her mood perfectly. Sasha’s crown was pure eucalyptus, and April had chosen peonies, the voluminous blooms heavy but somehow perfect on her petite frame.
Topped with her crown, Daphne moved toward the dancers, who were now engaged in a sort of group routine. Her ankle still smarted a little, but she needed to move, to tilt her head toward the open sky. She loved dancing, despite the confusing memories of the other night. She pulled Sasha and April with her, and they all linked hands and joined the circle, laughing as they followed a woman across from them, lifting their hands in unison, stumbling over a turn, but smiling all the while. The music was magnetic, simple and full of possibilities all at once.
“You look like a wood nymph,” April said to Daphne as everyone in the circle hopped left and then right.
“And what’s that look like?” Daphne asked, slightly out of breath.
April looked her up and down, her own crown falling over her left eye a little, and Daphne’s stomach undulated like a stormy sea. Since the night of the dance party, every time she was around April, her body reacted without her permission. Daphne’s thoughts would start whirling like a printing press, spitting out sheet after sheetfilled with the details of their dance, of lying on the floor talking, of the way Daphne had touched herself while imagining how April’s mouth might feel on her—
“Daphne?” April said.
Daphne blinked the night back into focus, realizing that she’d stopped dancing for a second and was messing up the circle. She quickly fell back into the movements. “Sorry, what?” she asked.
“I said I imagine that a wood nymph looks just like you—flowing dress, flowing hair, sandals made out of tree bark or something,” April said.
“Don’t forget beautiful and unassuming,” Sasha said from Daphne’s other side. Her flower crown perched on top of her head at a mischievous angle, reminding Daphne of Puck fromA Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“How could I ever forget?” April said, laughing.
Daphne nearly stumbled again but managed to correct herself before landing in a heap on the forest floor.
“She thinks you’re beautiful,” Sasha whispered theatrically out of one side of her mouth.
“Shh,” Daphne hissed, but Sasha just grinned. Puck, indeed.
After the revelry, people dispersed for drinks and snacks, but Daphne didn’t want to sit. If she sat, she’dthink, and wasn’t this party all about the opposite? Feeling and doing. She grabbed three cups of cider and offered two of them to April and Sasha.
“We should go on Moon Lovers Trail,” Daphne said, sipping on the potent brew. She coughed a little.
“Aren’t we on it?” Sasha asked.
“Not quite,” April said. “But we definitely do not need to go on Moon Lovers Trail.”
“Why not?” Sasha asked, eyeing April. “Scared?”
“Scared?” April asked. “Of what? It’s not haunted.”
“It’s haunted by true love, the way I hear it,” Sasha said.
April rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Am I?” Sasha asked, grinning.
“Wait, what?” Daphne asked. “I thought it was just a nice trail.”
“Oh, it’sverynice,” Sasha said, smirking. “Plus, you can’t get much wilder than kissing on Moon Lovers. Right, Daph?”
“Kissing?” Daphne said, her stomach fluttering.
