xV settled between Harlow and TD, noticed the button on his shirt, and hastily redid it. “Sounds great.”
“Wait, no. Not great. I’m not ready.” Damien held out a hand, drawing every eye in his direction. “There’s evil afoot here.Evil.Did no one else see Gwynn and Harley stash something in the branches? Are you guys honestly going to sit here and let them get away with this suspicious-as-fuck behavior? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to lose my eyebrows over this.”
“Relax. It’s a fire starter.” Harley produced a book of matches from his pocket and struck one before Damien could protest. The flame ate up the red head of the match, flickering and bobbing in the gentle breeze. “I could start a friction fire if you wanted, but it’s a pain in the ass to do, and I’m on vacation.”
With little ceremony, Harley tucked the match beside the fire starter. In seconds, fat flames began to lick up the sides of the assembled branches. The dried foliage and small twigs he’d stuffed into the bottom blackened and curled.
Harley sat back, looking pleased with his work. “See? Harmless.”
The smirk on Gwynn’s face was decidedlynotharmless. Alarmed, Damien scooted back.
TD, who was oblivious to Gwynn’s evil, gazed into the fire with partially lidded eyes, a dreamy look on his face. He tilted his head to the side, resting his cheek on his knee. For a moment, the boyish innocence that had attracted Damien to him all those years ago resurfaced, but Damien felt nothing. Instead, his thoughts drifted to Matthew, who’d looked at him with big owl eyes after they’d run into each other on the dock.
What was he doing tonight?
“When I was little,” TD reminisced, “my dads would sometimes take me and Everett camping out in the woods behind our property. There was this big pond back there that we called a lake, and one year, they installed a big fire pit near it, and we spent almost every weekend sleeping out there in tents, roasting marshmallows, and—” TD stopped speaking abruptly. His eyes widened, and he scurried back from the fire. “Oh my god!”
It wasn’t hard to see what TD was up in arms about. The fire, which had once been normal, now burned green and purple. Damien blinked, then looked at Gwynn, who looked pleased with himself.
“What’s happened to the fire?” TD asked breathlessly. He flailed a hand in its direction as if the Dads weren’t aware of where it was. “Is it a Fiji thing? Is fire different in Fiji? Is that even possible?”
An opportunity presented itself, and Damien, who was never one to turn down a good deal, went for it. Locking eyes with Gwynn, he rose smoothly to his feet and spread his arms wide, then tilted his head back until the entirety of his neck was exposed.
“What’s happening?” TD squeaked. “Knot’s being really weird, and the fire’s being weird, and…Harley?”
With Damien’s eyes on the stars, he couldn’t see what was happening, but he took it from the imploring way that TD had spoken Harley’s name that he was looking for protection. It was a smart move. There was no telling what might happen in the glitter war zone. Night might have fallen, but there were still shenanigans to be had.
“You’re fine,” Harley reassured him. “Knot’s just being a goob.”
Damien dropped his chin and glared at Harley. “Am not.”
That said, he thrust his head back and resumed his act. When he spoke next, his voice was as deep as he could make it. It crackled and popped like the fire at his feet. “The prophecy is now complete. Weep, Gwynnish mortals, for soon, all dreary things you hold dear will be drenched in glitter.”
Damien rolled his head to the side in a way he hoped came across as creepy, gazing at Gwynn from across the blaze. Thick blue tongues of flame lapped over the wood, slipping beneath its bark to feast on the matter within. Abnormally bright yellow and firetruck red fire popped and sparked, fighting for their place between the streaks of green and purple.
Despite Damien’s Broadwayesque act, Gwynn looked unimpressed.
“Fear all that sparkles,” Damien warned. He kept his voice low and ominous. “Sleep with one eye open. The sacred rainbow flames have spoken, and they have foretold your glittery demise.”
With that said, Damien exaggerated a full-body shiver and dropped onto his ass like a marionette whose strings had just been snipped. Once he hit the ground, he corrected his posture and smiled like nothing had happened.
TD gaped at him, aghast.
Glit glanced up from his cell phone, rolled his eyes, and went back to whatever it was he’d been doing.
xV shook his head and hid his eyes behind his hand.
Gwynn took a stick and poked at the rainbow fire until the end ignited. The flame burned purple. In his best ghostly voice, he said, “Ohh, potassium chloride.Spooky!”
Buzzkill.
Harley laughed. The sound of it was every bit as radiant and unencumbered by life as his smile, and soon enough, Damien was laughing, too. No matter how lonely he felt when the Dads went on about their lovers, Damien hoped he’d get to goof off with them like this for the rest of his life.
When the laughter died down and chatter about the strange rainbow fire and the magic that was science resumed, movement near the water drew Damien’s gaze. Over Gwynn’s shoulder, at the place where the sand met the water, stood a gorgeous young man in three-fourths profile. The reds and oranges of the setting sun framed his body, which was nude save for the black speedo that hugged his slender hips and followed the contours of his ass and bulge. As if feeling eyes on him, the boy looked over his shoulder at Damien, flashed a shy but alluring smile, then looked away and stepped into the sunset-stained lagoon. Rippling pinks and oranges swallowed his ankles, then his calves, then his knees, until the curvature of his fine ass rested just above the surface of the water. Astonished, Damien sucked in a breath and tried to anchor his racing heart, but it was already too late. Matthew took another step, then dove into the water, taking Damien’s heart with him.
10
Matthew
