“So, Story Witch, what book are we reinterpreting tonight?”
I exhale, shifting my weight as I think. “Something popular. Something we both know.” I unlace my corset dress and let it pool at my feet. “Are you a reader?”
There’s a pause. Then a strange, squeaky sound.
I frown. “Declan?”
“Yeah. I, um, yes. I can read.”
“I know you can read.” I laugh. “We’ve been DMing each other for weeks. What books have stuck with you?”
He mutters something I can’t make out.
“What was that?”
Another mumble, lower this time.
I clutch the dress against my bare chest and poke my head around the divider. “Use your words, Thorne.”
He scrubs a hand over his face. “Twilight, okay? I’ve read all the books. Twice.” He shakes his head, a gentle wash of color rising in his cheeks. “Four times.”
My grin is so big it hurts. “Nothing to be embarrassed about. Sparkly immortals, doomed loved, teen angst. It’s practically a classic.” I disappear back behind the divider and tug the bronze dress over my head. “Twilight… I wonder if we can get some body glitter.”
Nine
The sun melts behind the dunes, turning the sky the color of overripe peaches. Wind slithers through the Kingdom of Wands like it’s hunting, snapping silk against tent poles and lifting sand in tight, angry spirals. Torch flames carve through the twilight, casting the world in glints of gold, flickers of red, and trembling shadow.
This time, we’re led deeper into the open-air backstage area. Performers dart between embroidered silk screens that divide the space into narrow lanes. Low tables overflow with makeup pots, bowls of pigment, and trays of polished gemstones. I pace a strip of carpet worn bare by nervous feet, clutching my affirmation cards in a death grip. Each one is a neon pop of glossy lamination. They’re supposed to calm me, center me, but instead I’m one deep breath away from projectile vomiting.
I chose these instead of pulling from my tarot deck for one very specific reason: I cannot, under anycircumstances, deal with being harassed by the Wheel of Fortune right now.
Declan saw the image move too. The wheel turned, the flames shimmered, the figures chased each other around the edges. I know what I saw. I know whatwesaw. I’ve also built my entire adult life on ritual and energy and manifestation, but always within the realm of metaphor.Symbolicmagick. Not fire portals and kingdoms that shouldn’t exist.
The most terrifying thing is that, if the Wheel of Fortune actually brought us here, then I’ve been messing around with forces I don’t completely understand.
A hush ripples backstage, followed by the sharp crack of a staff against the boards. The Player strides out from one of the narrow alleyways past the curtains in a sweep of crimson silk, bell sleeves spilling down her arms like fresh blood. “Prepare yourselves. Your queens are waiting.”
“Shit,” I whisper, pressing a shaky hand to my chest as she disappears around the next curtain. “Okay, okay. You’ve got this.” I force air into my constricted lungs. “You can do hard things. Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
I keep breathing deeply, struggling against the fact that it feels like I’m not getting enough oxygen. My fingers flex around the deck, and its laminated corners dig into my palm, leaving tiny divots in my skin.
“You look nervous.”
Declan’s voice jolts me. He leans against a screen post, arms folded, jaw set. He left his shirt unlaced, the open V stopping in the middle of his sternum, and his loose sleeves are rolled up to the elbows.
Not that I’m keeping track of how much skin he has exposed.
He shifts, and his forearms flex with the movement.
I didn’t know forearms could be sexy. Like,deliciouslysexy. Like I want to lick the ridge of that tendon, taste the sand and the salt.
I have absolutely no business staring, so naturally, I can’t look away.
“Isn’t public speaking the number one thing people are afraid of?” he asks, voice like a splash of cold water on my tendon-licking fantasy. “Even above death?”
I let out a shaky laugh that’s barely able to escape my body. “Lucky us. Looks like we’ll get to experience both public speaking and a flaming hot death.”
The corner of his mouth lifts. “We’ll be fine.”
