CHAPTER 8

"It's more like they're going to join me," she uttered with a grin, then vaulted over the railing. After landing without a sound, she jogged out toward the drums, and was greeted with an enthusiastic cheer.

"She seems happy." When he heard Beth's voice, he tensed up a little. Turning around, he saw that she had changed into a peasant blouse with a red skirt that went to her ankles. In each hand was a glass of wine, and she handed one to Mike. "Are you going to dance, too?"

He chuckled, then took the wine. "Nobody wants to see the electric slide."

"I don't know. I bet you could get the centaurs to do it with you. Would probably be interesting to watch." She sipped her wine with a grin.

"Knowing my luck, they'd like it so much that they start doing that instead of what they currently do." He had seen the centaurs dance on a few occasions, and each time had been exciting. There was one centaur in the tribe that could actually do a backflip, which was apparently a sight to behold. "I promise that traditional centaur dance is far more impressive than what a bunch of drunk people in a bar can manage."

"Not a fan of line dancing?" Beth smirked.

"I'd rather eat my own hand," he grumbled, his mind going briefly back to middle-school gym class. To this day, he had no idea why an entire month had been dedicated to country dancing. He couldn't hear Achy Breaky Heart without having flashbacks to the school gym.

"But you do dance. I've seen you."

His cheeks burned for a moment. Kisa loved to dance, and on more than one occasion, she had enticed him to join. She would literally dance circles around him while he tried to keep up, but at least he could sway to a basic beat without feeling awkward. The idea that Beth had been watching made him nervous. It was a throwback to before he had moved into the home, to before he had fallen into a life of magic, mayhem, and intimacy with the many women in his home.

"When the mood strikes me, yes, I do."

Beth looked at her drink, then slammed it. She took a deep breath, as if steeling her nerves, then stuck her hand toward him. "Come. Dance with me."

He swallowed the lump in his throat, then raised his hand to take hers. Though he and Beth had lived in the same house for several months, it seemed like their schedules never allowed them to properly connect. She was the day to his night, the two of them often pulled in opposite directions.

But at last, maybe for a few minutes, they could finally be on the same schedule.

A yellow light descended from above, flashing erratically, and then Daisy appeared on his hand. She stood a few inches tall and had a body that was a cross between a human and a bumble bee. Though she was deaf, she could hear through the vibrations in her wings, and she was signing frantically.

"What's she saying? I can't follow." Beth frowned at Mike.

"Apparently there's a problem out back. They need my help." Though Mike couldn't sign at all, he was able to understand Daisy through the magical bond that they shared. It was as if the words appeared in his mind, which was extremely useful in times like these. "Guess my dance card is full. I'm really sorry."

Beth smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Please look me up when you get back?"

"Of course." He set his glass down on a small table by the porch swing and then went inside the house. It was the only way to get from the front yard to the back without scaling the sides of the home, which he had done on occasion.

Once out back, he found Naia in her fountain with a concerned look on her face. Amymone was on her knees at the base of her tree, her hands placed against its thick bark. Her face was screwed up in both concentration and frustration.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"No." Amymone groaned and stood. "Apparently there's a problem."

"With what?"

"I thought that I had saved up enough energy over the winter to help the plants bloom." Amymone's job at the home was to maintain the ecosystem around the house. Connected to all of the vegetation around the house through the roots of her tree, she was able to subconsciously manipulate not just the plants of the home, but the micro-climate that existed inside of the geas. On a conscious level, she could command all of the plants to emerge from hibernation and bloom, which was what today's party was supposed to be about.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

"I suppose being dead for several years." In a fit of madness, Amymone's tree had been cut down by the previous Caretaker, Emily. Luckily, the dryad had managed to hide her Heartwood away prior to the attack so that the tree could be reborn. However, this had resulted in her soul being stuck in the Underworld until her tree had been replanted. "For a good chunk of the winter, I was asleep, just like my tree. But I didn't spend all fall stockpiling reserves for this moment, which means I'm running on empty now." She picked up a rock and threw it in frustration, then smoothed out her dress. "Fuck."

Naia snorted, a sound that was somehow almost musical coming from the nymph. "Sounds like you already know what the solution is, sister."

"Beg pardon?" Amymone looked over her shoulder at Naia.

"You need to fuck. Him." Naia jerked her thumb at Mike. "C'mon, you know you wanna. You've mentioned it before."

"Naia!" Amymone hid her face with her hands and her bark-like skin turned a deep shade of brown that was almost black. "The whole point of talking about personal stuff like that is for you to keep your fucking mouth shut!"

Mike laughed. Though the two weren't actual sisters, they certainly acted like it.

"Seriously though, fuck him." Naia pointed at Amymone's tree. Small buds were struggling to emerge from its branches. "I know you've been dying to, and now that you're not bald anymore—"

"NAIA!" The dryad stomped her foot, and one of the tree's massive roots hurled a chunk of dirt into the nymph's fountain, causing the water to turn brown. Naia frowned, then crossed her arms as the water beneath her swirled violently, then blasted the debris back out of her fountain and onto the lawn.