Shadows and Light

magic in this Old Place start to flow. Ashk took Ari’s hand and joined the dance
    —and the flow became more powerful. One by one, the Fae who had kinship to the House of Gaian joined the dance, and power swirled around the meadow like a contained storm.
    Small candles glowed at the edge of the meadow, catching his attention.
    Not candles, Aiden realized, feeling his body jolt from the slight shock. The Small Folk had come to watch the dance. It was the magic in them that glowed. He glanced at the musicians. Saw the same misty glow. Last Solstice, that’s how Ari had known her guests weren’t human. With all the power that came from the Great Mother in motion, the magic inside the Fae and the Small Folk shone like stationary beacons. He hadn’t seen it last summer when Ari had danced alone, but here, with so many dancers helping her funnel all that power into the spiral dance, he saw things with a clarity that was almost blinding.
    “There,” Padrick breathed softly. “There. Can you feel it?”
    Feel what? Aiden wondered. His head was spinning, as if he’d had too much to drink. But it was the dance that was intoxicating him, the music that was thrumming in his blood now.
    As the music faded, he heard Ari giving thanks to the Great Mother for the branches of earth, air, water, and fire.
    Saw flames lick the carefully placed wood of the bonfire. And felt himself lifted up as she released the magic back into the Old Place. The ripples of it flowed through him and traveled on. When she finally lowered her arms, the air smelled sweeter, the land beneath his feet pulsed with life, and passion burned hot inside him.
    The dance was done, the dancers rippling out of the spiral in a way that echoed the magic just released.
    He watched Lyrra walk toward him. The look on her face made him wonder how many other lovers would have an intimate celebration tonight.
    He met her. Kissed her in a way that was far too intimate while they were standing in the open with people all around them, but he couldn’t stop himself, and the way she leaned into him and answered the kiss told him she wasn’t thinking of other people either. But her hands kept his pressed against her waist, a prudent compromise of passion and common sense.
    He broke the kiss, wondering a bit desperately how offended Ashk would be if he and Lyrra slipped away without seeing her planned entertainment.
    “If you’ll excuse me,” Padrick said. “I’m wanted for the next dance.”
    The warning under the amusement was enough to make Aiden struggle to get his libido under control—
    and finally notice that he and Lyrra had a very interested audience.
    “Oh,” Lyrra said softly, blushing.
    “Well,” Ari said.
    “My,” Morphia said.
    Neall and Sheridan, who had recently become Morphia’s lover, just grinned at him.
    It was the wistful expression on Morag’s face before she turned away to watch whatever was happening in the meadow that made Aiden uncomfortable. Had Death’s Mistress ever had a real lover? It wasn’t something he could ever ask Morag, but the flicker of sadness on Morphia’s face before she linked arms with her sister was answer enough.
    Sheridan left them, drawing Aiden’s attention back to the meadow. The large wicker baskets that had been left near the musicians were now open, and the Fae were carefully unwrapping masks.
    Aiden shifted uneasily. Each mask was a work of art, shaped and decorated to represent an animal. The children were squirrels, rabbits, mice, and songbirds. Small creatures. Among the adult masks, he saw hawk, raven, owl, wolf, stag, fox. Watching Padrick fit a hawk mask over the top half of his face, he wondered if the adults wore masks that matched their other forms. He searched for Ashk, wanting to know what her other form was. When he saw her, he wasn’t sure what to think.
    The mask was female, and feral. Human, but not human. As she passed by one of the torches that had been lit for the musicians, he caught some of the mask’s colors—summer greens twining with the oranges and reds of autumn—but she turned away before he could puzzle out the details.
    Ashk walked over to the bonfire. The rest of the Fae formed a large circle around her, the elders of the Clan on the outside ring of the circle, the children in the inner ring, the rest of the adults in between.
    The music started. Ashk smiled, turned as the Fae in the circle began to move. She skipped a few steps with one child, moved forward to