I felt Paul’s slow, deep breathing as his chest moved in and out. His hand rested on my waist as if he was worried I would tumble off him. Not a chance given the tight confines between the seats. The familiarity of his touch felt nice and completely wrong at the same time. I risked a glance at his face and saw an amused glint in his eyes. He, at least, was enjoying himself. I resisted the urge to smack him, but only because I didn’t think I could manage it silently.
And so I waited, the seconds passing like minutes as I focused on the voices below. Finally, I decided that they hadn’t seen or heard me. Oliver was now saying something about their need to practice one more time. Just what they were practicing, I had no idea.
I slowly crawled forward, off Paul and onto the welcome flatness of the floor. I wasn’t particularly careful with my knees and feet as I went, and I felt a surge of satisfaction as Paul let out a groan. Served him right.
Once I was off him, I sat up, still safely hidden behind the seats. Paul sat up, too, although he had to stay crouched down to keep his head from peeking over the top.
I motioned to the aisle behind Paul and then pointed to my eyes, mouthing, “I want to see.”
Paul nodded. He twisted around so he was facing the aisle. Then he lay down on his side, his head close to the edge. He motioned for me to lie in front of him. I took a deep breath, unhappy at the idea of being in such a position, even if there was a good reason for it. Trying to switch positions would’ve been too noisy, especially after the close call we just had.
I crawled in front of him, resting on my side. I inched toward the edge, then raised my head to see what was going on below. Oliver and the other brown cloaked figures were standing center stage in a circle, each holding an unlit torch. The rest of the Terra Tribe had moved to the outside of the circle.
“Now,” Oliver was saying, “it’s important that the timing be correct. So let’s give it a try.” He held up his torch and spoke the fire incantation. The torch burst into flames. “One…” Oliver said. “Two … three…” I waited for him to stop, but he didn’t, not until he’d counted all the way to sixty. Once he did, Irene Stark raised her hand and lit her torch. Then she too counted to sixty. Another brown cloaked figure did the same right after her.
On and on it went, until finally the last of them, Melanie, lit her torch. There were twelve torches in all, twelve people. But the demonstration seemed completely pointless. What kind of message could there be in a couple of lit torches?
But Oliver Cork answered this question soon after. “Good job, everybody,” he said, extinguishing his torch. “But it’ll be a lot more impressive when we do it for real on Saturday. The enchantments on the torches we’ll be using have all been applied. Now it’s just up to us to move forward with it. And to change the world.” He raised both hands over his head in a victory salute as he spoke this last sentence, and the rest of the Terra Tribe cheered and clapped.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. So the Terra Tribe would be using enchanted torches when they did this live. But enchanted to do what? And I couldn’t see how their environmental protest could be connected to Magistrate Kirkwood’s assassination plot.
As the crowd below started chattering incoherently, I became aware of Paul’s broad hand resting on my hip and his body pressed against mine. I started to fidget, wishing the meeting would adjourn so I could get out of this position. I looked around, wondering where Selene and Eli could be.
No sooner had I thought it than I spied Eli crouched in between the rows directly across from us. It was amazing how much he could express in a single look. I could tell from his dark expression that he’d seen everything that had happened with Paul since I’d crawled down the aisle—and he wasn’t happy about it. I wanted to say that he looked jealous, but I was afraid to put that label on it. Things with Eli were far too complicated to chalk it up to something as simple as jealousy.
I looked away from him as I heard the distinctive sound of the main doors into the theater opening, followed by the soft clack of someone wearing low-heeled sandals.
“Oh, hey, Miss Norton,” Oliver shouted. The talking died down, and as I fixed my gaze on the stage, I saw Miss Norton step into view. For the first time ever she wasn’t wearing a housedress but a pair of jeans. The change in her attire made her almost unrecognizable, at least from this distance.
“Thank you, Oliver,” Miss Norton said as she surveyed the crowd. “And thanks to all of you for volunteering for the Beltane Festival. Oliver assures me that everything is in place.” Miss Norton clapped her hands once, the sound ringing out almost as loud as gunfire. “I have a feeling it will be a day that will be remembered forever. The day that naturekinds begin their quest to change the world.”
I took a deep breath, chilled by Miss Norton’s words. It seemed the Dream Team had just identified the next subject in our investigation.
* * *
The meeting finally ended, and after waiting a few minutes in case anyone came back to retrieve a forgotten purse or cell phone, I finally crawled out into the aisle, away from Paul. Across from me, Eli stood up, and one row down from him, Selene did the same.
She rolled her eyes when she spotted me. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away.”
I grinned back at her, grateful for any reason not to talk to Eli right now. He wasn’t outwardly angry, but there was a smoldering, dangerous sparkle in his eyes. I decided it would be a good idea to keep myself in between him and Paul for the foreseeable future.