Page 47 of A Taste of Bliss

Blake and Amelia both let out a sigh. “No,” she responds, coming and walking next to me instead of Blake. “I guess I should really take my sampling elsewhere during the festival anyways. It’d be a shame not to see what’s out there being offered.”

“Can we stop with the sampling analogy?” I groan.

“It’s fun,” Dericia says. “I like it.” She comes alongside Amelia and I. “And I too am excited to see what’s being offeredthis week.” She nudges me with her shoulder and smiles. I roll my eyes but can’t help matching her smile.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

PISCES

“Doyou have any more of that jet lag tonic?” I ask Benny, looking at him hopefully. I’m still a bit tired. We left London at ten pm, and even though we traveled through a fae portal to get here, the eight-hour time difference is still killer.

I’m laid on the couch in the living room of our townhome rental, gazing up at the crystalline light fixture. The rest of my band—including Simon—are all in the room. Most of the crew we traveled with, though, have gone out in search of food and to meet up with friends from other bands.

“Give it another few minutes to kick in, mate. That’s definitely not something you want to overdose on,” Benny says with a grin. He and Evan exchange looks.

Shaun clucks his tongue at all of us. “I’m not dealing with any of you if you get high on that shit.”

I sit up straight. “You can get high from it?” Not going to lie, it sounds kind of fun.

“It’s a trip,” Evan responds. “Take too much and time becomes completely meaningless to you. I felt like a I was just a floating ball of nothing. It was amazing.”

“Yeah, and then you vomited your guts out for hours after you came down,” Shaun reminds him.

“Bet time wasn’t so meaningless then, was it?” Benny claps Evan on the shoulder.

I let out a chuckle as Evan glares at the other two. He shrugs. “Worth it.”

Benny brings out the tonic from the kitchen. “So Sces, what’ll it be? You want another dose, mate?”

“I think I’ll pass,” I deadpan with a glance at Evan.

Besides, I need to be at my best for this festival. We’ve been riding a boost in our streaming numbers ever since going viral on social media. I want these performances at the festival to be amazing. In fact, I need them to be.

“Shall we go find a pub and get some beers instead?” Evan suggests, bouncing a leg up and down as he sits on the couch. “We can see if anyone else has arrived yet.”

“Like who?” I reluctantly push myself off the very comfortable couch, standing up and stretching my arms up over my head.

“The Phantoms are here, and Locust—what’s their lead’s name? Francis? We could see what they’re up to.”

“Did you see the recent addition to the line-up?” Benny asks, handing me a flyer that was included with a little gift basket from the festival organizers.

My eyes gloss over the names, my irritation pricking as I see Dead Hearts towards the bottom. I look back up at Benny. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“They changed our opener, mate.” Evan leans over, tapping the flyer just underneath our band name. And there it is, so obvious I’m surprised I didn’t see it before.

Goddess’ Trance.

“That’s pretty cool,” I say. They’re a solid band with lots of talent and seem like pretty decent fae, even if they are all Born fae—well, except their bassist, if I recall correctly. She’s kindred.

Simon hangs over the back of the couch, trying to get a glimpse of the piece of paper. “What are we looking at?”

I hand him the flyer. “Goddess’ Trance. They filled in for our opener the last time we played in Seattle.” We didn’t have the funds at that point to hire any crew members, not even Simon. “I think I played you some of their music a couple months ago, actually.” I think back to when I saw they’d dropped a new EP. It was amazing, and I had noticed a huge improvement in the guitar since they’d replaced Jordan Yarrow.

“I hope to the stars we don’t run into Dead Hearts,” I mutter. The last time we were at a festival with them it didn’t go well.

“They know not to mess with us now,” Evan says darkly.

“Something tells me they’re dumb enough to not know that,” Shaun replies.