Tamisin swiped her tongue over her teeth as she lowered the rearview mirror. She hated visiting the dentist’s office, but she had to admit that her teeth felt and looked a lot cleaner. Turning away from the mirror, she glanced out the window of her mother’s minivan while she thought about her upcoming audition. Normally she would have used an afternoon dentist appointment as an excuse to skip school for the rest of the day, but the auditions for the school dance group were slated to start right after the last class period and she definitely did not want to miss them. The group was hard to get into and …

Her mother slammed on the brakes, narrowly missing a large animal that had darted across the street and into the hedge on the other side. “Did you see that?” Janice Warner asked, her knuckles white as she gripped the steering wheel. “That dog came out of nowhere. I don’t understand people who let their pets run loose. I could have killed it!”

Tamisin’s heart was racing as she studied the still rustling shrubs. She had seen enough of the creature before it disappeared to know that it hadn’t been a dog. True, it had been running on all fours, but its face was human, or nearly so, and it had been wearing brown pants and a baggy shirt. As her mother stepped on the gas pedal, the face reappeared framed in the leaves of the hedge and watched the car as it moved off. The slightly bulbous nose and close-set eyes looked human, although the long, flopping ears would have looked more appropriate on a cocker spaniel. Another face appeared beside it, smaller than the first, with curly white fur covering its human cheeks and chin. It too was watching the passing cars and was turning toward her when Tamisin forced herself to look away. They were the same kinds of creatures she’d seen before, only this time she knew better than to let them know it.

“A penny for your thoughts,” her mother said as they waited at a stoplight. “You’re being awfully quiet. If you’re worried about your audition, you shouldn’t be. I’m sure you’ll do just great. You’re a wonderful dancer.”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry,” said Tamisin. “I’m not worried.”

At least not about the audition, she thought. A few years before, the creatures had chased her down this very same street. She hadn’t seen them since then. If they were back, why now and why had they been gone for so long? All the fear of that long-ago night had come back, leaving her unable to think about anything else.

At the dance audition, as she stood in line waiting for her turn, she hardly noticed the girls around her chattering about the butterflies in their stomachs and how much they wanted to get in the group. Tamisin took deep, even breaths, hoping to slow the racing of her heart. Her nervousness had nothing to do with dancing and everything to do with what she might see once she walked out the school door. Why were they back now?

At least Heather was with her, more to support Tamisin than because she really wanted to dance. The audition wasn’t very long; each girl would get only a few minutes to show what she could do. Even so, the line seemed to be taking forever to move. Then it was Tamisin’s turn to go into the room and stand in front of Miss Rigby and the senior members of the dance group. Once the music she had selected began to play, Tamisin forgot all about the creatures and what she would do if she saw them again, letting her desire to dance take over.

Although Tamisin had never taken any formal lessons, she had always enjoyed dancing. Years earlier her family had gone camping in a state park not far from their home. She had been asleep in the tent with her parents and brothers when she woke to the sound of music. Whatever was creating it didn’t sound like anything she had heard before, but it was enough to make her wriggle out of her sleeping bag and crawl out of the tent.

The music drew her to the lake, where the silvered reflection of the moon rippled on the surface. Shivering in the crisp night air of autumn, she stood at the edge of the lake with the cold water lapping at her bare toes. The music was soft and sweet with a hypnotic quality that made her take one tentative step, then another. Before she knew it she was dancing, her feet keeping time to the melody, her arms swaying, reaching to the perfect circle of the moon overhead. She twirled, so light on her feet that she felt as if she were floating, the music carrying her in ever more intricate steps.

And then they came, a few at first, bright sparks that darted around her in an imitation of her dance. Anyone else might have thought they were fireflies, but she saw their tiny faces, dresses the colors of flowers, wings so bright that they hurt her eyes, and arms that gestured just as hers were doing.

The music grew louder, carrying Tamisin with it, filling her ears and her mind and leaving no room for questions. She danced with the moonlight shining on her face as the little creatures gathered around her, dancing as she danced, moving as she moved. Some broke away long enough to brush her cheeks with their featherlight wings and touch her nightgown as if she, and not they, were something special and worthy of awe. Entranced, Tamisin would have danced all night if a beam of light hadn’t swept across the campground to center on her. As the light touched her face, the music faded and the sparks of light fled into the night, leaving Tamisin alone and shivering.

“There she is,” announced her big brother, Kyle. “Dad, Tam is being weird.”

“That’s enough of that, Kyle,” said her father, who had come looking for Tamisin. “Sweetie, what are you doing?”

“I was dancing with the fairies, Daddy,” Tamisin replied.

“Girls!” said Kyle as he turned and headed back to the tent.

A month later, Tamisin was home in bed when the same feeling came over her again; once again she was unable to resist. Slipping out from under her covers, she padded barefoot out of her room and down the carpeted stairs. A turn of the dead bolt and the back door was open. The moonlight touched her face and the feeling became so powerful that her body swayed as if in a strong wind. Raising her arms over her head, Tamisin danced just as she had the last time there had been a full moon. She knew the twinkling lights were coming even before they appeared.