Beltane (Midsummer #4)

Prologue

MIRI

AFTER THE END

I t was not a sham marriage.

We were in love, all of us, together. We were always meant to be a four.

The world looked at our relationship and judged us for it, but I no longer cared what they thought. I couldn’t, not when my wife brought out my inner fire, not when one of my husbands lived in the darkness with me and the other was as blinding as endless sunshine.

“Are you sure about this?” Ivy asked, wrapping her fingers in mine as we walked through the woods. The pads of my bare feet sank into the wet undergrowth, but I barely felt it.

Once, long ago, the trees would have whispered to me of their secret schemes. They would have told me if this was a good idea or if I should turn back, but I hadn’t heard them in years…not since the end. Not since that night in Killwater when we’d lost so much and gained much more in return.

“I’m sure,” I said, more confident than I’d ever been about anything. I’d been dreaming about this for months. The woods had been calling me, reaching out however they could. So many times, I had ventured here and shoved my fingers into the dirt, praying I’d vibrate with that same vitality the plants had once used to communicate. I’d close my eyes and unfurl my senses to dead air.

Ivy was no longer able to get inside our minds. Lex tried to get the truth out of his clients, but the words held no magic. Carter’s luck had finally run out.

A part of me, perhaps the part that had always had a special connection to the trees, lamented what we’d lost…what we’d given up so we could win. But in my darkest moments, I’d admit I’d do it all again if it brought the same results. I’d go through the tears, the heartache, the threat of a terrible, irreversible loss only to know unimaginable joy.

Until the end, we once promised. Until the end had been branded on our hands for four years.

The end had come and gone and we’d survived. All of us. All four of us. Here to bring in the new day.

“If I thought we could get it back,” Lex said, catching up to me on the side opposite Ivy. “I would have suggested this after we rescued you from?—”

“I’m certain,” I cut him off, refusing to even think about the memory he mentioned. Those were dark days, indeed, and now that we were on the other side, I refused to relive them. I had made mistakes. I had loved them dearly, only to disappoint them when it mattered most.

I was unworthy of their forgiveness, and yet, they had offered it anyway.

“Yes, but how?” Lex said as he brushed his dark hair out of his mesmerizing eyes, no less beautiful for the years between now and when I’d first met him.

“I just know,” I said.

“Are you hearing the trees again, Juliet?” Carter asked, grabbing my shoulders with a loving squeeze.

“No,” I said, “but this is the right thing to do, regardless.”

“It is Midsummer,” Ivy said. “We made the original vow on Midsummer.”

“Yeah, on the grounds of a sacred ruin in Faerie,” Lex added with a scoff and a roll of his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve found another veil for us to slip through.”

“Goodness, no,” I said. “But this land is sacred.”

Lex looked unconvinced but Carter wrapped his arms around my prince’s shoulders and tucked his head into the crease of his neck. “C’mon, DC. Give her a chance.”

“I don’t take chances,” Lex said. “Not anymore.”

“Regardless of whether we get our gifts back, we need to renew our vow,” Ivy said, bringing my hand to her mouth to kiss my knuckles.

“Hmm.” Lex curled his lips into a devilish grin. “Didn’t I just make you do that last night when I had my cock in your a?—”

“Our actual vow, Lucifer.” Ivy laughed, and it pleased me to be a witness to their interactions these days. They still bickered like they hated each other, but now I understood that was their dynamic. They loved as much as they fought, and in that turmoil, they sated a side of their personalities that could only be soothed by the other person. I loved their love, just as they adored the affection I had for Carter. There could only ever be one Ivy for Lex, and only one Romeo for my Juliet, and around and around the earth spun.

“Here,” I said, stopping inside the clearing I’d found two weeks ago on one of my walks. The meadow formed a perfect circle with the trees, naturally made considering this was too far away from the cabin for anyone to have done it purposely. It thrummed with an otherworldly energy, something I sensed even without my fairy gift.

“Oh,” Carter said, breaking away from us to walk ahead and glance around. The trees had grown tall on all sides, and despite the natural cover, wildflowers bloomed in the center. It was beautiful, idyllic, reminding me of the meadow outside the ruins in Killwater. “This is perfect, Juliet.”

I smiled and walked toward him to grab his neck and pull him down for a kiss. “I don’t care if we never get our gifts back. I want you to know I still love you…that I still want to be married to you.”

“Well, you do crawl into our bed every night,” Lex said, grinning as he snaked an arm around my waist to tug me away from our husband.

“I can’t explain how I know it will work,” I said. “I just know.”

“What if the lust hits us again?” Ivy said. “What if we get stuck out here for the next few days?”

“We’re not expected anywhere,” I said. “It’ll be okay.”

Ivy took a deep breath and nodded, sinking to her knees in the grass before opening the bag we’d brought with us. Ivy grabbed the candles and put them on the ground as I sat down next to her to light them. I used scissors to cut off a piece of my long white dress before handing them to Carter to do the same to his white T-shirt. Lex cut off a strip of his matching shirt and handed it to me as Ivy sliced through her dress for a scrap of the same.

Once I had the four pieces of linen, I tied them together into a tight knot and held my hand out in the middle, overtop of the open flame. I grabbed the ceremonial knife that had been cleaned and sanitized before coming out here and made a tiny incision in the palm of my hand, right where the words had once shined bright against my alabaster skin. Crimson blood bubbled over the cut, and I watched as my spouses did the same to their hands before placing them over mine. Ivy gripped my palm and Carter laid his on top of hers. Lex went under me, holding us up with his indomitable strength, truly the king of our world, the gravity holding us together.

I wrapped the fabric around our combined embrace, over and under and over again until Ivy helped me knot it on top.

Blood dripped from Carter and Ivy over my hand and down onto Lex’s, combining each of us, mixing our life force. Ivy’s fire soothed Lex’s ice and emboldened Carter’s autumn chill. Each of them complemented the sunny frost of my springtime spirit. We were always meant to be a four, and after everything that had happened, I thanked God that had not changed.

“Okay,” I said, glancing at each one of them before returning my attention to our embrace. “Here goes nothing.”