Chapter 25 Juniper #2
Pack barks at something on the shore. The noise is enough to break us apart, alerting the twins to a state that has Blaze grabbing my hands and stepping in front of me, North’s arms sinking around my waist as if he’s prepared to snatch me out of harm’s way the moment it appears
Sandwiched between them is the safest I’ve ever felt.
“Probably a jellyfish,” I say, trying to ease their minds.
“I doubt it,” Blaze says in a strained voice.
“Blaze—”
“I’ll check it out,” North volunteers. He leans over and kisses my cheek before setting off down the rocks, calling out her name as he goes.
Blaze pivots into me, and as we stand there, he toys with a few stray strands of my hair.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Which part are you asking about? My head, my heart, or my vagina?”
He smiles like he can’t help it, and it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. “We’ll go from the top down,” he decides.
“Order of importance, got it,” I taunt him.
He laughs. “God, I love you,” he says, and it’s so offhand that it takes me a minute to remember we’re only a week into this and not a decade. My smile fades, and he sinks his palm to my cheek, swallowing as if he’s scared I might decide to run. “I do, Juniper,” he whispers.
It’s my turn to gulp. “My head tells me it’s too soon to make any decisions based on a deep infatuation and feeling of safety.
However, my heart… It’s burning. It’s dilating and aching every time I look at you.
My whole body is restless, and while I don’t logically know what any of that means, I know that you make me so fucking happy that the thought of going on without you feels hopeless.
Even still… I need you to promise me something. ”
“Anything,” he says, sliding a hand around my waist.
“Don’t lie to me again. Don’t keep things from me just to protect me.
If we’re going to be in this… If I’m going to be hidden and bound to you both, I can’t feel like you’re only telling me part of the truth.
I want all of it—the good, bad, and horribly ugly.
You tell me the truth always, no matter what it might mean. ”
His thumb swipes across my cheek. “Okay.”
“Promise me, Blaze. On my life. Promise me.”
A muscle feathers in his jaw, and while he appears to be battling with himself over the decision to keep me safe or tell me the truth, ultimately, he exhales.
“I swear,” he says.
“On my life?”
He hesitates as if the weight of the words means something different to him. Like speaking such a thing out loud would jinx the universe into pushing us toward more peril than we’re already destined for.
“I swear on your life,” he whispers.
A feeling jolts my center and spreads over my extremities. Blaze tilts my chin back and kisses me, sealing our own bond. My knees weaken, and I breathe easier than I have all night.
“By the way, my vagina is really tender, so I need you two to be gentle with her later,” I tell him.
Blaze chuckles and leans his forehead against mine. “I think you’re ready for us, angel. We can seal the spell between us all together.”
“Is that part of the process?” I ask, curious.
“No. It doesn’t have to be. But it’ll make it much more powerful.”
I exhaled jaggedly at the thought.
Pack barks again, and I lean my head on his chest as we both turn to look at her and North running around in the sand.
“We might have to put him on a leash, too,” I say, watching him throw a snowball at her. She launches at his feet, nips him, and he jumps backward trying to get away from her.
“Sounds like something you two should do on your time together,” he says.
I snicker, and Blaze kisses the top of my head as he hugs me close.
“I’m glad you told us about your father. I know that was hard,” he whispers.
“Thank you for making me feel safe enough to tell you,” I say, looking up at him.
He kisses me again, and this time when we part, he takes my hand to lead me down the rocks.
“Come on, angel. I made this snow for my birthday girl,” he says.
“No, you didn’t,” I laugh. “It fell because you can’t control your emotions.”
“Do you remember the first time I kissed you? When you thought it was raining?”
I nod.
“You took me by surprise, and I was so overwhelmed with you that I couldn’t stop my magic from flowing over. You do that to me. I can’t control anything around you.”
A ball of snow and sand hits Blaze in the face the moment we hit the sand.
I burst out laughing. Blaze releases me to make his own snowballs to throw at his brother, and as I stand there, cackling and yelping at their antics, I glance down the beach to find families making their way onto the beach to do the same.
We play, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this light.
Watching them throw snow at each other with wild precision, wearing my tight leggings, North in a cropped sweatshirt, and Blaze in one of my holiday shirts, I have to laugh at how unserious all of it looks.
And they’re all mine.
After a while, North falls into the sand in surrender. He waves his brother off, pretending to have a white flag, and Blaze continues playing with Pack instead.
I settle onto the sand with North, chuckling when he curls into me and lays his head on my lap.
“How is my birthday girl?” he asks as he holds my hand on his chest.
“Tired. Sore in the best way.” I smile down at him. “You look ridiculous in my clothes.”
“I think you love it,” he says, smirking at me.
He’s right. “I do,” I breathe.
My gaze wanders to Blaze and Pack again, the dog jumping and nipping at him like she was doing with North minutes earlier.
“I think she loves you both as much as I do,” I say.
North stiffens slightly, but sits up. I consider his suddenly serious face, and I wonder if mentioning that word to him was too much. He opens his mouth, but when no words come out, I interject instead.
“Tell me about the spell,” I say. “All Blaze has said is that it hides me, that to any other creature from the Nether Realm, I’ll appear as one of you.”
“Something like that. It’ll cover you in our magic. You’ll be tattooed in ice and snow symbols like the ones we have around our necks,” he replies.
My brows lift. “I’m getting new tattoos?”
He scoffs. “Does that excite you?”
“I love new tattoos.”
Another chuckle leaves him. “I know you were wary about not getting a choice in this. But one thing this spell won’t take from you is your decision to eventually become immortally ours. One of us. It hides you from the others, but you’re still mortal.”
“That’s an option?” I ask.
“One day,” he answers.
“Is that… What happens if I choose that instead?” I ask.
“I don’t think Blaze is confident in his magic enough yet to try it. I think that’s why he’s insisting on the other.”
“He hasn’t told you?”
“He doesn’t like to jinx things. And I think he’s too scared to lose you.”
“You’re not?”
North smiles at me. “Darling, if I had enough power to make you immortal right now, there’d be no discussion of the other. You’d be ours for all of eternity.”
My mouth twitches upward, stomach knotting at his expression and words. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Have you ever been in love before?”
He shifts slightly. “No. I always left such things for my romantic brother. But the moment you walked into my life, I knew I would never be the same. Suddenly I’m thinking about someone else’s benefit instead of wholly my own.
It’s pathetic and maddening. I think I’d mewl at your feet if you asked me to, perhaps even cut out my heart and dice it in tiny chunks for you to devour, were you starving. ”
“That was graphic,” I say.
“Once you’ve been to the worst parts of the Nether Realm, you’ll realize why that sentence may not be so far-fetched.”
“Will the spell hide me there? I know Blaze said you have to go back at the Equinox.”
“We,” he corrects me. “We are going back, love. By then, brother dearest will be back to his worst habits—something I can’t wait to see again.”
I stare at North for a few moments, the breeze undulating his hair around his face. “What did you do when he was imprisoned?”
“I told him he was stupid for falling for a mortal. He was supposed to be the lawful one, and when I had to sit back on the side of order while he descended into chaos for love, I think I became jealous. I was mad at him for fucking with the way things were, with our friends having to make a decision that ultimately cost them their lives. I was mad at him for so long, even when I defended him, led parties to free him, still…” He pauses to look at me, smiling softly.
“And now, here I am. Ready to do the same for love I never thought I’d deserve. ”
“Why don’t you think you deserve love?” I ask.
North rubs his hands together and stares at them for a beat long enough that my insides twist.
“North?”
“I have a confession, Juniper,” he says thickly.
“When we first met, my intentions were not based solely on my finding you attractive. Fuck, I did. You enthralled me from the start. But when we met, Blaze had told me about you. He’d told me how he felt about you already, and I saw it as an opportunity.
I saw my brother back—the person he once was.
His power and manipulation, and I wanted that part of him back so badly that I was willing to do anything for it. Even get you to want me, too.”
I still at his words.
“What I never expected… was you,” he goes on.
“I didn’t expect falling for you to be so easy, but I knew it was true when I saw Cornelius in the bar talking to you.
The dread and gnawing pain I felt in my gut…
gods, it ate me from the inside. It wasn’t a normal reaction.
I wanted to rip him apart just for showing his face.
And now, the thought of going on tomorrow or any day after without you smiling at me like you do makes me want to throw myself over a cliff. ”
“Wouldn’t you survive?” I ask.
“Yes, but the symbolism is there, darling,” he says, and I almost laugh.
“I am in agony around you. Did you know you have that effect on me? I don’t know how people do this without wanting to off themselves at the slightest argument that might mean never seeing them again.
The thought is torture enough. My anxiety has never been higher. ”
“I doubt you’ve ever even had anxiety,” I taunt him.
“Not like this,” he admits.
I lean over and kiss him hard, and he wraps his hand around my face to bring me closer. I can feel that agony spreading into me with the peppermint taste on his tongue, feel his sincerity and desperation in the way he curves his fingers against my throat.
“I can’t wait to cover you in my magic,” he breathes upon my lips.
“Is that a euphemism for coming on my tits again?” I ask, teasing him.
“Fuck, love, you can’t bring things like that up when we’re in public. You know the state I was in the last time,” he replies.
“I like you in that state.” I kiss him again. “My little spoon.”
He groans as he kisses me once more, and I feel my lips curl against his.
It’s another few minutes before Blaze and Pack join us on the sand. I hold my hand out to him, and he kisses my knuckles in response.
I wonder if my heart will ever stop fluttering.
“Okay, I have another question,” I say, sitting up. “How old are you?”
North and Blaze both chuckle, hands swiping over their face or behind their neck.
“Ah… I don’t remember,” Blaze admits.
“Don’t look at me. Fuck all, if I know,” North says.
As I’m laughing, something catches my attention by the jetty. It appears so suddenly and out of nowhere that I can’t help but be taken aback.
“Is that… Is that a horse?” I ask, brows narrowed at the black stallion standing in the surf.