Chapter 32
THE RITUAL
PARKER
“Are we rushing this?” I asked Levi as we walked through the frozen landscape to where Teague had told us to meet him. Last night, the frost was so heavy that even this late in the day there were still sparkly patches in the deepening shadows of the late afternoon. The sun would be setting soon.
It was Halloween, or as Teague called it, Samhain.
In Willow Lake, that meant winter was already taking hold.
It was surprising we hadn’t had more than a dusting of snow already, to be honest. The winter solstice might be the official start of winter, but Mother Nature didn’t adhere to that schedule around here.
Elsewhere in Willow Lake, children would be wandering the streets in their costumes, begging for candy.
Normally, I would be dressed up to hand out treats at the café.
But tonight, I’d asked Ash if he and Dillon would do it for me.
He’d been surprised when I asked him to watch the cafe, but he hadn’t asked any questions. Even though I knew he’d wanted to.
Levi stopped. “We don’t have to do this now.”
“I don’t want to wait. But we only changed our relationship status a week or so ago. And now we’re getting hitched supe style? Is it too much, too fast?” I bit my bottom lip.
Levi moved his jaw around like he was literally chewing on my words to see what they tasted like. “We can wait. The winter solstice isn’t that far away.”
“But that’s right at Christmas,” I moaned.
“So, we wait for the embolism.” Levi barely managed to say that with a straight face.
“Don’t make me laugh. This is serious.” I waggled my finger at him. “And now I think you’ve been spending too much time with Nana, because you know it’s Imbolc.”
“There is always the equinox or Beltane or any other solstice, equinox or cross-quarter day…” Levi stepped close and took my gloved hands in his bare ones.
The heat from his hands seeped through the knit of my gloves and into mine.
Man, I wished I had his internal heating system.
I was freezing. “We don’t have to do this now. ”
“I never should have called my mom last night. She put all these questions in my head.” Mostly, though, she’d gone into full mom-mode and went on and on about how my relationship with Levi was moving too quickly.
I knew I should have called her before Nana had, because I was sure she’d had a similar conversation with Nana about her relationship with Davina.
“I don’t want to rush you. We have years before we need to do this… Or we don’t have to do it at all. ”
“We’re doing it. We talked about it.” I frowned at him until he nodded. “But back to my point, are you not worried this is too fast?”
“When supes find their fated mates, things happen quickly.” He shrugged. “Look at all the couples who got together in the summer: Ash and Dillon, Jeremy and Adrian, Jake and Gage, Simon and Ogden, Hayden and Ryley…”
“Okay, okay. I get your point, but we aren’t fated mates.”
“Teague says our bond is as strong as a bond can be without being fated. I trust that he’s telling us the truth because I can feel it. Every time we’re together, it’s like the Eternal Magic is whispering in my ear that you’re meant to be mine.”
“I don’t know about the Eternal Magic, but I feel something too.” My chest warmed at the thought of spending the rest of my days with Levi at my side.
“And is it really rushing, if we’ve been dancing around this for… how many years exactly?”
I brushed my lips across his. “You’re right. My mother is a worrier, and she likes to spread her worries around.”
And, oh boy, did she worry. I hadn’t even mentioned the whole getting permanently, irrevocably hitched thing to her. All I’d been talking about was moving in with Levi and giving the apartment to my cousin until he decided on what he wanted to do with his life.
Ever since Fin discovered Willow Lake was teeming with supes, he hadn’t wanted to leave.
He was currently taking a break from university, saying he had other things he wanted to learn first. He and Jeremy were getting along famously, which was a whole other worry, but not one I would be sharing with my mother anytime soon.
She didn’t know about magic, and Nana and I had decided it would be better that way. For now, at least.
“What do you want to do?” Levi asked.
“Let’s get married,” I said, dragging him deeper into the woods behind the Willow Lake Inn.
I’d expected the forest to be quiet, since most of the birds had already flown south and the animals would be settling in to hibernate.
But I was wrong. Chickadees fluttered from bare branch to bare branch in the aspen trees.
Ravens watched us from their high perches atop pine trees.
And nuthatches were racing up and down tree trunks.
I marveled at all those little creatures as we walked to our meeting place. It almost felt like they were here to act as our witnesses and celebrate the moment with us.
Soon, we found Teague in a small clearing.
I’d always thought of Teague as having boy-next-door good looks. He was the kind of guy who you’d expect to be friends with everyone, including the teachers, and chosen for all the sports teams in high school. But that wasn’t the Teague who greeted us today.
This Teague was every bit the death mage.
Black filled his eyes, to the point that I couldn’t see any white or iris at all. He appeared larger, although I couldn’t say exactly why. Maybe it was his power that made it seem that way—a power so great even a human like me could feel it.
When he spotted us, he smiled and nodded at us. At least that’s what I thought was happening. Since he didn’t have irises, it was a little difficult to tell exactly what he was looking at.
“Hi, guys,” he said with a smile, which, I have to say, was creepy as fuck with those black eyes.
If I hadn’t seen the bit of light reflecting on the surface of his eyes, I’d have thought there was nothing there. And everyone knows how creepy those dolls with no eyes are, right? It was like that, but on a living, breathing person. I shuddered.
“I was soaking in the power in the forest to get ready for the ritual,” he continued, seemingly unaware that I was wishing I hadn’t watched so many horror movies as a kid.
God, I was an ass. Here he was, helping us, and I was likening him to a possessed doll. Right. I could do better. I straightened my shoulders and forced a smile.
“Thank you, again, for doing this today,” I said, trying to meet his eyes, but not sure if I was looking at the right place.
It was a bit like when someone had a lazy eye; I never knew which one I was supposed to look at, and it seemed rude to ask.
So, I tried to pick a point somewhere in the middle.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Teague asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I hedged.
Levi glanced at him. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Could he not see the eyes?
Teague laughed. It was a normal, nice laugh. “It’s okay. I know seeing me like this can be unsettling, particularly for people who are new to the supernatural world.”
Now I felt like even more of an ass .
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You aren’t the first person I’ve made uncomfortable.” He beckoned us closer until we were standing directly in front of him. “Are you ready to bind your lives together?”
Levi looked at me to answer the mage.
“Yes,” I said. “What do we need to do?”
“Join hands with one another.”
I pulled off my gloves and stuffed them in my pocket.
I slipped my hands into Levi’s and stared up at him.
It really felt like a wedding. He smiled at me.
He was so damn calm. I’d expected him to be the one panicking this morning, but it’d been me.
And now, his hands were steady and dry, while mine were shaky and clammy.
“Good. Now, I’m going to wrap my hands around yours.”
Teague’s hands were almost as warm as Levi’s.
“Parker, please confirm before Levi, me, and the Eternal Magic that you’re here of your own free will and that you wish to bind your life with Levi.”
“I am.” God, now my voice was shaky.
“Levi, please confirm before Parker, me, and the Eternal Magic that you’re here of your own free will and that you wish to bind your life with Parker.”
Levi grinned at me. “I am.”
“Let’s begin.”
As soon as Teague spoke, an intangible presence filled the air, pressing around us. Strange hieroglyphics in black and white appeared on his now glowing skin. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck quivered under the weight of… well, I didn’t know what. The magic, I guess.
“Look into one another’s eyes,” Teague intoned. The timbre of his voice had deepened as the magic grew.
Levi’s gaze locked on mine. And in that moment, it was like I could see our lives stretch out before us.
The joys and the sorrows. The beautiful moments and the ugly ones.
But mostly, I saw the enduring love. It was breathtaking.
I clutched Levi’s hands tighter. I hadn’t known what to expect, but nothing would have prepared me for this.
Magic whirled around us. I recognized the striking blue of Levi’s magic from when we made love.
It was always there, always with us. But then a soft white ribbon wove through it.
Was that the Eternal Magic? Or Teague’s magic?
As soon as I asked those questions, the answer came to me. That white was mine.
I didn’t have magic, so I didn’t know what it was. My soul maybe? The essence of who I was?
It wasn’t as vibrant and vivid as Levi’s blue, but it danced with his like it belonged. It was the crest on the top of an ocean wave. It was the cloud in the sky.
Teague spoke in a language I didn’t know.