Page 105 of Truly Madly Magically

I pull in a breath. I don’t look at Zander.

I try to remain strong and centered as it all begins at last.

First up, the protections from my coven.

Jacob holds out his hands, and a crown of flowers, much like the one Elspeth gave us this morning, appears. “For your bravery, a crown of borage.”

The plant has been woven into a ring and infused with Healer whispers of protection and healing. The pretty purple blooms resemble stars. Jacob carefully places it over my head, his smile warm and kind, before he gives way to the next in line.

Emerson approaches. Her eyes are shiny with pride. “For your strength and determination.” She slides a ring of iron on my finger.

Frost and Rebekah follow, together.

“Hold out your hands, Revelare,” Frost intones, in that Praeceptor’s voice of his.

I do as I’m told. It doesn’t even occur to me to offer one of my usual snarky remarks. The moment is too big, the meaning of this too important.

They each slide a bracelet over one of my wrists. On the right, Frost’s offering is a tangled brown and gray—tumbled petrified wood. “To strengthen your connection to the past. All that was, all that you came from,” he says.

Rebekah’s bracelet is made of rose quartz. “For your inner voice, your connection to all that can be, may it be clear and good.” Then she gives me a hug and whispers, “You’ve got this.”

Georgie approaches, her head burnished red in the candlelight. She looks more like that princess from the fairy tale than ever. She hands me a tiny book, no bigger than my palm. “To protect what you know, in your heart, in your mind.”

Then it’s Zander’s turn. I am already emotional and far too close to tears, but the silver of his eyes makes my whole being shake.

He holds Zelda’s necklace, which I’ve only taken off before this ritual, for this ritual.

“From your Guardian,” he says, strong and true. That scent of his magic, woodsmoke and the power of the rivers, wraps around us.

Mine, I mouth, hoping to make him smile.

Not quite, but close. I’ll take it.

He puts the necklace over my head. “So the rivers and the mighty power of the confluence protect you from all that would wish you harm.”

He leans down and presses his mouth to mine. I know he wants to linger, hold me tight, do more, but he steps back. Because love and protection and duty are difficult concepts to balance. His honor, that deep-seated need to be noble, struggles to overwhelm what needs to be done, risked.

We’re working on it.

Together.

Before he releases me, though, Elizabeth is whispering at us.

“If you let me in, accept me, I can be another layer of protection. For you, for the child. You only have to accept me.”

“And you,” Zachariah says to Zander. “Accept me.”

Zander and I look at each other. It’s weird request, but they haven’t led us astray yet. Who would turn down extra protection in this moment?

“Say it,” Elizabeth says, a little more urgently than feels comfortable. “In your heads, as one.”

I breathe out, lock eyes with Elizabeth, and hear Zander utter the same words I do, like we’re an internal chorus.

I accept you.

I feel something cool and fizzy, almost. Like drinking carbonation, but with far more energy. Warmth follows, and then something curls around inside me. Like another layer protecting the baby from the outer world.

I know Elizabeth will protect her in whatever ways she can. I look at Zander. His silver eyes are slightly different, like I can see Zachariah’s shadow in there. Looking out for us both.

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