Page 2 of Beltane

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.”

Act I

Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,

Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;

My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,

My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.

-Helena, Act I, Scene I

1

Miri

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Igasped as I stared at the television in the safety of my private apartments in Kensington.

“Ivy and Lex are missing.” The newscaster touched his ear and glanced at his fellow reporters, hoping to get a clue. “As are Katherine and Jon Washington. Half the bridal party’s gone.”

This had to have been the fairy king. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Icy-cold fear shot straight through me, the memories of how he’d manipulated my mind squeezing my chest. If he’d gotten to Ivy and Lex, I was next.

“What the bloody hell?” My cousin, Edward, crossed his arms and stood next to me. He’d been surprisingly helpful these last few months, staying at Aberdeen to make sure I wasn’t a complete invalid. If I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect Gran had sent him to force me to take care of myself. But he hardly qualified as a life coach seeing as he’d fucked half of the Commonwealth by now.

The wedding guests talked among themselves in the background, and even though there were no obvious signs the king had returned, only one thing could have stopped today from happening.

My phone buzzed in my hand, Carter’s name flashing across the top. I’d called him a few minutes ago but I no longer had privacy. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore. Maybe he was right and I needed to play my part in this. I couldn’t hide anymore. Hiding never quite did me any good anyway, and it certainly hadn’t made anyone safer.

Before I could answer, shadows played across the light streaming in from the windows, a powerful force hitting me in the gut, nearly bringing me to my knees. Tingles cascaded over my skin, echoing down my spine and the back of my legs. The worst had happened. The king was here.

“Edward, run.” I grabbed his arm, trying to yank him to the door, but it was too late. Obsidian spirals slammed against the windows, spilling to either side, darkening the space like an eclipse in the middle of the day, casting everything in gray shadows.

“What is that?” Edward froze, transfixed by the display of paranormal power. When it coalesced into a human form on the front yard, I pushed my cousin behind me, realizing we were too late. Alberich was already here, and judging by the scowl between his dark eyebrows, he was furious.

“Oh, my dear Little Thistle,” the king called, stepping closer. His dark coat dusted the grass, emphasizing his matching clothes and long hair. Magic radiated out of him in such magnificence, I wanted to wilt. Instead, I stood taller, jutting my chin out, reminding him I was the one who kept him out last time, and I’d figure out a way to do it again.

“Alberich,” I said.

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