Page 84 of Beltane

“Yes,” I said quickly, damn near embarrassing myself.

Lex laughed and climbed on top of Miri, mirroring Ivy’s pose, and leaned down so he could press his lips to hers. “Don’t worry, Princess. You’re going to get fucked good and proper, too.”

She smiled. “I certainly hope so.”

Then, they did. Ivy held one of my legs over her shoulder, lubed up her rainbow-colored dildo, and fucked me until I couldn’t remember my name. I came all over both of us twice, much quicker than I would admit to anyone else, and when Ivy took off the strap to crawl on top of my face, I noticed a softness around her cheeks and a heaviness in her breasts that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago.

Is she pregnant?

I ignored that for the sake of making her come, and then they switched places so Lex could have his way with me before we came up for air.

“God, I’ll never get tired of fucking your ass, Chicago.” Lex inhaled his cigarette and let it out on a sigh.

I chuckled and rolled to throw an arm over his waist, pushing my head up on my hand and bending my elbow so I could look to Ivy and Miri on the other side of him, cuddling against each other and giggling at whatever Ivy had whispered to my Juliet. She turned to face us, catching my gaze and holding it for a second before shifting to Lex so she could lean in and kiss him. When she glanced back at me again, I raised an eyebrow to suggest I knew what she was hiding.

“What?” she said, furrowing her brows.

“How far along are you?” I smiled as the flush crept up her neck and made the X on her neck.

Miri gasped and Lex sat up straighter, whipping his attention to his former fiancée. “Seriously?”

Ivy nodded and grinned down at him. “It was the time we spent here when Miri and Carter were in Scotland.”

Lex smiled harder, his eyes glimmering with the joy he must have felt, the same happiness echoing in my chest. A younger version of me might have been jealous that Ivy’s first child would be with Lex, but the one in that bed with them only knew true elation. This was what we wanted. This was what we fought so hard to get. I loved these three humans more than I’d ever loved anyone, and if I got to spend the rest of my life proving that to them, I would.

After I leftFractured Crowns, I dedicated my life to LGBTIA+ outreach programs in the greater Washington, DC area. While we might have been shunned in political high society after the news of our affair first went public, our own community opened their arms in welcome. Eventually, the more liberally minded politicians came around, choosing to enmesh their brands with the radical one we had created. We were the most famous queer poly couple in the world, and I wanted to use that platform to make sure no one else ever had to deal with the shit we did. Our children would only be more proof that these types of family structures worked, that our house was full of love and devotion to each other.

“I hope it’s a strong-headed ginger,” Miri said, leaning in to kiss Ivy.

Ivy wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in closer. “I hope it’s a hazel-eyed nightmare. I need someone else to give Lex a run for his money.”

Lex laughed and I hugged him closer, and when I fell asleep that night, I realized I never needed the fairy gift. I became the luckiest motherfucker to ever live the day the four of us met in that college cafeteria, and I’d go on that way for the rest of my life.

* * *

LEX

I couldn’t sleep,so I went downstairs to grab a drink and stood out on the balcony, basking in the full moon’s glow. The sounds of the June nightlife echoed around me, cicadas and crickets desperate to make their presence known. Warm, humid air coated my skin and I moaned as I relished the feeling.

The weather in Faerie was weird. It never stormed, and the days could go on forever, making the moon seem even more unattainable. But fuck it…I’d gotten what I wanted. I had my spouses and my kid and another one on the way.

But something didn’t quite feel right. When I first returned, I told myself it didn’t matter. The queen had fulfilled every other part of my request down to the minute. Poppy had dropped me off outside the church where Ivy had absconded with the prince of Monaco’s bride, and Carter had nearly fainted when he saw me. I was living my life. I had gotten out of it all unscathed.

Except…when I stared down at my palm where the proof of my oath to my beloveds used to be, an aching chasm opened in my chest. The queen had restored me to them, but left a chunk of us missing. I remembered how deeply the four of us connected the night before the battle at Beltane, how our union had created a tangible energy that we used to defeat the most powerful fairies in Faerie. I used to be a walking-talking lie detector, for fuck’s sake.

Perhaps this was better. Wasn’t this what we said we wanted? Normalcy? For things to go back to the way they were before we wandered into those woods on that ill-fated Midsummer? Then why did it feel like I was being suffocated by the mundaneness of my new reality?

Trying not to break down into a full existential crisis, I lit a cigarette and let it out with a soft sigh, telling myself I needed to cut this filthy habit. I didn’t smoke around Donnelly, and now that we were having another child, the opportunities to destroy my lungs were dwindling.

Footsteps behind me brought my head up before warm, tender arms circled me, a soft kiss pressing into the center of my shoulder blades.

Ivy.

“What are you doing awake?” I murmured, stabbing out the smoke so she didn’t accidentally inhale it.

“Wondering what you’re doing.” She trailed pecks across my shoulders, soft and sweet, much more civilized than I was used to from her.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Turning in her hold, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and brought her in for a hug, inhaling her vanilla scent as deeply as I could.

---