Page 86 of Beltane

The world looked at a relationship like ours and judged us for it, but I no longer cared what they thought. I couldn’t, not when my wife brought out the fire in me, not when one of my husbands lived in the darkness and the other was as blinding as endless sunshine.

I’d been having dreams about this for months. The woods had been calling me, reaching out to me however they could. So many times, I had ventured out here and shoved my fingers into the dirt, praying I’d vibrate with that same vitality the plants had once used to communicate. I’d close my eyes and reach out with my senses to dead air.

Ivy hadn’t been able to get inside our minds anymore. Lex tried to get the truth out of his clients, but the words held no magic. Carter’s luck had finally run out.

A part of me, perhaps the part that had always had a special connection to the trees, lamented what we’d lost…what we’d given up so that we could win. But in my darkest moments, I’d admit I’d do it all again if it brought me the same life.

The tears. The heartache. The threat of a terrible, irreversible loss only to know unimaginable joy.

Until the end,we’d once promised.Until the endhad been branded on our hands for four years.

The end had come and gone and we’d survived.

All of us. All four of us. Here to bring in the new day.

“What if the lust hits us again?” Ivy said. “What if we get stuck out here?”

“We’re not expected anywhere for a few days,” 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 grabbed the scissors to rip 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 sanitized before coming out here and made a tiny incision in my palm, right over 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 lay his on top of hers. Lex went under me, holding all of us up with his indomitable strength, truly the king of our world, the gravity around which all of us spun.

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. And each of them complemented the sunny frost of my springtime spirit. We were always meant to be a four, and after everything that 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.” I cleared my throat and went first. “I vow to love you. All of you. I will honor and cherish you and treat you with respect.” I winked at Ivy when she smiled, clearly recognizing the words from the first time we’d made this promise, all those Midsummers ago. “I will never betray you. I will never hold you back from your dreams or each other. I promise honesty. From today until the end.”

Lex went next, reciting nearly the same words over again, followed by Carter and Ivy, who both struggled to get through the whole thing without breaking into tears.

“I know I say this all the time,” I continued, giving their combined hands an endearing squeeze. “But thank you for forgiving me. I haven’t made it easy to love me, but you do. And I can never be as grateful as I should be.”

“Miri,” Ivy said, wiping away a tear with her free hand. “I told you. I’ll always take you however I can get you. There’s nothing to forgive.”

“If anyone is difficult to love, it’s me, Princess,” Lex said.

“We deserve each other,” Carter added. “In all the ways possible.”

“It’s time,”came a voice on the wind, a whisper that made the hair on my arms stand on end.

I gasped as a sharp burning pain sliced through the center of my palm, sucking in air as it ached and throbbed. Lex winced and Ivy groaned, each one pulling away from our handfast.

“Fucking hell!” Ivy said, grabbing her aching hand with her free one.

I watched it happen this time, staring in amazement as the letters burned into my skin.

Until the end.

The vow we made to each other six years ago in Killwater woods was now etched bright and brilliant on my palm.

“It worked,” Ivy murmured, her eyes glimmering with wonder and anticipation.

“It fucking worked,” Lex said, running his hands back through his hair. “It’s back. Lie to me. Say you hate me.”

“Come see,”the trees called again.

“I hate you, Lucifer,” Ivy said. “I’ve always hated you.”

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