Page 82 of Beltane

“Hiya Juliet,” he whispered.

“Hiya Romeo.” I couldn’t contain my grin. I’d wasted so much time. Why did I ever think that leaving them could have been an option? No one dared love me as much as them. No one ever could.

“Ready to go home?”

I nodded and Ivy leaned in to kiss Carter next, turning back to give the world a single-finger salute before shoving open the thick, heavy doors and walking out onto the street. A crowd had gathered behind metal blockades, keeping them at a distance. Despite that, there could be no hiding this, especially not after the public display we’d put on in there.

I stopped when I recognized the tall familiar figure waiting outside our escape vehicle.

“No,” Carter murmured, dropping my grip.

“Lex?” Ivy’s hands shook nearly as hard as her voice.

“My prince!” I sprang toward him, picking up my wedding gown to run faster. He looked the same as when we’d left him, beautiful and cut from marble like a Renaissance sculpture, and my heart dropped down to my ankles. I had missed him so fucking much.

“How?” Ivy ran toward us. “How is this possible?”

Lex grinned and opened the back door of the SUV, nodding inside. Cameras flashed around us, the crowd calling out questions and cries for clarification, but we ignored it all. Lex kissed me before I climbed in, following that up by pulling Carter in for another desperate embrace. Finally, Ivy wrapped her arms around our king of darkness and pressed her lips to his.

“Get in the vehicle, X. I’m taking you all home.” His hazel eyes twinkled with the love he had for us, especially his X.

She smiled and got in next to me.

Sure, the media would have a field day with this, but I didn’t care. What was anyone going to do to us that hadn’t already been done? Kill our brand? Hack our phones?

I dared anyone to try. We had survived so much worse.

The kings and queens of yore couldn’t control us anymore.

We were truly free.

Epilogue

MIDSUMMER - TWO YEARS LATER

IVY

“By the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Virginia, I now declare you married.” Carter grinned and closed his folder, gesturing between Miri and me.

The tiny audience applauded as I stepped closer to my wife, cupping her jaw before leaning down to press a tender kiss to her lips. She grinned against me, opening her mouth wide enough for me to tease her with my tongue.

“I love you, Miri,” I murmured, pulling back long enough to meet her gaze before leaning in for another gentle embrace.

“I love you, Ivy,” she replied and turned to face our witnesses. My siblings had come to watch us tie the knot as had her cousin, Edward, who currently held our sleeping son, Donnelly. My mother had refused, no surprise.

“This is outrageous,”she’d said. “An absolute waste of your privilege.”

It had been two years since we’d announced our relationship to the world, but she still didn’t understand. She couldn’t control what I did anymore, and I wouldn’t let her. I hadn’t resigned from Congress, much to the chagrin of my more conservative colleagues. But the queer community embraced us, and with their support, my public image bounced back enough for me to win re-election. I was the preferred candidate for the Senate in two years. As for my mother, I’d done what Lex had told me to do before leaving us for Faerie. I now lived my life for me. I’d taken her plan and ripped it apart on live television.

First, I wanted to make good on my promise to my wife. When I’d barged in on her fake wedding to Reginald whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is from Monaco, I’d told her I would marry her if it came to it. That I wanted to be the one who brought her into my family, who made her mine.

It had taken two years, but finally, I was making an honest woman out of us both.

“All right,” I said, turning to Carter and taking the folder from him. “Your turn.”

He took a deep breath and held his hand out to Lex, who stood next to me, my “best man.” Now, I traded spots with Carter, and Miri became Carter’s matron of honor, and we started the ceremony over again. Sure, maybe it was cheesy that we held a double wedding, but after much deliberation, we couldn’t figure out a better option. It was only for silly legal purposes since polyamorous marriages weren’t technically allowed in our society.Yet. But that was another thing I planned to change with my newfound sense of empowerment.

The public had a lot to learn, and we could be role models for that ideal future.

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