Page 76 of Jacinth

“Why me? Why go to all this trouble? Why do we warrant attention from beings such as yourselves?”

I really didn’t want to piss them off, but I was also struggling to believe the turn around and didn’t want it to bite us in the ass later.

“Well. Now, that’s an interesting story.” The Crone sipped her tea and ceased talking at that point.

When she had finished the cup, Harley appeared to take pity on us and took up the story.

“When you were born, your parents were asked who they would delegate as godparents. In their wisdom, they announced they would leave it to fate. We decided the best godparents would be us three.”

The Fates were my... godparents? Holey ghouley! Hmmm... could I still use the ghost puns? Yeah, I totally could. I’d just take off the amulet for a bit if I needed street cred...

Wait.

“What about Birdie?”

Harley grinned, and I couldn’t decide if it made me uneasy.... or downright terrified for my sister.

“Now that you are happily mated, Birdie is next on our to-do list.”

Harley winked.

“Payback, don’t you think?”

EPILOGUE

Orion

I could not believeI had agreed to this. After a long day at the new ice rink, where we watched the craziest game of hockey any of us had ever seen in our lives, we had taken a drive to the other end of town for ice cream from the horse place—couldn’t remember the name, but Jace convinced us it was worth the trip—and headed home.

Jace insisted she was so worked up that she wanted all of us and... well... you try saying no to her. I had unequivocally set boundaries about touching and being touched by anyone except her, and it seemed like she was going to respect them.

I still wasn’t sure why I had to put on the body suit again, though.

I shifted on my feet, uncomfortable with my lack of clothing, even though I knew we would all be wearing a lot less soon. Skyler slouched in a chair in the corner of the room, sans shirt, and appeared completely at ease. Why not, though? He had probably already seen how this all turned out. I, on the other hand, had yet to hear those sappy—do they really matter?—words from our girl.

Shit, yes, they mattered.

Was I feeling insecure that she hadn’t already said them to me?

Also, yes.

She seemed to say it freely to the other two. Was I so different?

“Keep thinking that hard and you’ll give yourself an aneurysm.”

I turned at the sound of her voice and froze. In nothing but a matched set of black panties and bra, she was the most stunning thing I had ever laid eyes on. I felt myself harden instantly. To cover my moment of vulnerability, I rolled my eyes at her.

“If I get an aneurysm, Angel, I can guarantee you’ll be the cause.”

She chuckled and went to walk past me, though at the last moment turned quickly and pecked me on the cheek.

“I love you, Orion, just don’t tell anyone. I’m worried your ego is already too big.”

That girl. She was my everything.

* * *

Niko

---