Page 90 of Blood from the Marrow
“Then let me see them,” Elena negotiated.
Marisol covered her chest before she understood what Elena meant. “My wings?”
Elena nodded.
Marisol hesitated for only a moment, and then her bright white wings stretched out behind her. Catching the moonlightand reflecting it like a prism, Marisol’s beauty was incandescent. She flexed her wings to show her increased control and then she was diving over Elena’s head. For the briefest moment, she looked like she was in flight, wings outstretched to stay aloft before she tucked them in behind her and broke the surface of the water.
“She’s incredible,” Zuri whispered, watching Marisol use her wings to propel herself underwater.
Elena turned to a standing Zuri and offered her hand. “I will guard your hair from drying out with my life.”
The moment Zuri rolled her eyes and sighed in wordless agreement, Elena grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over the ledge and into the pool.
“You get so dramatic when you’re sentimental,” Zuri said before she threw her arms around Elena’s neck.
“If this is the end,” Elena started. “If Sayah comes and we lose?—”
“Hey.” Zuri cupped her face with both hands and held her in her warm gaze. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve all been busting our asses to make sure wedon’tlose.”
Elena covered Zuri’s hands with her own. She waited until Marisol swam back to them, hazel eyes reflecting the moonlight along with her own worry. “I need you both to know that these months with you have been the most alive I’ve ever felt. And if the end is near, I want to be irrevocably connected to you. Both of you. In every way that matters.”
The words hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning and possibility. Marisol tucked her wings away, sending ripples across the water’s surface.
“Irrevocably connected,” Marisol repeated like she meant it as a question. “Do you mean…” She tipped her head to the side. “Are you asking us to marry you?”
Elena’s eyebrows drew together.Marrywasn’t the right word. It didn’t capture what she wanted. What she needed. “Marriage feels...” Language was failing her. “Insufficient. Too easily broken. Too...”
“Human?” Zuri supplied with a wry smile.
“Temporary,” Elena corrected. “Even if it included the three of us, marriage is a legal contract. It’s not...” She gestured helplessly. “It’s not enough.”
Marisol moved closer, water lapping around her waist. “Then what do you mean?” She slipped her arm around Elena’s waist.
“I don’t know what I mean,” she admitted. “I just want more. Something that feels big enough to fit everything I feel for you.”
“Something like a magical binding spell?” Zuri offered as if she was half joking.
“A what now?” Marisol asked, but Elena was already straightening. Already sure that abindingfelt more right than a wedding.
“Brujas have a soul-binding spell,” Zuri continued. “The promise ties people together on a level deeper than blood, deeper than marriage vows. It’s…” She paused, looking between them like she was waiting for one of them to reject the notion. “It’s hard as hell to break. Like, potentially catastrophically difficult. People don’t really use them anymore. For all we know, it can last lifetimes?—”
Marisol’s laughter was something like a nervous screech. “Lifetimes?”
“You can see why they’re no longer popular in the age of fast-fashion and cardboard straws,” she explained with a shrug.
“Tell me more.” Elena reached for Marisol’s hand underwater. It sounded exactly like the promise she wanted to make.
“The waxing crescent moon,” Zuri said, glancing at the sky as if searching her memory for the details. “It has to be castduring the waxing crescent. When the moon is growing, building power.” She looked back at them. “You know… two weeks from now.” She said it like she might shock Elena into changing her mind. As if Elena wasn’t so sure, she’d bind with them today if she could. Every moment she’d spent apart from them felt squandered. Wasted in a way that made her desperate to unravel time and space to weave it anew. To fold it into a new shape where she’d never cut herself off from their love.
Elena squeezed Marisol’s hand while she pulled Zuri in close with the other. “I want that. More than I’ve ever wanted anything. I want to be bound to you.” Her gaze darted between a stoic Zuri and a stunned Marisol. “Both of you.”
Marisol’s expression changed like a stained-glass window catching the light at a new angle. Her eyes widened, glistening with emotion when she realized that Elena wasn’t dealing in hyperbole. That she wanted to be as close to her as the universe would allow. “Elena,” her soft voice trembled. “Are you sure? A binding like that...” Her cheeks were already flushing pink with her unspoken acceptance. “Is it too soon?”
“More time will not make me any surer of my feelings for you,” Elena said with complete conviction. “But if you need more time, I absolutely understand.” She was surprised to find that she meant that.
“It would mean we’re very stuck with each other,” Zuri finished, but her tone was gentle. Hopeful. “For all I know, it could last through death and into everything that comes after.” She tilted her head to the side. “That’s a fuck-ton of commitment. Maybe we should wait until you’re not feeling so dramatic and rash?—”
“I know what I want,” Elena insisted. “I’ll know it tomorrow. And a year from now. A decade. A century. A millennium.” She swallowed hard, but the emotion crept into her voice and invaded her eyes. “I’ve never felt more whole than I am rightnow. This is where I belong. In my lifetime I have never known a love like this. I want to be bound to you both in ways that transcend law, transcend death, transcend the metaphysical plane. All I want is to dedicate my life to protecting you and loving you and cherishing every second I have with you. There will be no one or anything I want more than you. Nothing else will ever fill me with the overwhelming urge to give until I have nothing left.” Elena’s eyes burned and she didn’t hold back. She let the tears come. Let herself be completely bare, belly exposed and throat left unprotected.
