Page 95 of Blood from the Marrow
Her eyes went from brown to black when she extended her fangs. “Blood as magic,” she said before pressing her thumb to her razor-sharp fang. A stream of blood flowed into the palm of her hand and Zuri recognized the sound of an incantation fueled by the power of blood magic. “Blood as life.”
Elena smeared the blood across her bottom lip. Before Zuri could say that they should stop and figure out the meaning of Bernice’s spell, Elena was kissing Marisol. Completing the spell by having her kiss the blood off her lips.
Well, fuck. Zuri wasn’t going to leave Marisol alone if some foreign bit of blood magic went bad. When Elena turned to Zuri and made a new streak of blood across her lip, Zuri held her breath and knew in her bones that she would face anything for them.
“Blood as covenant,” Elena said and kissed Zuri.
The metallic taste of Elena’s kiss made Zuri sigh in relief. There was only blood. Only the perfume of Marisol’s skin. No tingle of unintended magic.
With the night growing colder, Zuri didn’t linger in Elena’s kiss. It was time for one more symbol of their new family. One more signal to the world that they belonged to each other.
“Ready?” Zuri took a deep breath. Having run an emotional mile before starting hadn’t been wise. It was a struggle to focus her mind on the incantation she’d spent so many nights perfecting. One that would capture their intention.
Elena held the bowl for Zuri. She’d been so focused on getting the binding right, she hadn’t considered that she didn’t have a surface to put things on.Damn it.
“Each of you hold out your left arm,” she said, trying to keep her nerves at bay while she tried something incredibly important for the first time with an audience.
The ribbon in Zuri’s hand hummed like a jet engine. Everything she and her sisters did held so much power. She couldn’t imagine what her old coven could have done with power like this. She didn’t let her scattered thoughts roll away.
“Under moonlight, by salt, by sea.” Zuri wrapped the ribbon around Marisol’s wrist. “Engulfed by love that totals three.”
She motioned for Elena to put her arm wrist over Marisol’s. “Under moonlight, by salt, by sea.” She wrapped the ribbon around Elena’s wrist, tying the two of them together. “I offer my soul to bind with thee.”
Chest tightening, Zuri’s magic flowed from her unbidden. It broke free from her control and curled around Elena and Zuri like a shimmering orb she could only see if she squinted. It was the power of her ancestors, she realized. It was the help of all the women who stood at the edges of her life ready to lend their strength even when she didn’t know she needed them. She felt her grandmother at her side. Felt her embrace and pride and approval.
“Under moonlight…” Zuri choked out. “By salt.” It was hard to breathe. “By sea.” Her hands shook when she placed her wrist over Elena’s. “I accept the soul you offer me.”
Zuri struggled to make the knot that would close the spell. Before she panicked that she’d failed to account for only having one hand at her disposal, Elena and Marisol each took one end of the ribbon. With surprising ease, they worked together to tie it off.
Overwhelmed, Zuri made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry. “Well, who is going to light the match now?” She looked at the matchbox in the bowl Elena was holding.
Before she could imagine how stupid they’d look crab-walking to the house to get someone to help after Zuri had made a big deal about being alone for the ceremony, a blast of fire appeared from nowhere. The ribbon caught fire in a dramatic violet blaze.
Zuri turned toward the house just in time to watch Candela walk away with Avani at her side. Had they been watching the entire time? Had they thought about the fault in her plan? Had they been waiting to back her up if she needed it? Her heart couldn’t handle anymore gratitude and love or it was going to implode.
“Should we put it in the water?” Marisol’s eyes were wide like she was scared of the fire spreading. But the spelled flames had only one job, and they would die when their work was finished. Not die. Transform.
Zuri took a deep breath and focused her intention on the binding. “Not yet.”
She repeated the incantation under her breath while the flames dancing around their bound wrists darkened. Violet to purple to black. Each change in color calmed the flames, and every change was absorbed by the ribbon until it disappeared.The shimmering energy around them fell away when all that was left of the fire and ribbon was sweet-smelling ash.
“Now,” Zuri said, holding Elena’s hand while Elena held Marisol’s beneath hers.
Eyes closed, Zuri’s skin detonated when it hit the water. The cold shock did nothing to ease the heat racing over her body. The power coursing from her veins made the coven tattoo on her forearm glow neon red in the dark.
When they pulled their arms from the ocean, there was a thin black line encircling their left wrists. A brand rather than a wedding ring. A permanent display of their bond.
“I always wanted a tattoo,” Elena said, looking down at her wrist.
Zuri laughed, relieved that the spell had worked. Or at least it hadn’t caused some obvious disaster. “Good luck covering up that bad boy if you change your mind,” she joked.
Elena grinned before pulling her into a kiss. The touch of her lips elicited an even more intense response than it usually did. Zuri felt her kiss in every part of her body. In her pounding heart and tired muscles and empty stomach. The binding, Zuri knew immediately, had just turned up the volume on a heavy metal show.
“I have yet to ever change my mind,” Elena whispered against Zuri’s tingling lips. “About either of you,” she added before kissing Marisol.
Zuri indulged in their moment of silence, of pure togetherness, for only a few seconds before the deafening sound of drums rang out into the night. She froze, fearing it was a sign that Sayah had arrived. It would be her luck that she wouldn’t even get a wedding night with her new brides. But then the sound of laughter joined the beating of the drums and Zuri’s spiking nervous system took another nosedive.
“Looks like the party started without us,” Marisol said in a tone that sounded more like Elena.
