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“Cryptic old goat,” Styx muttered, rolling her eyes, and huffing loudly.
The seer grinned. “Oh, Styx.” She kissed her teeth. “You cannot run forever. You know what awaits you on the other side.”
Styx’s jaw clenched, and her gaze hardened. The woman winked, then turned away and walked to the edge of the crowd.
“Stupid goat lady. Why couldn’t she have been a villain and ended up locked in a chew toy alongside Abyssian?” she grumbled, blowing out a frustrated breath.
“Wait,that’sBroca? The glaistig?” I said, my lips parting as I watched the beautiful woman loop her arm through a happy man standing beside her. With great affection, she rested her head on the side of his arm, and he stroked her hand that rested there. He grinned at me stupidly, tilting his head to the side.
“Yes, why?” my mate asked, trying to follow my gaze and see what I was gawking at.
“Because right now she’sverycozied up to Ben, and I’m just curious if he knows he’s fucking a goat.”
Clara snorted and Styx elbowed her. I wiggled my fingers in a wave at my ex, and Caius grunted, holding back a laugh.
A shaman approached, giving the look of disapproval for all our talking. After saying a few words, Styx held out the paint tray, standing beside us.
I blinked several times. “I don't know what I'm supposed to do.”
“Follow me, my love.”
Caius dipped both thumbs in green, then he drew two lines on my cheekbones. “For prosperity,” he said, never breaking eye contact.
With his index fingers, he dipped them in orange, and dragged them slowly beneath my bellybutton, sending goosebumps over my skin. I released a stuttered breath. “For fertility.”
Clearing his throat, he dipped his middle fingers in red, drawing a line down my throat, over my breastbone, and into my cleavage. My skin flushed, heat pulsing between my thighs. “For passion.”
The anticipation was killing me.
Styx whispered, “Hold out your hands, palm down.”
I obliged, and with his ring fingers he dipped them in purple, drawing a line down my ring fingers on the tops of my hands. “For unity.”
He coated his pinkies in black, marking a line across my forehead. “Until eternal darkness.”
Jagged breaths punctuated my pounding heart. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him right at that moment, but I had a feeling I had to do the same to him before the ceremony would end.
“It’s your turn,” he said quietly, a slight rumble in his tone.
My hands were shaking as I traced the lines over his skin, repeating as he had.
For prosperity, across his sharp cheekbones.
For fertility, tracing along the edge of his hardened, muscular abdomen.
For passion, down the column of his throat, over his sternum, to the middle of his chest.
For unity, marking down the symbolic ring finger.
On his forehead, from one temple to the other. “Until eternal darkness,” I murmured.
An iridescent shimmer coated Caius’s body. My lips parted, and I looked down, realizing the same had happened to me. Something deep in my chest tightened, the sensation filling me with a warm glow.
“That’s the bond,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss me softly. Amidst the roaring crowd and flying petals, it was just me and Caius existing in that moment. The way he looked at me drowned out everything and everyone. “It’s tying the knot, so to speak.”
“Then I guess there’s only one thing left for me to do,” I said, my heart fluttering, sending the pending anxiety through my veins for what I was about to do.
His brows creased together, and he tilted his head slightly in question.
