by Amy Boyles
My cousin and uncle steadied me back onto the seat. I took a few deep gulps of air and closed my eyes, wishing this nightmare was over.
“Each night I have to perform part of a ceremony that will eventually bond me entirely to Rufus.”
“Therein lies the problem,” Ratchet remarked. “You go through with every single ritual and by the end of the week you’ll be so in love with him you won’t want to leave. Which, I have to tell you, isn’t so bad for me since I like having you around.”
“You mean the other me,” I pointed out.
Ratchet shrugged as if we were one and the same. But we weren’t, were we? I mean, weren’t we just in some other dimension where I still existed but it was a different version?
But what if that wasn’t the case and Ratchet knew that? What if this wasn’t reality and when I left and returned to my world, all of this disappeared?
What would happen to the raccoon? I hadn’t even thought about how my leaving would affect him.
Where had he come from, and where would he go?
But first I had to wrap my head around the logistics of the wish and the following week. “Okay,” I said to Morgan, “what if I just don’t go through with the rituals?”
He shook his head. “Remember, you’ve been put here in this place in order to learn something. Not doing the rituals could prolong your time here.”
I clicked my tongue in thought.
“What if she bungles the rituals?” Cordelia squeezed my arm. “Pepper, we could just not quite do them. That would mean you went along with what the wish wanted, sort of, but you wouldn’t fall in love with Rufus.”
I rose and paced. “So let me get this straight—there’s no breaking up with Rufus, no throwing myself at Axel and fixing this that way and I have to go along with a set of rituals that will make me fall more and more in love with Rufus, and if I want to stay in this world, that’s what the wish will give me. It will give me the choice to stay, or it’ll keep me here for the rest of my life.”
I threw my hands into the air. “What sort of wish is this?”
“If it wasn’t for the ritual, this would be a regular wish,” Morgan pointed out. “This just happens to complicate things.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “It sure does.” I fisted my hands. I’d faced worse challenges than this—witches and wizards who would kill me—and I’d come through okay. In comparison to that, this was simple.
What was required of me was easy—in theory. Go with the flow and do my best not to want to stay in this life.
“One good thing,” Ratchet pointed out. “The rituals don’t start out intense. They’re simple at first, and you might not notice a big change until the night before the wedding. That’s the most intense ceremony.”
I nodded. “When we get to that, we’ll deal with it then. But until that point we’ll have to take this one day at a time.”
I gritted my teeth and stuffed all my fear down deep in my pockets. I met the gaze of everyone in the room. “Okay. I’ll play the game. I’ll accept everything this week has to throw at me.”
I’d declared it, and it would be so. The only thing I prayed was that I didn’t forget who I was and what I wanted in the process.
Chapter 8
The sun burned hot down the horizon. A cool wind crept up, tickling the hair along the back of my neck.
I stood in a tent set up in front of the Potion Ponds, gazing in the mirror at the midnight-blue dress I wore. It fit me better than a glove. The dress was nearly skintight. Red piping ran down the ribs of the corset and to the floor, reminding me of tentacles.
“And this is the dress I picked?”
Betty hoisted the shotgun over her shoulder. “The colors are traditional for the first night of the unity ceremony.”
I fisted a handful of dress and let it float back down. “Figures.”
Betty glared at me. “What’s up with you, kid? You’ve been acting like your panties are bunched way up your butt.”
“That’s because they are.” I shoved a pair of dangling black earrings in my lobes. “Tell me what happens tonight.”
Her eyes took on a faraway expression. My grandmother’s mouth dipped into a loopy smile. “This is the first part of the bonding. You drink each other’s blood from a chalice.”
My stomach roiled. “Are you kidding? Each other’s blood? Have we been tested for, I don’t know, blood issues?”
“Would you rather drink your own pee?”
My nose wrinkled. “Ew. Why would you even suggest that?”
She rolled her eyes. “The blood has spices in it, and it doesn’t quite taste like blood. Trust me, this is the easiest ceremony. The others get longer and more complicated as the week wears on.”
I sat on a stool. The tight corset made it impossible to be comfortable. I moved one way, and I couldn’t get a full breath. I adjusted to the other side, but that was even worse.
I rose. “Well? The rest of the week?”
Betty touched my forehead. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”
I swatted her away. “Yes, I just want a little reminding, that’s all.”
“Well, the rest of the week is pretty similar. You stand in front of a crowd, a grand wizard says a chant and then you feel the bonding tighten. Tonight is the drinking of the blood. What happens for the next five nights builds on that. Tomorrow it’ll be the joining of the hands—you’ll feel each other’s strength. After the hands is the joining of your minds, then next will be the joining of the heart. Then you take a night off before the joining of the soul.”
I stared at her. “The soul?”
She nodded. “Yep. That’s the big one. Then after that you’re ready to marry the next day.”
Tears wet her eyes. “I’m so happy for you, Pepper. Are you ready to make this day be the start of all your dreams?”
I smiled brightly, trying to put a little bit of happiness in my eyes. “Absolutely. I’m ready.”
Amelia burst into the tent. She took one look at Betty and fisted a hand to her hip. “So you’re in here. Just figures. I’m out there trying to keep these skinks away, and not doing all that great about it, by the way, and you’re in here chatting.”
Amelia pointed outside. “Now you’d better get out there and help me because I’m doing my best, but this isn’t easy. Those skinks are fast, and boy”—she fanned her nose—“you can’t get too close or they squirt their stink on you.”
I leaned away from her. “Have you been squirted?”
“No, thank heavens, but I came this close.” She parted her thumb and index finger a hair’s breadth. “This close.”
Betty sighed. “All right. Let’s get back out there and start shooting our skink shot into the bushes.”
“Finally,” Amelia said, exasperated. “You go on out. I’m just going to rest for a second.”
As soon as Betty left, Amelia dropped her shotgun and charged toward me. “How’re you doing? Are you okay?”
Truthfully I felt nauseous as heck, but what could I do about that? “I’ll be okay. I’ll be fine.”
“You talked to Morgan today.”
It wasn’t a statement. “You know that. You left us to scare skinks.”
She plopped down on the same stool I couldn’t sit on comfortably. I pressed my hands to my ribs. How was I supposed to even eat in this dress?
Mission, impossible. That’s what that was.
Amelia walked her fingers over the trunk that had housed my dress. “I was thinking maybe we could swap the blood out.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. “There’s no way. Morgan said I have to go through with all of this. The wish put all three of us here in this moment for a reason. I’m supposed to do it. Of course, I never said I didn’t want to be married to Axel,” I grumbled, “but whatever. I have to do what I’m supposed to.”
She shrugged. “It was just a thought.” Amelia rose. She gave me a sympathetic smile before wrapping me in her arms. “It’ll be
okay. All of this will be fine.”
Cordelia entered the tent. She wore a dark gown, too. “Are you ready?”
“Why are you dressed like that?” I said.
She folded her arms and sighed. “Apparently I’m your helper this week. So I’m here to help. You ready? The sun is setting, and the high wizard is all set up.”
I nodded. The sun flared in my eyes when we stepped outside. I glanced around at the crowd that stood with their backs to me, their faces pointed toward the grand wizard.
I gasped. “Saltz Swift.”
Cordelia smiled. “I guess we never released a magic eater in this timeline.”
“Does that mean Sylvia Spirits is here, too?”
Cordelia nodded into the crowd. A tall redhead wearing a large, pointy purple hat threw back her head and laughed. “She’s here.”
“Remind me to stay away from her,” I said.
“Noted.”
Saltz Swift saw me. He raised a bullhorn to his lips and blew. The crowd immediately quieted and sat.
I gazed at the crowd. Though I could mainly only see the backs of their heads, I easily found Axel. Then my eyes kept dancing and wandered up to Rufus, who stood on a platform wearing what looked like a leather superhero uniform with a cape that billowed in the breeze.
I had to admit he looked mighty handsome.
I swallowed a knot in the back of my throat.
“Time to walk,” Cordelia whispered.
I nodded. “Okay.”
Amelia slinked off around us and headed toward the bushes. Apparently the skinks would not rest. I walked slowly toward the platform, my heart pounding. My mind raced.
I focused on the people I recognized. I saw Sherman Oaks and noticed that no woman sat beside him. I watched as his gaze followed the disappearing Amelia.
And then I wondered something.
Even though the wishing stone had planted us here, were we still bound to other people? Could love, true love, still find a way no matter what?
If Sherman still had the hots for Amelia, did that mean that there was a possibility that they would end up together?
Morgan said don’t screw with the present we’d been given, but what if some things were essentially inevitable—like me and Axel.
By the time my thoughts stopped, I found myself in front of Rufus. His lips parted into a warm smile, and I smiled back.
Saltz raised his hands to quiet the already silent crowd. “We have come to witness the first night of the union between Rufus Mayes and Pepper Dunn.”
“Here, here,” came a voice from behind me.
I glanced over to see Ratchet holding an open bottle of wine in one hand. How much of that had he drunk?
I had a feeling the raccoon wasn’t taking this whole alternative reality thing very well at all. I needed to have a talk with him—sooner rather than later.
Rufus took my hands and stroked his thumbs over my knuckles. “You look beautiful.”
“And you look very handsome.”
“What? This old thing?” he joked. “Pulled it from the closet a few days ago.”
Then I laughed. I couldn’t help it. And I understood what this Pepper saw in him. Why she’d decided that Rufus made her life complete.
Saltz cleared his throat as if to say there would be no funny business on his shift.
I pulled my face into a more sober expression. Rufus cocked his eyebrow coyly.
“On this first night of the union,” Saltz continued, “we share the blood. This is a night of feasts. A night of revelry and night of the most sacred.”
He lifted a long, curved knife high in the air. “With this most sacred dagger, I will continue a tradition that is centuries old. I will unite the two who are to be married in blood. This is the beginning of their journey, the beginning of what it will mean to be connected mind, body and soul.”
His words were so pretty I wasn’t quite expecting the next thing he said.
“May I have your hands.”
Which meant we were about to be cut.
“Don’t worry,” Rufus murmured. “This won’t hurt.”
I fired off a look to him that suggested I didn’t buy that.
“It won’t. The blade’s steel is meant to numb.”
Not that that made me feel any better, but it did sort of help. Saltz placed the knife down and raised an onyx chalice. Why was everything in this ceremony black?
I mean, seriously.
“This is the cup that will hold the union.” Saltz smiled at the crowd. “Within this bowl the blood of the two shall mix, becoming one. It is part of the union, and all who behold it shall bear witness to this. Will all of you here agree to witness?”
The crowd gave an emphatic yes. My gaze darted to Axel. He watched the ceremony from behind sunglasses. There was no way to read his expression.
My heart cracked for him. I wanted to reach out, to tell him it was all okay, that I truly loved him. That he was my love and no one else, but there was no way.
A rustle in the trees caught my attention. Amelia’s head appeared and just as quickly disappeared. No one paid attention to her. No one but Sherman Oaks, that was. His head whipped immediately in her direction.
A spark lived within him. It intrigued me. But there wasn’t time to focus on it because Saltz grabbed my attention.
“Your hands.”
I extended my arm, doing my best not to wince at the pain I knew was coming.
“It’s okay,” Rufus murmured.
Saltz lifted the blade, turned my palm so that the blood would run into the chalice and sliced.
Rufus had been right. It didn’t hurt. But it wasn’t exactly easy to watch heavy drops of blood fall into a cup. My stomach turned, and I looked away.
Saltz wrapped my hand. “The witch is done. Now for the wizard.”
Rufus offered his palm, and Saltz sliced into it. Rufus’s jaw clenched, and I knew the sight of blood wasn’t for him, either. Or maybe it was the iron smell. Red dropped into the cup as iron filled my nose.
It was enough to make me sick.
Saltz wrapped his hand. “I wrap the couple in the bonds of love. It is our way. We do not heal these wounds as they are a reminder of the ceremony. Of the unity we have made.”
Saltz opened his arms wide. “Now it is time for the final part of the ceremony, the actual drinking of the blood.”
He stirred the mixture with a rod and lifted the chalice. “The magic in this cup shall begin the unity. You will feel closer than you have before, and as the week progresses, you will be joined. This is a special occasion. Not every couple decides to take on our sacred ceremony. Rufus and Pepper, you are special.”
Rufus smiled at me.
“It is time to drink,” Saltz declared.
A low rustle started in the bushes. I distinctly heard Betty snap at Amelia, “Get that skink away from there!”
I had a bad feeling about this, but no one seemed to be paying attention. Their gazes were fixed hard on Rufus and me.
“Son of the fold,” he said to Rufus, “it is your time to accept the blood of the woman you would marry.”
Saltz tipped the cup to Rufus’s lips, and Rufus drank. Saltz pulled the cup away and wiped the mouth.
“I said to get that skink,” Betty shouted.
Now people turned. I still couldn’t see my grandmother or cousin, but they weren’t far away.
The bushes rustled. “He’s getting away,” Amelia yelled.
Ignoring them, Saltz presented the glass to me. “Daughter of the fold,” he said to me, “it is your time to accept the blood of the man you would marry.”
The chalice slowly approached me. It was a strange moment, a moment I knew would change my life, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it. At all.
But according to Morgan, I had to go along with the wishing stone, so I buttoned my courage to my spine and parted my lips.
“It went through there,” Amelia shouted.
Suddenly she burst through the bush
es, shotgun in hand. Scampering in front of her was a Gila monster–sized skink with a blue racing tail.
The lizard ran under seats. Witches screamed. Wizards jumped out of the way as Amelia darted straight toward it.
“Nobody move,” she said. “If you scare it, the lizard will spray!”
“Aren’t you scaring it?” someone yelled.
She ignored the remark.
The skink darted straight toward the podium, where the three of us stood.
“Don’t move,” Amelia shouted to us. “I’ve got him!”
The skink stopped under an empty chair and cocked its head at us.
“Oh no,” I said. “Don’t even think about it.”
Just as I was saying it, the skink turned around, and a cloud of gray stink shot out.
“Duck,” Amelia said. “Don’t let the cloud hit you.”
Rufus grabbed me and pulled me out of the way. Amelia lifted her gun.
At the same time, Betty darted out from behind another bush on the opposite side. She lifted her gun as well.
“No, Betty.” Amelia dashed forward. “I’ve got this!”
That was when Betty’s wad of skink-repellent buckshot fired from the shotgun muzzle. The spray, reminding me more of a swarm of bees than ammunition, hit Amelia squarely in the chest.
My jaw dropped. I lunged forward, my arms flailing. My fingers hit something. I had the sense that they hit the chalice, but I couldn’t be sure. I dived from the podium to Amelia.
I wasn’t fast enough. She fell backward, but not before another set of arms caught her.
I glanced up to see that Sherman Oaks had caught an unconscious Amelia in his arms.
Chapter 9
Amelia awoke a few minutes later. We’d moved her to my tent, and Betty had magicked up a cot for her.
Cordelia and I huddled around her.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” I whispered.
Cordelia draped her long golden hair over one shoulder. “Yeah. Skink shot will just make her a little nauseous, at least according to Betty.”
“Well, that’s lucky.”
Cordelia poked me. “What about that Sherman catching her?”
“He has the hots for her. It’s so totally obvious.”
