As long as it was not dark violet I would ever be in bliss.
Bright light flashed in my eyes.
Saraphina gasped. “Fairyflies.”
Little golden flecks flew between us. Saraphina giggled as fairyflies swarmed the circle.
“Riah?”
I jumped and turned to my left – and found Myrtle standing beside me holding a piece of parchment in front of her. My chest tightened. I knew what that was. I knew what it said. I knew how this went. This paper held a spell written on it that I was to read to ask their Goddess for our spell to complete our soulmate glyph. This was actually about to happen. My pulse quickened. My palms grew sweaty.
“Take this, Riah.” Myrtle smiled and it made her silver eyes sparkle. “When I close the circle, read it.”
I nodded and took the paper in my left hand.
Myrtle turned to Saraphina and winked, then spun around and hurried to the opening of the circle between Michael’s grandchildren. Once she crossed over, she sprinkled salt on the grass to close the circle while chanting. I would’ve liked to hear her words but the heavy thumping of my heart drowned out all of the sounds.
I watched as the final grains of salt hit the ground. The second we were closed in together, the air around us changed. It pulsed with electricity. A cool, salty gust of wind whipped around the circle. Energy seeped up from the ground and into my feet. Noises, sounds, smells…all of our surroundings vanished.
It was just us.
Finally, after all this time. After all the heartache, pain, and hopeless pining. All the wishing and praying. My dreams had come true.
I looked down at her beautiful face and the world around us ceased to exist. The tan hue of my hand was a stark contrast to her pale skin, which seemed to glisten from within like the glitter that she left in her wake. My mouth went dry and my throat tight.
Read the spell, Riah, Tegan’s voice whispered in my mind.
I nodded and cleared my throat. There would be time for professing my love to Saraphina later. After this we would have forever.
Saraphina’s beaming smile made my heart flutter like hummingbird wings.
“We call thy Goddess here and now,” I chanted the spell soft and low without looking at the parchment. I didn’t need to. I knew this one by heart. I’d dreamed of saying them to Saraphina for centuries. “Bless us with this special vow.”
Saraphina glanced down to the parchment in my hand that I hadn’t even unfolded. When she looked back up tears danced on her long eyelashes.
“To bind two souls as forever one.” I licked my lips and held her stare. “Please show us how this can be done.”
She gasped and her cheeks flushed bright pink. Energy pulsed out of her chest, tingling against my palm. Gold and silver glitter poured from under our feet, mixing and filling the entire circle until we stood in a sparkling sea of silver and gold.
Then the air crackled and popped between us. Bright flames of reds and oranges pierced the air, hovering five feet off the ground. The flames swayed and flickered, then merged together until words appeared written in the sky.
My breath left me in a rush.
Saraphina’s jaw dropped. Tears dripped onto her cheeks.
“Hear these words burned in fire,” I heard myself whisper though I was lost to the moment. “For a rose thorn oath will never tire.”
The yellow crystal roses I’d made floated away from our bodies and over the sea of silver and gold. Crystals the shape of sword blades shot out of the ground, slicing through the glittery sea sticking up around perimeter of the circle like a gate.
A blue fog rose from the ground outside of the circle, rising up behind The Coven. It swirled and swayed. Saraphina gasped. Over her shoulder I watched the fog take the shape of people – of women. They were spirits. They were all barefoot, wearing the same gowns as Myrtle and the other Crones.
“A vow to lay upon his silver sea,” Saraphina whispered, her voice a lullaby sweeter than the ocean waves. “Promises swim like a spider lily.”
Fairyflies swarmed and coiled around our bodies. I felt my wings pop out just as Saraphina’s twinkled behind her back. We lifted off the ground. The air sparkled as gold and silver glitter floated around us. All the crystal roses hovered, frozen in mid-air. Our wings didn’t even flap. The fairyflies were a stream of light holding us up.
I looked down and met her lavender gaze. “Glitter of gold, divine in death.”
Her smile took my breath away. “An eternity binds thy every breath.”
The glowing gold lines on our faces glistened. Bright white light pierced through the back of my hand and in my peripheral vision from my chest. My pulse accelerated. My whole body tingled. Black lines shot out of the back of my hand and then spread over my hand and fingers. They shimmered and turned bright glowing gold. The lines moved like vines up under my coat sleeve but the light shined through the thin linen of Saraphina’s gown.
Inch by inch, the gold vines spread up our arms and over our shoulders. They burned into my skin. My palm grew hot and tight. The white light got so bright I had to squint. I was about to look away when light erupted in the air between our bodies. I clenched my teeth but the heat in my chest made me hiss. Saraphina gasped.
And then an aquamarine heart-shaped crystal appeared on the back of my hand. Wait. Aquamarine? No, no that can’t be. That must be blue. The light flashed and then vanished completely and our feet hit the ground. Applause erupted from the outside of the circle but I barely heard it. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart.
Aquamarine?
I pulled my hand off of her body and my eyes widened. Right in the center of her chest, nestled beneath her collarbones and shining the most vibrant, breathtaking aquamarine. My heart stopped. How can this be? I pressed my hand to my own chest and my wool waistcoat changed back into my gray V-neck t-shirt— and there it was, shining up at me brighter than the North Star.
A crystal heart-shaped soulmate glyph and it was aquamarine. The same color as the Caribbean Sea behind me.
“It’s…turquoise? No, it’s aquamarine…that’s the color for…” Saraphina took my right hand in hers and then tilted it to see the glyph. Her lavender eyes were teary but sparkling. “That’s the color for old love.”
“For love that has been strong through the ages.” I ran my thumb over the mark and whispered, “because my heart has been yours for centuries.”
“As mine was yours.”
She gripped my hand tight and yanked my lips down to hers.
The Coven’s cheering grew louder and it reminded me that we were not alone.
I pulled back and glanced to my left to where Myrtle stood. Tears rained down her face but her grin was wider than I ever remembered seeing it.
Saraphina sighed and leaned into my chest. She looked up at me through dark eyelashes and a soft smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I tipped her chin up. “Now, let’s go see your nephew.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Saffie
The air was tense as we followed my mother through the quaint little streets of Crone Island toward their infirmary where Kenneth was being kept. Part of me wanted to look around and explore this island that had been my mother’s home for two hundred years but with every step my stomach tightened more into knots.