The truth of what I was saying—and the awful things I had barely avoided—hit me all over again and I felt like I was going to really start crying in a minute. Not just a few tears but ugly crying, where you sob your heart out and look like crap while you’re doing it.
But I didn’t want to cry—crying wouldn’t help. What I wanted was to find a solution to this problem once and for all. Suddenly I remembered what Avery had said at lunch earlier that day.
“I want you to Mark me,” I said to Bran and Lachlan. “It’s the only way to keep all those idiots away.”
“You do?” Bran frowned. “But which of us do you want to Mark you?”
“Yes, which one?” Lachlan asked, frowning as well.
Bran looked at Lachlan.
“I don’t like to say that I was here first, but I was here first, old friend.”
“And I was the one who lifted the geas from her and paid the price of pain to do it,” Lachlan pointed out, glaring at Bran.
“You wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t have called you,” Bran growled, narrowing his eyes.
“And you would be lost if I hadn’t!” Lachlan snapped back. “You never could have removed Emma’s geas without me! You—”
“Stop!” I put a hand on each of them, gripping Lachlan’s left knee and Bran’s right. “Don’t ever fight over me,” I said in a low, intense voice I hardly recognized as my own. “The three of us need to be together—I need you both.”
At that moment, I felt…something run through me. A low, electrical tingle I’d never felt before.
Bran and Lachlan seemed to feel it too because Bran let out a low, shaky breath and Lachlan shook his head, a look of respect in his emerald eyes.
“Your power, little one,” he said hoarsely. “It is…immense.”
“I feel it too,” Bran murmured. “It is unlike any Fae power I have ever felt before.”
They both looked at me.
“We won’t fight,” Lachlan said simply and Bran said,
“The two of us will share you, Emma—for now.”
“Yes, for now,” Lachlan echoed.
“The three of us will share each other,” I corrected him. I bit my lip. “I know it can’t be forever but I just can’t…can’t take anymore fighting right now. Okay?”
“All right,” Bran said and they both nodded.
“Wait…” I frowned. “The two of you aren’t just agreeing because I put some kind of spell on you, are you?”
“In part,” Lachlan said honestly. “What you just did to Bran and me—to all three of us really—is called a binding.”
“A binding?” I asked, frowning. “Explain that, please.”
“It’s when you bring two parties who have previously been opposed into alignment,” Bran told me. “It’s a very powerful and difficult kind of magic to perform—not many can do it.”
“Certainly no one less than a High Sidhe. But honestly, you used much more power on myself and Bran than you needed to,” Lachlan said. “We’ve been friends since childhood—we don’t really want to fight. It would be much harder if you were bringing two people or two factions together who really hated each other. I don’t hate Bran,” he added. “I never could.”
“I could never hate you, either,” Bran murmured. “We’ve been through a lot together, old friend. I suppose Marking Emma together will be all right as well.”
The guys exchanged a look of respect and affection and I felt warm all over.
“So…you’re not upset I, uh, bound you two together?” I asked. I still had no idea how I had done it.
They both shook their heads.
“But be careful how you use your magic, little one,” Lachlan said. “That much power in the hands of one person can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“But I don’t know what I’m doing,” I pointed out. “You keep saying I have amazing magic but everything I’ve done—from healing Spike to taming the kelpie to binding the two of you together has been purely by accident.”
(I didn’t mention conjuring the magic golden coin out of cigarette butts because then I would have to also explain about how Mr. Groperson was threatening to kick mom and me out of our apartment and I really wanted to keep that to myself.)
“Hmmm…” Bran frowned. “I think we’re forgetting that Emma has been raised as a Norm all her life,” he said to Lachlan. “And her powers are only just now beginning to manifest.”
Lachlan nodded.
“You need some lessons and possibly something to focus your magic, little one. Let me think on it and I promise to get back to you. For now…” He looked at me intently. “I think you asked that we Mark you.”
“Oh, um…yes,” I said, feeling suddenly breathless. “Yes I want you to—both of you. At the same time.”
“Very well.” Lachlan got up and went to the dorm room he was sharing with Bran for a moment. When he came back, he held a long, silver dagger in one hand. It had a needle-sharp point which gleamed in the firelight.
I swallowed. “Um, what’s that for?”
“Lachlan and I both have to draw blood in order to Mark you,” Bran said. “Come on, let’s all stand in front of the fire as we do this.”
“Good idea.” Lachlan took my right hand and Bran took my left and we all walked closer to the large fireplace at the far end of the Common Room. The flames had mostly died down to red-hot coals, but I could still feel the heat of it warming my entire, chilled body as I stood there with them on either side of me.
“I don’t think a regular Marking ceremony will quite do,” Bran said, sounding serious.
“I agree.” Lachlan nodded. “We want something that will definitely Mark Emma as ours and warn other males—both human and Other—to leave her alone.”
“Yes,” I said fervently. “Please—I’m so tired of this!”
Bran nodded.
“I don’t blame you. You shouldn’t have to feel that you’re always in danger or put up with constant harassment.”
“I can add some magic to the Marking,” Lachlan said thoughtfully. “It will deter the weak-minded—the ones you keep fascinating, Emma. To borrow Avery’s metaphor, it will be like a ‘no trespassing’ sign. But if someone is determined to harass you, it won’t stop them.”
“In other words, it’s a sign, not an electric fence around me,” I said, extending the metaphor a bit.
“Exactly.” Lachlan nodded. “Although I do like the idea of an electric fence to ward the idiots off.” He looked thoughtful.
“It’s still much better than nothing,” I said. “And…” I felt my cheeks getting hot. “I, um, like the idea of wearing your Marks.”
“We like it too, Emma,” Bran said softly and Lachlan nodded.
“It will bind the three of us more tightly together—though of course, it still isn’t a Blood Bond.”
I opened my mouth to say we should get Blood-Bonded, but then I closed it again. Blood-Bonding was serious and permanent and we were all still in our teens. I hadn’t known either of the guys very long, even though it felt like we had been together forever. So for now, it was probably best just to have them Mark me—especially since Lachlan was going to make it a special, extra-magical Marking.