We walk to the women who look almost like a murder of crows instead of a group of women. They are all draped in black. Mist trails through the graves and circles the women.
Lila leads us to the headstone and holds her hand out, “In the middle.”
She cuts a doorway in the circle of mist with her finger. We step through it. The dark-haired one smiles, “Hold both hands and look at each other.”
Suddenly, I see they all have unlit black candles in their hands. I wince, remembering the pain. The dark-haired one holds her hands like she is holding an orb. She chants and whispers, and as the magic brews, the flames grow higher on the candles and a ball of flames grows between her hands. She holds it to the sky; the winds come, bringing clouds and more darkness. The clouds dance and rub against each other making a low rumble in the skies. Lightning shoots from the darkest part, touching the ball of light in her hands.
Wyatt looks nervous. I feel the dead in the air, sparkling around me, excitedly.
Her crazed chants and whispers become shouts as the wind picks up, blowing the hood of her black coat down and letting her hair flow free. In giant black locks, it swings about, around her pale face as she distorts slightly and slams the ball of light into our clasped hands. We scream simultaneously. She falls back, breathless and smiling.
“The God you love wants this. He has blessed your union himself.”
I sniffle back the tears and emotions.
She reaches over, taking two daggers from the girls next to her. She hands me one and Wyatt one.
“Put your blood on the blade, then stab each other in the heart simultaneously.”
I shake my head but Wyatt presses the blade to my chest. I give him a look. He rolls his eyes, “It isn’t going to hurt more than the mighty God ball. We can’t die, Rayne.”
My hands tremble as I lift the sharp blade to his chest. “It’s a magical blade, Rayne.” She points, “You’ll want to take the shirts off or it hurts twice as bad. It drags the fabric through, really awful.”
I wince but he’s already pulling his shirt off. I turn and let him remove the corset, leaving me in the huge black skirt and black bra. The wind blows, making me shiver. His warm touch no longer burns, and I no longer feel sick. I realize how badly it’s been bugging me. I haven’t felt right since we took it off.
“Do you have a ring?”
He shakes his head, “Didn’t know we needed one.”
She points, “Give me that one.” She points at the ring everyone in his family has. He thinks for a second; I almost see a hesitation but he pulls it off and drops it into her hand. He looks nervous without it. She holds it in her hands, “Stab.”
I look at him, pointing the blade at his bare chest. I shake my head, “This is a bad idea.”
His blue eyes are dark and full of something I can’t quite place. It might be arrogance, but it could also be trust. I think most of his expressions look the same on his face, they have something to do with being cocky and sexy. He stabs me slightly, pressing the blade. I wince. He smiles, “One movement, just a single hard push. You ready?”
I nod, “Okay.” I take several short breaths. He nods his head, “On three. One.” I am about to chicken out and run away but my feet won’t move. “Two.” I tense up, waiting for him to do it. I know I won’t. I can’t stab him. I can’t do this. I can’t. “Three.” I cry out as he walks into my blade while pushing his into my heart. I cough blood. He does the same.
Tears drop from my eyes as the metal sits there, pressed against my still-beating heart and chest. We are close to one another, only separated by the hilt of the daggers.
Lila puts a hand on both our backs and pushes us the rest of the way. When we are chest to chest I feel something warm. It gets hotter and hotter until it’s searing my heart, and I am screaming into his chest. His whole body is tensed over mine. Somehow he manages to move his arms, wrapping them around me. He kisses the top of my head. I can’t even see him anymore through the tears flowing from my eyes. I gag again. Lila squeezes her hands in between us and pries us apart.
I am sobbing and nearly collapsing, but Wyatt looks strong. He is strong.
Over his heart my name carves itself, in handwriting. I cry out again, looking down at where his name is carving over my heart.
Tears drop from my eyes onto my breasts, trickling over his name. I look at the name, shaking my head. “H-h-how?”
“The metal of the blade is the tattoo, it fades unless it you want it to show.”
I shudder as it finishes. I am about to leap into his arms and make him comfort me, but the dark-haired witch puts her hand between us, “Put these on.”
There is a man’s ring and a woman’s ring in her palm. I grab the woman’s but Wyatt snorts. He takes it and puts it on my wedding finger. I blush, taking gulps of air now that all the pain is gone.
The ring is silver and covered in vines. I pick up the fatter one and slide it on his finger. He smiles, “Worst wedding ever?”
I laugh, “I have zero doubt that you love me.”
He nods, “Witchy weddings are not for the faint of heart.”
When the ring is on his finger, he clasps my hand in his. His eyes bear down on me, “I will love you until I am no longer even a speck of dust on the wind.”
My eyes tear up again. I nod, “Me too.”
He grins, “Always so good with words.”
I sniffle, “You know.”
He tilts my face upward and lowers his lips to mine, “I know.”
I realize then we are standing in a graveyard with only the bottom half of our clothes on and witches all around us. Is it wrong to kiss? Better question is, do I care? When his lips meet mine, I do not. It is sweet bliss. He kisses me once and then pulls away, “Is there somewhere I might take my bride?”
I think we all know he means that in more than one way, and I’m insulted by one of them. The witch laughs, “She is pure of heart now because we have blessed. You cannot take her.”
I blush, “Oh…uhm…no. This isn’t my first time at the rodeo, if you get my point.” I laugh but she does not. The other witches are stuck in the flames of their candles. Only the four of us are able to move.
She rolls her eyes, “I know that. But since the nixie have cleansed you and we have just now cleansed you, have you committed an original sin?”
I scowl, “What is that?”
“Sex, sex without marriage or with a married person, murder without reason or defense, theft, arson, injury to a person for no reason.”
I shake my head, “I ate some pedophiles and murderers.”
She smiles, “You are clean. You may enter the gates of the garden. Eating sin is your job. It is not a sin. You actually have the right of the God you serve to judge people’s lives and choose if they live or die.”
“Creepy.”
Wyatt shakes his head, “So she can’t have sex, even though she is married?”
The witch smiles, “Sex is sex, Van Helsing.”
“Doesn’t the goddess control the garden? Why does she care about sin?”
I look at Wyatt, “We can do it after the garden.” He looks desperate. I laugh, “Is that why you married me?”
He cocks his head, “Yes, I stabbed us both in the heart and suffered unending agony to have sex.”
I shrug, “Sounds legit.”
He sighs, “Well, this blows.” He gives the witch a look, “You never answered the garden question.”
She laughs, “I don’t make the rules. I just know an original sin will keep her from the garden and those are the original sins. Sex removes purity of the soul. It makes us less committed to our goal; we transfer our energy when we have sex.”
I look at Wyatt, “Willow never had sex.”
He scowls, “Lillith had sex to have you. She’s in the garden.”
I give the witch a scowl. She shakes her head, “I don’t know. I just know witches who don’t have sex, go into the garden. Witches who do can’t get past the gate.”
Wyatt points, “This is a double standard.”
I grimace, “Not if the nixie cleanse her every time she goes back in.”
The fire witch winces. “I would imagine that is how it is done.”
Wyatt shrugs but I nudge him, “They are our sisters. We don’t let them die for us.”
The fire witch nods at Lila. She walks to me and takes my hand in hers. She pulls her wand again and draws on my palm. She uses fire of course, burning a map into my hand. “Follow this and it will take you to the air witches. If you are there, they will come for you.” Lila opens the door with her finger again. She smiles at us, “Be safe.”
I nod, “Thank you.”
Wyatt takes my hand in his and we walk through the garden of the dead. We are more alive than we have ever been and more relaxed. The girls in my head are gone but the lack of emotion is there still, like I still can only feel my piece-of-the-pie worth of love. I wish it were the same for pain.
He hands me his shirt. I scowl, “You’ll freeze.”
He laughs, “Yeah, but not every dude is gonna be able to see my wife’s boobs.”
I laugh until it dawns on me that I am a wife. I am married. I am like the biggest idiot ever. I just married a guy I’ve known half a year. A guy who has tried to kill me. A guy whose family hates me. A guy who I can’t even have sex with.