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Thursday morning was cold, the sky a foreboding steel grey. Thick fog crept through the trees, its fingers creeping up the edges of the lawn outside the kitchen window.
They’d arrived back to Lily’s late Wednesday night. They’d tried to leave packing the tent to the last minute, hoping the rain would stop. But there had been no end in sight and they’d taken it apart in the pouring rain. They’d arrived home soaking wet, muddy, and exhausted. They’d dumped the tent in the back garden and then ordered in take-away, taking it in turns to shower while they waited. Lily had taken their sleeping bags and blankets, which were still dry, and arranged a nest on the living room floor. They stayed there huddled in front of the fire-place, talking for hours until falling asleep.
Lily checked the time before looking back out at the questing fog. A few more minutes and Drew would be expecting her. They were leaving for Wells and she was regretting it already. The logical side of her knew it was only for a couple of days, but the emotional side of her felt like it was an eternity until she’d be with her boys again. Her throat ached with unshed tears, her stomach cramping.
Josh slid his hands around her waist and she melted back against him.
“Going to miss you, baby.” He held her tightly, rocking her from side to side.
Unable to speak she nodded. The rocking freed her tears and they slid down her face, dropping onto his hands.
“Sweetheart. Don’t cry.” He turned her, and she went into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder. He brought her backward from the sink, and Jake slid behind, wrapping around her as well.
“You’ll be back soon,” Jake said into her ear.
“I know. It’s just... I don’t think there’s been a day since we first met when I haven’t seen you, or least one of you.”
“When you come back we’ll be together,” Josh said.
“And none of us will go away without the others again,” Nate said, coming in with Matt behind him.
The twins moved away, and she grabbed a tissue, blowing her nose.
“We’ll save you the best seats in the Bootlegger, Saturday,” Josh said.
“Which is, of course, our laps,” Jake added, trying to make her laugh.
A knock sounded at the front door, and her shoulders slumped.
“Thought you were going over there. Eager bastard.” Nate stepped forwards. “Josh, Jake, go and open the door but try not to let him in.”
“Jawohl.” They saluted him and left the kitchen.
“I’m snotty,” she protested, as Matt and Nate tugged her between them.
“Don’t care,” Matt muttered. “Be careful with him, yeah? He loves you, we can see that, but that may not be his only motivation.”
“Can’t you hang on!” Nate snapped as Drew came into the kitchen.
“And a good morning to you too, Nate.”
“Hey, I’m nearly ready.” She wiped at her face, moving away from them.
“The twins are carrying your bags to my car. Any more bags to go? Or is it just the two red ones?”
“No, that’s it.”
“She has to be back Saturday afternoon at the latest,” Nate insisted.
“Will she turn into a pumpkin after then if I don’t?” Drew arched an eyebrow at him.
“No, but your face will turn into a bloody pulp,” Matt snapped.
“Hey, come on, please. Don’t argue with each other now,” Lily begged,
“She’ll be back for the birthday party.” Drew looked at her. “Let’s hit the road, before the traffic builds up. I have a bit of surprise for you as well.”
“What?” Nate asked suspiciously.
“If I say it now, it won’t be a surprise, will it?” Drew spoke as if they were slow.
“Please, don’t fight,” she pleaded.
“We’re not, are we, Nate?” Drew clapped Nate on the back and left the kitchen. “Come on, Lily, I really don’t want to get stuck in traffic on the M5.”
Lily picked up her shoulder bag and followed him out. The creeping fog from the forest was winding through the village, and she didn’t like it. It was foreboding, ominous, giving her the urge to run from it. Instead, she locked up and put her key into her bag.
“I hate this fog, it’s creepy. I don’t like it.” It didn’t help that walking to the car felt like she was walking to her execution.
“It’s just a sea fog. Live here long enough and you get used to it,” Nate said.
The arrived at the car and Nate took her bag as the twins kissed her, whispering they loved her. She tried hard to hold back the ugly crying that was threatening. But when Matt and Nate surrounded her as well, it was a lost cause.
“For goodness sake, Lily, it’s two days, not twenty years.”
Nate pulled away snarling, and Matt caught his arm as Lily caught his hand. “It’s okay, Nate, just leave it,” she said.
“Look, I get it’s emotional, first love and all that, but I really don’t want to sit on the M5 for hours.” Drew opened her passenger door. “You’ve heard the saying absence makes the heart grow fonder. You can’t find out if it’s true if you don’t let her go.”
“Jesus Christ, could you be any more of a git?” Josh snarled.
“Probably.” Drew shrugged. “Sorry, I’m being insensitive. It’s just I’ve been caught in traffic on that stretch before and I don’t want to do it again any time soon.”
“Yeah, okay.” Lily hugged them again and then got into the car, winding down the window.
“Call us when you get there,” Nate shouted as Drew pulled out of the car park.
She waved at them until she couldn't see them anymore and then she put the window up and sniffed.
“There’s more tissues in the glovebox.”
“You think I’m silly.” She took out some tissues.
“No. Not silly, a little dramatic. Oh, what the—” He snarled low in his throat.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is on your palms.”
“My palms?” The scars were red and angry looking. She touched one of them gently with her fingertip, but there was no pain. “They didn’t look like that before.”
“When did you blood bond?” His voice was tight.
“Monday night.” She blew her nose noisily.
“Monday? Night? Evening?”
“Technically it was Tuesday, as it was about two in the morning.”
“Hallows’ Eve. Samhain. Under a blood moon. You performed a bonding spell with four idio—boys, who you don’t know from Adam, on the strongest magical night of the year?” He slapped his hand on the steering wheel. “Well, at least I know my daughter’s not a drama queen. You aren’t being dramatic, Lily, you’re being separated from the other half of your soul. You stupid girl.” His sarcasm turned to anger.
“I am not stupid!” She turned in her seat towards him. “And it’s none of your business what I do.”
“We are not going down that path now. Prove to me you’re not stupid; explain exactly what you’ve done.”
“We bonded. They cut their palms—”
“I know how it’s done,” he snapped. “What does it mean?”
“Our magic bonded.”
“And?”
“And it means we’ll always be connected. They’ll know if I’m hurting, or upset, and I’ll know if they’re upset.”
“And?” He shook his head, not looking away from the road.
“That we won’t be able to be apart.” She folded her arms. “It’s my life. I’ll do with it what I want, Drew.”
“Oh, we’re back to Drew now as well.” He blew out his breath and pulled up at a red light. “Yes, it’s your life, but you should’ve made sure you were fully informed before you threw away the seventy odd years you have left.”
“I’m not throwing my life away.”
“You are if it’s not real love. What did I tell you about love? True love?”
“It can’t be fooled by magic, you can’t make someone fall in love.”
“If it isn’t in their hearts.” The light went to green, and he drove on. “So, if this turns out to be a healthy dose of teenage lust and hormones, by the time you’re twenty and see it for what it is, it’ll be too late. You’ve chained yourself to them, and them to you.”
“I do love them.”
“I know you think you do. I know you truly believe it. They believe they love you too. But only time will tell, Lily.”
“Isn’t that true of all relationships though? That’s not dependent on the age, some older people get married and end up divorced.”
“Yeah, but that’s a legal piece of paper that can be torn up, two wedding rings to be pawned, a record collection to be argued over. If they decide to leave you, a divorce court couldn’t grant you a decree nisi and you all go your own merry way. You’re not married to them, you’re blood bonded with them.”
“I think—”
“Hold on, I haven’t got to the good part yet. No matter how much those boys hate you, and you hate them, you won’t be able to leave them. If you meet someone else one day and fall in love for real, too bad. Even if you’re lucky enough to find a witch who decides to stick around anyway, you’ll still never be happy.”
“I won’t hate them.”
“Hang on, it gets better. Your magic is now superglued together. If something happened to one of you, the rest would fade. A part of your souls would die. You’d carry on living, but you’d never be the same. And because your soul is glued to four others, you’d die a little every time you lost one of them. When the last one dies, so will you.”
“I don’t think they know that,” she said. “I don’t think they know they’d die. I should tell them, is there a way to break it?”
“So, they don’t die? Fuck them, Lily, they’ve forced you into this. I only care about you, I don’t want you to die.”
“They haven’t forced me into anything,” she exclaimed. “I know you think I’m just a silly, stupid, seventeen-year-old, who doesn’t know her own mind, but you’re wrong.”
“Eighteen, Lily, you’re eighteen.”
“So what?” she snapped. “I love them with every fibre I have. They are the one constant for me. The only ones I could rely on, that had my back.”
“That sounds like a strong friendship, not a romance,” he argued. “Love is bigger than you are, it goes deeper than you can imagine. True love isn’t in a heartbeat, or in a second glance. It’s not instant, it takes time to shape. Love at first sight is nothing more than a surge of sexual feelings that overcome someone. True love can’t be defined and isn’t bound by the laws of human nature. True love is the purest form of love, but romantic love needs sexual attraction to stay alive.”
“You fell for Sarah quickly.”
“I fell in lust instantly. She was gorgeous, five minutes after talking to her and she could have led me anywhere by my hormones. But time spent together grew into true love. The type of love that’ll see you through the bad times. When they drive you up the wall with a bad habit, but you put up with it. It’s arguing with them over the colour of the wallpaper and then laughing about it. True love keeps people together long after lust fades, when certain parts don’t work like they used to. When you look at each other and see the other half of your soul underneath the wrinkles, age spots, grey hair, and arthritis riddled joints. It sees you through when they hurt you, and you forgive them because they didn’t mean it. And they do the same when you hurt them. No one is perfect, but true love is, and it lasts forever.” He fell silent, wiping his hand over his mouth.
Lily drew in a deep breath, the raw emotion in his voice had been clear and painful to listen to. “You loved her very much, didn’t you?”
“I love her,” he corrected. “Just because she’s dead doesn’t mean my love for her is.”
“I understand you’re worried about me, and I’m not throwing it back at you.” Lily ran a hand over her face. “All I know is what I’ve been telling everyone else; here and now, I love them. I can’t imagine being without them, I can’t bear seeing them hurting, and I can’t see it changing. Is it sexual? They’re attractive. I’d have to be dead not to think that, but it’s not that. It’s more than that. I’ve found other guys attractive, but I’ve never felt so connected with anyone like I do with them.”
“That could be the magic.”
“Our magic was connected before we bonded.”
“What?” He looked at her briefly before looking back at the road.
“We created a circle. They didn’t think anything would happen, but it did.”
“A circle? Tell me.”
She explained what had happened in the bowling alley, and again in the woods, but she didn’t mention anything except the actual binding. “It was beautiful, the golden strands inter-connecting and weaving around our hands.” She closed her eyes as she remembered it.
“I’m sorry, Lily, I really am. I got scared and angry with you. But it’s done, it’s a double bonding with the circle as well. Whatever way your cards fall, there’s nothing you can do. But it does explain how you feel now. Rely on the bond and you’ll feel better.”
“What?”
“You can feel them? Like a constant itch at the back of your mind?”
“Yeah, a humming.”
“Humming?” He snorted. “Yeah, that’s them. Focus on it, wrap it around you mentally and it’ll calm you. They’ll feel it on their end and be able to stop crying like girls.”
“Don’t be mean.” She rested her head against the headrest.
“Sorry, not sorry.”
“So mature,” she replied, wiping at her eyes.
“Lily, listen to me, this is important. I hope to Merlin this is true love for you. But if it turns out it’s not, I will do whatever it takes to help you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at him when he looked briefly at her. “I guess we just had our first dad/daughter argument.”
“I guess we did.” He laughed. “And we’re still talking to each other. I’d say that’s a win, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I’d say it was.”
“We’re going to be okay, Lily. I’ll keep you safe, and we’ll keep Matt safe. No matter what it takes.”
“He’s really in danger, isn’t he?” She looked out of her window. The fog was lifting the further they got, but it was still grey and overcast.
“You both are,” he said. “That won’t change while she’s alive.”
“She’d be ancient now, wouldn’t she?”
“Sarah was twenty-two when she had you. Fitz was about seventeen when they had Sarah. Hestia was sixteen when she had Fitz. You do the math, I’m a history teacher not a human calculator.”
“Seventy-three. Ancient.”
“Old, not ancient, there’s the possibility the old bat could go on for another thirty odd years. Add in they’ve found a way to slow down her aging and I could die before she does. Knowing the old dragon, she’ll still be kicking around when she’s a hundred and fifty.”
“Damn.”
“Quite.”
“I don’t want to live like this. Constantly under her shadow, looking over my shoulder in case she finds out about Matt.”
“Or you,” he added. “But living like that is the only thing you can do. And it’s better than being used, abused, and killed. You have me and Jonas, between us we can keep you all hidden.”
“But it’s not fair on either of you. Jonas gave up his life to keep them safe. You’ve never lived your own life either.”
“It wasn’t your decision. You didn’t force or ask us to.”
“No. She did.” Bitterness swept over her as she thought of the woman she’d seen sitting behind the desk. A woman whose blood she shared.
“Yes, she did. But unless a miracle happens, and she drops dead, we’re out of options except for what we’re already doing.”
That would solve all their problems—her death. If she was no longer working to find eternal life Matt wouldn’t be in danger. Drew and Jonas would be free to live their lives, and she wouldn’t be in danger either.
“Connect with your fairies, Lily. We’ve a fair way to go, and the further we get the more angsty you’ll get unless you do.”
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the gentle hum at the back of her mind. It grew in intensity like a golden blanket of warmth. She relaxed, her body going limp in the seat as she felt them winding around her mind. Whatever he said, she knew the truth; she loved them, and they loved her. No matter what happened, or what life threw at them, they’d get through it because they had each other, and that would never change.
