Released (The Eternal Balance #3)(56)

He had a point. While we hadn’t needed Van’s supernatural help to combat demons chasing us down, we had enlisted her help for this particular mission. She was supposed to be here, with one of her coven sisters, to make sure things didn’t go south. There was one last thing to wrap up. A task that needed completing. After this, Azi and the whole demon mess would be behind us.

After this, we could move on.

“We’re here,” Van shouted, running up the path toward us. “We’re here. Sorry!”

“Clearly magic hasn’t improved your ability to be punctual.”

Sam rolled her eyes and threw her arms around the witch. “Ignore him. I’m just happy you could make it.”

“Are you kidding?” She pulled away and gestured to the older woman standing to her right. “This is Calla. She’s our curses and charms expert.”

Sam nodded to the woman. “Thank you for helping us with this.”

“Of course,” she said. Her voice was soft, but it rang with authority. “We are indebted to you for bringing our Savannah back to us.” She gestured to the edge of the cliff. “Shall we start?”

I sucked in a deep breath and wondered how exactly we’d come to this point—standing at the edge of the world together, with a centuries old Balance Agent and two witches, about to do the thing I once thought truly impossible.

Glancing down, I spread my fingers and ran the tip of my thumb along the inside of my ring finger. I’d had a single word tattooed there nearly four months ago. Samantha. Sam had a matching one with my name as well. Our version of engagement rings. I offered to buy her a proper one, but she wanted no part of it. In fact, she threatened bodily harm if I ever bought her jewelry of any kind for the rest of our lives. This was fine. Better than fine. This suited us so much more than metal and stones. She was etched in my skin the way she was etched in my heart. In my soul.

“So we’re doing this?” I said, glaring at Van. She had on ripped black jeans and a halter top. I was the last one to bitch about dress clothes, but even I’d cleaned up for this. Black pants and vest with a blood red—Sam’s idea of a joke—shirt underneath. “Dressed like that?”

She looked down at herself and cringed. “Oops.” With a snap of her fingers, the offending outfit was replaced by a floor length, shimmering gown of green, the same color as her coven sister Calla wore. Had to be a witch thing.

Calla cleared her throat and gestured for us to come forward. “Samantha Merrick and Jax Flynn have been touched by the world of the supernatural. They have endured and survived—thrived—where many would have faltered. For that reason, the goddess has given me her blessing to join them as I would any of her children. With the bonds of magic.”

I didn’t know what goddess she was talking about, and I didn’t care. The only goddess that existed was the one standing in front of me. With her soft, caramel hair and sparkling brown eyes, Sam was amazing any day of the week, but today… Today she was nothing short of ethereal.

“Are you both here of your own free will?”

“Yes,” Sam and I said in unison.

“And you understand that the bond I am about to bestow is unbreakable? That not even death will have the ability to sever you? That from this day forward, you are no longer two halves, but equal parts of a whole?”

“Yes,” we said again.

Sam grinned, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. We didn’t need this magical blessing for that. Death had tried to separate us not once, but twice already. It had failed. It would always fail. We were soul mates in the truest, simplest form.

“There is beauty in this world,” Calla continued. “But also great horror. Are you prepared to face it, as one, for the rest of eternity? To stand with your friends and fight against your enemies?”

“Yes,” we said.

“And who stands for you both?”

“I stand for Samantha Merrick,” Van said. “Savannah Gray, daughter of Imogen and Mark, member of the Seaborn Coven.”

“And I for Jax Flynn,” Heckle said. “Abel, son of Adam and Eve, Keeper of Balance.”

Calla’s lips tilted with the smallest hint of a grin. She placed a hand over each of our hearts and said, “Vernatum LoVioum Etertius.”

The skin beneath her palm stung for a moment, and when she removed her hand, it was warm.

“Grasp each other’s left hand, then each of you place your right hand over the other’s heart.”

We did as instructed.

“Samantha and Jax…” She placed her hands over ours and whispered something too low for me to hear. A second later, a jolt went through me. Something like electricity, only comforting. Familiar. “Your souls are joined. Be together in happiness for the rest of eternity.”

When she let go, I tugged the collar of my shirt aside. There over my heart was a black symbol—a perfect circle linked within a circle, surrounded by vines. Like the fresh ink of a tattoo, the skin surrounding it was slightly reddened, but it felt amazing. I felt amazing. “That’s it?” I said, adjusting my shirt.

Calla smiled. “That’s it.”

“Then I can finally kiss my wife?”

With a widening grin, she stepped back and gestured to Sam with a flourish. I wasted no time. I wrapped my arms around her and brought my lips to hers.