Soul Mates Bewitched (16 page)

J
illian sat, her legs crossed at the ankles, on the bed while I pulled the scrying glass out of my dresser and performed the ritual of calling Max. We didn’t have to wait long for him to answer.

“Hey Tones. You…” Max faltered. “Something’s changed.”

I grinned. “Yeah.”

“You did it, didn’t you? You asked her.” Max glanced behind me, taking in Jillian sitting on my bed. “You know this means the two of you will spend your lives forever fighting the Unseelie, and if things don’t work out…it’s not like you can quit being together.”

“Dude, relax.” I held my hand out to Jillian and she stepped forward to join me. “We know.”

Max nodded. “Then, I’m happy for you, Tones. Really,” he said with a grin. “Anna and I will be right there. Auberon is keeping the triplets for us today, and Anna wants to meet Jillian.”

“We’ll meet you in Dorinta’s.”

Max nodded and tapped the glass closed. I did the same and replaced the glass back in my dresser. “Ready?”

“Always,” Jillian replied, smiling as she took my hand and we descended into the club.

Anna crossed the room to me and pulled me into her arms in an enthusiastic hug. “Tony!
Je suis tellement heureuse pour vous, je sais que vous aurez une vie bienheureuse avec votre Jillian,”
she said, glancing at Jillian with a smile.

“English Anna, you know I didn’t understand a word of that,” I said with a laugh.

Anna grinned. “I said, I am happy for you, my dear Tony. I know you and your Jillian will be as happy as Max and I are,” she said holding her hand out to Jillian and squeezing her fingers in welcome.

“Thanks, Anna, it means a lot to me that you and Max are there for us.”

Max moved closer and held his hands out to Jillian warily. “Still think I’m the scary demon you once thought I was?”

Jillian grinned and took his hands. “No, don’t be a feckin’ eejit,” she said laughing. “If I’d o’ thought that, I’d o’ killed ye long ago.”

Max grinned and hugged us both. “You ready to go?”

Jillian nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Max put an arm around Anna and a hand on my shoulder while I held Jillian close to me. We flashed out of Dorinta’s to the driveway in front of Jillian’s parent’s house. “I think Anna and I are going to leave you to talk to Jillian’s parents alone. We have some…sightseeing we want to do. We’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Fine,” Jillian replied, steeling herself for the talk with her mother.

Max and Anna flashed away and Jillian and I started up the drive to her front door. We’d flashed inside the gate this time, so no one had time to prepare for our visit. Jillian took a deep breath and rapped upon the door.

We waited a few moments and then Farrell appeared, opening the door. “Milady Jillian, come in. We have been expecting you to arrive.”

Jillian raised her brows. “Have you?”

“Yes, Milady. As soon as the Darkness disappeared, your mother assured us that you would be visiting.”

“I see.” Jillian stepped into the great hall, pulling me in behind her.

“I will let her Ladyship know you’ve arrived. You’ve brought no luggage? Your mother felt sure that you would be staying for a while.”

“My mother felt wrong, we’ll just wait in the front parlor,” Jillian said in her laudy daw voice.

I followed Jillian into a room just off of the kitchen. The floors were tile, but covered in lush oriental rugs. We sat upon the formal looking sofa holding hands. We didn’t have to wait very long for her mother to make an appearance. I stood up as she entered the room.

“Countess, it is a pleasure to see you again,” I said with a smile.

Jillian’s mother nodded. “Please, have a seat, Light Bearer,” she said gesturing toward the sofa. “Jillian, Farrell said you arrived without luggage. Was there some miscommunication about your stay in New York?”

Jillian frowned. “No, Mother, there was not. However, I’m not coming back to Ireland. I’m staying in New York, and Tony and I are getting married.”

“Married! Oh, no, I do not think so, my dear. You know that you have to complete your training. You do not have time for marriage.”

“Forgive me, Mother, if I disagree with you. Tony and I are getting married. I am an adult, and my training can be finished in New York if it needs to be. Though I don’t believe there is anything else left to learn as far as fighting the Unseelie.”

“Jillian, do not be ridiculous. This was only the beginning and lest you forget, this young man has his own path as the Light Bearer, he is important to the world.”

“He is important to me, too! The two of us together…work. He is mine.”

I squeezed Jillian’s fingers, keeping her steady as she argued with her mother. She was gearing up for a fight, and I could feel her energy charge, but before she could get another word in there was a flash and Auberon appeared in the room.

“Ah, Brigid. I had hoped to catch you
before
Tony and Jillian visited. I see I am, perhaps, just in time.”

“Auberon, what could you possibly have to say that has any bearing on this situation?” Lady Brigid asked.

“Tony, if you and Jillian would excuse us for a few moments?” he held his hand out to Jillian’s mother. “If you will come with me to your office, my dear Brigid?”

“Very well. This is not over Jillian,” Lady Brigid said rising and taking Auberon’s hand.

“What do ye think he’s telling her?”

I shook my head, but if I knew Auberon, he had some reason to be here, and it pertained to us. “I don’t know. I can only hope he’s here to argue in our favor.”

Jillian nodded and laid her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her, comforting her. “
Is breá liom Antony duit,”
she whispered. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said, stroking her hair.

“You see, do you not, Lady Brigid? Their bond is strong. You will not deter them from their course. They are destined to be together, not just as protector and protected, but as partners. Each believes they are the others protector. The gods have willed it and so it shall be. They’ve been blessed by Gaia. They’ve shared her energy. They are strong and will continue to be so.”

Jillian and I turned to look behind us as Lady Brigid and Auberon reentered the room.

Lady Brigid frowned. “I do not know how I missed the change in their status. This is not what was foretold before—”

“Perhaps not, but it is what is being foretold now. You, of all people, know the future is forever fluid, my dear Oracle. The choices made influence...”

“Yes, yes…it is as you say,” Lady Brigid said, interrupting him with a nod. “Very well.”

“Now, I shall take my leave of you,” Auberon said with a slight bow. “Tony, Jillian, you are welcome at the Faerie Mound any time.” And with that he flashed out of the room.

“Mother?” Jillian questioned.

“Yes. Well, I can see that Auberon is correct, and you will not be dissuaded from this path the two of you have happened upon,” she said with a smile. “I do wish you every happiness, my dear Jillian, I always have. I am sorry if I ever seemed as though I did not support you and your decisions. Auberon reminded me that the Orb’s visions, my visions are ever changing. I cannot force a different outcome, nor do I want to. I do love you, Jillian.”

Jillian smiled. “I love you, too, Mother,” she said as she went to her mother and hugged her.

“Now, since you will not stay for a few days, would you at least please stay for supper?”

Jillian looked at me and I smiled. “We’d be happy to, Countess.”

“Please, Tony, if we are soon to be related, call me Brigid,” she replied.

I grinned and took Jillian’s hand as we followed her mother into the dining room to have dinner with her family.

I
’d like to say that our wedding went off without a hitch, but as Max mentioned, our life was not going to be perfect. There were always going to be one Unseelie or another after us. We’d planned a spring wedding, March twenty first to be exact, because it was Ostara, a sacred day in Wicca. I didn’t know it at the time, but Ostara is a day of fertility, which Jillian later explained to me.

As I mentioned, things got a bit crazy for a while. I couldn’t go anywhere at night without having an Unseelie show up and attempt to take me out. I finally understood what had happened to my father. As good as he’d been, he couldn’t hold up against the numerous attacks launched at him. I was doing a bit better because I never went anywhere at night alone. Jillian of course was always with me, and Max made sure we always had a warrior with us as well.

We’d planned an evening wedding, at the twilight hour. I stood at the altar, in front of our Fae friends, the Guardians, the shifters, and our families. I wasn’t nervous; I wanted this more than anything in my life. Auberon was presiding over the ceremony and he grinned at me as the wedding march began. But it wasn’t Jillian who came strolling down the aisle, it was Póg Tocsaineach.

Every warrior drew their swords and prepared to fight. Póg Tocsaineach held up her hands and smiled sardonically. “Always so eager to draw blood, you warriors. I’ve only come for the Light Bearer.”

“You will not have him,” Max declared, stepping between us.

“Perhaps I’ve misspoken. I’ve only come to
speak
to the Light Bearer.”

“Let her speak, Max.”

Póg peeled back her lips in a grin, showing her jagged teeth. “You see? He wishes to speak to me.”

“Say what you came to say.”

“Just this, Bearer. For what you’ve done, you will never know a moment’s peace, as our war with you will be never ending. We will destroy all that you love, and all that you hold dear. So have your little wedding, but know this, we
will
be waiting in the Darkness.” With that, she flashed out of the room just as a flood of Unseelie surged through a portal from the Never Never. Twilight had turned to full on Dark.

“Tony!” Max shouted, tossing me a sword.

I caught it and joined in the killing. I saw a flash of white and realized that Jillian had joined in as well, throwing potions and spells as fast as she could conjure them. Auberon flashed to the portal and magically forced it closed, leaving us with a roomful of Unseelie.

Mom and Teresa, the only humans in the room, hid behind the altar with Cole watching over them, I ran full out at a Manticore, a lion like beast with a porcupine tail that attempted to shoot its quills at me. I blocked the quills with my sword, knocking them away, front flipped and landed on the creature’s neck, avoiding its snapping jaws. It let out a mighty roar as I sliced through its jugular and then slammed my sword deep through its back and into its heart. I rode the creature down to the ground, avoiding the blood and gore that poured from its wounds, and then went after the next Unseelie to cross my path.

A Reaper,
barely worth the trouble
, I thought as I blocked its scythe, spun and met it again, blocking its attempt to decapitate me. The Reaper was slow, and I moved just a bit faster than human with Gaia’s blessings and the Light. I sliced the Reaper in half before it had a chance to attack again.

I glanced at Jillian and had to stop for a moment. She looked gloriously warrior-like, her red hair wildly flowing down her back, and her formfitting, elegant wedding dress, covered in blood and gore. She caught my eye and grinned as she took a sword offered by a Fae warrior. She sliced through the tail of a nasty Centycore that was giving her trouble, with one hand as she held her skirt in the other.

I blocked an attack from a Kampé’s talons, cutting them off before they could reach my face. With a quick back spin I took the creature’s head. It was one of the last Unseelie in the room. Max performed the finishing blow on a Catoblepas, a boar like monster with bristly hair and a scaly hide. One look from the creature could mean instant death, if your eyes met its gaze, but a potion from Jillian had caused it to go blind before it could take out any of us.

Max looked at me over the corpse of the disintegrating creature. “Well, I did warn you.”

I nodded and looked around the destroyed sanctuary we’d chosen to be married in. My eyes met Jillian’s, and she smiled as she crossed the room to take my hand. “Well, that was deadly fun.” she said with a grin. “Ready ta get married now?”

“What about your dress?” I asked, staring at the once pure white gown, now covered with drying blood and bits of Unseelie flesh and bone.

“Who feckin’ cares aboot me dress? All I care aboot is sayin’ ‘I do’ in front o’ our family an’ friends.”

Auberon flashed to the front of the small chapel and with a wave of his hand, he cleaned up the majority of the mess left behind by the Unseelie. “Now then, shall we? Jillian, Tony would you like to take your places?”

We stood in front of Auberon, our hands joined. Everyone took a seat and we proceeded. “We’re ready.”

Auberon smiled. “My dear friends, we are gathered here today to join two powerful forces in matrimony. Antony Gunari, the Light Bearer, and Lady Jillian O’Neil, Sorceress of Tyrone. Any here who wish to disrupt this union shall be dealt with swiftly,” Auberon paused and glanced around the room.

Jillian and I both turned to look back at our family and friends. My mother and Jillian’s sat next to each other, tissues in hand, but smiles on their faces. I turned back around and listened to Auberon.

“Very well, then. Antony Gunari, Bearer of all that is Light and Good, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and hold, to love and to cherish as long as you both shall live?”

I turned to Jillian and took her other hand in mine. “I do.”

“And do you, Lady Jillian O’Neil, Sorceress of Tyrone, take this man to by your husband, to have and to hold, to love and cherish for as long as you both shall live?”

Jillian looked up into my eyes, her own shining with love. “I do.”

“Max, do you have the ring?”

Max held out a beautiful, square-cut jade surrounded by diamonds and a silver band. I took the ring with a smile and glanced at Auberon.

“Tony, if you will place the ring on Jillian’s finger, and repeat after me? With this ring, I thee wed.”

I slid the ring onto Jillian’s waiting finger and repeated the words, “With this ring, I thee wed.”

“Anna?”

Anna held out a simple silver band, etched with a Celtic love symbol. Jillian took the ring and looked at Auberon.

“Jillian if you will place the ring on Tony’s finger, and repeat after me? With this ring, I thee wed.”

Jillian smiled as she slipped the ring onto my finger and held tight as she also repeated the words, “With this ring, I thee wed.”

Auberon grinned. “Then, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

I took Jillian in my arms, stroked her curls and caressed her cheek, my thumb brushing over her lips as I whispered, “I love you, mo ghrá,” before capturing her lips in a passionate kiss.

“Now I present, Mr. and Mrs. Antony Gunari!” Auberon announced proudly.

Jillian and I broke apart to great applause and walked together down the aisle. We knew our lives together would be fraught with danger and adventure, but as long as we faced it together, nothing would come between us.