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Fated in Fates

Harry couldn’t take her eyes off Jax, memorizing every hip sway and finger snap as he, Silas, Maddox, and Gavin stood behind the octogenarian pop-folk band, the Gargoyle Girls. Next to Harry, Elodie howled in laughter, her phone recording Silas’s awkward grimace and each of the demon’s froglike oohs and aahs.

It wouldn’t be a sight they’d forget anytime soon… especially not with the abundant amount of video evidence.

The wind ruffled a strand of Harry’s mud-matted hair across her face, temporarily obscuring her vision. As she tucked it behind her ear, movement on her left caught her attention.

Remus leaned his back against Starlight Gazebo, his face pointed toward the full moon a second before their gazes locked. He wiggled his fingers at her, rings sparkling… and nodded.

It was time.

Lenny shot her a look of concern. “Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah.” She took a slow, steadying breath. “It’s time.”

The seer’s eyes widened as she exchanged looks with Elodie. “It’s time? Like, now is the time? For that other thing… the ceremony thing?”

Harry nodded, sending a momentarily panicked look toward Cassie. Her friend temporarily left Luke’s side and wrapped her in a hug. “You can do this, Harry. You just did the impossible. There’s not a doubt in my mind that you can do this, too.”

Elodie nodded. “We believe in you.”

Grace reciprocated with a meaningful, “It’s time you believe in yourself as much as we do.”

Harry chuckled. “Then I guess everyone should buckle in for the ride.”

With the Gargoyle Girls winding down their final set, Harry let the Fate magic wash over her. Much like when she’d combined her descry powers to send the call to Luke, her powers merged and rolled around, playing together before slowly spreading like a warm blanket through every inch of her body.

She tingled from head to toe, her breath quickening.

Find the Fated.

With that one simple declaration, Harry released the swell of magic. Every twinkle light throughout the grassy knoll flickered with the power surge, and somewhere in the distance, a car alarm blared. A second later, one by one, they arrived.

The Blue Willow Wisps.

Soft gasps fluttered through the crowd as the first slowly shimmered into focus, and then a second. A third. Harry opened her eyes to find an entire field lit up with dozens of magical blue flames… including the ones hovering in front of her three best friends.

More purple than blue, Lenny’s Wisp highlighted the pure shock on the seer’s face, and Elodie’s glowed a brilliant, twinkling sapphire. Cassie’s flame flickered between a gorgeous blue and purple and was already on the move.

“What do I do?” Eyes wide, Cassie looked panic-stricken.

“Follow it to your Fated.” Harry smiled warmly, watching as her best friend hustled to catch up to her Blue Willow Wisp and followed it right to the matching flame hovering in front of Luke. The fae grinned broadly, not looking the least surprised to realize that Cassie was his perfect other half.

“Not again.” Elodie groaned, looking as if she wanted the earth to swallow her whole. “I refuse. Make it go away.”

“This can’t be right.” Lenny’s head swiveled. Terror widened her eyes as she scanned their surroundings as though looking for Freddy Krueger. “I think something went wrong. I do not have a—a Fated.”

“You and me both,” Elodie quipped.

“Nothing’s broken.” Harry was 100 percent certain even as she slowly registered the fact that there were only three Blue Willow Wisps.

The spot in front of her remained empty… and that was okay.

To quote a certain sexy shifter, she didn’t need a Blue Willow Wisp to tell her that Jaxon Atwood was hers in heart, body, and soul, and vice versa. He was her Fate. Her love. Her world. And knowing that made her the luckiest person in this realm and the next.

“Hey there, sweet pea. You’ll never guess what happened to the guys.” Jax appeared on her left, his arm wrapping tightly around her waist.

“Oh, fuck to the no!” Elodie squawked loudly, glaring at Silas as he approached, his footsteps heavy. “What the hell did you do?”

“Me? I think I should be asking that of you, angel eyes,” Silas growled.

It took a moment for Harry to connect the dots… and the identical Blue Willow Wisps hovering in front of them before the two slowly—and beautifully—merged into one.

As Fated.

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope.” Lenny shook her head, her stare transfixed as the twin flame to her own slowly connected to Gavin’s. “This is so fucked up.”

Jax finally registered what was happening around them and flickered concerned eyes to her. “Babe…”

“It’s okay.” With a genuine smile, Harry cupped his chin and brought his mouth to hers. “We don’t need any Blue Willow Wisps to tell us our destiny, right?”

“Damn right.” He pulled her close and took her mouth in a hot, searing kiss that left her breathless and her soul melting right there on the spot.

They barely parted long enough to suck in a quick breath when a searing zing of white-hot pain shot through her left ass cheek. She howled and cupped her butt, momentarily distracted from the fact that Jax, too, released a low shriek.

“I think something just bit me.” He rubbed his left ass cheek. “Like a prehistoric mosquito or something. Fuck, that hurt.”

All their friends temporarily froze, turning their attention to them.

“You got a pain in your ass?” Harry felt weird asking the question.

“Not in my ass, but on it? Definitely.” His eyes snapped to hers. “You did, too?”

She nodded, nibbling her bottom lip. “Can I… see?”

Jax cocked up an eyebrow but shrugged. “Not like people around here haven’t seen my ass pre- and post-shift, so sure.”

Harry slowly made her way around him and dipped the waistband of his shorts an inch at a time… and sucked in a stunned breath. It was impossible… and yet…

“You haven’t gone to Once Upon a Tattoo recently, have you?” Harry already knew the answer but needed to ask anyway.

“Uh, no. Why? What’s on my ass? Is it a rash or something?”

A heady giggle slipped through her lips. “Definitely not a rash.”

Everyone made their way around to stare at Jax’s revealed left butt cheek, but it was Lenny’s gasp that was the loudest of all.

“I can Read it!” the seer shouted, equal parts stunned and relieved. “Holy shit, I can Read it!”

Elodie chuckled. “I think all of us can read it, Len. We don’t have to be a seer to know what this means.”

Jax growled. “Would someone kindly tell me what the hell is engraved on my ass?”

Harry let his waistband snap into place as she grinned coyly up at the man she loved. “It’s just a Blue Willow Wisp. The exact replica of my Blue Willow Wisp. The same one that’s etched on my ass.”

Jax blinked twice as his brain slowly computed. “We have matching tattoos.”

“Matching magical tattoos.”

“Matching magical Fated tattoos,” Lenny added. “You know… just in case anyone forgot that I can Read now.”

They all chuckled, Harry and Jax included.

“Guess a Fate Witch’s own Fated doesn’t show up the same way as everyone else’s,” Harry teased. “But you know we don’t need matching magical tattoos to tell me that you’re my destiny, right, Alpha Atwood?”

Jax pulled her into his arm. “Damn right, my little Fate Witch. I was yours the moment we reached for the same purple crayon.”

“Blue.”

“Nope. Purple… because I remember vividly that it was the same color as your eyes. That’s why I was hogging it. It reminded me of you.”

People all around them shouted and cheered, some while crying. Nora came up to Harry and Jax, a grinning Remus in tow.

“I knew you could do it, my dear.” Nora pulled her into a tight hug before doing the same to Jax. “And I couldn’t be any happier for the two of you.”

Harry slid a look to her friends, Cassie the only one looking even remotely ecstatic about finding her soul mate. “Wish that happiness could be shared among everyone.”

Remus chuckled. “Oh, they’ll get with the program eventually, don’t worry. There’s always a handful like them every year. Now that that little Fate seed is planted, it’ll eventually grow into what it was always meant to be. Kinda like you… a little nurturing, a little water, some orgasms, and, poof! Fate Witch!

“Massive turnout, by the way,” Remus added, glancing around at all the Blue Willow Wisps. “We’d have to take an official tally, but I dare say, you may have broken my record. If this is your success rate in your inaugural year, I can’t wait to see what you do in the upcoming ones.”

Harry blanched, her head snapping toward him. “I have to do this again?”

Remus chuckled. “And again. And again. Each year. That’s what the Fates Haven Fate Witch does, my dear.”

“Oh my goddess. I’m actually the Fate Witch. Like… the one.” The true scope of the situation was slowly sinking in.

Jax chuckled, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Yes, you are, babe. And just like everything else, you’ll rock at it. Think of all the people you’re about to help find their Fated.”

Elodie’s and Silas’s shouting drew their attention toward the angel-demon duo, their hands flailing and tempers rising.

Harry grimaced. “Not so sure all our friends think this is a good thing.”

Remus waved off her sentiment with a decorated hand. “Nurture. Water. Orgasms. Poof. They’ll come around. They always do.”

Somehow, Harry knew the former Fate Witch spoke the truth.

“So, what’s next, Harlow Pierce?” Jax’s arms tightened around her, and she not only felt the warmth of his love but saw it in his eyes as he stared down at her. “Where do we go from here?”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter as long as we do it side by side. How does that sound to you, Alpha Atwood.”

He brushed his mouth over hers in a painfully soft kiss. “Sounds like heaven.”

“Sounds like our forever.”

“Sounds like a simple twist of Fate.”