Page 188 of This Blood that Bonds Us

“No complaining on Kim’s day,” Luke said. The sunshine reflected in his hair that was back to the same mullet he had in Blackheart.

“I like it long,” He’d said shortly after returning home, and grew it back out along with his facial hair. Luke was the first person I convinced to get up and hike with me in the mornings. Hiking was healing for me, and I wondered if it could be for them too. After a month, Luke convinced Zach to join. Because of that, I could see the highlights in their hair from the sun.

Even in the warmth, I remembered the cold night we’d finally made it home to Vera’s cabin. She’d ran out into the snow and the twins fell into her arms in a collective sob.

“Sorry we took so long, Mom.”

We’d all cried together that night and we’d refused to part ways for even a minute. Instead, we’d made a pallet on her living room floor.

Just when I thought our eternal winter would be forevermore, there were glimmers of hope. My time with The Family was brief in comparison to Zach’s and Luke’s, but I still found myself looking over my shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to fall. When things were good, I feared a thief in the night would steal it away, and when things were bad, I wondered if we’d ever heal.

It took a long time to feel safe. Like maybe somehow someone would find us and rip us apart again. We were each other’s life source now. Breaking us apart would spell death. I’d never known such a bond, but I think we finally started to see the rhythm when Luke baked cakes for birthdays and we’d all finally convinced Zach to do somatic yoga with us. Or when Aaron stopped waiting by the door every night just in case.

And finally, when yet another year passed and nothing but silence followed us, we all collectively made the decision to finally put it behind us. We were still bound to that castle, but not forever.

Aaron dropped me to the ground at our destination. The once barren icy cliff was covered in a lush green and a plethora of wildflowers.

Our spot had waited for us to return, and in those two years, the sky seemed bluer and the sparkling water below did too.

“Okay, everyone assume your positions while I set up the tripod,” Presley said as he slung his backpack on the ground and pulled out his set up.

I tried to brush my hair from drifting into my eyes.

“Here. Let me,” Vera said. She smiled endlessly the entire day. She wore a light-blue dress, and her hair was pinned up out of her face. “Do you want me to pull it up?”

“Would you?”

She winked and gathered her stash of hair supplies from Presley’s backpack, then went to work pulling up half of my hair to get out of my eyes. We’d worked to cut the darker ends off, but some of it was still there as my reminder of what once was.

I took it in. The smell of fresh blooms and the sound of the bugs and birds.

Once she was done and retreated over to the twins to do her final check of their suits, I turned my attention back to my husband. He stood in his sky-blue suit and his hands shoved in his pockets, while his warm gaze brushed over me from head to toe.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

Aaron’s gaze was heavy on my face, and he moved in closer. His hands stayed glued to my hips. I didn’t mind it. His scent was all over me. It had been a whole week since we’d had a night alone together. Presley insisted it would be “fun” to makeus spend our nights apart before our wedding night. And it was fun having sleepovers in Presley’s room with Sarah, the dog, snuggled next to me. But in a week I craved my husband, and every brush of his hands felt like a promise for the coming night.

“I’m just soaking it in. I get to marry you more than once. I’m literally the luckiest man alive.”

“Ew,” Presley called.

His smile was radiant. Aaron was beautiful and all mine.

“And what could you be thinking about?” I forfeited a breath when his fingers grazed my cheek. “Anything you want to share?”

I shook my head and leaned into him to bathe in the warmth and comfort. Nothing I wouldn’tshowhim later.

“No kissing!” Zach and Luke interjected.

Another one of their “fun” ideas. It had been the sweetest torture.

“Don’t you guys have better things to do than to watch me?” Aaron grunted.

“Not really. We literally hiked all the way up here to watch you guys kiss.”

Zach nudged Luke with a snicker. He’d grown his hair back out too. The sun complemented the glow in their cheeks. The winter had been the harshest on them, but something new had bloomed. I was excited to watch it form.

“When you get married one of these days, payback is going to be a bitch.” Aaron wrapped an arm around me while flipping off his brothers.