Page 66 of The Nerdy Necromancer

I stepped out and looked around in confusion. “Hank?”

“This was the first place I realized how attracted to you I was.” He moved closer to me and clasped my hands with his. “I thought we would never work. We were too different. But this was the moment where I really began to wrestle with myself and wonder if maybe Portia’s letter did have some merit. Maybe Iwastheone.”

Portia stepped from the cave, wearing a white dress. Her blonde hair spilled around hershoulders.

“Portia?” I asked, more confused thanever.

“When soulmates meet,” she explained, “there is thin invisible line that keeps them together no matter how much they try to resist.” She gave Hank a disapprovinglook.

“I’m dumb,” Hankadmitted.

“When they are ready to commit, that line becomes something...different.”

“I - I don’t understand.” I looked between both of them trying to figure out what I wasmissing.

“I can see that line. I know when that bond has been fulfilled. Hank might have come the long way, but he is ready. Areyou?”

“Ready for what?” My heart was pounding.Washe ready? “He hasn’t even told me he loves meyet!”

Portia grinned at me. “Like he said, he’s dumb. He came to me. He felt something on the day he came to your house when he started the work on your yard. Few people do. And he wouldn’t let it go until I told him what itwas.”

“So he’s known all this time we were soulmates?” I wasn’t sure if I was happy orannoyed.

Portia nodded. “But you never had anydoubts.”

“Of course I had doubts. You threw two men at me all atonce!”

“Oh yes. Well, Lucien was a distraction. And what I like to call anudger.”

Hank’s mouth twisted in annoyance. “You wanted to see if I wasserious.”

“No,” Portia said. “I wanted to see if you would commit. I have a hundred percent track record, but it has not come without itschallenges.”

“I still don’t understand what I’m doinghere.”

“Hank is ready to solidify the soulmate bond. Areyou?”

“What is the bond?” I was stillconfused.

“It’s the thread that keeps you together. It makes you stronger. When one of you is weak, the other can draw upon the strength of the other. But it can make you weaker as well. If something were to happen to one of you, the other would be severelyweakened.”

“Is this step completelynecessary?”

Hank’s face slipped a littlebit.

“No,” Portia said. “But this step solidifies your commitment to each other. Once you take it, you will be married under the laws of MidnightCove.”

“You - you want to marry me?” I askedHank.

“Of course Ido.”

“Rightnow?”

“I figured this was the best wedding an introvert could askfor.”

He was right. No people. Nopressure.

“I need to ask you something. And I want you to be honest with me. If you lie to me I will know. It’s very important, Hank. Our entire future depends onit.”

Hank’s eyes widened and he looked suitably freaked out. I stepped up closer to him, brushed my lips across his, and whispered in his ear. “You’re a Hufflepuff, aren’tyou?”

Hank crushed me against him and let out a shaky exhale of breath. “You’re the worst, Helen Reaper. But even after scaring the crap out of me, I love you more than anything in theworld.”

“So?”

“TotalHufflepuff.”

Iknewit.