Page 96 of Moody as a Minotaur

“How is your penmanship?”

“Legible.”

“Works for me,” Paws said, and I swore he was grinning now. He climbed off my lap and onto the table. “Get paper and a pen from Jake. We have work to do.”

“What’s the bet?”

“Nelson finding the unicorn.”

“Didn’t I place a bet about that a month or so back?”

“It’s time to update it.”

I studied the cat. “What do you know?”

Paws licked his paw and started grooming his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

For the record, I didn’t believe him.

32

THE RITUAL

PARKER

“Are we rushing this?” I asked Levi as we walked through the frozen landscape to where Teague had told us to meet him. Last night, the frost was so heavy that even this late in the day there were still sparkly patches in the deepening shadows of the late afternoon. The sun would be setting soon.

It was Halloween, or as Teague called it, Samhain. In Willow Lake, that meant winter was already taking hold. It was surprising we hadn’t had more than a dusting of snow already, to be honest. The winter solstice might be the official start of winter, but Mother Nature didn’t adhere to that schedule around here.

Elsewhere in Willow Lake, children would be wandering the streets in their costumes, begging for candy. Normally, I would be dressed up to hand out treats at the café. But tonight, I’d asked Ash if he and Dillon would do it for me. He’d been surprised when I askedhim to watch the cafe, but he hadn’t asked any questions. Even though I knew he’d wanted to.

Levi stopped. “We don’t have to do this now.”

“I don’t want to wait. But we only changed our relationship status a week or so ago. And now we’re getting hitched supe style? Is it too much, too fast?” I bit my bottom lip.

Levi moved his jaw around like he was literally chewing on my words to see what they tasted like. “We can wait. The winter solstice isn’t that far away.”

“But that’s right at Christmas,” I moaned.

“So, we wait for the embolism.” Levi barely managed to say that with a straight face.

“Don’t make me laugh. This is serious.” I waggled my finger at him. “And now I think you’ve been spending too much time with Nana, because you know it’s Imbolc.”

“There is always the equinox or Beltane or any other solstice, equinox or cross-quarter day…” Levi stepped close and took my gloved hands in his bare ones. The heat from his hands seeped through the knit of my gloves and into mine. Man, I wished I had his internal heating system. I was freezing. “We don’t have to do this now.”

“I never should have called my mom last night. She put all these questions in my head.” Mostly, though, she’d gone into full mom-mode and went on and on about how my relationship with Levi was moving too quickly. I knew I should have called her before Nana had, because I was sure she’d had a similar conversation with Nana about her relationship with Davina.

“I don’t want to rush you. We have years before we need to do this… Or we don’t have to do it at all.”

“We’re doing it. We talked about it.” I frowned at him until he nodded. “But back to my point, are you not worried this is too fast?”

“When supes find their fated mates, things happen quickly.” He shrugged. “Look at all the couples who got together in the summer: Ash and Dillon, Jeremy and Adrian, Jake and Gage, Simon and Ogden, Hayden and Ryley…”

“Okay, okay. I get your point, but we aren’t fated mates.”

“Teague says our bond is as strong as a bond can be without being fated. I trust that he’s telling us the truth because I can feel it. Every time we’re together, it’s like the Eternal Magic is whispering in my ear that you’re meant to be mine.”

“I don’t know about the Eternal Magic, but I feel something too.” My chest warmed at the thought of spending the rest of my days with Levi at my side.