“You’re worried you won’t be able to come, that you’ll be back in the sea,” Sasha said. “Bran?”

“I’ll make you a pool,” he promised. “If your time on land is up, you’ll have a pool, and be part of the day.”

“You’d do that for me?”

Bran reached over to take her hand, to kiss her knuckles. “You’re my sister.”

“And mine. Both you and Riley. So you’ll be my maids of honor. You’ll do that, won’t you?”

“Couldn’t stop us, right, Anni?”

“Oh, we will be so happy to be maids of honor. What is it?”

As Sasha laughed, Riley reached for more potatoes. “Like attendants. It’s a tradition with a long history—which I’ll refrain from recounting.”

She ignored the applause that rounded the table.

“But to bring it current, we stand up for Sasha, help make the day perfect for her. Then we party.”

“I would like that very much.”

“And I have my best men here, with Doyle and Sawyer. It’s very like what you and Riley will be for Sasha.”

“You can count on us, bro. You can count on us to throw you the mother of all stag parties, right, Doyle?”

“You will have deer?” Annika wondered.

“Stag parties are an excuse for the groom and his pals to drink themselves stupid and hire a stripper,” Riley told her.

“They have too much class for strippers,” Sasha objected.

“No, we don’t.” And Doyle reached for more champagne.

“We’ll have our own version,” Riley assured her.

“You’ll make some calls,” Doyle assumed.

“I’ve got some contacts.”

• • •

Bran waited until the meal wound down.

“I’d like everyone to join me outside in an hour. For a kind of ceremony, you could say. You’ll need your weapons.”

“If it’s another drill after that meal . . .” Riley groaned as she pushed back from the table.

“Something else. In an hour,” Bran said again, “by the seawall.”

Riley spent the bulk of the hour making those calls, then pocketed her phone to go gather weapons. Since Bran hadn’t been specific, she decided to haul out all of them.

When Sawyer walked into the sitting room turned armory, she realized he’d had the same idea.

“I was going to hunt you up after I took down the first load.”

“No hunting required, and with two of us, we should be able to handle it in one trip.”

“Speaking of trips,” she said as she slung the long-distance rifle over her shoulder. “I’ve got a source for your aquamarine.”

“You— Already?”

“We deliver. Bran didn’t say ammo, but . . .” She shoved extra mags in her pockets.

“Wait. Where? How?”

“How is I know a guy who knows a girl whose family owns a jewelry store in Dublin. They make and design as well as sell, so they have loose stones.”

“In Dublin.”

“Yeah, the other side of the country, but I don’t see that as a big for a shifter like you. The uncle of the girl the guy knows can have some stones to show you in a couple of days. If that’s the way you want to go, we zip over there, take a look, zip back.”

“Yeah, I . . . I didn’t expect it to be like now.”

“Your move, Cowboy.”

“Right. My move. I’m in. Wow.”

“Good. Load ’em up. Let’s see what Bran’s got cooking.”

Cooking wasn’t far off, Riley noted, as Bran had a cauldron hovering over the ground. Sasha’s painting of the coat of arms floated over it.

“You started the show without us,” Riley said.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Bran looked over as the others crossed the lawn. “We’ve talked of unity. We’ve shown our unity. Sasha’s given us a symbol of unity. We take another step here, if all are willing.”

“We’re with you,” Sawyer said simply. “Every one.”

Riley nodded. “So say we all.”

“Then here I cast the circle.” Taking an athame from his belt, Bran pointed it north, south, east, west. “On this land, at this hour, we cast our light, we lift our power. Spark the fire, stir the air.”

Under the cauldron, fire burned. The wind rose to shimmer the circle of light around the six.

“Against evil conspire, to stand in times foul or fair. Earth bloom, water spill. Both sun and moon defeat the gloom, so against the dark we test our will.”

Flowers tumbled out of the grass within the circle. Pure blue water fountained out of the air and into the cauldron.

“We are kinsmen, of blood and heart. As one together or apart. This symbol we create, our unity to celebrate.”

The air thrummed. Riley felt it beat in her own blood, felt the wolf inside her open to the power, to the sheer beauty as Bran held his hands over the cauldron. As he turned them up to the sky. In them now were two vials, gleaming white.

What poured to them to her eyes was liquid light.

Mists rose, and what stirred inside the cauldron hummed.

“This was passed to me, hand to hand, magick to magick, son to daughter, daughter to son.” Bran held up the athame, then slid it into the cauldron. “Your bow, fáidh.”

Sasha held it out to him. In her eyes Riley saw not only the love, the absolute faith, but a great deal of the wonder she felt herself.