The t-shirts. Luck had graced me this morning, granting me assistance in avoiding wearing the pink abomination everyone had seemed too keen on yesterday.
Yet that had been the extent of it.
I should not have left Zion and Kali alone for three months, because those weeks had been enough for him to influence her. None of the t-shirts he’d packed for me had remained in the closet this morning.
Except one.
“It’s called clothing, Damia,” I deadpanned. The t-shirt would not be that bad if not for the… No, there were no words to describe what was on its back.
At least my leather jacket had stayed intact and now served as a cover-up.
“Sure. We can pretend everything is normal.” Damia tapped the giant jar, and her nail clacked on the aluminum lid. “One confetti bomb, one man who’d sworn never to settle down and who is also getting married today, one suspicious t-shirt, and one bastard who’s finally admitted his feelings to his second-in-command. Yup, today could not get any weirder.”
Changing into a lower gear, Conall met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Took you long enough.”
I fiddled with the three buttons at the top of my cotton t-shirt. He was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it.
Sparing me further nagging, he slunk past people carrying wooden crates brimming with dishes and utensils, their clinks and clangs accompanied by greetings and shouts creeping in through Damia’s open window.
But then Conall cleared his throat. “It was painful to watch, honestly. You have been running after Zion since we were teenagers, Gedeon.”
A grunt was all the response he was going to get from me. I was not in the mood to discuss the mess of my life.
Driving past the square set up with haphazardly scattered wooden tables along the edges, Conall slowed to a snail’s pace. “It’s true. You had a thing for him since I don’t know when. He didn’t even try to hide it, but you, my man,” his eyebrows rose in emphasis, “were terrible at lying to yourself.”
My molars ground. “It was notthatbad.”
Damia’s snort nudged Conall to go on. “Remember when you met my partners for the first time? Youliterallychased Zion for stealing your coffee and then tackled him because he’d stuffed the goods into his pants. I had to beg Nissa, Aanya, and Dain not to say anything about it to anyone.” Our car slowed to a crawl as Conall weaved between the mass of bodies running from and to their central square. “In case you weren’t aware, you still owe me for that. I had the most insufferable night of my life afterward.”
At the memory, my lips curved up. Zion had laughed like a maniac when I had wrestled him to retrieve the coffee bag. The ring of his mirth had enveloped me in an embrace, the echoes collecting beneath my ribs and nestling in.
Conall parked near the junction of two streets not far from the plaza. As he shifted the gear into neutral, he calmly said, “I want you and Damia to tie our wrists today.”
My hand froze on the buckle of my seat belt.
Weddings were a peculiar custom. Not many dared to complete it as it meant inseverable bonds. You would be forever marked as part of a group in this life and the next.
Granted, such a belief was just that—accepting something as truth without proof, not a certainty, although a beautiful one.
But it was the solidification of a commitment that some sought. Being asked to steer the ritual, to bind someone to their partners, was an honor of the highest order. To serve as a guide meant the trust your friends had placed in you ran deeper than blood.
Rolling her window back up, Damia supplemented, “That’s why we abducted you. Me, to be honest. I want to rehearse the ceremony so we don’t mess it up in front of everyone.”
I stared at Conall. “Are you sure?” was all I managed to croak out.
While Damia climbed out of the car, he turned in his seat. “Gedeon, you’re part of my family. You’ve always been. Since we were little kids. I wouldn’t want anyone else but you and Damia to do this. I want it to be you both who secure the knot.” He fixed me with a look. “You can be a real asshole sometimes, so hopefully, this will also inspire you to considernotleaving those around you in the dark.”
The ball in my throat was dissolving too slowly for my voice to work.
“It’s obvious how much you hurt them,” Conall said. “Kali stares into nothing when you’re away and gapes at you in disbelief when you’re near. Zion touches you any chance he gets. He’s unable to keep his hands off you, as if he’s afraid that you’ll disappear if you let go.”
I tugged at the neckline of my t-shirt. It was getting too hot in the car.
“I understand you did what you had to, that you did it forthem, so they’d have a united army to command instead of disorganized factions, as your compound has overgrown, but I cannot imagine what it was like for them both to lose you. Man, that news smashed me in the face like a brick, and they’rein lovewith you. I don’t even want to consider what it’d be like to lose Dain, Aanya, or Nissa. Just thinking about it makes my chest feel like it’s splitting apart. But Zion and Kali had to actually live it…”
That brick Conall had mentioned? It lodged in my throat.
I had fucked up. Badly.
