She shook her head. Her eyes were wide and dilated. She didn’t speak. She couldn’t—Kelan knew there were no English words that approximated what she had to be feeling. He knew the words in Lakota, though, and he would teach them to her, in time.
He lifted her hands up above her head. His thumbs opened her tight fists. “Feel the sun on your hands. Feel it pour down over you. Feel its cleansing heat. Give it your fear, your dread, your anger, your resentment. Then let the earth fill the newly empty space in you with hope, joy, possibilities of all that you are and wish to be.”
Her image wavered before him as his eyes filled with liquid. “Feel your whole self. Your true self.”
He let go of her. She kept her hands raised. Eventually, she drew a long, slow breath and let it out.
“The sun and the earth will always cleanse and replenish you. Infinitely.”
She lowered her hands. Her eyes never left his. “Is it possible to be whole and to be a half at the same time?”
He didn’t answer. Was she asking what he thought she was?
“I’m ready to join my life with yours, Kelan.”
Kelan let out a whoop and swept her up into his arms, then swung her around a couple of times until her laughter broke through the wind in his ears. He took that sound into his heart, and knew he would hear it for lifetimes to come.
He set her on her feet then led her back to the house. At the patio, he let her go. “Pack what you need for an overnight stay. I have everything else we’ll need. I’ll bring Blade’s Jeep out front.”
He noticed that there were several faces watching them from the living room. Once spotted, the women dashed from the windows.
Fiona hurried across the patio, then slowly turned to look at him. “Is the claiming ceremony secret? Something I shouldn’t talk about with the others?”
Kelan considered her question. “It isn’t secret, but it’s complex. Saying any part of it without giving the intentions behind the ceremony won’t do it justice—and it may cause your friends to have bad feelings about it. There is no one it must please but you, so handle their curiosity as you wish.”
She smiled, then came back over to kiss his cheek, which he bent to accept. He walked down the patio and into the house through the den, intending to find Kit to tell him he’d be out for a while.
The entire den was loaded to capacity with the team. To their credit, he couldn’t remember seeing them at the window. They looked up at him, faking surprise. He grinned. “Fiona has agreed to the claiming ceremony.”
“Hey, that’s great, Kelan!” Selena said.
“So that wasn’t the ceremony happening out there?” Val asked, only to get an elbow in the ribs from Blade. “What? I wasn’t looking. Okay, well, I was a little curious.”
Kelan’s brows lowered. “The claiming ceremony is a sacred event, not entertainment for bored friends.”
“Huh. Sacred like tantric sex?” Val looked hopeful.
Kelan took a step toward Val, but Kit stepped between. “Forget it. Forget him, us. Just go do your thing, feel me? I don’t expect to see you again until you decide to come back.”
Kelan held out his hand shook with Kit. “Thanks.” He was almost to the door when he looked back.
Owen nodded at him, a faint smile on his lips.
“Hey—congrats, K,” Blade said. “We love you, man.”
Kelan shook his head and chuckled, as did the rest of the room before he shut the door.
Chapter Thirty
Kelan loaded Blade’s Jeep with the things they’d need: the trunk of ceremonial items, a cooler with food and drinks, camping gear, and his go-bag.
Fiona came out of the open garage bay. She put her stuff in the Jeep, then came over to him. She looked like a vision wearing a camp shirt over her tee, cargos, and hiking boots. Some sights just wrote themselves into your heart—this was one of them. Her face had none of the shadows that had darkened it in the last few days. She smiled at him. He lifted her hands and held them in his against his chest. He would never forget this moment.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I already feel whole.”
“Me too.”
He opened the Jeep door for her. The soft-top was down, letting them enjoy the heat of the late summer day. When they returned in a day or two, fall will have started. It was an auspicious time for their ceremony.
Fiona pulled a baseball cap on as they left Blade’s driveway. Her blond curls danced and bobbed in the wind. Took everything Kelan had to tear his eyes from her and focus on the road.
“Where are we going?”
“The place I selected is on the BLM land that Blade’s estate leases.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
They drove away from Blade’s for about a half-hour, then turned north onto a dirt road. The terrain was rough and the going was slow as they headed out onto the treeless, rolling hills of the open range. There was more grass than scrub brush. The green land rolled into the distant horizon, touching the blue, cloudless sky. To the west, large outcroppings of granite boulders became thicker and taller. They went down a hill, moving into switchbacks that seemed to come out of nowhere, over a wide creek, then back up the other side.
He looked at Fiona, curious about her reaction. Her eyes were big and awed. “I had no idea this was here.”
He smiled. They hadn’t even gotten to the best part yet. Another forty-five minutes of driving brought them to a narrow entrance into the huge rockface they’d been skirting. Soon the pass opened up to a small canyon. The road moved to the left, hugging the side of the cliff in what didn’t seem like a man-made road.
Fiona took hold of the roll bar. “Is this safe?”
Kelan grinned. “You’re strapped in, right?”
“Kelan!”
“It’s safe. I’ve been out here a couple of times.”