Walt repeated the words, recalling the Latin he’d learned in medical school. He was vowing to preserve knowledge and morality.
Eric went to the bookshelf and pulled down a large, ancient book. Carrying it to his desk, he flipped through hundreds of pages, before grabbing a pen and what looked like a dagger encased in a scabbard. He turned and jerked his head for Walt to join him.
He handed Walt the pen. “Sign your name here.”
Walt scanned the page. The last name entered was one he knew, the handwriting achingly familiar. He touched his sister’s signature. “Sylvie.” Beside her name there was a faded brown spot.
Smiling, he added his own signature, and then eyed the pages. “Think I could sneak a peek? Who else is in here?”
Eric snorted. “Behave yourself.”
Eric grabbed Walt’s left hand and poked the sharp tip of the dagger with the embossed triskele into his index finger.
“Ouch.”
“Don’t be a pussy,” Eric said in his normal tone, before once more adopting a more formal attitude. “Place a drop of your blood next to your signature.”
Walt squeezed his finger, letting the blood well. He reached out, but Eric gripped his wrist, stopping Walt just before he could drop his blood next to his name. “Membership is for life, and breaking our rules, disobeying our laws, disobeying me, can cost you your life. If you betray us, I will not hesitate to take yours.”
Walt had been around Eric enough to know he meant every word he spoke. He also knew there was nothing in this world that would make him betray the vow he was about to take.
He shook off Eric’s grip and pressed his bloody finger to the paper without hesitation.
Eric bade him to repeat in Latin once more. “Cum sanguinis mei, et cor meum recipienti pignori obligo animam meam.”
Walt spoke the words in Latin, translating them in his own mind. With my blood, I pledge my heart and my life.
His chest swelled with pride. He was a part of this now, a member of the Masters’ Admiralty.
“Walter Hayden, you have promised your life to the Masters’ Admiralty. As Caesar, I welcome you, and bid you to go forth.” Eric shook his hand, not in the traditional fashion, but in that of a warrior handshake, the two of them gripping each other’s wrists rather than palms.
“Thank you, Fleet Admiral.” For the first time, Walt used Eric’s title and meant it.
With that ceremony concluded, Jakob and Annalise left their places by the wall and joined him in the center of the office. Annalise kissed him, smiling widely. Jakob reached out as if he intended to shake his hand, but Walt turned that grip against him, pulling him in to grab a kiss from his other lover as well.
Eric cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him. “We’re only halfway done. Are the three of you ready for the rest?”
“So ready,” Annalise said. She’d dressed for the occasion, wearing a white sheath dress with a short emerald-green jacket that made her hair seem to glow. She reached into her purse and pulled out a large fascinator with a small net veil. She pinned it on, looking elegant in the way of old Hollywood movie stars, the net over one eye, the edge brushing against her cheek.
Jakob looked extremely handsome in his slacks and dress shirt. Instead of a suit jacket, he wore a shorter military-style leather jacket that didn’t interfere with the sword belted to his hip.
Walt was glad he’d still had the suit from Oscar’s wedding in his luggage.
“If you’re ready.” Eric gestured to Jakob, who reached his hand out. Walt and Annalise placed theirs on his.
“I hereby bind you, Jakob Bauer, Annalise Fischer, and Walter Hayden of Germany, in marriage.”
Walt chuckled at the idea of suddenly being a German. Despite growing up in South Carolina, he’d spent too many of his adult years as a nomad. It felt good to set down some serious roots. In the short term, he would have to go back to his clinic, but they’d video chat, and in time he’d find someone to take over the clinic and then he’d move to Frankfurt, into the house Jakob had built for Annalise, but which suited the three of them perfectly.
“Your union will serve to better and protect the people of our proud and ancient society. It is your duty to love, protect, and keep your spouses. I will hear your pledge to not only keep and protect one another, but to strive to better our world.”
Jakob took the lead, showing Walt what came next as he released their hands and knelt before them. “I pledge on my honor, and as your spouse, to love, protect, and keep you, all of your days.”
Annalise knelt next, repeating the same words.
Walt was the last to go to his knees. “I pledge on my honor, and as your spouse, to love, protect, and keep you, all of your days.”
“Rise,” Eric said. “In the eyes of the law and the Masters’ Admiralty, I pronounce you husband and husband and wife.”
He was married. He was married and had joined a cult and was now planning to spend the rest of his life living in Germany…
Holy shit.
But also, everything about this felt right.
“Good to have you, Dr. Hayden.” The way Eric stressed his last name and the too-pleased, cocky grin he sent his way told Walt he was looking forward to bragging to Juliette about stealing him from the Trinity Masters. Luckily, Walt had no reason to be anywhere near the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, so he wouldn’t be in the same country when Eric dropped that bomb.
“Tell Langston that I offered you two hot wives first and you refused,” Eric added.
“Duly noted,” Walt said.
Eric stared at them, and then shook his head in apparent exasperation. “Kiss already.”
The phrase was so close to what Walt had once said to Jakob and Annalise that they all snorted.
“Christ, do you need me to draw you a picture?” Eric said when they didn’t immediately
