CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Removing Elani’s collar was easier than I expected. The orichalcum vibrated to life under my touch and obeyed my will, much as the water had in the shower and again in the canal. Linking the mechanism closed around my neck, I marveled at the warmth of the metal against my skin. Rowan looked like he might faint. I was jazzed.
Maybe Balor knew what he was doing with Sera. Casting aside the fact that I felt like a Franken-Faery, the combined strength of the four elements was a boon. The passion and fight of Fire made me strong and with the added command of Water and now Earth, who knew what I could do? Nothing had shown up from Air yet, but I had no doubt it would. The question was—how would it help me in the future?
After Ydorus called Estes and arranged to meet him at one of the remote launch sites off the staff wing, Rowan and Elani said their goodbyes. He didn’t want her to know about us planning our impromptu ‘I do’s’, because she would panic about the obvious consequences and he’d never convince her to get onto the launch. So, we said nothing.
While the two of them said their goodbyes, I scanned the room for the peepshow camera. From the angle of the video Zale had shown me and the fact that it caught the whole room—aha, not even a challenge.
The finial of the curtain rod on the far wall was exactly where Julian would put it too. I adjusted the curtain to cover the lens and continued to search for cameras and bugs.
If I were the Queen I wouldn’t want my personal business hardwired to some security room somewhere with guys drooling over my sex tapes. That seemed a little much. Still, I had to be sure no one had eyes on us or this plan was busted.
Moving to the bar by the window I opened the cabinet doors. Bingo. Nothing seemed to be active so I was fairly sure nobody was monitoring the room.
At the click of the lock, I turned. Rowan stood staring at the back of that closed door.
“Here, Doc, drink this.” I handed him a snifter of an expensive-smelling liquor and he sucked it back like it was water. It must have been the booze burning its way down into his gut that brought him back into focus because he choked and pounded on his chest, sputtering rosy cheeked for a while.
“Again?”
When he nodded, I tipped the decanter and handed him round two. This time, he swirled the contents against his palm and moved to the fire. Leaning one hand on the mantle he sipped at his glass, watching the orange-gold of the flames flicker and snap. His worry for Elani made my chest ache—family—there was no bond like it.
It gave you the greatest strength and comfort when all was well, but hollowed your guts and left you raw when it wasn’t.
I downed my drink and blinked fast. My siblings and I might be struggling, but Reign had raised us. He worked every day for the past two decades to build our family’s unshakeable foundation, one shitstorm at a time. Our family was stronger than mistakes made and words spoken in anger. It was stronger than new loves taking hold and stepping on toes. It was stronger than . . . everything.
How had I forgotten that?
My mind filled with the images of the fight at the Gatehouse. They were trying to make me see that they were worried. I didn’t listen. They had come at me hard, but that was our way. I knew that, still I ran and hid. Like a Princess.
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”
I blinked and met Rowan’s worried gaze. “Yes. I do. Ydorus will get her safely to Estes, find your godfather at the dramas and be back here before we know it.” I laid my face against the broad span of his shoulders and wrapped my arms around his waist. His front was sizzling hot from the heat cast from the hearth. “Don’t worry. S’all good.”
Rowan snorted, his body bouncing with amusement. “Yeah, it’s a Faery tale come true.”
I’d give him that one. The weight of what we were facing washed over me. One minute I was fine and the next, it felt like I might be crushed. “I wish my dad was here. Reign would cut through all this dictator bullshit before the Queen and the Strati even had time to crap their pants.”
“That’s quite an image. Tough man, is he?”
“You could say that.”
Rowan set his glass on the mantle and turned in my arms. “And what will this tough man have to say about me marrying his daughter without his permission?”
I tried to smile, but fell short. When Rowan’s face began wavering behind a wall of tears, I knew I was in trouble. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” I swiped fast at my cheeks. “Reign was supposed to be there . . . give me away.”
Crying in earnest, Rowan laid me on the mound of pillows on the floor. He smelled like home and while the fire warmed my butt, his strong hand rubbed circles on my back.
None of this was happening like it was supposed to. I’d dreamed of finding my birth parents since I was eight. I’d planned how it would go, what they’d be like, but never, in all the variations of that daydream did my father get beheaded by my bitch Queen of a mother.
“I’m not usually such a . . . girl.”
“Don’t apologize. Members of the Noble houses rarely get to prove their substance. You’re doing me a favor by letting me comfort you.” Rowan offered me a handkerchief. “Why the tears?”
“I wanted a mother,” I sobbed, wiping my face. “Jade and Bruin used to tell Julian and me stories about their mothers and I wanted one.”
Rowan kissed the gems by my temple and whispered close to my ear. “And no matter how old you are, there’s a part of you that will always need your parents.”
I snuggled closer and laid my head on his arm for a pillow. “Rowan? If we survive . . . can we have a real wedding with our family?”
He laced his fingers with mine and pressed our joined hands against his chest. “I swear to you, if we survive this, I’ll marry you here, and in your realm, and in the Modern Realm, and with as many guests and flowers and bottles of champagne you can organize. Your father can give you away or your brothers or your friends. Whatever you want. Anything you want.”
I wiped the last of my tears away. “You might live to regret that. You’ve never seen me in party planner mode. I want the whole show. Cake, dancing, tossing the bouquet . . . I’m going to take that flower grenade and toss it yelling ‘crawl for it bitches’ . . . cause that’s what girls do.”
Rowan barked out a laugh. “Done. Besides, you’re going to be a Noble of the Fifth House. The bigger you go, the better you’ll fit in.”
I nipped the edge of his jaw and giggled. “I’ll never fit in with what the Noble Council considers appropriate.”
He shrugged. “The Noble Council can stick it, it’s the citizens of the Fifth sector we need to worry about and they already love you.”
“They do?”
“Mhmm.” His kisses followed the trail of gems down my neck, along my collarbone, and down further. “Everyone is wearing chokers, like yours.”
“I figured they’d lost people and appreciated the sentiment of the mourning bands.”
“I’m sure that’s part of it,” he whispered against my bodice, “but they wear them for you. It’s a show of support. Those are your people.”
“My people?” I giggled as he nuzzled under the fabric and edged toward my breast. “Who in their right mind would follow me anywhere?”
Rowan lifted his head, his eyes glowing serious. “How can you not know what an incredible woman you are? You’re strong and smart and kind and—”
“And my brother Bruin is stronger, my brother Julian is smarter and my sister Jade is . . . well Jade tops the charts on pretty much every other scale. I’m just Lexi, the spoiled, hot-headed Princess.”
Yeah, that was about it. I was never as much of anything as my siblings.
Rowan scowled. “I find that hard to believe. From where I sit, you’re amazing on every scale. In fact, if we weren’t bound to this room until morning I’d take you out and let the citizens show you how much you mean to them.”
I rolled my eyes and was about to argue when a rap on the door had us jumping to our feet. After drawing the knife from beneath my skirt, I stepped behind the door and gave Rowan the nod. He turned the lock and opened the door a crack, then threw it open wider and ushered Ydorus and Father Rowan into the suite.
“Elani?” Rowan said before the latch had even closed behind them. “Is she safe?”
Ydorus nodded. “I put her on the launch myself and watched until Estes steered it out to the main canal. He won’t have any problem from there.”
Rowan exhaled, his wide shoulders easing. “Thank you.”
Ydorus patted him on the back and gestured to the Abbatis priest standing next to them. “Is this the man you were looking for? Lexi said the priest she danced with and since he is the only person she danced with. . . .” He held up his hands.
The priest met Rowan chest-to-chest and they clapped each other on the back. “How are you, my boy?”
Rowan stepped back and pulled me to his side. “I’ll be better once we’re married.”
Father Rowan looked from his godson to me to Ydorus, who wore the same stunned expression. “But aren’t you getting married to—”
“Lir-dickwad?” I said. “No. that’s not happening. If I have to be married to a Noble on my fifth birthday, we’ll alter the plans a little. Nothing they can do about it, right? I’ve been told a million times—the Laws are Absolute.”
Rowan snickered at my attempt to capture the pious tone that everyone used when using that statement. “Who wants to be Lady-dickwad anyway?”
“Exactly. And since it’s after midnight, it is my birthday. This Eligible is ready to get hitched.”
The fire let off a crack as if in agreement and once the pillows were cleared from the floor, the priest positioned us in the center of the open space in front of the hearth.
From his satchel, he retrieved a feathered fan and a smudge wand. He held the tip of the bundled wand against the embers of the fire until it started to smoke and the scent of white sage drifted in the air. Walking a counter-clockwise circle around us, he swept the feathers through the air as if metaphysically cleansing the space.
“Face each other and join hands. Clear your minds of conflict. Troubles of the day have no place here. For two souls to stand the trials of time as one, you must unite as one in a place that is not a place, in a time that has no time.”
I exhaled and shook out my hands before accepting Rowan’s. A million thoughts fired in my head, made me second guess, but when I looked up and met Rowan’s gaze, the chaos stopped. His grip was ready and steady. Solid. The room around us faded away as our connection took hold.
Priest Rowan completed the first circuit and continued. “Tap into the Sacred around you. Feel the Divinity of the space. The power of the Veil, the god and the goddess. Focus on the energy arcing between you, within you.”
The third time around, he set the feathers on the carpet to my left, the smoldering wand on the hearth, and took a vase of flowers from the mantle. He set the bouquet on the ground to my right and the water-filled vase behind me.
When he rounded back to the fire he faced the flames. “Castian, god of gods, join us. We ask you guard and protect the joining of these two souls. Fire is passion, heat, anger and transformation. It consumes the old, making room for new growth in a relationship. Let it be so.”
He moved a quarter of the circle and stood before the vase. “Water is the mother of us all. It nurtures us and cleanses our souls of inevitable slights and misunderstanding through meditation, introspection and dreams. Let it be so.”
He continued around to stand before the flowers. “Shalana, goddess of earth and woodlands, bless this union of your creatures. Earth is the foundation of life. It gives love built together grounding, wisdom, and prosperity. Let it be so.”
At his forth stop, he gestured to the feathers. “Air fills our lungs when we live life and tightens in our chest in warning. It is the element of thought and intelligence. In a marriage, it brings creativity, invention, and inspiration. Let it be so.”
Stepping to our side, he smiled at his godson. “Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House, before the god and the goddess, speak only truth. Is this union a true and earnest desire?”
“It is,” he said, his smile radiant.
“Then swear to the powers of the Veil that you will honor Alexannia Grace, Princess of Attalos until your dying breath.”
“I do so swear.”
Priest Rowan nodded and turned to me. “Alexannia Grace, Princess of Attalos—”
“Hells yes. I do so swear.” I glanced up at the heavens. “You hear that, Castian? And if your meddling nieces get any ideas about screwing this up for me, I’ll be pay each of them a visit. I do so swear that too.”
Rowan chuckled and patted the priest’s shoulder, who was looking a little lost. He recovered and brought three candles out of his bag. “The traditional binding was done by blood but that ceremony transformed into the joining of light—”
“I vote for blood,” I said, drawing the blade hidden in the train of my skirt. My cheeks warmed as the men blinked at me. “What? I’m a traditional girl. No pain, no gain, right?”
Rowan snorted holding out his palm. “Right. Why light a wussy candle? We’ll do things the warrior way.”
The priest accepted the weapon from my hand and scored each of our palms. When the line of blood rose from the wound, we clamped our hands together.
“This joining represents the union of two. From this point on, your lives, passions, and futures are one.”
The fire whooshed in a sudden flare and it was done.
Married . . . ‘till death do us part.