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“Oh my God, Starr,” Aggie bellowed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You know he doesn’t treat me like his slut. I’d never put up with that bull. Now stop being a jealous bitch and pull your shit together.”
Starr’s jaw dropped, and for a moment Jace thought he was going to have to break up a cat fight, but then Starr laughed.
“You’re right,” she said and shook her head, sending her dangling earrings swaying. “You are right. I’m jealous. I am. I admit it. And I’m not jealous of Jace for winning you. I could have had you if I’d wanted you. I’m jealous of you for finding someone to accept you the way he does. Christ, he saved your life tonight, Aggie. Did you even thank him?”
Aggie glanced at Jace, who suddenly wished he was invisible. He didn’t need her thanks. He was just glad she hadn’t been hurt.
“Thanks, baby,” Aggie said and placed a rather platonic kiss on his cheek.
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing,” Starr said. “I don’t have anyone who would stick their neck out for me like that.”
Jace tilted his head to the side. “I would.” He’d have shoved a perfect stranger out of harm’s way. It wasn’t a big deal.
“You would?” Starr squeaked.
“Of course he would,” Aggie said. “I’m not sure what you’re so worked up about.”
“Do you know how fucking rare it is to find a man like him, Ice?”
Aggie nodded and turned her head to look at Jace. “Yeah, I do. And that’s why I’ll never let anything come between us. Not you or anyone else; living or dead.”
The redhead is exceptionally attractive, Thomas’s voice sounded through Jace’s head unexpectedly. Do you think I could have a go at her?
“Where do you find a guy like him?” Starr asked. “You wouldn’t happen to have a brother, would you, Jace?”
Jace shook his head, answering Thomas and Starr simultaneously. But he did have an annoying ghost Starr was welcome to have.
“Let’s go back to the party,” Aggie said. “People probably think we’re fighting.”
“Most of them know better,” Jace said.
Aggie laughed. “Yeah, most of them probably think we bailed early so we could spend time dancing between the sheets rather than on the dance floor. No telling what Eric told them we were up since he was the one who checked on us.”
He’d love to be alone with Aggie dancing between the sheets. Unfortunately, they weren’t alone no matter where they went while at the castle. And Jace sure didn’t want Thomas and Katherine yelling in his head when he was pouring his heart out to Aggie the next day. The ghosts had to go and he had to be the one to make them leave.
“You two head on back,” he said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Aggie’s eyebrows drew together. “What’s going on?”
Jace chuckled. “Voices in my head.”
Starr gave him an odd look, but Aggie nodded before kissing him gently. “Don’t keep me waiting too long. I don’t want anyone thinking I murdered you and buried you in the garden.”
He grinned. “I won’t.”
He watched her walk away with Starr, and then he sat on the ledge of Queen Katherine’s tomb.
“You still there, Thomas?” He spoke to the stone floor.
I am.
“Go after her. Go after Katherine. Don’t hesitate. Go now.”
She doesn’t want me.
“She waited for you for five hundred years. She wants you. She loves you. But you hurt her, so you have to fix it. You don’t want to spend eternity alone, do you?”
A deep sorrow settled in Jace’s heart. He didn’t know if it was his sadness or Thomas’s. An eternity alone? And he’d once thought a life lived alone was unbearable. He couldn’t imagine spending all eternity alone.
If I’d known I’d see her again, I wouldn’t have tried to forget her in the arms of other women. Kat was different. Kat saw me, the man beneath the scoundrel. She knew what I was and loved me anyway.
“I have a woman like that,” Jace said.
Treat her well.
Jace nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
He sat quietly for a moment, wondering if his best was really good enough for Aggie. Even with a lifetime of loving stretching before them, he wasn’t sure if that was enough time to give her all that she deserved. But if they could be together forever—beyond death—then maybe… Maybe she could come to realize the depth of his devotion.
He couldn’t imagine the devastation that Thomas must have endured when Katherine died; first watching his child grow within her, seeing her hold that child, love that child, then watching her die days later, leaving them to carry on without her. Jace didn’t know that he’d have made the same decisions Thomas made—being unable to love the child they’d created—or if he’d have clung to and cherish the little piece of her left on Earth, but he knew that if he ever lost Aggie, his heart might as well stop beating.
“You still there, Thomas?” Jace said.
Yes.
“Go tell Katherine what’s in your heart, man. Just tell her.”
And if she doesn’t forgive me?
“At least you tried.”
Will you tell your lady what’s in your heart as well?
“Tomorrow,” Jace promised. “When I marry her.” He would lay his heart at her feet and pray she didn’t stomp on it.
Chapter Twelve
Jace stirred. The sound of rain lashing against the windows was a muted lullaby that made finding consciousness a challenge. He slowly opened his eyes to be confronted by a direct blue-eyed stare. He flinched, releasing a gasp of surprise.
“I’m not that scary in the morning, am I?” Eric asked with a wry grin.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Trying to wake you with the power of my mind. Did it work?”
Jace smacked him in the face with a pillow. “You are so fucking weird, Sticks.”
“That’s a given.” He gripped the pillow between both hands, stood up straight so he was no longer leaning over the bed staring in Jace’s face, and shrugged. “Did you sleep well?”
Jace stretched lethargically and grinned with contentment.
“Good,” Eric said. “I thought you might like to know that your wedding starts in twenty minutes, he-who-sleeps-like-the-dead.”
“What!”
Jace kicked the tangle of covers aside and leapt from the bed, searching the cottage in a mixture of disorientation and panic. Eric was already dressed in his tux, and the clock on the fireplace mantel made it clear that Eric had not been joking about the time. It was a quarter till one in the afternoon. “Where’s Aggie?”
“Somewhere getting ready with Rebekah and the rest of the women. They wouldn’t let me watch them dress. Can you believe it?”
Jace dashed to the closet and pulled out the garment bag that held his tuxedo. He tossed it on the bed and yanked the zipper open. “Yeah, you perv. Most women think that’s creepy.”
“They just don’t know what I’m missing.” He wet a finger and smoothed one eyebrow with it.
Jace shook his head and laughed. “Once a perv, always a perv.”
His highly polished black shoes tumbled out of the bottom of the bag, and he reached for his
slacks. He decided he didn’t have time for a shower. Good thing he’d taken one last night before he’d climbed into bed alone. No Aggie, but also no ghosts, thank God.
“Takes one to know one. Rebekah made me feel better by promising that I could watch her undress later.”
“Good thing you met that woman.”
“And I say the same of you and Aggie. I guess there really is someone out there for everyone.”
Jace hurried through dressing, one eye on the clock. “Why didn’t you wake me when you left this morning?”
“I did. Several times. You said you were up. Aggie sent me to check on you since you hadn’t shown up yet. Good thing she did. Only you would sleep through your own wedding.”
Jace didn’t remember Eric waking him at all. He had gotten to bed rather late. Once he’d made his way back to the ball—without Thomas infiltrating his thoughts—everyone had given him a hard time about trying to kill Aggie with a chandelier but chickening out at the last moment. His friends had strange senses of humor.
“I suppose I don’t have time for caffeine.” Jace slipped the tuxedo jacket on and then sat on the edge of the bed to put on his socks.
“No, but do take the time to brush your teeth. You don’t want to melt Aggie’s face off with your dragon breath.”
Jace slipped on his shoes and darted toward the bathroom. Managing not to piss on his shoes while multitasking brushing his teeth and relieving his bladder, he went over his vows in his head. Forgetting what to say was not an option. Almost every person he knew would be there, but he figured he could get through it if he just kept his eyes on Aggie the entire time. Still, his stomach began to do its best impersonation of a roller coaster.
“You can do this,” he said to his reflection as he dabbed some gel at the ends of his bleached-blond tips to spike them haphazardly.
He gargled a bit of mouthwash and washed his hands. He ran a hand over his jaw and winced. His beard stubble was a little longer than he normally kept it, but he didn’t have time to trim it. Damn it, why hadn’t he woken sooner? Aggie would be furious with him if he was late. And as much as he’d enjoy her punishing him, he did not want to disappoint her.
