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She walked down the aisle by herself behind Katharine and Stella, her two bridesmaids, dressed in elegant ice-blue gowns. It only seemed right to leave her father’s place empty, because nothing could ever replace him. Her blossoming relationship with her mother, however, was something she had come to treasure as it grew with every day that passed. Sometimes things did change.
The Akathinian television commentators covering the royal nuptials continued to warm to their new queen as she exchanged vows with her king.
“Regal and stunningly beautiful, Sofi´a has blossomed in her role,” they said. “Clearly she has captured the heart of our king and is well on her way to capturing the heart of the people. Although I think the real show today,” the reporter added with a smile, “was watching Nikandros’s face as his bride walked down the aisle.”
The couple left the chapel hand in hand to the uplifting strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, retiring to the balcony of the palace to address the massive crowds. After providing a particularly passionate kiss for the photographers, something that was becoming their trademark, they were recognized with a twenty-one-gun salute.
It wasn’t until they were seated at the head table in the palace ballroom, surrounded by every manner of global royalty and celebrity, that Sofi´a took her first real breath of the day. It had been a wonderful one, her happiness with Nik a living, breathing entity that seemed to grow stronger with every day. But she would be happy when it was just the two of them back in Evangelina on the weeklong honeymoon they had planned.
As the guests settled in, their champagne glasses full in the sparkling candlelight, Nik rose to give a toast. After thanking everyone for coming in both English and his native language, he expressed his gratitude to the Akathinian people for working through the past few trying months with him.
Following the peace summit, the international community had thrown its full support behind Akathinia and Idas had backed off his inflammatory rhetoric in the press. Should Carnelia elect to resume its opportunistic hostilities toward its smaller neighbor, Akathinia would not be alone. Nik worried the threat from the aggressive Carnelian king was not over, but a sense of calm and ordinary life had settled over the island. And for now, it was enough.
“To peace,” Nik said, lifting his glass.
The guests raised their flutes and drank, a quiet gratefulness filling the air at the preservation of the independent, tranquil life they valued so deeply. Then Nik turned to his bride.
He was eloquent in his toast to her, as a man who had addressed the United Nations was wont to be, but it was his final words that drew Sofi´a’s first tears of the day.
“I did not know how love could change a man,” he said, his gaze on hers. “How much better it could make me be, until I met you, Sofi´a. You are my heart. Always.”
They left the reception by helicopter in the wee hours while the guests still celebrated, the lights of Akathinia glowing beneath them as they rose high in the air. When they were close to landing on Evangelina, Nik held out his hand. “Ready?”
Nodding, she joined him at the open doorway, a bouquet of lilies in her hand that matched the bouquet Nik carried. One for her father, one for Athamos. They had not been here, but they had not been forgotten. Timing their throw, they sent the flowers scattering across the sea.
The tears came again for Sofi´a, silent and bittersweet. “Thank you,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around Nik’s neck. “That was perfect.”
His eyes were as full of emotion as she’d seen them. “He knows,” she whispered. “He knows.”
He kissed her then as the helicopter swooped toward their hideaway. Clutching the lapel of his sexy military uniform, she held on to the moment as long as she could. These days she was living for the present, knowing with Nik by her side, no matter what arrived to test them, it would never fall apart.
Their time together in Evangelina was always perfect. She intended to make the most of every last magical second of it.
