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Two days was a tight turnaround for any event, but it was the only rest day on the royal tour for the next few weeks. Not only did we want the king and queen—mostly the queen—to be able to attend, but after a short romantic getaway of our own, Levana would be joining the tour, resuming her post as Ophelia’s guard.
What did Katriel expect me to do? Waitweeks? Absurd.
“It’s not a big wedding,” I pointed out. “Though you all insisted on coming, so it’s bigger than I had intended.”
Katriel smirked. “Is it so hard to believe we like you, boss?”
“Yes. I don’t know why. I’m not cultivating your good opinion on purpose.”
“You’re also not nearly as mean as you pretend to be.”
“Come on. Let’s get these upstairs and get you to the temple. We don’t want to keep your bride waiting.”
“There is usually a speech—”
“We don’t care about that,” I told the priest. “Just do the vows.”
Levana shook with silent laughter, her shadows stroking teasingly against mine.Beneathmine. The tease.
“Can he do that?” Torin whispered loudly.
“Fine,” the priest snapped. “Levana, do you take Calix to be your husband in a union recognized by the shadow realm?”
I was pretty sure there were usually some lines in there about the old gods and emulating the perfect balance between the divine and the mortal in marriage or something, but he’d clearly thrown all that out with the other ceremonial stuff.
“I do.”
One of my shadows wrapped around her thigh, rewarding her with a gentle squeeze.
“Calix, do you take Levana to be your wife in a union recognized by the shadow—”
“I do.”
—realm?”
“Yes, yes, I do.”
The priest huffed, slamming his book shut and shuffling off the dais. “Congratulations.”
Levana was shaking with silent laughter. “I think you upset him.”
“He was going to waffle on for hours and you know it. The meatballs would get cold.”
“A travesty.”
“I’m glad you appreciate the magnitude of the issue.” I dragged her closer, my shadows seemingly exploring her body of their own volition.
“Excuse me,” Katriel called, voice filled with amusement. “Are you going to come down and join us or should we just leave?”
“Don’t ask him that!” Torin replied, slightly panicked. “If youask, he’ll say leave. Don’t bring it up.”
“Come on.” Levana grabbed my arm, dragging me behind her toward our guests, who were already congregating in the back of the temple where Katriel had set up a food table and wine. My parents had greeted each other like old friends, and were ushering Torin out of the way so they could take the covers off the dishes.
I hadn’t warned them that Torin had absolutely no sense of coordination—they must have figured that out on their own.
“Half an hour,” I warned my brand new wife. “Then we’re leaving. We have ahoneymoonto get to.”
It wasn’t a Shade concept, but Ophelia had kept calling our vacation that and it had stuck. My mother had found us a beachside house to stay in for a few days, enough to give Levana a taste of home with the heat and ocean but nowhere near her actual home. It was perfect.
