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“That doesn’t feel very small wedding, does it?” She asked me, and I shook my head, sighing.
“No, it doesn’t.” I hoped with everything in me that Cirro had not invited more people than he had been instructed to. He knew, as well as everyone in the castle, that we did not want the large ceremony. We wanted small, private, and quick. Getting it out of the way and allowing us time to come to terms with being married before we held the public reception party a week later.
I held out my elbow, smiling down at Kira.
“Shall we, Sweetheart?”
30
Kira
The priest we were meeting was a short, skinny man, who I worried would fall between the floorboards of the castle chapel.
He had welcomed us with a smile, shaking both of our hands and introducing himself as Anndra. His hair was almost pure white, and his skin just as pale, and I wondered if he had ever been outside of this small chapel.
My hand was still linked through Cyrus’s elbow, and I found myself rubbing the fabric of his shirt between my fingers as we followed the priest through the space we would be married. An archway had been built at the bottom of the aisle and was in the process of being covered with flowers in varying shades of greens, reds and oranges. Each pew was decorated similarly, with tall vases of flowers in the same colours at the ends of them. White ribbon stretched between each vase, and a plush,white carpet had been placed over the floor for the aisle.
I gasped when we entered, the space completely different to how it had been last time we visited a week ago. Cyrus had nodded his head, however that was the only approval he had given the space so far.
“Onto the matter of your vows,” Anndra said, looking at us over the rim of his glasses with a grin, “Are you bringing your own? Or would you like to use the royal vows?”
“Our own,” I said, at the same time as Cyrus replied, “The royal vows.”
I looked up at him, my eyebrows furrowed. We had had this conversation a little more than a week ago, and had both agreed that using our own vows would be more intimate and more us than the generic vows every King and Queen had used since the beginning of time. Cyrus frowned down at me, squeezing my hand with the crook of his elbow.
Anndra looked between us, his eyebrows raised.
“You have a day or so until I really need the decision,” Anndra said slowly, still looking at us each in turn.
“No, it’s fine.” I plastered a fake smile onto my face, turning away from Cyrus, “We will use the royal ones.”
Anndra paused for a second, eyeing me carefully, before nodding his head. He continued, showing us exactlywhere we would stand, and where our wedding parties would be. Caliara, although technically one of my bridesmaids, would stand with Cyrus on his side, alongside Cirro, to make the sides even. Gracie and Calliope would be beside me.
We had agreed to only have the people closest to us there — which meant the small chapel would be nearly empty. My only guests besides Gracie and Calliope would be Tarian, Maeteo, if he felt better, and Iris, if she wanted to be there. Cyrus’s guest list was equally as short, with only his aunt Saffron invited. He had surprised me when he mentioned her, but I tried my best to hide it.
Whenever I pictured my wedding as a child, I had always seen a fully packed church. People chatting excitedly in the pews and standing as I walked down the aisle. Emily would walk down with me, a proud smile on her face, and she would hand me off to whoever it was I was marrying. In my daydreams, it had always been Dane.
My heart tugged as those memories flooded into my brain, Emily’s smiling face and hearty laugh making me ache for home. I did think about sending Emily a letter, to let her know everything that had happened and let her know I missed her, more than I missed anything. There were certain things that even Gracie could not give me — and a hug from Emily, warm and comforting, was one of them.
Anndra’s voice droned into the background as Cyrus led me forward again, my hand still tucked into the crook of his elbow, but I did not hear a word of what either mansaid. The heavy clouds outside the window had dulled the sunlight that had been streaming through the stained-glass windows, and the space darkened around us the longer we stayed in there.
Cyrus nudged me with his elbow sharply, pulling me from my thoughts with a jolt. I swung my head to look up at him, and the glare I received in return made me frown.
“Your thoughts, Sweetheart?” He ground out, the smile on his face forced.
“On what, sorry?” I asked, my tone staying light as I turned to look at Anndra with a smile, “I was in a world of my own.”
Anndra laughed, dismissing it with a wave of his hand.
“Ah, to be a young woman daydreaming of her wedding day.” He smiled wide at me, and I nodded my head, my cheeks flushing at his words, “I was simply wondering if you wished Cyrus to be presented with his royal crown and Kingship at the end of your ceremony, or if you wanted to have a separate ceremony all together?”
I pursed my lips as I thought over his question. I knew Cyrus wanted his own ceremony, his own special occasion that was just his instead of ours. But he knew that I wanted to have our own vows instead of the classic royal vows.
Looking round at Cyrus again, I furrowed my eyebrows as he smiled at me. He was still squeezing my hand withthe crook of his elbow, and a spark of rage started deep in my stomach.
“How did the previous Kings and Queen’s do it?” I asked Anndra, my stomach knotting tightly. “I wouldn’t want to mess with tradition.”
“The last four monarchs of this land have joined the two ceremonies. The Queen is then the one to crown the King, marking him as her equal.”
