“Fine, fine, fine,” she said. “I, Beth, a totally awesome chick…”
“‘…take this meathead, Wrath…’”
“…take this meathead, Wrath…”
“‘…as my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward…’”
“…as my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward…”
“‘…for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer…’”
And suddenly it wasn’t a joke. The further she went, the more serious Lassiter got, and the shakier Wrath’s shellan became, as if the words she were speaking were ones of great value and meaning.
This was tradition for her, he realized.
She continued in a rough way, “…in sickness and in health…”
“‘…to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.’”
“…to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.”
Lassiter turned another page. “‘I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’”
Suddenly, Wrath gritted his molars to keep his own emotions in check as she repeated the words, and slid the ruby on his pinkie.
“And now, my lord,” Lassiter said smoothly. “Recite after me…”
Beth had never been one of those girls who’d imagined her wedding. Acted it out with Barbies. Bought Bride magazine as soon as she hit her twenties.
She was pretty sure that if she had been, though, none of the hypotheticals would have resembled this in the slightest: surrounded by vampires, possibly pregnant, with a fallen angel in an Elvis costume mangling the ceremony from the Book of Common Prayer.
And yet as she stared up at her soon-to-be husband, she couldn’t have pictured anything she would have liked more. Then again, when you were facing the right person? None of the things they talked about on television, no Vera Wang dress, no champagne waterfall, no DJ or place setting or party favor mattered.
“‘I, Wrath, take you, Beth,’” Lassiter started.
“I got this,” her husband said in his booming voice. “I, Wrath, take you, Beth, as my beloved wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. This is my solemn vow.”
Cue a serious case of the misties.
As Beth sniffled and smiled at the same time, Wrath placed the gigantic King’s ring on the top of her thumb. With grave sincerity, he said, “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you in the name of your Father, and your Son, and your Holy Spirit.”
There was a round of applause, spontaneous and loud. And Lassiter had to shout to be heard over it, “By the power vested in me thanks to Google, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride!”
The clapping got louder as Wrath put his arms around her and bent her backward so far, the only thing keeping her from the ground was his strength.
It was a move he did on a regular basis, an unconscious way of asserting and proving his physical ability to take care of her.
“Take my sunglasses off,” he whispered as the curtain of his hair fell all around, giving them privacy. “I want you to see my eyes even if they can’t see you.”
Beth’s hands were shaking as she reached up to his face. Sliding the wraparounds from his temples, his extraordinary stare was revealed, and she thought of the first time she had seen it: in the underground guest suite at her father’s house.
They were exactly as they had been. Brilliant pale green, they glowed from within to the point where she had to blink, and not just from the tears in her vision.
“Beautiful,” she breathed.
“Useless,” he countered with a smile—as if he were remembering the same exchange.
“No, they show me all the love in your heart.” She touched his face. “And that is very useful.”
Wrath’s mouth came down on hers, brushing once, twice. And then he kissed her deeply and slowly.
When he finally started to right her, she put his sunglasses back into place, and facing the household, she flushed as she looked at them all. So much love all around.
It made her feel invincible against whatever came at them.
Over the din, Lassiter shouted, “A-thank you, a-thank-you-vera-much.”
Wrath bent to the side, flubbled George’s ears and took hold of the dog’s harness; then the three of them were walking down the aisle toward the dining room.
Somehow Fritz had managed to pull a banquet of food out of thin air, the table magically set during the ceremony with a simple but ample spread.
But first there was business.
As Rehv came in past the arches, he nodded to Beth and she leaned into her husband.
“It’s time to sign,” she said.
It was painful to watch her husband’s unrestrained happiness tighten right up.
“Just the same, right?” she whispered. “We’re married. We’re covered.”
“Yeah…” There was a long pause. “Yeah, I can do this.”
Except he took his time going over to where Rehv was unrolling a parchment that had red and black ribbons streaming off its lower half.
“I have a blue pen for the signature line,” Rehv said, taking the thing out of his mink coat. “This document has been prepared by Saxton, and it’s been predated to three weeks ago. He’s assured me that the wording is ironclad and nothing that they can dispute in any way.”
“Ironclad,” Wrath muttered.
Rehv put out the pen. “Sign it and I’ll take care of the delivery—with pleasure.”
Beth dropped his hand to give her man some space—but he didn’t want that, clearly. Gathering her palm back, he stood over the parchment.
“What does it say?” he demanded roughly.
Beth looked over the symbols and saw nothing but patterns of blue ink.
“It says…” Rehv leaned in. “That the union is annulled.”
“Like it never existed?” Wrath muttered.
Rehv tapped the parchment. “This is a political statement. A political function. This is not about the two of you.”
“My signature’s supposed to be on it. And her name’s on there. So it is about us.”
Rehv backed off, too. Then it was just Wrath and the writing he couldn’t see.
All the Brothers and the members of the household hung in the periphery, everyone quiet.
He wasn’t going to do it, she thought. He just wasn’t going to be able to do it …