“Uh, just to say, no one calls me Noctorno,” Noc stated, sounding irritated.
Valentine’s lips tipped up further and she glanced his way.
“How did you do it?” I asked and Valentine looked to me. “They said you couldn’t use your magic there. How did you?”
“You, ma colombe, and your sisters broke that enchantment,” she answered. “This, I had hoped you would find your way to do. And you did.”
“But I don’t have magic,” Cora remarked.
“I don’t either,” I said.
“Neither do I,” Finnie added.
Valentine looked among us. “We women all have the capacity to carry magic. We just need the motivation. And love is a powerful motivation, don’t you agree?”
Well, that couldn’t be argued.
“Regardless,” she went on, “Circe has magic and she was the channel to pull up yours. It was, as I’d hoped, quite powerful. Alas, I could not send your men or battalions of soldiers there for even with their protections down, the triad was still at full strength and someone might have been harmed in the ensuing fray. The instant they saw any of us, they would pull up defenses, vickrants, toilroys, etcetera. Therefore, once I could transport someone there, I sent someone they would not see as a threat, Franka, instilled by a spell to open a line for the elves to get to Lavinia as well as to create a diversion for”—she glanced Noc’s way—“Noc to arrive and finally make it safe for myself and the men to come, without the tedious bother of dealing with armies of creatures.”
Tedious bother.
This woman was something else.
“So Franka has magic?” Finnie asked, looking Franka’s way.
“She is, of course, a woman. A woman with her own motivation,” Valentine murmured.
I was looking Franka’s way too.
She was avoiding everyone’s eyes.
Even so, I said, “Thank you.”
Her head jerked and she looked to me.
“Thank you,” I repeated. “That took a lot of courage and I…well, I appreciate it.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” she stated coldly.
“Maybe not, but in the end, you still helped us and I’m still grateful,” I returned.
Apollo’s arm around me gave me a squeeze.
Franka’s mouth got tight as she held my eyes for long moments before she looked away.
“Are you okay, Lavinia?” Finnie asked and my gaze went to the witch.
“It is not fun being dead,” Lavinia replied, then she smiled a small smile. “But as I am no longer thus and all is well in my Lunwyn again, I am fine.”
“Are we done?” Valentine asked into this exchange. “I’m sorely in need of a beverage.”
“I am as well,” Queen Aurora murmured, straightening from her chair. “Perhaps two of them. I’ll call for a servant.”
She moved and thus endeth the debrief.
Cora, followed by Tor, moved Noc’s way.
Finnie went to Lavinia.
I got off the arm of the chair, grabbed Apollo’s hand, pulled him out of the chair, and I headed us Derrik’s way.
He looked only at me as we moved to him. I didn’t know what this meant, but things needed to be said now so I decided to ask Apollo later.
For then, I just smiled at Derrik and when I reached him, I let Apollo go, got close and moved in to give Derrik a hug.
His arms closed around me and I felt his jaw at the side of my head.
“That had to suck, hanging with them for so long,” I noted and I heard his chuckle as he gave me a squeeze and leaned a bit away without letting me go.
I tipped my head back to look up at him.
“It was not fun, but I am no longer hanging with them, so I am fine,” he said.
“I’m glad,” I whispered then finished with feeling, “And thank you.”
“I would do anything for you, Maddie,” he whispered back and I felt my throat close because he’d proved that true.
His arms loosened and I shifted to his side as he looked to Apollo.
“And I would do anything for you,” he declared.
The second he did, Apollo shot a hand out, curled it around the side of Derrik’s neck and yanked him forward so they were nose-to-nose, eye-to-eye.
“My gratitude, my brother,” Apollo stated and I swallowed as my nose started to tingle.
They both looked into each other’s eyes for some time and I waited, watching and deep breathing.
Apollo finally let his friend go and I moved in quickly.
“Okay, I hate to interrupt the reunion,” I started, giving Derrik an I-hope-you-understand grin then looking up to Apollo. “But I really want to see the kids.”
“Then I will take you to them,” Apollo replied immediately.
“And Meeta and Loretta,” I added.
“I will find them for you as well.”
“And then I have seriously got to eat,” I finished.
He grinned down at me.
Then he bent to me and touched his mouth to mine.
After that, as was his way, Apollo did not delay in getting me everything I wanted.
* * * * *
A week later, I stood in an antechamber of the Dwelling of the Gods, staring at the glittering bundle of delicate branches Finnie just shoved into my hands.
“Before you go in there and participate in the longest, the most boring wedding ceremony of all time…something borrowed,” she said. “I carried that when I married Frey.” She grinned. “Of course I had no clue who he was at the time, but it ended okay.”
Yes. One could certainly say it ended okay.
I grinned back at her.
She moved away as Circe moved in.
“Something old,” she said, grabbing my hand, lifting it palm up and pressing a golden feather there.
It looked like it came from the kickass headband of feathers she had wrapped around her forehead and mingling in her hair.
“It’s from my first crown,” she told me and my eyes went back to her. “I ripped it up when I got angry at Lahn and took myself back to my world.” She closed my hand around the feather. “He kept the pieces. Some of them are in the one I’m wearing now. Some of them are in a pouch he carries with him every day. He kept them even when the odds were against him in getting me back and winning me back.” She tipped her head to the side. “So I figure, they represent hope. And, seriously, there isn’t a day filled with more hope than a wedding day.”
I could totally believe Lahn carried Circe’s feathers with him every day but not in hopes of anything. That man wanted her back, he was going to find a way.
And he did.
Still, it was a total honor having one.
“Thank you,” I whispered, lifting my other hand to curl it around hers.
She gave me a smile, squeezed my hands and moved away.
I tucked the feather into the sleeve of my glove as Cora moved in.
“Something new,” she said, lifting my hand and leaving it suspended as she fastened on my wrist a bracelet made of delicate platinum links on which dangled tiny platinum charms she showed me by twisting it around my wrist.
As they came into view, the skin at my wrist began to tingle because I knew what each one meant.
The fang of a wolf. Apollo. A bow and arrow. Christophe. A tiny doll. Élan. And a miniature rattle. Our yet to arrive girl.
Cora curled her fingers around mine and I looked from the bracelet to her.
“You can add to that as life brings you bounty,” she said.
“Thank you,” I replied yet again, my voice husky.
She grinned at me.
I deep breathed so I wouldn’t mess up my makeup.
“And something blue.” We heard and I turned my head and blinked, seeing Valentine suddenly there.
She drew her elegant hand up, flicked it out and I felt cold at my neck.
“Holy crap,” Circe whispered.
I had the chance to do nothing as Valentine got close, pl
aced her hands on my shoulders and turned me, moving me forward toward a gilt-edged mirror, where she stopped me.
And I saw against my throat in place of the jewelry that had lain there, an exquisite tiered necklace glittering ice blue with extraordinarily cut Sjofn diamonds from Lunwyn.
I also saw Valentine behind me and I watched as she bent her head so her mouth was close to my ear.
“Some time ago, a man filled with sorrow handed me a bag filled with hope. Those stones were in that bag,” she told me quietly and my eyes dropped back down to the necklace. “He knew, as I knew and now you know, even as he paid for the chance to have it again that love is priceless, love is worth every battle fought, every wound endured. He knew, as you now know, ma colombe, that love is everything.”
I lifted my hand and touched the stones with the tips of my fingers, but my eyes moved to hers in the mirror.
“You’re giving this to me?” I asked.
“Oh no, ma chérie, they have always been yours. I’m just returning them to you.”
Holy cow.
I shook my head. “But, it’s your payment.”
“I have learned, Madeleine, and I must admit it was against my will, but I have learned that there are many ways to be compensated.” Her fingers tipped in blood red pressed into my shoulders. “Today, you bind yourself to a man who holds you precious. You walk to him carrying a child made from love. I played a small part in that. And that is the only payment I need.”
I was so totally talking Apollo into giving her more diamonds to get my Fritos.
“I don’t know what to say,” I told her.
“Say nothing. Just be. And in being, be happy,” she replied.
Okay. Until then, I wasn’t sure she was my favorite person.
But now she’d hit the top ten.
I smiled at her in the mirror.
Her lips tipped up in return.
The door flew open and Loretta flew in. “The men are getting restless!” she cried.
Meeta strolled after her, her eyes coming to me, and noted, “This is true. However, things can hardly get started without you and it is an exercise in character to learn to wait.”
She wasn’t wrong.
But I didn’t want my man to wait so I made a move and felt Valentine’s hands fall from my shoulders.
“Time to get this show started,” Finnie murmured, came to me and leaned in to finish in my ear, “Try not to fall asleep.”
I grinned into her hair.
Apollo had explained the marriage ceremony of Lunwyn. I knew I was in for a lot of standing and a lot of hearing words no one in the room understood because the holy men of this place spoke in the ancient tongue.
I did not care.
When it was done, Apollo Ulfr (the good one) would officially be mine.
To get that, I’d stand for a year and listen to someone prattle on.
Luckily, I didn’t have to do that.
Finnie grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze before she leaned away and winked.
“See you at the post-nuptial festivities,” Circe said, dashing forward when Finnie moved away and touching her cheek to mine.
“See you there,” I replied.
She gave me another smile before moving away and Cora was there.
She touched her cheek to mine too and said, “Don’t be happy. Be ecstatically happy. You’ve earned it.”
She was so sweet.
“I will,” I promised.
She moved away and they all gathered together, Valentine not giving me any words for which I was glad. She’d said enough. I was just holding up. I didn’t need to break down. I wanted Apollo to marry the awesome me, not the puffy-eyed, mascara-streaked, red-faced me.
But before they exited, I studied them, thinking it was pretty freaking cool I was friends with two bona fide princesses and a full blown queen.
And just thinking it was pretty freaking cool I had so many friends.
Finnie in her ice blue velvet gown with the kickass crown in her white hair that looked like diamonds formed into icicles.
Circe wearing a heavy silk sarong made of gold material held up by a belt made of gold disks. Her gold bandeau top could be seen because it was covered by a sheer skintight long-sleeved golden top. A heavy-looking gold necklace at her neck, deeply dropping gold chandelier earrings at her ears and what appeared to be hundreds of gold bangles at her wrists. Her crown of feathers glimmering at her forehead.
Cora wearing a royal blue velvet dress in the fashion of Lunwyn, a heavy gold chain hanging low on her hips, the ends dripping down into massive sapphires, a tasteful, but fabulous gold crown mingled in her shining brunette updo.
The dream team.
My dream team.
Women who, like me, knew impossible, amazing, fantastical dreams could come true.
Dreams you would not dare to dream.
Dreams that we lived in every day.
I blew them a kiss.
They returned the gesture (all but Valentine) and moved through the door.
Loretta and Meeta rushed forward when they did, both putting their hands to me. Meeta’s rising to my fiddle with my hair, Loretta’s lowering to fidget with the skirt of my gown.
“What’s this?” Meeta asked, leaning back, her eyes on my necklace. The she looked to me. “This does not go with your gown Miss Maddie.”
She was right.
It didn’t.
My gown was the gown I luckily had to wear to the Bitter Gales.
A gown that was now my wedding gown.
Ulfr green satin, off-the-shoulder, but the low neckline and around my upper arms were fashioned in a wide luxurious line of black-brown mink. The hem and long train of my skirt had the same fur tracing it. My low-slung belt was also gold but fitted in every other link was an emerald and a topaz. I had half a dozen matching bejeweled combs holding up the intricate twists and curls of my hair and matching dangling earrings falling from my earlobes. And I had topaz evening gloves with thin tufts of mink at the ends.
The ice blue diamonds didn’t match.
And yet they were utterly perfect.
“It’s from Apollo,” I told Meeta.
It wasn’t the exact truth.
But it was still true.
“Ah,” she mumbled.
I smiled at her.
She caught my eyes and smiled back.
“There are two ladies who need to take their seats and the Head of a House who’s growing rather impatient,” a man’s voice noted and we all looked to the door to see Achilles had his head stuck in.
“Right! Must dash!” Loretta exclaimed, jumped forward, kissed me on the cheek and then darted out of the room.
“Until later, Miss Maddie,” Meeta said calmly, leaned forward, touched her cheek to mine, leaned back as she caught my hands and gave them a squeeze before she let me go and sauntered out like she was taking an evening stroll.
Achilles had shifted out of their way to let them go but when they were gone, he joined me in the room.
“Ready, little bug?” he asked quietly.
“Ready, Lees,” I replied quietly.
He offered his arm.
I moved forward and took it.
He guided me out of the antechamber and into the vestibule of the Dwelling of the Gods.
Draven, Hans, Alek, Remi, Gaston and Laures were all standing around, wearing the colors of their houses, waiting.
All except Derrik, who wasn’t standing.
He was moving to me, smiling.
“And she makes a beautiful bride,” he murmured when he arrived.
“Thanks, honey,” I murmured back.
Apollo had since explained all that had gone down with him and Derrik. I was surprised, and it had to be said, a little sad to learn it. It was another miracle that both men got over it and now…
Well now…
He shifted to my side and offered his arm.
Now, he was ours again. Mine. Apollo’s. And the House of Ulfr’s.
<
br /> I took in a deep breath, rearranged my bouquet of adela branches to rest against Achilles’ elbow, and accepted it.
With Achilles on one side of me, Derrik on the other, they turned me to face the door.
Laures, Draven with Hans behind them moved into formation in front of us. Remi and Gaston, with Alek trailing, moved in behind us.
Laures jerked up his chin at the two young boys standing at the doors.
They opened them and my stomach dropped.
“All right?” Derrik asked, curling his fingers over mine at his elbow.
“Absolutely,” I answered, looking straight ahead.
The men moved.
I went with them.
At the front of the sanctuary were statues of the gods of this world and a man wearing white robes and a long multi-colored wrap draped around his neck that dangled down the front.
Also at the front was Apollo, wearing a well-tailored shirt of Ulfr green, an equally well tailored brown jacket, exceptionally well-tailored brown breeches, highly polished brown boots and a neck cloth.
I had a feeling, seeing him in that moment, I would have many times in my life where I was awed by his beauty.
But no time would be better than that.
We stopped at the end of the pews so we could turn right and the men could bow and I could curtsy to Queen Aurora who sat in the middle of the pew, Frey and Finnie, Circe and Lahn, Cora and Tor sharing the pew with her.
Christophe and Élan, though, sat at her sides.
When she bid us to rise, we did and I dipped my head to her, sent a smile along the entirety of the pew but I winked at Christophe and Élan.
Élan giggled and waved.
Christophe just tipped his chin to me.
We turned and the men led me to Apollo.
I only had eyes for him and he only had eyes for me.
In fact, when Laures, Draven and Hans cleared away and the man in white robes started speaking, Apollo didn’t even look at him.
He also didn’t look at him when the man stopped speaking and Apollo lifted his fist.
He continued to hold my eyes as Derrik let me go, Achilles moved me forward, lifted my hand, and curled my fingers around Apollo’s fist.
He didn’t even look away when the man in white robes said something and all Apollo’s men called, “Yes!”
The man in white robes said more as I felt Apollo’s men move away and there I was, at his side, his head tipped down, mine tipped back, all so we could keep the contact Apollo would not break.