Page 229 of The Darkest Chase

My Talia.

My fiancée, who brought me out of the darkness and into the light.

My salvation, my everything, and soon to be my forever.

27

DARK DELIGHT (TALIA)

Months Later

Awinter wedding.

It’s everything I never knew I wanted, and everything I’ve always dreamed of.

I don’t even feel the cold as I stare at my reflection in the mirror in the small boathouse on Still Lake’s shore.

It’s been converted into a makeshift dressing room for tonight. It’s so busy, and I’m surrounded by people.

Janelle Bowden, adjusting her lavender off-the-shoulder matron of honor dress. Delilah Graves and Ophelia Faircross, both fussing with the sash of my dress. I’ve only known them for a few months but they’ve treated me like a bestie from day one.

I almost don’t even know what to do with this crowd.

I’ve never had actual friends.

Not counting Grandpa, of course.

He’s easily been my best friend my whole life.

But the last few weeks, getting my wedding together after Micah told me the guys at Redhaven PD would be his groomsmen…

I never expected their wives to step up and throw themselves into being my bridesmaids.

And I wasn’t expecting how much fun I’d have with Delilah, Ophelia, and Janelle, even if Janelle’s been a little subdued. Who can blame her?

The poor woman still looks at me like she wants to apologize. The best way I could tell her that I don’t blame her for what her husband did was to invite her to stand in for my deceased mother in my wedding.

I can tell she’s felt alive again, and it makes me crazy happy that I could do something to help ease her pain and the nagging mystery of what happened to Chief Bowden.

I know all too well how being part of something can take the edge off old wounds.

And it feels like I’m catching up on a lifetime of being the weird, unpopular kid in just a span of a couple months as the four of us gossiped over fabrics, flowers, and the ceremony.

Micah has been pretty hands off the entire time, claiming he didn’t know the first thing about weddings and he’d just screw it up. Though he gave me a look when I told him what I had planned—and what the girls were wholeheartedly on board with.

Micah indulgently accepted it, but I could tell what he was thinking.

You’re the only reason I’ll ever embarrass myself like this.

I mean, if your man doesn’t love you enough to wear breeches and riding boots to your wedding, is it really love?

Besides, even if I’ve let go of my girlish fantasies about vampires, loving my soon-to-be husband for who he really is, I do have strong opinions.

Like the fact that every girl should get to live out her fairy tale just once.

And I feel like a fairy-tale princess now as I take a final spin in the mirror.

My dress looks like it was spun from pure silk, all gorgeous gossamer layers with a high empress waist and a trailing skirt. The small puffed-up sleeves leave my arms bare, save for the spirals of white gossamer wrapped around them, streaming from my wrists to the floor.

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