Page 71 of A Petal in the Crown

And really, she did—her deep purple dress hugged her body like it was made for her, with delicate straps wrapping from the bodice around her back to form an intricate pattern before meeting back together and making a train.

"Shall we?" Thomas offered his arm, and Janelle took it, nodding.

"We'll see you in there," Lea said. Emma fixed a curl on Janelle's head, then turned to follow Lea out, but Thomas stopped her.

"You look stunning," he said, making Emma blush again as she looked down at her feet. "Promise you'll save me a dance?"

"Of course," Emma said, suddenly feelingwarm and itchy all over. She hurried after Lea, unable to look Thomas in the eye. The feelings he stirred inside her were so strong—overwhelming and wonderful and terrible all at once.

Lea was waiting for her just outside the door, her silver dress shimmering, as ethereal as the moon. "So… Thomas? It’s getting serious, then?" Lea smiled, and Emma grimaced.

"We don't have to talk about it," Lea said, reaching out to touch her arm. "But just know I'm happy for you. You bring out the best in him."

Emma nodded as they walked into the dining hall, grateful that Lea seemed to understand she wasn’t ready to talk more about her feelings for Thomas. Not yet. Not here.

The thick velvet curtains of the hall had all been closed, with a roaring fire in the hearth providing a gentle orange glow instead of the harsh, bright sun. Lea had constructed a shield of air to push the heat up the chimney, and was swirling air through the room in an attempt to keep it cool. The candles on the mantle and across the long table flickered in the breeze, creating an intimate coziness in what was normally a massive, overstimulating space.

In front of the fire, Erik and Gray stood together—Erik beaming and Gray actually looking somewhat not angry and terrifying for once. He smiled when he saw Lea, who rushed over to him, folding herself into his arms as if the few moments they’d been apart had been far too long. Emma closed her eyes and basked in the joy and love emanating from everyone around her. The past few months had been difficult, to say the least. Waves of anxiety pounding against her skin from every person she walked past. Anger and sorrow. Pain and terror.

But right now, all she felt was warmth and gratitude and unconditional love, and she pulled it inside her, memorizing the sensation so she couldremember it the next time she was bombarded with others’ suffering.

"Is it time?" Erik asked as Emma moved to stand to his right, his cheeks flushed with excitement. "What's taking so long?"

Erik's energy washed through the space, so overwhelming that Emma couldn't help but smile. It was infectious, and the way he loved Janelle so deeply was palpable.

"She's coming," Emma said. "She looks beautiful."

"She always looks beautiful," Erik replied, shifting from side to side impatiently. “I’m sure she looked just as beautiful ten minutes ago. Maybe go get her?”

The doors at the end of the hall opened, and Janelle appeared, with the purest, most uninhibited smile Emma had ever seen on her face. Erik stepped forward immediately, as if desperate to run to her, but he stopped himself.

Emma’s eyes were drawn to Thomas, his arm extended to Janelle. He looked handsome, freshly shaven and dressed in all black, a sword on his hip. He found her immediately, and Emma’s stomach warmed as their gazes locked, butterflies flapping their delicate wings in a way that made her need to fidget. His eyes never left Emma’s as he escorted Janelle to where Erik stood in front of the fire, handing her off and silently moving to join Emma.

His hand found her lower back and Emma’s skin ignited, but this time, she leaned into his touch, looking around at the people she loved most in the world. It was fitting that only the six of them were there to witness Erik and Janelle's vows to one another, though Emma guessed that the other person she loved most, her mother, Elise, was likely spying through a crack in one of the doors. They’d been through so much together, and still, there was so much more to come.

Uninhibitedtears streamed down Erik's cheeks, his eyes red as he stared at Janelle with complete adoration. Emma had expected Janelle to make a joke, but instead, she gently caressed Erik's tears away, allowing him to lean into her touch.

"I love you," she said, accepting him just as he was—tears, big emotions, and all.

It struck Emma that these two people couldn’t be more different: Erik, boisterous and outwardly affectionate and loving, a man who felt things deeply and honestly; and Janelle, a woman who kept her secrets close and her friends closer, hiding behind her emotions with humor and sarcasm. Together, they were the best of both worlds.

Gray stepped forward, taking a length of rope and wrapping it around Erik and Janelle's joined hands and sealing it with a tight knot. "Erik, do you bind yourself—body, mind, and soul—to this woman? Do you promise to love and protect her until your last breath leaves your tired body?"

"I vow it to you, with the gods as my witness," Erik said, his voice thick and scratchy. A single tear escaped from Janelle's eye.

"Janelle, do you bind yourself—body, mind, and soul—to this man? Do you promise to love and protect him until your last breath leaves your tired body?"

Janelle took a moment, clearing her throat and swallowing before speaking. "I vow it to you," her voice cracked. "Dammit." She sniffled, but continued. "I vow it to you, with the gods as my witness," she said, her voice heavy with emotion, too.

"I told you she’d cry," Emma leaned over and whispered to Thomas. He smiled at her, taking her hand. Tingles ran from her fingers up her arm and into her chest, and she wondered if it would always feel like this. If Thomas’s touch would always make her feel alive in a way that terrified her in the best, most exciting way. If maybe someday they would findwhat Janelle and Erik had, and stand before these same people and make vows to bind themselves together for eternity.

"Then, as a child of the gods, here to witness your vows in truth, and of your own free will, I declare you husband and wife," Gray said, his own voice shaking. "From this moment on, nothing shall separate you, whether here on earth or beyond the veil."

"And may the gods annihilate any who try," Erik added, burning away the rope around their wrists and pulling Janelle into his arms. As they shared their first kiss as husband and wife, Emma sent her own prayer to the gods—the same one Gray had just spoken.

Please, gods, do not allow anyone to tear them apart.But even with her prayer, Emma knew it was out of their hands. Alaric would try to pull them all apart, and she had a sinking feeling in her gut that he would be doing it soon.

Chapter 45

---