Page 119 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

The ceremony was brief,and a blur.

I held my breath waiting for Griffon to say I do, though he was careful not to pause, knowing I would notice if he had. I think I said I do before Father Donne ever finished the question. That might explain the laughter from the peanut gallery.

They were definitely my hands that were shaking while Griffon slipped his mother’s ring on my finger for the second time. I’d handed it over to Wickham the night before, who promised to get it into the groom’s pocket. This time, when it slid onto my ring finger, it was to me the most beautiful ring in the world.

I remember that we were harassed for all the kissing, but I recalled it being much too brief.

All of that was forgotten a few minutes later when Griffon and I were led into the priest’s small office to sign documents. Our marriage license had pretty gold swirls and doves along the edges…and a glaring surprise filling one of the blanks.

Parents of the Groom, Bridie Trahern and Gloir Cean More.

I dropped the pen, but Griffon caught it. I searched his eyes, waiting for him to tell me it was a joke.

“Forgive me for never telling you.”

“But why?”

He shrugged. “If Orion knew… Well, you can imagine what he would do to Archer and me. Probably Bridie. We’ve never told anyone until this very minute.” He stroked his fingers along mine, stopping on the emerald. “Will you still have me?”

I tried to put all the love I had into my smile. “If you can overlook a little thing like my dragon, I can overlook a few drops of purple blood.”

He leaned down to kiss me, but we were distracted by the sound of a choking priest. “A drag…dragon?” The man held up his hands. “Never mind. I dinnae wish to ken!”

* * *

Once the excitementof the wedding supper began to die down, I stood at the door of the dining room and tapped a knife against my champagne flute, like I’d see in the movies. “May I have your attention?”

Griffon gave me a quizzical look and came to stand next to me.

“First, we thank you all for sticking with us all day today, and all the days before. I never thanked you fornotcutting off my head after you knew I was DeNoy. Anyway, I plan on making it all up to you with dragon rides.”

Urban rolled his eyes and cursed, making everyone laugh.

“That being said…I think I know how to get rid of Orion and end this war.”

When that second bout of laughter died down, I tried again. “I’m serious. Bridie just let me know that I am technically not Fae, but that the DeNoy are able to go wherever they want. And if I can pop into Fairy, like Wickham pops us everywhere, then I have a plan.”

A seed of an idea implanted in my brain while I was back in that little room, freaking out alone, waiting for my doomed wedding to start. I pictured myself as a runaway bride and imagined how horrible it would be if Orion found me in my dejected state.

Now, I explained to my friends and my new husband, that I was confident I could convince Orion that I was that runaway bride. And then I would confess that I’d been looking for him to propose something that would make both of us happy, which would include offering to take him to Hestia.

That last bit necessitated a side bar where I explained where Kivi and I had gone on Christmas Day. They then understood Kivi’s reference to dark dragons.

After that, the idea of luring Orion back to his prison snowballed. Lorraine suggested a contract. Loretta suggested a second contract. Wickham had a clever idea about using the pink jar to win Orion’s trust. Persi thought of a clever use of Light, and a way to keep Orion from knowing exactly where I’d taken him.

Griffon and Kitch grew more and more concerned with each suggestion.

I asked for everyone to take a breath and tried to reassure them, ending with this point... “If it means we can all live happily ever after, then I’m doing it.”

Griffon huffed. “We can discuss it after our honeymoon.”

“Wehadour honeymoon. And we can’t look forward to our future until we make sure we’ll even have one.”

“We must think of a better plan.” Hands on hips, he inched closer until we were nose to nose. “I will not allow you to do this.”

“You’re playing that card already? Forbidding me as my husband—”

“As your king.”

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