Page 627 of Shadowblood Souls
Dominic twines his fingers with mine. “We know how much you enjoy a dramatic scene. Does this fit the bill well enough?”
Like something out of my soap opera—except with a very unusual slant. No genetic engineering labs in the fictional storylines I’m used to.
A laugh spills out of me, slightly choked. “It’s… It’s kind of amazing. But you didn’t have to go tothismuch trouble just to make an extra-romantic date.”
Griffin’s voice turns even softer than usual. “It’s more than that. Moonbeam, you know we’ve been devoted to you our entire lives, as far back as any of us can remember.Iknow all of us would have given anything to stay by your side every minute of every day, since all the way back in those early days here, even if no one was brave enough to talk about it.”
His twin makes a slightly disgruntled sound, but when Jacob speaks, his tone is equally gentle, if a little raw. “There was a lot of awfulness about how we got started—both times. But we’ve taken the awfulness and made something amazing out of it, just like we did with this place. No matter how hard the guardians and their bosses tried to beat us down, we fought through it to carve our own way. To live the lives we wanted. With you.”
Andreas picks up the thread next. “Out of all the stories I’ve written and the ones still to come, there isn’t any I’d rather be living than this one. There aren’t any memories I treasure more than the ones with you. I’d take the painful parts a thousand times over to keep the joy.”
Zian clears his throat, his posture still awkward but his gaze steady. “They made us into something that wasn’t totally human. You let me see that because of that, I could do more good instead of dealing out more hurt. Every moment you’re around, my day gets brighter. That’s all I want for my future.”
Dominic lifts my hand to kiss my knuckles, his eyes shining with affection. “Even I couldn’t heal our group the way you did, Riva. We belong together. We belong with you. And we shouldn’t have taken it for granted that we could just leave our relationship as it is. I want you to know, every second of every day, how much you mean to us.”
I started to choke up with Griffin’s short speech. By the final one, tears are pricking at the backs of my eyes.
I don’t know what to say, and maybe that’s okay, because they’re not finished yet. In almost perfect synchronization, the five guys step into a semi-circle in front of me and sink down on bended knee. Griffin reaches into his pocket, but they all lend a hand to hold the jewelry box he produces to me.
It’s open, a platinum ring embedded with five sparkling diamonds cushioned inside.
“Riva,” Griffin says, “will you marry us?”
A sound that’s part laugh, part sob hitches up my throat, but every part of it is giddy happiness. The swell of emotion overwhelms me. I throw myself at my men, heedless of the ring, and they close around me in a joint embrace.
“Of course,” I say when I can find my voice again. “Of course I’d want to be married to you. It’s just—it won’t really change anything about the way we’ve been living, will it? We might as well already be married.”
Andreas presses a kiss to my jaw. “We might as well be, but we aren’t yet. A horrible oversight. We all want to feel the connection we share in every way possible. You deserve that. It matters.”
If you asked me a few hours ago whether I thought a piece of metal would make any difference, I’d probably have snorted. But Griffin slides the ring onto my finger, where it hugs the skin firmly, and the knot of uneasiness that’s been dogging me all this time cracks apart. A swell of relief fills my chest.
I beam at all of my guys. “This isn’t an actual ceremony, though. We need more than just a ring. You all need rings too! And?—”
Jacob gives my braid a teasing tug. “We’re on top of it. We had to make sure you’d say yes first.”
Dominic takes my hand again. “We’ll make the wedding every bit as amazing as you deserve too. Ready to go dress shopping?”
When we get out of the limo in front of the Recovery Gardens, my first glimpse of the sunlight reflecting off the glass walls tells me I made the right decision. Andreas offered all kinds of fancy hotel reception rooms where we could have made a spectacle like a soap-opera wedding, but none of them felt quite right.
In a way, this marriage is about recovery—recovering who we are and how we’re going to live from the shambles our former keepers left us in. Reclaiming every part of ourselves—and each other.
That doesn’t mean I skimped on the dress, though. After the bridal boutiques the guys escorted me to left my skin squirming, I spotted this black ballgown in a display window and dragged them over. The asymmetrical tiers of ruffled silk spill around my legs with all the drama I could desire but without making me feel like I’m drowning. The fitted bodice emphasizes what curves I have.
And the V-neck with its delicate embroidery shows off and brings out the five dark gray marks along my collarbone, the most concrete symbol I have of the bond I share with my men.
I’m not some innocent girl giving over my purity. Black suits me much better than white, if we’re being honest.
Besides, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the darkness in my soul anymore. If I need to be a monster again, it’ll only be to protect the people I love.
The guys took their cues from my fashion choices. They accompany me into the greenhouse all equally stunning in their black suits with deep gray dress shirts underneath—unbuttoned just far enough so their own marks show at the top of their sternums.
Anyone watching can see how we all fit together—how closely we’re linked, down to the impressions on our bodies.
There are a lot of people to see. As we walk down the paths between the foliage now hung with fairy lights and glittering streamers, I lose my breath at the sight of how many of our friends and associates have turned up to watch our vows, spread out along the sides of the paths for our entrance.
Nadia waves to me where she’s got her arm hooked with her boyfriend’s. Ajax and Devon shoot us synchronized thumbs-ups, with a comment from Ajax slipping into my head.Now that’s an entrance!
As a smile tugs at my lips, my gaze slides over the other shadowbloods we’ve rescued and rehabilitated, over various shadowkind students we’ve helped mentor at the academy over the years. Most of the academy staff has shown up too, including Pearl, who gives a little whoop when she sees us and squeezes Toni’s hand as if she’s even more thrilled about this development than I am.
