Page 180 of House of Embers
“Give us a twirl.”
Kerrigan turned in a circle before the trifold mirror. The gown was exceptional—a tulle strapless number with off-the-shoulder sleeves that hung loose around her arms. The bodice was corseted, with tiny cream Corsican sunflowers sewn across the boning and down the full tulle skirt.
Benton and Bayton had spent hours on her unruly hair to make it into the elaborate updo and worked on her makeup until her skin glowed. The best part was that she was completely recognizable. She wasn’t obscured by the hours of work but enhanced. She felt nothing like the rebel who had taken on the Society, and maybe that was for the better.
“Marvelous. Send in the troops,” Parris joked.
The door opened, and her wedding party was waiting—Darby,Clover, and Hadrian. Darby entered in her green tulle gown and sufficiently oohed and aahed over the dress, hair, and makeup. Hadrian and Clover, dressed in black suits with green cravats at their necks, followed behind her, Hadrian wheeling Clover into the room. While she had made it out of the worst of the explosion coma, she was still fragile in a way she had never been before. Loch managed her chronic-pain symptoms, but there were new pains that made it difficult to walk. Amond and Darby hoped they would get her back on her feet, but it would take time.
Clover whistled. “Look at you.”
“You like it?” Kerrigan asked.
“Better than flying leathers.”
Kerrigan rolled her eyes. “I look good in leather.”
“A little risqué,” Hadrian said with his nose turned up.
Clover swatted at him. “Leave it, sweetheart.”
“That’s what I’m going for,” Kerrigan joked. “Risqué.”
“Half of the known world is going to be at this wedding, so I would hope not,” Hadrian said.
Darby shushed him. “She looks divine. Are you ready?”
“To marry Fordham? Absolutely.” Kerrigan shivered. “In front of the entire world? I don’t know.”
Darby linked her arms with Kerrigan’s, holding up her dress. “You’re a natural.”
The original four left the room behind and headed through Waisley to the double doors that led to her waiting groom. Kerrigan breathed out, slow and steady. She hadn’t seen Fordham since the night before. She’d lain in her bed all alone, wondering if she should shadow-jump to his room. She’d felt the warmth down the bond, a teasing of it, tempting her to do it. But in the end, they’d both decided to stick to tradition, not that tradition much cared for them.
A string quartet began, and one by one, Darby, Hadrian, and Clover headed down the aisle. The doors closed behind them, waiting for Kerrigan to emerge.
“Not too late, am I?”
Kerrigan turned around to find Dozan Rook standing in a black suit, the green cravat at his throat so incongruous with the red she was used to seeing on him.
“What are you doing here?” she gasped. “You’re in the wedding party.”
“I didn’t think it was right for you to walk down that aisle alone.”
A tear came to her eye, and she quickly dabbed it away. “Dozan, you’re not supposed to make me cry on my wedding day.”
He chuckled, and it was a welcoming sound. “I saw what you were when no one else did. I thought that I could be the one to give you away.”
“I don’t think ex-boyfriends are supposed to give a girl away.”
“Well, good thing I was never your boyfriend.”
“Good thing,” she said. “And that you’re marrying Fordham’s sister.”
“She is in on this, you know,” he said, taking her hand and placing it on his arm as they faced the closed double doors.
“Oh, I have no doubt. Otherwise, she’d kill you.”
“That she would,” he agreed. “Let’s hope we don’t see any of those shadows from either of them.”
