Page 95 of When We Lost The Moon

“It’s as close as I could remember,” Trevor said, nodding to my siblings. “Though they remembered more than I did.”

“It’s perfect,” I said.

“Come inside!” Loralie said, pulling my arm. “I took your old room,” she said, leading me upstairs into the attic, and then showing off some of the new appliances and features that Trevor had custom-added on request. “Jamie will keep his room and you can have Mom’s.”

“I may stay in the citadel a while longer,” Jamie added. “But we’ll come back for visits. Family holidays. Trevor wanted you to have a place that was yours, and it’s easier for Loralie to get around in a place she already knows. But it’s your home, too.”

I kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair. He frowned, combing it back into place with his fingers.

“You can get settled in later,” Trevor said, once we rejoined him outside. “You should check in with Amber. We’ll meet up with you later.”

Amber had spent a few days with me in the citadel, and before she left I had Tobias take her shopping for a wedding dress. It wasn’t as grand as a royal wedding, but for Algrave, it may as well have been. She handed me a glass of champagne when I walked in. Damien had brought a crate of them from the citadel.

“It’s too much,” she protested. “I can’t believe the prince will be present at my wedding.”

“He’s here as a guest, not a prince,” I said. “And he just wants to make it up to you, after everything.”

“This should do it,” Mary said. “People will be talking about tonight for years.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “About ruining yours…”

“Forget it,” she said. “From what I gather, you saved my life. I guess it almost makes up for stabbing me.”

“Youstabbedher?” Amber said, turning around in surprise.

“Only a little,” I said.

“The citadel was tough on everybody,” Mary said, sipping her champagne. But it worked out for the best, and us Algrave girls have to stick together.”

We raised our glasses for a quick toast, then gave the cue that we were ready. A band played during our entrance, with Amber in her white dress and veil, and Mary and me walking behind her as bridesmaids. The ceremony was in a tasteful outdoor garden to the side of the renewal center, in a white gazebo surrounded by heavy bouquets of flowers.

After we played our parts, I took a seat between Damien and Tobias for the rest of the vows and the exchange of rings. Tobias was scribbling something down on a pad of paper.

“Getting inspired?” I whispered.

“Writing my speech for your wedding,” he said back. “I am the best man, after all. Tell me what you think of this. ‘For a century, the elite chose companions and if they proved worthy, gifted their spouses with immortality. Now for the first time, a common has chosen an elite, and given him the gift of mortality instead, so that they may grow old, and die, together.’”

“It’s not terrible,” Damien grimaced.

“The speech is just a start. Maybe I’ll turn it into a play.”

“We haven’t even set a date yet.”

“Yes, and you have no idea how frustrating that is for me.”

“We just want to have a plan first.”

With our official roles in the kingdom yet to be defined, it was a little difficult to think about planning a royal wedding. If Damien took the crown, I’d be a queen, but we’d both rejected that idea, for now. We hadn’t, however, come up with a suitable alternative.

“About that,” Damien said. “Tobias and I had an idea, and we wanted to get your feedback on it.”

“Picture this,” Tobias started, raising his palms like he was framing a window into the future. “We melt the crown into three ceremonial daggers. Or keys, maybe. Not one throne; three equal seats of power. One vampire, one havoc, and one citizen. A truly united kingdom.”

“Not a kingdom exactly,” Damien cut in. “We’d also have a senate, made of two elected senators from each compound.”

“How many compounds is that now?” I asked.

“It depends on what we include, but if we count the citadel, and Quandom, and then add Havoc as a loose, broad community and the strip as a distant state, we’d have twelve.”

---