by Wendy Knight
Ari padded into her room, sliding off her pink bunny slippers. With a shy smile, she slid next to him under the covers. As she curled around him, fitting herself to his side and laid her head on his chest, he finally felt whole.
“I love you, Shane Delyle.”
“I love you back, Ari.”
Chapter Three
“Shane, care to tell me why you’re sleeping in my sister’s bed on my wedding day?”
Shane’s eyes flew open and he jerked upright, nearly smashing his head on Will’s face, the man was leaning so close to him. “We just slept!” he yelped.
Will sighed, rising from the chair he’d been sitting in. “I guessed that much. Still…” He paused in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder. “I’d watch your back if I were you.”
Ari brushed past him, toweling dry her hair, dressed in a fuzzy white robe. This obsession with things soft and fluffy, on anyone else, was cute. On Ari, who had lived her life full of hard and cold, soft and fluffy obsessions were adorable. “Will, breakfast. Now. We’re on a schedule.”
Then her eyes landed on him, and her whole face lit up. “Hi.”
“Hi back. Are you ready to face the world as my fiancée?” Just saying the word made his belly do all kinds of mad tricks. She said yes.
“Very ready.” She leaned across the bed and kissed him until the flames in his blood threatened to completely overwhelm him.
Will cleared his throat from the doorway.
Ari snickered and stood up, running a hand through his messy black hair. “Right.” Shane sighed, sliding out of bed. “I suppose I have a tux waiting for me at home.”
“First, can you help me put up wards around the colony? I don’t want any Normals to stumble across us.” Ari looked hopefully at him.
“Of course.” He grinned at her robe. “You gonna go like that?”
She stuck her tongue out at him before she shoved him out of her room so she could change. Thirty seconds later, she reappeared in a black hoody and jeans. “Ready?”
It took them almost an hour to get the wards up, but at least it was one less thing anyone had to worry about that day. Then he walked her home. She paused at the front door, turning to lean her forehead against his shoulder.
“I have to help Will and then Dani and Nev has some miracle she thinks can control this. But I really don’t want to leave you.” Without raising her head, Ari gestured to the tangle of curls sweeping across her shoulders. Already she was tired. He shouldn’t have kept her up so late.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Me either.”
She sighed, snuggling closer.
“Do me a favor?” Shane tipped her head up and kissed her nose.
She smiled. “Depends on what it is.”
“Leave it down. I love this.” He, too, gestured to the curls.
She pursed her lips, her eyebrows raised in skepticism. “Well, I can try. We both know when Nev is in charge, Nev is in charge. But just because you’re so cute, I will do my best.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“You two are making me sick. Ari, my tie is strangling me.”
Shane glanced over his shoulder at Will, who stood pathetically in the doorway, his face turning an alarming grayish blue.
Ari shook her head. “Seriously, Will, if you insist on dressing like some big-shot model, you should at least know how to tie a tie.” She crossed the room and yanked on one side of his tie, effectively saving the day.
Airways cleared once again, Will said, “I’m too good-looking to dress as anything but a big-shot model, Ari. We know this.”
Shane chuckled as he inched his way back down the stairs. “I’m off. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
She followed him to the door, giving him one last, lingering kiss. “I can’t wait.”
****
Dani and Will had chosen purple and black as their wedding colors. Fitting, since it was the joining of blue and red flames. When Ari rushed into the forest where they were setting up white folding chairs, the entire group froze.
Shane stood up. He’d been planting a black lantern into the ground along the aisle. Every inch of her skin erupted in delicious goose bumps.
“I thought you were helping Dani,” he said.
Livi and Hunter’s sister and mother rushed her and she suddenly had a very clear idea of what a quarterback felt like. “Let me see! Let me see!” Livi demanded, snatching Ari’s hand.
Even Hunter followed, but more slowly. And Charity emerged from a table in the back where she’d been organizing the bouquets and boutonnieres. Hunter studied her hand before he looked up at her. “Looks good on you.”
“Thanks.”
She felt Shane’s arms slide around her waist and she leaned into him, safe, secure.
“This is a very beautiful thing,” Charity said, watching them with tears in her eyes.
“So… we have a meadow to make beautiful. Let’s get it done. Enough standing around, people!” Livi yelled, shoving them all back to work.
Ari’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as she watched her tiny friend move away, shoving people back to work. She hadn’t been aware that Livi could be so stern. And then she paused and bounced back, squeezing both their hands. “It really is beautiful. I’m so happy for both of you.”
They worked quickly. Hunter set up tables for the reception in a meadow not far from the tunnel of trees where the ceremony would be. Charity decorated them with black tablecloths, white plates, and candelabras topped with purple poufy flowers that Ari supposed someone knew the official name for. The overall effect was stunning.
She and Shane lined the aisle with black hanging lanterns. Inside were more poufy purple flowers. And down the middle of the aisle, Hunter’s sister and brother drew out a pattern of a binding spell in purple, black, and white rose petals.
“Holy snowballs. That’s gorgeous.” Ari stood back, staring wide-eyed at their work.
“It is,” Shane agreed.
“And I am now off to check the flower girls and the ring bearer. Wait ‘til you see their dresses.” She started to scurry away before she paused. “I mean the flower girl dresses, not the ring bear—”
Shane kissed her before pushing her down toward the village. She could still hear him chuckling as she disappeared through the trees.
“Cali, you get to be twins with your big sister. Isn’t that cool?” Ari asked, kneeling in front of the tiny blonde who was looking dubiously at the layers of black tulle. “Sienna, come show her how pretty you are,” Ari called over her shoulder.
Cali’s older sister, Sienna, appeared in the bedroom doorway, twirling. The dress had a solid black bodice, but the entire back was lace. The skirt was layers upon layers of black tulle. “She’s pretty,” Cali said.
“Yes, yes she is. Let’s get your dress on so you can be just as pretty.” It took some wrestling to get the very large, very fluffy dress over Cali’s tiny frame, but they did it just as her older brother, Carson, appeared, dressed in his own little black suit with a purple vest.
“Mama says it’s time for you to get ready, Ari.”
“Thanks, bud. I’m on it.” She kissed him on the head as she ran out, followed by his giggles.
“Ari! We have a… situation here we could use your height on!” Ari’s mother called from Dani’s window as Ari passed on her way back to Will’s.
“Snowballs. I’m exhausted and we haven’t even started yet,” Ari muttered as she turned and jogged up Dani’s front stairs. “I’m here. What’s up?” she called as soon as she got the door open. Hairspray hung in a fine mist across the living room. It reminded Ari of living in the dorms at school again. Hairspray mist was a dangerous obstacle she’d had to face every day on her way out of the building.
“Her hair is absolutely gorgeous. And… now we can’t get the dress over her head without messing it up.” Nev stood, panic-stricken, in the hallway.
Ari tried not to smile as she hurried after her. Dani stood with a dress half-on,
her arms straight up like she’d been caught in a straight jacket. “Not one word, Ari,” she hissed.
Ari sucked in her cheeks so she couldn’t laugh and dragged a stool over. Standing above, she negotiated the white lace over Dani’s head while Dani’s mother, Ari’s mother, and the mysterious Charise all pulled the bodice into place. Nev danced nervously around them, chirping directions.
Once in place, though, Dani looked like… well, for lack of a better comparison, like a goddess. Her dress was antiqued. Beautiful. The bodice was made up of ornate lace and beads. The sleeves were three rows of pearls, and the skirt fell to the floor in an array of sparkles. “It was your mother’s,” Dani whispered. Ari looked up at Ada, who watched Dani with a tear slowly snaking its way down her cheek.
“I think it might be the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of things,” Ari said.
“Her hair, you mean? I did good, huh?” Nev grinned, dancing out of the way when Dani swatted half-heartedly at her. “One more finishing touch.”
As Nev hurried from the room, Ada whispered, “There have been many finishing touches.”
Beside her, Charise said, “I didn’t realize you, too were engaged, Arianna. Congratulations.”
Dani gasped and Ada squealed as both reached for her hand. Ari, as a rule, didn’t enjoy being touched. Apparently that didn’t matter when one wore an engagement ring. Even so, she couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face as she turned her finger this way and that to catch the light.
“He asked me last night.”
“Congratulations, Ari. I’m so happy for you.” Ada crushed her in a hug, and as always, Ari was surprised at her strength. She was so tiny to be so strong.
“Thanks, Mom. I’m happy for me, too.”
Dani opened her mouth to speak just as Nev came bustling back in, her mouth full of pins and what looked like an oblong lace doily in her hand. “Sit, don’t move.”
Ari knew she needed to get ready. She only had an hour before the ceremony and she still had to shower and get dressed. But curiosity got the best of her so she waited to see what Nev would do with the dangerous looking pins and innocent doily.
Dani’s hair was pulled up into a thousand braids and then twisted into a chignon. Nev carefully pinned the doily into Dani’s hair. The effect was stunning.
“Well, too much beauty here and I’m in dirty sweats.” Ari ran a hand over her messy bun and grimaced. “I suppose I’m off to take a shower.”
“Hurry up. It’s gonna take a while for me to get all those curls to cooperate.” Nev called over her shoulder, waving a hand distractedly without looking up from Dani’s hair.
“I’m just gonna leave it loose. Thanks though.”
Nev’s hands paused and Ari had a flash of fear as Nev turned slowly toward her. She waited nervously, wondering if she should throw up some sort of ward or protective spell while her friend studied her like an insect.
“I have just the thing. Come with me.” Nev left Dani while Ada and Charise looked on, both highly amused. She grabbed Ari’s arm and dragged her down the hall to the hairspray-infused living room, where she dug through a bin of ribbon and lace and purple and black flowers. Ari was inching toward the door, hoping for escape, when Nev stood up, holding something in her hand triumphantly. “Okay. Put this,” she crossed the room and reached up on her toes to just above Ari’s left ear, “here. After your hair is washed.” Then she dropped it into Ari’s hand and hurried back to Dani.
Ari turned it over in her hands while she raced back to Will’s apartment. It was a bright purple flower, set against black lace. “Is everything going to be so gorgeous today? My system is on overload,” she muttered when she finally made it to Will’s living room.
“Then you might want to turn around. I’m looking pretty good,” Will said, emerging from his room. And he did. Black tux, purple tie. His red and black hair was stylishly wild.
She smiled. “You do look good, big brother. I’m proud of you.”
“Yeah well, one of us has to. You look homeless. Go get ready.” He shooed her past him toward the bathroom.
“Hey!” she objected, “I’ve been saving your wedding!” She heard him muttering behind her but she didn’t have time to listen, form an adequate response, and then defend herself. So she just shut the door with a firm click, ready to finally enjoy a long, hot shower.
Or a fast, hot shower, since she didn’t have a lot of time. She’d finally gotten her hair dry and was curling a few errant strands, when her phone started vibrating like it was in an electronic panic. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Dani is having a panic attack. We’ve tried everything but I think she’s going to pass out,” Charity said. Charity, forever unruffled, always calm, sounded just a touch frightened.
“She needs Will,” Ari murmured. Apparently, she was on speaker phone because there were several outraged gasps on the other end.
“Will can’t see her before the wedding!” Livi squealed.
Ari checked her watch. “It’s fifteen minutes before they walk down the aisle. Isn’t that close enough?”
“No!” Several voices yelled at once.
“Okay then,” she muttered, putting her makeup on with one hand while she held the phone with the other and racked her brain for ideas. “I’ve got it. We’ll be over in five minutes.”
“Ari! He can’t see her!”
“I realize that,” she snapped. “Just trust me on this one.” She hung up and, makeup finished, ran to her room to put her dress on. “Will?” she yelled as she shimmied into the purple and black lace, “Get your shoes on. We’ve gotta take a walk!”
“We gotta what now?”
She emerged from her room, grabbed his arm, and dragged him down the hall, shoving his shoes at him as they reached the doorway. “I’ll explain on the way. Oh, I need you to take your tie off.”
Will’s shoulders slumped as he looked up from tying his shoe. “Do you have any idea how long this took me to get right?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll tie it for you.”
His eyes narrowed. “When did you learn how to tie ties?”
“There was a time when it was trendy for girls to wear ties. I liked that trend. I wish it hadn’t died.”
They raced down the dirt road. “Ari, where are you going? Almost everyone is already there and waiting,” Hunter said as he jogged the opposite way, looking big and darker than usual in his tux.
“Emergency. Stall them.”
She bounded up the stairs, pausing on the landing. “Turn around.”
“What?” Will eyed her like he was afraid she was going to shove him back down the stairs. She grabbed the tie from his hand and wrapped it around his eyes, securing it in the back. “Dani needs you.” She took his hand and pushed the door open.
“Dani? Will’s here.” There was much commotion as superstitious women squealed and ran around the room. But Charity appeared in the hallway, sending Ari a grateful look as she led Dani forward.
“Will,” Dani breathed.
“Someone take pictures!” Nev bellowed. The photographer grabbed his camera as Ari dove to get out of the way.
“Are you okay?” Will asked, reaching for his soon-to-be bride.
Dani took his hand, holding it up to her cheek. “I am now.”
“No peeking, young man,” Ada said sternly.
“He couldn’t if he wanted to. I tie a mean tie.”
Shane appeared at the door, his hand raised to knock as Ari swung it open. He stared at her for several seconds before he could speak, shaking his head ruefully. “You are the only person on the planet able to render me speechless without saying a word,” he finally whispered.
Her heart melted.
“It’s time to go. Are you ready?” he asked, glancing over her shoulder at Dani.
She nodded firmly. “I am. Chase, will you tell Daddy he’s up?” Dani’s little brother, who Ari hadn’t even noticed until now, nodded and sprinted past S
hane, barreling down the front stairs.
She took Will’s hand and pulled him from the room. He paused in the doorway. “I love you, Dani.”
Dani blinked, trying to fight tears. “I love you, too.”
They hurried down the road, Shane’s hand soft against hers. Will fought to unblind himself while they walked. Ari could have helped him, but really, it was more fun to watch him fight with his tie.
“Here,” she sighed when they finally stopped in the outcropping of trees just before the chairs and decorations and people and flowers. “Let me.” She took the tie from him and he scowled at her.
“You couldn’t have done this ten minutes ago?”
She shook her head with a wicked smile. Her hands slid the tie over his neck and looped the silk around, knotting it securely. As she tightened it just right, she realized that there were tears already soaking her cheeks. “You’re very lucky I’m wearing waterproof mascara,” she said, her voice wobbly.
He smiled affectionately, reaching up to brush away the moisture with his knuckles. “I’m very happy for you, Will. You deserve this.” She hugged him tight, so tight, hoping he could tell how much she loved him, how much she looked up to him, and how much she would be lost without him in that single embrace.
“I know, Ari. I know you do.”
Chapter Four
The ceremony itself was, like everything else that day, beyond beautiful. Everyone cried, so Ari didn’t have to feel alone in her tears. After being through so much pain, so much horror, to see something so sweet and hopeful come out of it was healing. So healing.
The reception was a huge party. Will had kept an entire colony alive for over a decade, and everyone wanted to celebrate his happiness. Ari reclined against one of Charity’s decorated tables, watching the line dance with amusement. “How ya holding up?” Shane asked, leaning next to her. She uncrossed her arms so she could slide her fingers into his.
“I’m tired.” She gave him an exhausted smile. Before Richard had stolen her flames, she didn’t get tired like this. Now, though… she looked back to the dance floor. “He looks happy, doesn’t he?”