The village chapel stood at the end of the main street, its sharp white steeple a knife pricking the night sky. Valenna’s heart raced as she followed Samara into the vestibule. Rain ticked against a high window, and Valenna set her breathing in rhythm to the wind. Everything was happening so fast—so why wasn’t she afraid?
Samara pulled open the heavy wooden doors that led to the sanctuary and slipped through, Evander’s new shirt draped over her arm. She returned quickly, flushed and flustered.
“Alright,” she said, waving for Valenna to pass her through the doors. “Let’s do this before someone sees me with you and I’m exiled.”
Feeling lightheaded, Valenna brushed the wrinkles out of her dress and stepped into the sanctuary. The chapel was small—six rows of wooden pews, an organ, and a small platform with a white altar. Three tall, arched stained glass windows were set into the walls, each depicting a different plant: to the left, red rose, anemone, pink camellia; to the right, cyclamen, fern, weeping willow. At the front of the chapel was a seventh window, portraying a cluster of pink yarrow.
Evander waited in a puddle of rosy light under the yarrow window. He was dressed in the green shirt, a tweed waistcoat, clean brown trousers, and leather boots. She was glad that hehadn’t made too much effort with his hair—it was charmingly messy, the way she liked it.
She wanted to walk down the aisle slow and dignified like a proper bride, but she lost her patience halfway and broke into a run. Beaming, Evander strode to meet her, and they clasped hands and kissed before joining the little bald rector at the altar.
Valenna’s cheeks ached from smiling, and her palms were sweaty and warm. Evander gazed at her like she was a queen. He was so happy, so light, and she tried to imprint the image on her mind, to carry her through the rest of her life.
Samara slid into a front pew, darting furtive glances around the room. The rector said a few words that Valenna didn’t hear. She was too busy looking at Evander in the flickering candlelight and trying to ground herself in this perfect moment. Two long years of waiting, and here she was, finally binding herself to him. She’d known the first day she saw him that her life would never be the same.
Let Olivette and her father untangle their own destiny, right their own wrongs. Tonight, only Evander mattered in her world.
The rector began to say the vows, but she interrupted him.
“I know them,” she said, gazing into Evander’s eyes. “I memorized them a long time ago.”
Evander smiled, bold and bright and radiant. Like he meant it.
She tried to calm her racing heart, and, squeezing his hands, she recited the vows. “Before the Eyes that see all things, and the stars that are his emissaries, I vow now that I am bound eternally to you, Evander Trevelyan, until my death or yours. I cannot entangle myself with any other love or risk death. I cannot stray to my own loneness or risk death. I cannot willfully do you physical harm, or I will experience the same hurt in my own body. This, my vow, is holy and eternal and unbreakable.”
A strand of silver light, like a spider’s web, wound from beneath Valenna’s left ribs and twisted through the air. It encircled her wrist, and she felt a sting of heat, then an ache radiated to her shoulder. Then nothing. When she looked down, her wrist bore a bracelet of raised pink scar.
“Does it hurt?” Evander whispered.
“Not at all,” she replied.
Evander repeated the words carefully, as if savoring them. “Before the Eyes that see all things, and the stars that are his emissaries, I vow now that I am bound eternally to you, Valenna Castanaia, until my death or yours. I cannot entangle myself with any other love or risk death. I cannot stray to my own loneness or risk death. I cannot willfully do you physical harm, or I will experience the same hurt in my own body. This, my vow, is holy and eternal and unbreakable.”
A second, identical string appeared. It encircled his wrist, leaving behind the same simple band of scar.
The rector’s booming voice echoed off the stone walls. “You are bound eternally by solemn vow, body and soul. Seal it with a kiss.”
Evander kissed her gently, but Valenna threw her arms around his neck and buried her hands in his hair, her kiss heavy and passionate. He bent her over his arm, savoring her, then pulled her upright again. She pressed her forehead to his and let out a breathless laugh.
“I love you,” Evander said softly. “Since the first time I saw you, my heart has belonged to you in every beat.”
A tear slipped down Valenna’s cheek. “I don’t deserve this.”
“Yes.” He kissed her again. “Yes, you do.”
When Valenna looked around, the aisle was overgrown withdaisies.
Evander took her hand, thanked Samara, and they ran together down the aisle and into the night. Laughing, they splashed through the puddled streets, ignoring the villagers’ appraising stares as the rain sliced into them in a freezing sheet. When they reached the tavern, their clothes dripped rivulets onto the floor.
The barman handed them a set of keys, which Evander snatched, and they clattered up the stairs and down the corridor to their room. They launched into each other before they were through the door, their lips and hands eager and exploring.
They broke apart just long enough to remove their muddy shoes before Evander caught Valenna around the waist and guided her to the bed. She lay down, and he bent over her.
“Hello, my wife,” he said, placing one hand on the side of her face and running his thumb along her cheekbone. “My love.” He kissed her lips, then her neck. “My springtime.”
She relished his taste and his smell and his body pressed into hers. At last, she was claiming him, and he was claiming her; their bodies one body, their hearts one heart, their futures tangled together like a bramble bush grown into a cedar tree.
Chapter thirty-three
