“That’s right.” Conall patted my knee. “Now, before I lose you completely, let’s go. Damia’s glowering at me, and though I’m a grown man, she still scares me sometimes.”
I followed him out of the car, oblivious to the multitude of residents rushing past me in their preparations for the celebration. Sometimes, outside perspective was all you needed. Like a smack on the back of your head to shock your system.
I had some groveling to do.
Walking backward down the sidewalk, Conall flicked his intricate braid to fall down the length of his spine. “On a lighter note, you’ve changed. In a good way.”
Taking a longer stride over the pothole in the cracked concrete, I fell in step with my friends. “I look the same.”
Except for the t-shirt.
Although a heatwave had decided to scorch us today, I was not taking my leather jacket off. Death by dehydration or drowning in your own sweat sounded better than revealing the sentence embroidered on the back of my clothing.
Damia nudged me with an elbow. “You speak differently.”
“Walk easier,” Conall pointed out as he swiveled to allow a boy to pass. The teenager’s tumble of dark curls bounced onhis shoulders as he hurried toward a family lingering outside a clothing shop.
Perhaps I should pay a visit to the establishment as well.
“Ooh, I know another,” Damia exclaimed, and I prayed for the walk to wherever we were going to be cut short. “He doesn’t brood so much anymore.”
Conall clapped my shoulder. “Shit, man, you smile more.”
That I did.
The question was, would those smiles remain in my arsenal, or would they run dry after we stormed Ilasall? Because I could not deny the source of my smiles, and if the city’s forces erased it… This t-shirt would become all I had to remember them by.
36
GEDEON
Standing in the center of the stone-paved plaza, dressed in a linen button-up shirt and matching pants, Conall demanded, “Take it off.”
His three partners lingered behind him, their foursome ready for Damia and I to begin the ritual.
But onlyafterI shrugged off my jacket, apparently.
“Gedeon, don’t be a child.” Damia spread her arms wide, the ankle-length maroon dress she had changed into fluttering in the wind. “It’s their wedding, so be nice instead of an asshole and listen to him.”
“We want our ceremony guides to be seen in all their glory,” Conall pressed as relentlessly as the late afternoon sun coaxing sweat to trickle down my back. “Are you seriously going to make everyone wait?”
My eyelids twitched. How the hell these two had ended up becoming my family, I pondered to this day.
Keeping the grumble ofYou have no idea what you are both getting yourselves intoto myself, I ripped off my jacket and tossed it onto the wooden bench, right beside Dain’s grandma, her pursed lips a disapproving expression if I had ever seen one.
“Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you,” I told Conall, thanking the universe for sparing me further humiliation. Rows of people encircling us stood too far to make out the details on the back of my t-shirt, and bonfires blazed behind them, obscuring us from the rest of the celebrants, so I was safe.
For now.
Until the ceremony required me to shift around Conall, Nissa, Dain, and Aanya. All four of them were going to get all close and personal with the embroidered statement.
“It’s not that bad.” Appraising me, Damia tugged on one of her cornrows ending at her nape. “It’s just white. I don’t get why you were being such a prick about this. Next time, I’ll just ask Zion to slice your clothing off until you’re as bare as nature made you.” Twisting on her heel to face Conall’s partners, she clapped. “Now that the drama is over, we can begin.”
Avoiding Damia’s challenging look, Conall whispered to me, “I told you she’s terrifying.”
Surveying the gathered crowd, Damia cleared her throat, and her voice rose to that of a speaker. “To those with origins from this compound, the cities, or the wild—welcome. Today, together, we will stand as witnesses for the binding ceremony. As you know, the foundation of the tying knot is truth. No false vows will be allowed to be spoken during the ritual. So before we begin, I want to say: Conall, no words can describe how it feels to find what you have.” She gestured at his three partners. “I hope you will treasure it for the rest of your days. I know I would.” With a twinkle in her eyes, she scanned the crowd. “And on that note, we shall begin. The bell has rung, the crows have cawed, the river has ebbed, and the sun has begun its fall. The journey of four has reached the crossroads.”
I gawked at her. That was not what we had rehearsed. And I had no intention of messing up this wedding, no matter how bothersome my friends tended to be.
