She didn’t move for an entire minute. He was expecting her full argument.
Instead, she nodded. “Let’s go.”
Iskander scowled at them. “Out of curiosity… our ship is over there in flames. So how are you planning to get there? Mindhike?”
Bastien let out an irritated sigh. “You know, I’d be much more pissed off if I didn’t feel like having to tolerate you is some kind of karmic debt I’ve earned.”
Ember laughed. “We can hail my sisters.”
“All hail the Wildstars.”
She popped Bastien’s butt. “You’re not funny.”
“I don’t know,” Iskander said. “That was pretty good. Wish I’d thought of it.”
But all joking aside, Bastien knew things had changed.
And he was done playing.
***
Bastien was grateful Kindel had put her foot down and insisted that Iskander stay out of the fight. He just wished that she and the others had backed him with keeping Ember out of it, too.
While he liked having her at his back, he would rather not risk Florian’s mother.
He paused onboard Cin’s ship as they neared Kirovar and drew closer to the palace where Bastien would either fulfill his promise to kill his uncle.
Or die trying.
He turned toward his favorite sister-in-law. “Tasi?”
“Yeah?”
“You still have your priestess license?”
“I do.”
“Then marry us before we do this.”
Ember’s brows shot north. “Pardon?”
“I asked and you accepted. If this goes wrong, and I go down, I want to make sure that no one questions Florian’s place as an heir of this empire. It’s to protect you both.”
Ember’s throat went dry at his kindness. Nodding, she agreed. “I always imagined a more formal affair.”
He grinned. “Save me from my routine stupidity. Get me out alive, and I’ll throw you the biggest damn wedding in the history of the Nine Worlds.”
“I don’t need that, but something between the level of Nykyrian’s and Caillen’s will do.”
Since Nyk had eloped in a deserted hangar bay with only criminals to witness it, and Caillen’s had been record setting, that left a lot of room for negotiation. “Whatever you want, it’ll be yours.”
She sobered instantly. “I just want you.”
Bastien kissed her. “And I, you.”
“Well,” Tasi said with a smirk. “You two are married. That was easy. Nice vows. All I need is to declare you as two united hearts before the gods. May you live in peace and remember to hold each other sacred, and yourselves solely one to the other.” She drew a circle in the air around each of them and then united it. “There you go. Happy union.”
Cin held up her link. “Bas, fingerprint here.”
