To the night,
She goes to bed her fine young male,
To the trail,
She goes to quest with her tall mate,
To the gate,
She goes to buy gifts for her love…”
“You actuallyknow a song that doesn’t involve anything baudy?” Laini asks Tully, her voice sincere as a chapel bell.
“Only the one,” Tully says, chuckling.
Grinning, I hurry into the last of the afternoon’s light.
“He’s not going to leave if you are a minute late,” Lysandra says.
“I want to see him all dressed up and prepared to celebrate. I can’t wait. I promised him a quiet honeymoon on some faraway moor, so he swore to me that I would have the biggest wedding party ever seen in Leafshire Cove.”
“Oh, it’s a big gathering, that’s for sure,” Kaya says beside me. She smells like the cake she baked for us—white chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and frostberries piled so high that they will topple decadently over the sides. “Did you know that Archer’s brothers came?”
“They did?” I had no idea. I encouraged him to reach out, to invite them, but I didn’t know he’d done it. My heart warms at the thought of him mending those fences.
Lifting the voluminous weight of my dark purple dress, I lick my lips, imagining the sugary treat. I feel like a queen, and I am loving every second of it.
Archer doesn’t disappoint. Giving his brothers awave of greeting from where he stands in the shadow of the pines, his eyes practically glow. He’s deliciously dangerous-looking. His black cloak sweeps the snow, and he wears a crown of greenery like a forest god over his long, wavy hair.
“He’s too handsome,” I whisper to Lysandra before we leave the cover of the trees and enter the clearing. “It should be illegal. I would give him anything he asked for with him looking like that.”
“It’s true.” She tsks and shakes her head.
I walk into the clearing. The snow reflects the orange and pink of the sunset. Lanterns line the labyrinth, and I walk it slowly, all the way to where my love stands smiling and waiting for me.
“Hello, my sunlight. Your beauty could blind me and I’d only ask to see you again.”
I lean into him and take his hand. “Your brothers came.”
His grin is radiant. “They did.”
Mayor Rustion begins the lines of the bonding ritual. The words slide over me. I can’t concentrate with Archer looking at me like he is and holding my hands so carefully. At some point, Halvard comes over and sets Laini’s handfasting piece over our joined fingers. I eye Archer expectantly,and he frowns, looking down.
“A bat!” he says, interrupting Rustion and smiling down at the bat weaving.
I laugh, and so does the crowd.
“Hush, now,” the mayor says, a kind smile aimed at Archer, who grimaces and shrugs.
“She’s rubbing off on me,” he whispers.
I stick my tongue out at him, and he grins as the mayor closes his eyes and shakes his head.
“Can we continue now?” he asks.
“Of course,” Archer and I say in unison.
We agree to love and honor one another. Honestly, this is all for show. We both already know we’re committed. I can feel it in my mate mark as I know he can feel it in his. We are joined already. Fully bonded.
