Unfortunately for everyone involved, there were only four seats in the front row. So, after several torn skirts, broken hairpieces, and Girabalt throwing a fit trying to return theirclothing to a presentable state, all ten of them somehow managed to squeeze in the front row, half on top of one another while they agreed to let Amaryllis walk Dahlia down the aisle.
I’ll never know how she and Blossom managed to get them all here in one piece.
“You look beautiful,” I say to my wife, because that’s literally the best my mind can come up with when I’m face to face with beauty personified.
“Thank you,” she giggles, and I bask in the sound.
We go through the ceremony hand in hand. When it’s time for us to kiss, I stop her by cupping her jaw and using my fingers to pry her lips apart.
Confused, she draws her brows together.
“Just checking…” I tilt her head around to make sure there are no more tadpoles inside.
“You bastard.” She grins, before looping her arms around my neck and kissing me like her life depends on it.
After filing out of the garden, I lead my bride into the banquet hall, where I’ve put on the same feast I’d prepared for our first wedding.
Steaming plates of fish, meats, and curried vegetables sit upon gold-trimmed tablecloths. A large dessert spread takes up one side of the hall, because no meal is complete without dessert. And, of course, I couldn’t forget the human-sized chocolate fountain, which my wife seems to notice immediately as she lets out a deafening squeal – along with nearly all of her sisters.
She’s out of my grasp, leading the horde of sprinting princesses before I can stop her.
I stand back, watching the scene with a smirk pulling at my jaw.
She looks so happy, laughing with her sisters. Despite their bickering earlier, I can tell they all dote on each other. The older girls help the younger ones, making sure everyone gets their share of the chocolate waterfall.
When Tamryn wanders over, she fits right in. Dahlia passes her a fruit skewer, and she sits between Kalimeris and Liliana, two of my wife’s youngest sisters as they welcome her into their conversation.
“Tammie looks so happy here,” Maeve says, passing me a goblet of wine. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
“She’s family. I’d never abandon family.” I sip my wine. But then I catch myself, choking. “That’s not to say I think that you ever abandoned us. If anything, I abandoned you. I should’ve?—”
“It’s alright, Tauren.” She pats my shoulder. We’ve not spoken much about Elheart, though she knows he’s in the dungeon. I didn’t tell her that I beat him, but I think she can guess. His face is still a rainbow of bruises, even now.
Her smile falls. “I didn’t want to bring this up tonight and put a dampener on your evening, but I think it needs to be said.”
I brace myself, ready for the attack I completely deserve.
“I’m sorry,” she says, and my lips part.
“What in the realm are you sorry for?” I don’t mean to sound angry, but I’m so surprised my words just come out that way. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I left you all. Ididabandon you. Claren too. I just… I felt so suffocated, I suppose,” she explains. “The more time I spent with Elheart, the more I just wanted to close everyone else off. I’d never felt that way before, and I really loved him, I did.” She shakes her head. “I think I just loved him so much that I forgot to make room for anyone else. And looking back – and this isn’t an excuse,” she winces, “I think Elheart may have encouragedme to close myself off from you. I just didn’t realise it at the time because all I wanted was him, and would’ve done anything to make him happy.”
“I pushed you away too,” I remind her. “I should’ve been more accepting from the start. I was too overprotective, and I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I should’ve written to you. At least to let you know I was safe?—”
“I had my spies, remember?” I shrug. “I should’ve pulled them out of the palace and given you your privacy the second I knew you were happy with him.”
She smiles sadly. “We’re even in that regard, I suppose. I’ve been spying on you too since my ‘death’.”
I shudder at her words. She’d told me the story of how it happened.
She was lucky that a barn owl had been hunting in the garden where she and Elheart had fought. In classic Maeve fashion, she’d saved one of the owl’s chicks years prior, and the animal had fallen in love, as everyone does with her.
After her fight with Elheart, the bird had offered its body and Maeve used the last of her magic from Elheart’s soul to accept the freedom that living as a bird would give her. But she could never leave Tamryn or us behind completely, swooping in and out of our lives as much as she could.
Tamryn figured it out almost immediately, but didn’t have the magic to revert her mother back to her true form. Claren and I just needed a little longer to get it through our thick skulls.
