“They’re totally outnumbered.” Vara laughed. “This should be a short game.”
A bell rang from somewhere in the audience. The boys sprung, and Emma ran away. Kiara and Odette jumped to protect her. Odette smashed her shoulder into Alexei’s gut, ramming him to the ground, while Kiara shoved Arthur backward. Odette cheered in victory before Theo tackled her, pinning her arms to her sides. Kiara went to defend Emma, but Alexei scrambled to his feet and nabbed her, swinging her off her feet.
Emma ran like mad, but she couldn’t get very far in a giant dress. Stefan easily caught up, wrapping one arm around her waist while unclipping the veil from her hair.
“Ha! I win!” Stefan cried, waving the veil over his head.
There were cheers, and he passed the veil back to Emma. She turned her back to the crowd and shouted, “Okay, first girl who catches it gets married next!”
A clamor of unmarried women rushed to form a crowd behind Emma, cackling and shoving one another. She tossed it. Though everyone leapt into the air at once, the veil soared over the crowd and landed on Delmare’s lap.
Her mouth fell open in shock. The crowd erupted into laughter.
I chuckled. I rejoined my bride and wrapped my arm around her waist. By her side, Stefan looked puzzled. He turned to me. “You think that’s some kind of sign?”
“Only an obvious one,” I said. “You gonna do it?”
His face was unsure. “I feel like that’s tacky to do at someone else’s wedding, especially a royal wedding.”
“Go ahead! We don’t care,” Emma insisted. “Give the papers some other scandal to talk about.”
Stefan took a breath. “Okay, fine. Here it goes.”
He strode to Delmare with purpose. Knowingly, Theo clinked a glass to get everyone’s attention. The room quieted, and eyes fell on Stefan as he stood before his mate. Delmare’s eyes widened as she took him in. A hand fell on her stomach almost by instinct.
Stefan cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking of a million and one ways to do this, and frankly, all of them fell short of you. Nothing seemed to be perfect; the moment never seemed to be right. So, I decided to screw the moment. Might as well get on with it, because babycakes, there’s never going to be anyone for me but you.”
Stefan got on one knee, and Delmare immediately choked up. He procured a ring from his pocket; a square ruby on a twisting black band.
A very good choice. A few tables down, Miroslava dotted her eyes with a napkin, while Jonathan puffed out his chest with pride.
“Irena, you are the love of my life, the mate of my heart and the mother of our child. I want us to start our life together, and I want to do it now,” Stefan said, the deepest sincerity in his voice. “So what do you say, babe? You want to get hitched?”
Delmare was speechless. She nodded frantically, and tears streamed down her face. Stefan slipped the ring on, and leaned forward to kiss her. The cameras started going off like mad, and journalists started babbling. Everyone in our group rushed forward to surround them.
“Wow! What a pretty ring,” Ozzie said, his eyes growing huge at the new rock on Delmare’s hand.
“Congratulations!” Emma cheered. “I’m so happy for you guys.”
“You got me with pregnancy hormones, you bastard,” Delmare wept, wiping tears off her face.
Stefan gave a mischievous grin. “Never said I was going to play fair.”
Emma and I cut the cake next— a monumental task, with how tall it was. We nearly tipped it over, but thankfully, Alexei rushed forward to save the day before it splattered all over the place. After the cake was served, the bride and groom’s table was cleared out of the way, for actors to perform a short play. The crowd gathered around the stage to watch the show, while Emma and I pressed together in the back of the crowd.
“It’s crazy it’s almost midnight,” Emma said as she watched the actors perform. “It feels like we just got here.”
“We still have plenty of time to celebrate. Fae weddings go on until dawn. The party’s just beginning,” I told her.
“Theirparty, maybe,” Emma said, and she grabbed my tie. “Why don’t we have a personal party of our own?”
That sounded like a plan to me. “We’ll be back before they even notice we’re gone.”
With the play to distract our guests, Emma and I slipped off. We wandered down the hallway hand-in-hand, snickering and kissing as we fell against the walls.
As we were wrapped up in each other’s lips, we came close to a familiar spiraling staircase. Emma pulled away and said, “The Hall of Wonders.”
“That’s perfect.” We took the stairs downward, I pushed open the door, and we stepped on through.
