Page 91 of All Hallows Fate

“I love you,” Cat breathed when I finished, reaching up to brush the tears off my cheeks. “My madman. My darkness.”

I sniffled, blinking back a new rush of tears when Cat’s voice stroked through my mind.

Look down, love.

And when I did, I saw she’d angled her leg so a split in the shirt showed her thigh, the black garter there, and the pink throwing blade I’d gifted her.

Wicked, devious woman indeed.

Pain

My knees were shaking. That wasn’t a cool thing to happen on your wedding day, was it?

But the second my shadows showed me the vision of Cat walking down the aisle, her hair flowing around her shoulders, hit me like a freight train. Flattened me. Crushed me. Compressed my chest until it hurt, so full of love for her. Squeezed my throat until there wasn’t enough space for the lump that had swelled within it.

And still my knees shook, until I worried Cat would see it as she flowed closer, walking so gracefully she had to be carried by shadows.

I wanted everything with this woman. A future, a house full of weird pets, a garden with a pond for a herd of ducks, my ring on her finger, my arms around her first thing in the morning as she woke, groggy and grumpy and so ruthlessly beautiful that it killed me.

She returned my heart to me, but the truth was Violence had only had it in spirit, because every last part of it was owned by Cat. My Cat, my darling woe.

She stopped beside us, and I knew I was supposed to wait, but I couldn’t stand it a moment longer. I swept a shadow around her waist and brought her in for a quick kiss. Soft laughter moved through the crowd, but it was the beaming smile on Cat’s face that held my interest.

I was so fucking ready to get married.

Misery

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t get a single noise past the lump in my throat as I lifted Cat’s hand and slid the ring onto her finger. Her ring. The crown ring she gifted me when she saved me, when she gave everything to keep me here, alive. No more would she sacrifice herself. No more would she be threatened.

I vowed it, and vowed to protect her always, to love her with every breath I took. When Passion declared us married, his eyes crinkled at the corners, I lost my battle with the emotion crammed in my chest and a sob burst free in the moments before Cat and I kissed.

It was slow and full of love and probably too long for the audience we had—the least of which were her family—but I didn’t give a shit. I had Cat forever. No one could take her from me now, and no one could take me from her.

Peach let out a low grumble from the pillow I held so our girl could be part of the ceremony, but she didn’t bite anyone, so I gave Cat one more kiss, greedy for every last taste of her.

“May death bring us together,” I said against her lips, echoing our vows, “and nothing do us part.”

“May nothing do us part,” she echoed, her eyes bright, cheeks blotchy. She’d never looked more beautiful. “Nothing,” she repeated firmly, opening her arms to hug Pain and Tor; Death, Madde, and I overlapped our arms until we all embraced. The six of us, married for life.

And for death.

And for everything that waited after.

BONUS EPILOGUE

Cat

“So, what are you going to do now you’re free?” I asked, my eyes on the cobbled street ahead of us, but my attention fixed on the woman who walked beside me. Deceptively short, with a hidden fire I could sense. A rage that burned and burned. And burned.

Killing Violence gave her justice for him imprisoning her, experimenting with her magic, twisting it into a weapon he used against us in the chess game. But there was more. Other crimes she wanted revenge for. Other wrongs she wouldn’t rest until she righted.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said casually—too casually—as she strode down the cobbles with her hands in the pockets of her dark emerald coat. Her hair fell around her face, severe black on one side, ash-silver on the other, no roots in sight despite her being trapped at Violence’s mercy for gods knew how long. A different sort of death mask to mine, but one nonetheless. “Maybe I’ll take up landscape painting.”

A laugh burst from me. “You’re going to hunt down the people who wronged you.”

Dark eyes snapped to me in surprise, a question on her lips that she answered herself with a roll of her eyes. “Judgement. That magic’s freaky, just so you know.”

My smile grew. “Oh, I know.”