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CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

Ryker

Over the next week, I barely saw Ellery as Scarlet and Ruby kept her busy with wedding preparations. When I did glimpse her, she was always smiling or laughing in the radiant way that lit the world around her.

Whenever she laughed, the other amsirah stopped to stare at her too. I wasn’t the only one who basked in her warmth as she held them in her thrall.

She was everything I never knew I needed so badly. She was everything I’d never dreamed of having yet couldn’t live without, and I was counting the minutes until she became mine.

Over the past few nights, I worked on forging our wedding bands before returning to the tree house. The simple metal bands wouldn’t survive the elements or last forever, and neither would Ellery’s engagement ring, no matter how badly she wanted it to, but they were ours.

When her ring gave way, I’d make her another. I didn’t care if I had to make one a day for the rest of our lives; I’d do whatever it took to make her happy.

The fact these bands would wear out didn’t matter; what mattered was what they represented to Tempest and the shadow realms. Ellery was mine, I was hers, and nothing would break our bond.

Until I met Ellery, I’d never considered I might marry one day. There’d never been a woman who’d made me consider marriage before. Now, I couldn’t picture my life without her.

If I’d ever considered a wedding in my old life, my lineage would have dictated an elaborate affair that took months, if not a year, to plan. The simple ceremony Ellery requested to have by the water felt more right than any overblown wedding would have.

Not only would my father never have permitted me to marry Ellery, but I couldn’t picture her in a giant, fancy ballgown or standing for hours while she received well-wishes from immortals who’d prefer to be elsewhere. I would have hated it.

I wanted to give her the world and everything she deserved, but getting married in this place was what would make her happiest. Even if we’d been free to do as we chose for this wedding, she would have asked for something simple, most likely at her manor or in the Revenant Woods.

She’d loved this place since she was a child, and while some struggled to come to terms with living here, Ellery embraced it. She thrived in this place of monsters, ghosts, and poltergeists.

I didn’t know what that said about her, other than she might be a little crazy, but then, I’d always known that. I knew less what it said about me that I loved her crazy.

While I never imagined getting married in the Revenant Woods, I couldn’t picture marrying her anywhere else. It was a turn of events I couldn’t have foreseen, but centuries ago, life had proven that the only thing predictable about it was how unpredictable it was.

The day of our wedding dawned with a beautiful, pink sunrise I watched from the doorway of our tree house. Normally, Ellery would be beside me or still sleeping, but I watched it alone.

Scarlet and Ruby had insisted on Ellery spending the night with them so they could start getting ready early. They wanted her to be as much of a surprise to me as possible.

They didn’t understand that nothing could surprise me any more than the turn my life had taken. Less than six months ago, I’d forgotten Ellery existed; she’d been a distant memory of a young girl I’d met in a blizzard, and without some prodding, that memory was lost in the jumble of them.

And today, she’d become such a deep, intimate part of me that even without her beside me, I felt her within me. While her power had become an intricate part of me, I sensed the difference between her lightning and mine.

There was something softer about her ability, almost kinder, even though she could, and had, struck immortals dead with it. Her lightning didn’t wield the same level of wrath mine did.

I didn’t know if that was because the years had honed us differently or if the alteration would have been present even if I hadn’t endured my father, the ghouls, and the ophidians.

Feeling her power inside me brought comfort as it mingled with mine; it increased my ability while reassuring me that she was okay. I suspected if I were ever to lose her, then her lightning would fade from me; once gone, it would leave me as empty and barren as her absence.

That wasn’t something I could think about, especially not today. I was certain our future was full of death, but today was only about happiness.

Instead, I focused on the encampment as it came to life. I couldn’t see Scarlet’s tree house from here, but Ellery was probably also in its doorway, watching the sunrise.

I smiled as I stood. This day would be a celebration of us and a love I’d never dreamed of finding.

And I would become the worst nightmare of anyone who dared to try to destroy it.