Page 52 of Helsing: Demon Slayer (The Dragon’s Paladins #1)
The mesh network had been reformed, and now Olivia Kastrioti cantered toward them on horseback, flanked on either side by Elias and Antonio and followed by a small contingent of mounted donats and her personal security team, also mounted.
Shadows sculpted the planes and hollows of her face.
Ryan thought the zonje , always serenely beautiful and confident, had matured into an imposing presence as she’d taken on her lord’s authority while he healed.
Although Olivia hadn’t been present in the tactical operations center for last night’s battle, he’d felt her presence, especially during the final moment facing Abaddon.
She’d even whispered in his mind well done, good and faithful servant after he’d slain the Dark Angel of the Abyss’s vessel. The words had ghosted through his thoughts, gentle, solemn, final—a gossamer kiss from a queen.
Now she looked both grim and relieved.
Olivia reined to a halt five meters in front of their small group.
Elias, Antonio, and her personal bodyguard Jesse rode and stopped beside her.
Elias, who had decades of experience fighting daemonic foes, looked much the same, if tired, dirty, and bloody.
Antonio, younger and less experienced, nevertheless seemed to take his cues from Elias and watched them gravely.
Jesse, a young Australian veteran that Ryan had recruited earlier in the year, looked shellshocked but remained upright and focused.
Olivia studied the four of them for a long moment, calm and contained. When she came to Ryan, she simply nodded. He’d never know what prompted him, but at that regal gesture, he slid to his knee and bowed.
“ Zonje ime ,” he said.
Next to him, he felt Dianne glancing between them before she, too, slid to a knee. Before she could say anything (Ryan suspected that she intended to repeat his words), Olivia had dropped from her horse and darted to her younger sister.
Pulling her to her feet, Olivia hugged her sister. “Thank God you’re safe!” she said, strong emotion making her voice rough. “I couldn’t bear to lose you too.”
Ryan saw tears coursing down the face of the woman he loved.
He couldn’t believe what it did to him, seeing Dianne cry.
Just as he’d seen her crying in the rain last night, when she’d asked him if he really loved her.
He couldn’t wait to show her just how much, with his body and with his vow of eternal fidelity, made before man, Elioud , and God.
Because that’s what he was going to give her, as soon as she—and the zoti and zonje —would let him.
Olivia turned to him, a smile radiating from her tear-stained face. “Well, Helsing, do you have something that you want to ask my sister? Because I can’t say yes until she does.”
Stunned, Ryan, still kneeling on one knee, blinked a moment. And then, before Dianne could ask what they were talking about, he pivoted and pulled the silver ring with its delicate filigree skeleton key from his pocket. He held it out to her. It was time to make their harmonic bond permanent.
Dianne looked down in bemusement at the ring. “You kept this with you?” she asked.
“Not only kept it with me, vowed on it to give my life for yours,” he said. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me so that I can live out that vow for the rest of my life?”
Dianne blinked rapidly, tears escaping her efforts. She looked at Olivia, whose smile had only broadened.
Olivia nodded and said, “Go on, dunderhead! Say yes before his knee gives out and that old wound in his side causes him to topple over.”
Dianne squealed and turned to Ryan. “Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes, my Beast!” She grabbed his face and kissed him as a large grin split his cheeks from ear to ear.
“Excellent,” said Olivia dryly once Dianne let Ryan go several seconds later.
“Then you have my blessing, Helsing. You will have to wait, however, for the chapel to be constructed. Willem and Father Bekim tell me the foundation will be laid this week. Its construction was only delayed due to the problem of the dire wolves.”
“Fully constructed?” asked Ryan shrewdly. Everyone laughed, even the quiet Elias.
Olivia shook her head, still smiling. “Incorrigible! No, the Bishop consecrated the land already, so I’ll leave it to Father Bekim to decide whether he wants more than a foundation in which to perform the sacrament.”
“How about the clinic chapel?” asked Dianne. She sounded tentative. Ryan suspected that she didn’t want to challenge her sister so soon after her blessing. “So Mihàil can attend.”
Olivia said nothing for several long moments, blinking rapidly, while she clearly got her emotions under control. Ryan had never seen her so close to losing it. Everyone waited.
At last, she cleared her throat and said in a strong, confident voice. “Indeed, he will insist on attending, and I don’t think Ryan will wait long enough for him to dress appropriately for church. I’ll have Father Bekim read the banns and set the date for three weeks from now.”
Everyone laughed at the look of disappointment on Ryan’s face, but he only grinned sheepishly and pulled Dianne to her feet before kissing her again.
Then he bent and whispered to her, “You’re my mission from now on, Dianne Markham.”