Page 52 of Tino

“Open your eyes before your anxiety gets worse.” I could hear the eyeroll coming from Xari, but still I dared to open my eyes. I looked down at myself and gasped. They’d made a light pink suit, not like my other in soft looking silk, no, theirs had a little darker colored roses stitched into the fabric. The stitching was made with a pearlescent sheen so the roses shifted in the light, making it appear like the suit was glowing on me, the vest filled with the same color and sheen.

I hurried over to our full body mirror and gasped loudly again. It was beautiful! Even more so than my ruined suit (before it had been ruined). “This is… amazing!”

“Yeah?” Wilston asked, looking to Xari for the truth. The bastard likely didn’t trust me. I could forgive him for that. I was going to suck out all of his energy later, the least I could do was to go easy on him for the rest of the day. Not tonight, though. Tonight, I planned on taking whatever was left and ridding him of that energy, leaving him satiated and happy in our bed.

“Do you like the fabric? I did some quick work figuring out what we could make with earth magic, and rayon was supposedly a closething to silk,” Altair said, looking me over. “I want to do this myself from now on. It looks amazing! And fits you perfectly, too.”

I preened. The crisis was officially averted.

“But now we’re all running late,” Tino said, looking down at his watch.

“He’s right. We should hurry down there and inform them you’re on your way,” Xari said, taking Niam’s hand in his. They left with Altair and Tino behind them, leaving Wilston and I alone in our living room.

“No time for fun,” Wilston said, eliminating any thought I had about having a quickie. To be honest, I wasn’t about to get out of this outfit any time soon. But Wilston didn’t have to know that. So, I pouted and followed him out the door.

The castle loomed just at the edge of town, standing tall on a hill so the sun hit all those pretty multicolored windows.

I still couldn’t believe we were having our ceremony there. In all my life I never pictured celebrating my love in such a beautiful place. Of course, I’d never dared dream of having a ceremony after I’d learned about the high risk of me being shunned. I did start tofantasize about a rich man falling for me on Sutiner, seeing me dance as I stripped and then proposing and marrying me somewhere fancy.

My reality now was so much better than any of my wandering fantasies growing up. Wilston exceeded all my wants and hopes. He was everything to me. Looking over at him and seeing him smile as the street trailed past the car windows, that was enough for my tears to threaten their return.

“No tears,” he quickly said, looking me over with worry. “You do like your new suit, right? Even Xarius said so.”

I laughed. My poor man was still worried about that. “I love my outfit. More so than the one left in ruins.”

He let out a relieved sigh. “You know, he didn’t mean to ruin it. Mr. Fluffy Pants loves you. I think it smelled like you and he just couldn’t help himself and had to play with it.”

“With his claws,” I muttered, still not completely over it.

He just let out a chuckle and resumed looking out the window. The drive would only take ten minutes, with the others arriving five minutes ahead of us.

Xari and Niam had their ceremony a week ago, and it had been perfect. Today was finally our turn, and then next week would beTino and Altair’s ceremony. I tried not to dwell on the fact that Grandma wouldn’t be here. I’d held her funeral after we’d said our goodbyes to Julie, but it still hadn’t fully settled in my mind. I kept thinking about stuff like what she would wear today. Would it be the burgundy two-piece suit she always wore at special occasions, or would she have gone out and bought an outfit just for this day alone? Would she be waiting at the castle, or with us in the car right now?

My parents had come out of hiding for the funeral, showing their faces for the first time since they abandoned me. They still didn’t want to be in my life, or I figured as much when they passed me and just smiled, then left without a single word spoken between us. I’d been stunned, not that I wanted them in my life, they’d leftme. But then why had it felt like they’d left me all over again that day?

Nujik and Willow had been amazing when it came to planning the funeral, both of them helping me out with details and how to order different things I’d need. Sometimes I wondered if my childhood would’ve been better with them, but then I wouldn’t have had those wonderful years with Grandma, and those were now some of my fondest memories. The fondest of them all was still the day Wilstonproposed though, and I firmly believed it would share the spot with today, if nothing else were to happen to sour my mood.

The car came to a stop and we quickly got out and walked on the gravel leading up to the castle. The wildflowers on both sides of the trail were vibrant in color as we passed them. It almost felt like they welcomed us as we approached the grand castle. The beauty of it would never get old. Wilston’s hand squeezed mine, and I returned the motion. This was it.

Showtime.

Wilston

I had never been more nervous, or that was a lie, since facing the previous leaders had been worse. But still, seeing all these people waiting for us, had my heart beating faster. Silver’s hand in mine was the one thing keeping me anchored.

Speaking of Silver, he lookedamazingtoday, even if his suit had gotten ruined by the kitten I’d begged him to get, it wasn’t as pretty as the one he wore now. I would never tell him this, but I’d been the one deciding on how it would look, color, fit and with the pearlescent sheen, something I had no idea what was called but the others luckily understood as I’d explained my vision. I knew my man better than he knew himself some days, and if I were to trust his and Xarius’ words, he liked the suit.Lovedit even.

We called King and Shamus to us, mimicking what Xarius and Niam had done a week earlier. Stopping just in front of the closed castle doors, we met Nujik and Willow. They smiled brightly at us, both wearing forest green outfits. Nujik had donned a gorgeous suit with gold trim and Willow had a flowy satin dress with gold jewelry. They had basically adopted all of us as their sons since we’d taken over the council. Our trust in them had us promoting them to our advisers, making them just beneath us in rank.

Willow rushed forward to greet us, her dress reflecting different shades of green as she moved in the sunlight. “You look amazing!” she gushed and hugged both of us. “And King and Shamus, too!”

Silver frowned at that and looked behind him to see my other surprise. King had small flowers in the same color of light pink around his antlers and Shamus wore a bowtie around his neck. Also in the same light pink shade as Silver wore. A genuine smile of surprise stretched across his face and then he aimed that bright smile at me.

Gods, he was beautiful. It wasn’t until now as we stood in the sun that I could see he’d added some light pink highlights to his silver hair, just enough to add definition, but not too noticeable either. He would forever outshine everyone, and I loved that.

“You both look amazing, too!” he replied, looking at their green outfits. “Love the gold.”

Nujik chuckled. “That was all Willow. I just had to show up for the fitting and then dress today.”