Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
The rose is gone. She lets it drop to our feet as I take her hands in mine and we stand so close, so damn close there is nothing between us, no one around us, just us, just her and me and this strange, dark melody.
I lean toward Allegra, bring my lips to her cheek, her ear. I inhale her scent, familiar now. A mix of me and her.
“You take my breath away,” I whisper.
She shudders. “You stole mine a long time ago,” she whispers back.
The priest clears his throat.
We draw apart just a few inches, our hands still bound together as the sun disappears beneath the horizon and the only light is that of the candles.
“We are gathered here to bear witness to the marriage of Allegra Moretti and Cassian Trevino…” the priest begins, but I don’t hear him.
The ceremony will be a short one. He’s only here to make sure it’s official. To ensure no one can ever oppose our marriage.
“Cassian,” the priest says.
Jet takes the rings out of his pocket. It’s the band that matches her mother’s ring, the one she already has on her finger. I take her left hand in mine and glance down to place the ring on her finger.
“I love you, Allegra Moretti. I love you more than anything in this world and I will protect you and I will destroy your enemies. I am your servant until the end of time. This I vow. You are already my beloved. Now, with this ring, I take thee for my wife, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer until death do us part.”
More tears wet her face, and the look in her eyes, that softness of the deepest, most complex whiskey has my heart missing a beat, has my breaths coming shorter.
She takes the ring from Jet’s palm.
“I love you, Cassian. And I vow to be your protector. I vow to stand by your side hand-in-hand with you to face whatever hell this world thinks it can throw at us.”
The priest clears his throat. Jet chuckles. Allegra never breaks the lock of our eyes.
“And together, we will crush it. Because I love you more than anything in this world, beyond this world and I will love you to the end of time and forevermore. Now, with this ring, I take thee for my husband, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer until death do us part.”
EPILOGUE 2
ALLEGRA
Summer, One Year Later
Cassian and I eat frozen custard out of paper cups while sitting on the beach, which is remarkably quiet considering how beautiful the day is. The sun is shining, a breeze blowing off the ocean leaving the tangy taste of salt on my lips as it whips my hair around.
“Things are going well, don’t you think?” I ask him. The families have not quite been working together, but living in relative peace side-by-side since the treaty was signed.
“They are,” he says, looking at me, pushing my hair behind my ears. “But that’s not why you brought me out here. What’s on your mind, Little Moth?”
“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
“No, probably not.”
I roll my eyes and shift my gaze out over the ocean. I lick my lips, anxious to bring this up. Seth’s death isn’t that far away and well, I’m not sure if it’s too soon, but I don’t want to wait any longer.
“Cassian, I…” I start, the argument I had practiced in my mind not quite sounding as convincing as it had in my head.
He smiles. “Should I be worried? You are never at a loss for words.”
I swallow, draw a deep breath in and face him. “I stopped with the birth control shot.”
He studies me, one eye narrowing infinitesimally.
“Don’t worry, I’m still on the pill, but—”
“Okay,” Cassian says.
The next part of my sentence is almost out of my mouth, but the words stumble against each other as I catch them.
“Okay?” I ask.
“You want to have a baby.”
“I mean… well… I was…”
He smiles. “You’ve been leaving lots of research around,” he air-quotes the word research.
“You noticed.”
“You’re not very subtle,” he says with a chuckle as he again tucks a lock of hair the wind blows across my face behind my ear. “I have read everything there is to read on this subject, Allegra. I’ve spoken with a dozen experts. I—”
“Then you know it’s impossible for you to pass on a gene you don’t have, so why are you arguing?”
He chuckles. “Am I arguing?” He wipes a smudge of custard off the corner of my lip.
“Aren’t you?” I ask, suddenly realizing I might get what I’m asking for, which makes me more nervous than I imagined it could.
“There’s a little more,” he says, setting his empty custard cup in the sand and taking my face in his hands to kiss me fully on the mouth. His tongue is cold from the frozen custard, his mouth warm, lips soft.