Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
I looked around, kind of confused. Banks had the same ring for Kai, and I couldn’t see Michael’s or Damon’s, but I assumed they were the same, too. I guess I’d missed something.
I liked it, though.
“What’s wrong?” I heard Michael whisper.
“N…Nothing,” Rika said. “I thought I saw something.”
“Michael and Erika?” the officiant continued. “Do you promise that no matter what you do, you do it as one?”
They smiled at each other. “We do.”
“Damon and Winter?” the judge asked next. “Do you promise to give your very best to each other?”
“We do,” they said, their voices strong and sure.
“Kai and Nikova?”
My heart hammered inside me, and my pores cooled with sweat.
“Do you promise that the other will never be alone?” the judge asked.
“We do,” they answered, and I could hear the smile in their voices.
“And William and Emory?”
I looked down, holding Em’s eyes.
I was going to lose it, I was so nervous.
“Do you promise to believe in each other and stand together?”
I gulped.
Hell, yes.
“We do,” we replied.
The officiant paused for a moment, then continued, “Do you promise to put the family first?”
“We do,” we all answered.
“Do you promise to never break these promises?”
I grinned down at her. “We do.”
We all slipped the rings on the other’s hand, the band wrapping around me and my heart at the same fucking time.
“Michael and Erika, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
“Whoo!” I heard someone yelp, and we all laughed as Michael and Rika kissed.
“Damon and Winter?” the judge said. “I pronounce you husband and wife.”
He took her face and kissed her, still going even after the judge moved on.
“Kai and Nikova, I pronounce you husband and wife.”
“Come here,” Kai said, crashing his mouth down on his wife’s. She giggled.
Banks giggled. I shook my head.
The pulse in my neck pounded, readying myself and feeling like I was about to have a heart attack.
I looked into Em’s eyes, whispering, “I love you, baby.”
“Good,” she told me. “Because I wasn’t actually on the shot like I said I was in the greenhouse.”
Huh? My eyes went wide, and I froze for a moment.
But then I snorted, diving down and kissing her before I was told.
Fuck yeah.
“William and Emory,” the judge said, clearing her throat to try to give us a hint to stop kissing.
But before she could pronounce us husband and wife, thunder pierced the air in the distance, and I jerked, opening my eyes.
What the hell was that?
I pulled back from Emmy, hearing screams and shouting as all of us turned in circles, searching for where the sound came from.
And then we saw it. Beyond the cathedral, far into the black sky toward Cold Point—a cloud of fire and smoke rising into the air like an atomic bomb.
Oh, my God.
“What is that?” Damon yelled.
“It’s near the Cove,” I said. I knew exactly where it was, and the only thing that it could’ve been.
People started running, and I grabbed Em’s hand, all of us racing out of the gazebo. I searched for the kids, Misha, Ryen, and Alex, but then something caught my attention, and I narrowed my eyes, spotting the little girl from the Cove the other night. Still dressed in her dirty black clothes and the beanie on her head. She was staring at us.
“What the hell?” I growled. “Michael!”
“What?”
I pointed toward the cars at the curb in front of Sticks. “Get her!”
Was that what Rika meant when she said she thought she saw something?
“Oh, shit,” he exclaimed.
Keeping Emmy’s hand in mine, I hurried with her through the crowd, the little girl spinning around and trying to get through the people as a car tried to exit the alley, and a food cart blocked her other way out.
She slipped through a patch in the chaos, but I lurched forward, catching her arm just in time.
I hauled her back to me, her arms flying out and trying to hit me.
“Let me go!” she yelled.
I wrapped my arms around her as she thrashed and kicked, and her head hit my nose, pain shooting up into my head.
Fuck.
“Hey, hey,” Rika said, pulling her out of my arms. “It’s okay. No one will hurt you.”
She fell to her knees in her red gown, looking up at the little girl and taking her hands in hers.
“I promise,” she told her. “No one will hurt you. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she barked and tried to pull away. “Let me go!”
Damon grabbed her, keeping her there.
But Rika looked up at him. “Let her go.”
He frowned but did it, and Rika smiled up at her, trying to soothe. “I saw you watching the wedding,” she said as people ran every which way around us. “Did you like it? My mom says I should’ve worn white.”
The little girl scowled but didn’t move, her eyes trailing over Rika’s earrings and hair.