Bride of Alvar (Redemption Saga, Book 1)

Chapter 6

"I do," I murmur. "It's magical."

"It's arlite on skin," the blue sylph clucks, referring to my glow.

"Arlite," I repeat back at myself in the mirror. "Will it wear off?"

"Yes, just beauty treatment. It stop shining in few days," blue sylph explains.

"You look so beautiful, Lucy," Mom gushes. She starts wiping her eyes and sniffling. "Oh, honey, I'm so happy for you. My daughter, the queen."

I wonder at her for saying it because if I ever had a daughter I would hate it if she married a man she'd just met out of obligation.

We have different priorities, Mom.

I think of Mike while taking one last glance in the mirror. He was the one who was supposed to see me in this dress walking down the aisle.

I hope I can somehow let him know I'm okay.

Tears brim over my eyes and trickle down my cheeks.

I can't believe I'm doing this.

"She's so happy she's crying," Mom says to Leeza. "Get it out now, honey."

I cry harder. Years of pent up emotion gushing out.

I should have at least told Mike goodbye. I owed him that.

Someone knocks on my quarters' door and interrupts my sob fest.

"Come in," Leeza says.

It's Fletch. He's dressed in gold silk and wearing a holster with what appears to be a gun-like weapon.

I'm confused about the technology here. Some things are advanced and other things—say, consummating marriages—stuck in what would be archaic history to my western world.

Still in tears I throw the veil over my head to cover my face from Fletch.

"The groom awaits," Fletch says with a chuckle, offering an arm to me. As we walk together down a stairs and up a hall, he adds, "You know, my friend, Alvar, he may not believe it, but he's a damn good one. You're a lucky lady, Lucy... if you don't mind my saying."

I don't reply, I don't have time, although his words stay with me.

I hear music and as we near, I put a hand over my mouth.

It's the music made by hundreds of voices.

Thankfully, I've stopped crying and a numbness from the flood of anxiety sets in to protect me.

Mom holds my wedding dress train as Fletch leads me to stairs going into—what appears to be—a chapel.

A low rumble sounds and I discover the source to be hundreds of people, seated whispering, and muttering in wait for the wedding to start.

How did everyone get here so fast? Such short notice, you'd think no one would make it!

It makes me suspicious as whether Alvar premeditated everything, but I think of Emily and regain my determination at getting through it.

This is for you, Em.

The people seated are a variety of human people, the bird people--or sylphs, a few gobli, and people that appear like fauns from mythology on two cloven toed feet, except instead of goat horns their features are more like that of a deer.