Timeline: a Wings of Fire fanfiction (COMPLETED)

17.

Clearsight

In the hours before we get married, as my mother helps me drape pearls over my wings and around my body, the fragments of visions whisper through my mind.

"Loosely," I chide, wishing I could just do this myself, for the kingdoms' sake. "Please, Mother. You're strangling me."

"Okay, sweetie," she sighs, in a vaguely patronizing tone. I know in five minutes, she'll be back at it again. Three moons, you think she would trust me to get ready for my own bloody wedding. But I was too nervous to get in an argument about it.

It's been a long time since I've felt this way. Excited and hopeful and happy and scared and overwhelmed, and--

I feel like my brain is about to explode or something.

"Are you sure you're making the right choice?" Mother asks, softly.

"I'm a seer. Of course I am. You don't think I've thought about this?"

"You seem... very in love," she says carefully.

"What does that mean?" I snap, adjusting the pearls and glancing at myself in the mirror. This is the moment. This is what I'm going to wear on my wedding day.

"Well... sometimes... that can make you... less logical..."

"Mother. Please." I meet her eyes.

She sighs, glancing down at the ground resignedly. "I'll give you some space to get ready. Wedding starts in fifteen minutes. Do you want me to come get you?"

"Fine. That... that sounds fine." I let out a breath, rubbing my eyes.

***

I stare at myself in the mirror for a long time. My heart pounds in my chest, so loud it feels like I'm about to explode or something.

Shadowhunter isn't going to be a secret anymore. The whole world is going to know. Foeslayer and Mother and Father and Whiteout, and--

I take a deep breath, forcing my shoulders to relax.

Calm down. This is the right choice.

Everything is going to be okay.

You can handle this.

I curl up into a ball, not caring if it's going to mess up all the fancy jewels, cradling my head in my talons. I threw up yesterday morning--which is totally normal; just a being-with-an-egg thing. I mean, it wasn't fun or anything, but I was fine fifteen minutes later. Darkstalker still insisted on making me pancakes for breakfast and kept asking if I was okay. It's not the vomiting thing that was bugging me. It was that... this meant it was really happening.

And I'd just... forgotten how this felt. Like standing at the edge of a cliff, and feeling the wind whistle through your wings, about to fly for the first time. Bracing your legs, feeling the exhilaration sweep through your chest, but not jumping. Because you know you can do it. But... after you do, everything will be different. And for some reason, that scares you. More than anything.

***

And then it's happening. We're walking towards each other, from opposite ends of the aisle, towards the altar. I smile, just slightly, at Darkstalker. He smiles back, and honestly, just seeing him is kind of reassuring.

Don't think about everyone else. Just stay in the moment. You'll be okay.

Who came here tonight? Is Queen Vigilance watching? How will she react to finding out I'm with an egg?