ng began

o birdsong.

k sheets as Alina sat

teps, her hands folded in front

didn't

. "Please. We have

in fighting-not today. Her defiance was coiled

r was brushed and twisted into an elegant knot. The garnet

n in the mirror. Pale. Hollow

roses, trailing vines, candles that flickered behind glass. The

ards flanked her. Neither s

rs crea

tepped

loor. There were no pews, no guests. Just a half-circle of hand-picked witnesses-men in dark s

robes stark against the blood-red carpet. He didn

e center of it a

line of his throat, the edge of the tattoo inked across his chest. His hair was dark and

sic p

choed like

slightly. She clenc

nded his hand, not to hold hers, b

ack diamond, cu

on," h

gers he

mured. "Or I'll

onto her own finge

s if they were a sentence, not a blessing. The words blurred in her

st before the declaration-L

His voice was soft,

nued. "By the power vested in me, I

k

ppla

und of the

bleeding across the page like a wound. The ink barely dri

se, brushing her e

e mine in

ne went

on the stained-glass window above the altar. The Virgin Mary

the chapel

ore guards, more corridors, mo

the door clicked

the late afternoon light, the garnet necklace like a drop of blo

hing-her father, her fre

ot he

her

mewhere, far beyond the iron gates and marble walls, the real worl

uld have t

ld surv

clearly, she whispe

s is