Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(210)

I tipped my head back to look up at him.

“It was not fun, but I am no longer hanging with them, so I am fine,” he said.

“I’m glad,” I whispered then finished with feeling, “And thank you.”

“I would do anything for you, Maddie,” he whispered back and I felt my throat close because he’d proved that true.

His arms loosened and I shifted to his side as he looked to Apollo.

“And I would do anything for you,” he declared.

The second he did, Apollo shot a hand out, curled it around the side of Derrik’s neck and yanked him forward so they were nose-to-nose, eye-to-eye.

“My gratitude, my brother,” Apollo stated and I swallowed as my nose started to tingle.

They both looked into each other’s eyes for some time and I waited, watching and deep breathing.

Apollo finally let his friend go and I moved in quickly.

“Okay, I hate to interrupt the reunion,” I started, giving Derrik an I-hope-you-understand grin then looking up to Apollo. “But I really want to see the kids.”

“Then I will take you to them,” Apollo replied immediately.

“And Meeta and Loretta,” I added.

“I will find them for you as well.”

“And then I have seriously got to eat,” I finished.

He grinned down at me.

Then he bent to me and touched his mouth to mine.

After that, as was his way, Apollo did not delay in getting me everything I wanted.

* * * * *

A week later, I stood in an antechamber of the Dwelling of the Gods, staring at the glittering bundle of delicate branches Finnie just shoved into my hands.

“Before you go in there and participate in the longest, the most boring wedding ceremony of all time…something borrowed,” she said. “I carried that when I married Frey.” She grinned. “Of course I had no clue who he was at the time, but it ended okay.”

Yes. One could certainly say it ended okay.

I grinned back at her.

She moved away as Circe moved in.

“Something old,” she said, grabbing my hand, lifting it palm up and pressing a golden feather there.

It looked like it came from the kickass headband of feathers she had wrapped around her forehead and mingling in her hair.

“It’s from my first crown,” she told me and my eyes went back to her. “I ripped it up when I got angry at Lahn and took myself back to my world.” She closed my hand around the feather. “He kept the pieces. Some of them are in the one I’m wearing now. Some of them are in a pouch he carries with him every day. He kept them even when the odds were against him in getting me back and winning me back.” She tipped her head to the side. “So I figure, they represent hope. And, seriously, there isn’t a day filled with more hope than a wedding day.”

I could totally believe Lahn carried Circe’s feathers with him every day but not in hopes of anything. That man wanted her back, he was going to find a way.

And he did.

Still, it was a total honor having one.

“Thank you,” I whispered, lifting my other hand to curl it around hers.

She gave me a smile, squeezed my hands and moved away.

I tucked the feather into the sleeve of my glove as Cora moved in.

“Something new,” she said, lifting my hand and leaving it suspended as she fastened on my wrist a bracelet made of delicate platinum links on which dangled tiny platinum charms she showed me by twisting it around my wrist.

As they came into view, the skin at my wrist began to tingle because I knew what each one meant.

The fang of a wolf. Apollo. A bow and arrow. Christophe. A tiny doll. Élan. And a miniature rattle. Our yet to arrive girl.

Cora curled her fingers around mine and I looked from the bracelet to her.

“You can add to that as life brings you bounty,” she said.

“Thank you,” I replied yet again, my voice husky.

She grinned at me.

I deep breathed so I wouldn’t mess up my makeup.

“And something blue.” We heard and I turned my head and blinked, seeing Valentine suddenly there.

She drew her elegant hand up, flicked it out and I felt cold at my neck.

“Holy crap,” Circe whispered.

I had the chance to do nothing as Valentine got close, placed her hands on my shoulders and turned me, moving me forward toward a gilt-edged mirror, where she stopped me.

And I saw against my throat in place of the jewelry that had lain there, an exquisite tiered necklace glittering ice blue with extraordinarily cut Sjofn diamonds from Lunwyn.

I also saw Valentine behind me and I watched as she bent her head so her mouth was close to my ear.

“Some time ago, a man filled with sorrow handed me a bag filled with hope. Those stones were in that bag,” she told me quietly and my eyes dropped back down to the necklace. “He knew, as I knew and now you know, even as he paid for the chance to have it again that love is priceless, love is worth every battle fought, every wound endured. He knew, as you now know, ma colombe, that love is everything.”

I lifted my hand and touched the stones with the tips of my fingers, but my eyes moved to hers in the mirror.

“You’re giving this to me?” I asked.

“Oh no, ma chérie, they have always been yours. I’m just returning them to you.”