The group of wedding guests was small but tight-knit.
Carrick, Finley, Maddox, Zaid, Titus, Boral, and Zora.
Myles was in a dapper suit, and Rainey in a simple strapless white gown made of silk and chiffon she had bought off the rack because it had fit so perfectly. The rest of the group dressed casually, per Rainey’s insistence. She wanted this to be fun, casual, and with no formal rules.
The one rule they did abide by was getting their marriage license. All Zaid had to do after officiating the ceremony—which was really just Rainey and Myles exchanging personal vows they had written—was add his signature to the bottom and they were officially Mr. and Mrs. Lareva.
And now… it was time to celebrate and party. For the moment, Carrick was very much enjoying Finley and Rainey attempting to teach Zora how to do the Macarena. Maddox and Myles were engaged in a lively debate over whether it was better to get married or stay resolutely single.
Carrick could tell them the answer, but they needed to figure it out themselves.
Zaid was busy refreshing platters of food he’d prepared and Boral sat by himself in a corner, a glass of Scotch in one hand and his phone in the other as he scrolled. Carrick didn’t even bother being put out by Boral’s attendance. Rainey wanted him there and the Dark Fae had proven on more than one occasion he was loyal to the team. He’d just probably never be considered a friend.
“You know… your girlfriend has no rhythm whatsoever,” Titus drawled from the side of his mouth as he came to stand beside Carrick. He had a beer in hand and he watched the ladies dancing with amusement.
“Better not say that to Finley’s face,” Carrick warned Titus with a chuckle. “She’s liable to kick your balls up to your throat.”
“Duly noted,” Titus replied with a laugh. “I’m all for us continuing the wedding celebration, but while your woman and her sister are currently occupied on the dance floor, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had.”
Carrick’s gaze left Finley—who admittedly didn’t have much dance rhythm but was still the hottest thing he’d ever laid eyes on—and shifted to look at his friend. “What’s that?”
“Zora needs to learn to tap her powers and might even have some basic fighting skills, right?”
Carrick nodded. After Finley verified with Zora that she didn’t mind if the group knew about her powers, he had filled the men in on the fact she could fly but that the rest of her powers were still green and unused.
“I could take them both to Semper Terra,” Titus suggested before taking a sip of his beer. “I could put Zora through a quick self-defense course, and we’d have plenty of safe space to unleash her magical skills. I’d have Finley do some advanced training. Have her run the gauntlet for sure.”
Carrick blinked in surprise, for the gauntlet was a series of dangerous and life-threatening obstacles one had to complete using both their fighting and magical skills before becoming an annihilator. “The gauntlet? Are you sure?”
“She can do it,” Titus says without hesitation. “And it will give her a boost of confidence before the ritual.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Carrick mused. Zora definitely needed work if she was going to join the cause and fight against Kymaris, which wasn’t set in stone yet. But she needed to get ready, and frankly, her dark magic could be incredibly useful to them. “I’ll talk to Finley about it tonight. When would you want to go?”
“Why wait?” Titus replied, his gaze moving back out to the dance floor as the song wound down. “Let’s go tomorrow.”
Carrick nodded but his attention was drawn to Myles, who stepped over to his iPhone—hooked up to the Bluetooth speakers throughout the condo—to put on a new tune. “Time to dance with my bride,” he announced.
The first notes of At Last by Etta James floated over the condo and Myles moved to Rainey, who smiled at him as if he were the sunrise.
Finley moved to Carrick, Zora following her. Now was as good a time as any to tell them about Titus’ suggestion but from the corner of his eye, he saw Maddox zeroing in on Zora.
And while he loved his brother and couldn’t blame him for his interest, he also knew Zora could only take so much of his flirting, so he decided to be noble.
“Tell Finley your idea,” Carrick muttered to Titus, then stepped forward to intercept Zora. “I’m going to take this lady for a spin around the floor.”
Carrick caught the warm smile Finley had on her face, the blink of surprise from Zora, and then he had her in his arms.
She was stiff as a board and wouldn’t follow his lead, so they mainly stood on the fringe swaying slightly while Myles and Rainey danced.
“You and I haven’t had a chance to talk much since you came here,” Carrick said lightly. “Are you settling in okay?”
Zora nodded. “Finley’s done a great job of making me feel comfortable. And I thank you for letting me stay here.”
“You’re family,” Carrick replied nonchalantly.
“Finley told me about your history together and Rune’s curse,” Zora said, her head tipping to the side. “While you two aren’t married now, I suppose your past marriage makes it so we are indeed family.”
“Past marriages,” Carrick corrected, and Zora blinked in surprise. “Sometimes, we married before she died. Other times, we didn’t make it that far.”
“I’m sorry,” Zora replied, but her tone was flat. Carrick assumed not that she was bitter or uninterested, but that she perhaps just couldn’t understand that level of devotion and commitment. She’d been raised in the Underworld and had no examples by which to form opinions of such.
She’d learn though.
If they all survived the upcoming ritual.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Carrick began as they started to move a little more loosely. “I’m curious what happened during the actual part of the changeling ritual when Kymaris left the Underworld.”
Zora shrugged. “It wasn’t all that spectacular to be honest. They brought me into the room at the castle where she was held in stasis.”
“What did her stasis look like?”
“Like she was a statue,” Zora described without any inflection. “Like her body had just locked tight. She went into stasis standing up, hands down by her side. And I remember finding it odd how serene her facial expression was.”
“I can almost imagine it,” Carrick murmured.
“At any rate,” Zora continued. “They shackled me in place behind Kymaris—”
“Shackled?” Carrick growled in surprise.
“The process of receiving magic was not pleasant,” Zora explained with some bitterness. “I had to be restrained.”
Carrick wanted to ask her more about that process, but it was personal and, he suspected, highly unpleasant. If Zora was going to talk to anyone about it, it would be Finley. So he refocused her just on Kymaris. “When they took the magic you were holding and put it into Kymaris, what happened?”
“At first nothing,” Zora replied with a slight shake of her head. “And I thought… they must have gotten something wrong, but the entire room started to hum, then it started to vibrate, and there was such pressure my ears started to hurt. As if something was compressing in on us. And then… boom… she just exploded.”