All eyes, including mine, Cora"s, Maddie"s, Finnie"s, Circe"s, Aurora"s, Josette"s, and the bride-the other Circe (attired in a dress that was far more becoming than my own)-went to him.
His eyes came to me.
I saw his face go soft, his gaze drop to my gown and his lips tip up before his attention turned to the bride.
A bride he was "giving away."
Although this was said to be against all tradition, Jo was not only my maid of honor at our other-world ceremony, she"d also walked me down the aisle and placed my hand in Noc"s.
She"d done this sobbing.
Like a ninny.
G.o.ds love her.
"Is he ready?" Circe asked Noc as he approached.
"Babe, you don"t haul your a.s.s into that sanctuary and soon, Dax is gonna tear in here and drag you down the aisle himself," Noc answered.
Me and my friends all gave each other knowing, delighted looks.
Circe gathered her skirts and her bundle of adela tree twigs and bustled to Noc, declaring, "Then we must go. Dax impatient is not a good thing."
"Dax impatient to make you his wife is probably a great deal worse," I shared.
Circe gave me big eyes.
Even so, I noted they were glowing and happy.
Oh yes.
Yes.
I did so enjoy when a carefully crafted scheme succeeded.
At Finnie"s command, we all collected the arrangements of flowers we were to hold in our hands, and we lined up in order to start the proceedings.
I was the last in line before Circe and Noc.
Jo had been my maid of honor but Circe had also stood up with me.
And I was to be Circe"s maid of honor and Josette was also to stand up with her.
And an honor it was.
Indeed.
As we"d been told (and actually practiced the night before, for reasons beyond me-we were all walking down an aisle and then standing at the front of the pews, listening as the Vallee droned on and on, it was hardly worth the military-style drilling Finnie forced us through), we filed out and did as we"d practiced.
We all got to the front and took our places opposite Dax, who was standing alone wearing a well-cut suit, looking impatient (and looking that frighteningly).
He was scowling down the aisle (like Circe was going to do anything but maybe throw decorum to the wind and run down the aisle to him), waiting for the doors Noc and Circe were to come through when something not practiced happened.
This was Frey"s booming voice ordering, "Stand!"
I looked to Jo at my side and then watched as the meager audience (the outside of the Dwelling was heavily guarded, there were two Noctornos, two Dax Lahns and two Circes in that room and it wouldn"t do for anyone who shouldn"t to see that).
After all stood, suddenly, filing in from the side, came Frey"s men. As they moved along the back wall to the aisle, Frey fell in in front of them.
We then saw Apollo"s closest soldiers following Frey"s, led by Apollo.
When they traversed the aisle, Lahn and Tor got out of their pews and joined the men.
They marched up the aisle before Noc even guided Circe into the sanctuary.
When they made it to the front, they lined up around the bridesmaids and to the other side around Dax, turning and standing almost what appeared to be at attention, watching as my husband finally guided Circe into the room and slowly walked the bride down the aisle.
I reached out a hand and found Jo"s, hers already searching mine.
We held on as we watched Circe"s lips quiver while she made her approach, taking in the a.s.semblage in front of her, a woman who was once violently stripped of everything, her family, her virtue, her freedom. She"d had no one to whom to turn. No one she could trust.
And now she had the armies of four countries at her back and six sisters at her side.
I felt my own tears welling when suddenly, the room filled with green.
"Fabulous." I heard Frey mutter sardonically.
I understood his lament.
Valentine did very much like to cause a drama.
But I heard this at the same time I heard on the other side of me, Circe"s wondrous, whispered, "Oh my G.o.d. Pop."
And then I saw an older man who"d formed from a rise of green mist move out of a pew toward Noc and Circe, who had just made it to the middle of the long aisle.
"If you don"t mind, son," he said to Noc, his eyes never leaving Circe, "I"ll take it from here."
"Who"s that man?" Jo whispered to me.
"My dad," Circe whispered to Jo.
Both Josette and I cut our gazes to Queen Circe who was openly weeping.
And hugely smiling.
We looked back to Circe as Noc took one look at the bride, dipped his chin and stepped aside.
The man I would eventually know as Harold Quinn walked his other-world daughter to her groom, grinning like a lunatic, his eyes filled with pride as they rested on both the daughter he claimed and the daughter he made before he guided the bride to the man she loved.
Noc moved to stand by Lahn and Tor.
But before I turned to the couple to watch them wed, I caught sight of her standing in the shadows at the back.
She was wearing a fabulous dress of jade green.
Love is everything. I heard Valentine"s voice whisper in my ear. Every way love can be.
And then, a cat"s smile flirting at her lips, she faded away in a beautiful drift of jewel-green smoke.
New Orleans Noc "I say, I"ve kept you up long enough. It"s time for me to find my bed...and my wife, and you yours," Kristian stated.
Noc, sitting outside with his brother-in-law, having a whiskey while Kristian enjoyed a cigar, nodded.
It was definitely time.
He liked the man but he liked his wife better.
They rose from their padded chairs and lifted their chins at each other as Kristian moved through the courtyard toward the carriage house at the other side where Franka had created a guest suite.
Noc left the bottle and gla.s.ses where they were on the table between the two chairs and walked into the house.
He went through it, knowing the doors were locked, the windows closed and latched.
He checked them all just the same. There were precious beings sleeping under his roof, a number of them, and it was the man he was that he"d make sure they were safe.
At the top of the stairs, looking up and down the hall, he saw no light coming from under the door to the master suite, or any of the others.
Except a dim light coming from under one in the middle of the hall, a door that led to a room that was painted pink.
He felt the grin hit his mouth but his body jerked when a different door, the one right beside him, opened.
Noc"s father blinked sleepily at his son then grunted, "d.a.m.ned bladder."
And then his dad lifted his hand, patted Noc"s shoulder, and walked the opposite way, toward the bathroom.
Noc walked toward the light.
He put his hand on the handle and turned it, opening the door a crack, doing it silently.
He stopped it at just a crack when he heard his daughter speak.
"Really, Momma?" Amara was asking in her little girl voice.
"Really, my sweetest love," Frannie replied.
"Daddy did that?"
"Yes, my darling, your father did that. He did that and more. So much more."
There was a beat of silence before Amara declared sleepily, "Mm, I believe it. Daddy"s so sweet."
Noc grinned again.
"He is that, beautiful Amara Judith," Frannie agreed. "He"s also something else."
"What"s that?"
"He"s my valiant."
Noc"s body locked.
"What does that mean?" their daughter asked.
"That means, precious girl, your daddy is my hero."
Noc closed his eyes and rested his forehead on the doorjamb.
"He"s mine too," Amara declared.
Noc"s throat closed.
"I know, baby," Frannie cooed. "Now it"s very late. I"ve told you your story. It"s time for you to go to sleep."
His daughter"s sounded dreamy as she shared, "I can"t wait to find my valiant."
Frannie"s tone was crisper when she returned, "We"ll talk about that in thirty years."
Amara"s voice was higher when she asked, "Thirty?"
"Go to sleep, darling."
"I"m not gonna be thirty-six when I get married."
"Amara, my love, sleep."
"All right." Noc heard his girl mumble.
At that, Noc moved from the door, down the hall and into his and Frannie"s room.
He went straight to the window.
He didn"t pull the curtains closed.
He stood looking down at their quiet courtyard with its riot of flowers, all of it lit by moonlight.
He heard her enter behind him.