Chapter 134

The morning of the wedding felt nothing like I expected. I had imagined nerves. Shaking hands. A stomach that flipped every five seconds. Maybe a rush of panic that made me question every choice that had carried me here. But when sunlight poured through the loft windows and warmed the side of my face, I woke with nothing except a quiet stillness settling into my bones.

It felt like standing at the center of a bridge I had been walking toward my entire life.

Torin was not beside me. His side of the bed was rumpled and warm, the pillow still carrying the shape of his head. A small folded note sat near my hand.

Went to the house early to help set up. I did not want to wake you. I love you. Come when you are ready.

I smiled at it like a fool. My heart kicked in a steady, certain rhythm. No cold clamps of fear. No shadows creeping along the edges of my mind. Just warmth blooming outward from the center of my chest.

Jess and Tannin were already in the kitchen when I stepped out. Jess had a cup of tea in his hand. Tannin had a piece of toast hanging from her mouth like she was too busy fussing with her hair to put it down. Rook was asleep on the couch again, boots still on, arms folded behind his head like he owned the place.

Jess watched me for a long moment, his eyes soft and amused. “You look calm,” he said.

“I feel calm,” I replied.

Tannin made a sound around her toast. “Weird,” she said.

Jess smacked her arm lightly. “She’s getting married. She’s allowed to be calm.”

Rook cracked one eye open. “She’s not calm,” he muttered. “She’s floating. Very different things.”

I stuck my tongue out at him before walking toward the bathroom. “Wake up,” I said. “You have a suit to put on.”

He groaned. “Tannin is the only one who likes dressing up.”

She straightened. “Excuse you. I do not like dressing up. I like looking better than everyone else.”

Jess nodded thoughtfully. “Fair.”

Rook pointed at him. “Traitor.”

Their bickering followed me all the way into the bathroom, and instead of rolling my eyes or feeling impatient, I stood there listening to them and smiled. This was my life. Not danger. Not running. Not fear gnawing at the inside of my ribs. This strange, mismatched, fiercely loyal group of people who kept showing up even when life kept swinging hard.

The dress hung on the bathroom door. Simple. Soft. Nothing flashy. Nothing that looked like it belonged in glossy magazines or on someone who wanted eyes and attention. It was ivory and lace, flowing when I moved, delicate without feeling fragile.

Tannin burst into the room before I had time to fix the last button. “Let me see,” she said as she almost tackled me, then froze halfway. Her entire face softened. “Oh… Marlowe.”

My throat tightened. “Good or bad?”

“Good,” she said quickly. “So good it is annoying.”

Jess appeared behind her, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. “You look beautiful,” he said. “Torin might actually have a heart attack.”

I swallowed around the thickness in my throat. “He has been through worse.”

Jess’s expression gentled. “Not like this,” he said. “Not when it is good.”

Rook pushed past them with a grunt. “Move. I want to see.”

Tannin smacked him. “We knocked.”

“No we did not,” Jess said.

“We should have,” Tannin replied.

Rook stopped in front of me, then blinked twice. “Our mother would have cried,” he said, his voice dropping low.

My breath caught.

He continued, “Skye would have hated it, because he hated anything good that belonged to us, but she… she would have cried.”

I touched his hand gently. “Then I will carry her today with me,” I whispered.

He nodded once, sharp and grateful, like he could not bring himself to say more.

Tannin cleared her throat. “Well okay I did not plan on crying before noon, so can we leave now before my mascara melts?”

We piled into the car together. Jess drove because he said none of us were capable of making rational decisions today. Tannin took pictures of everything and nothing. Rook complained about how tight his suit jacket was. I stared out the window as the city blurred past us.

Everything I had survived lived in the lines of those streets. The old compound. Jess’s bar. The warehouse where I chose to fight back. The storage facility where Torin stepped into danger knowing it could be the end. The alley where Lucien once tried to drag my life back into his control.

And now the little church just outside the city where everything was changing again.

The parking lot was full. People spilled into the yard in clusters. Laughter rose in warm waves. All of it softened when I stepped out of the car and the old wooden doors swung open.

Burdock stood there like a mountain that had learned how to smile. His hair had gone more silver since the last time I saw him. His hands were clasped in front of him as though he was making himself keep them still. He looked at me in a way that made my heart fold in on itself.

Ginger stood beside him, her red hair braided back, her smile wide and warm. She held her arms out before I could even think.

“Come here, baby girl,” she said.

I went straight into her arms. Her embrace smelled like cinnamon and flowers and every warm memory I could not go back to.

Burdock cleared his throat quietly. “You grew up,” he said. “And you grew strong.”

I nodded, tears stinging hot behind my eyes. “Because you taught me how.”

He lifted his hand, hesitated, then rested it gently on my cheek. “Torin has been waiting for you his whole life,” he said. “You were the fire under his ribs. The compass in his chest.”

A sharp breath escaped me.

Ginger took my hands. “And he is the right man for you,” she said with absolute certainty.

My heart steadied. “I know.”

The church doors opened wider. Music drifted out. People stood, turning toward the aisle.

Torin stood at the far end, waiting at the altar in a dark suit that made him look taller, stronger, grounded in every way a man could be grounded. The moment he saw me, his breath left him. His eyes softened in a way that belonged only to me.

My hands shook as Rook stepped beside me, holding out his arm. “Ready?”

I smiled. “Ready.”

As he guided me forward and the room blurred into golden haze, one truth anchored me with every step.

I was not walking toward an ending. I was walking toward a beginning. Toward a life that was mine. Toward a man who chose me with fire and patience and fierce devotion. Toward a family I never expected to find and a future I never dared to dream of.

I walked toward Torin, and he smiled like I had just handed him the whole world.

THE END