Niall grabbed a little backpack with the emblem of the hotel on it, shoving our clothes and stuff inside it before heading to the checkout to pay and slinging it over his shoulder.
He slid his arm around my waist when he returned to me, guiding me out of the store and further along into the hotel.
“I’ll be back in a second, love, wait here.” Niall left me by a suit of armour and I peeked into its visor, trying to see any ghosts that might be lurking in there as my devil man headed away.
He was probably going to have a wee, or a poop. Yeah, maybe a poop. Maybe I should poop too before we skydived. I didn’t want to poop on the way down. What if it escaped my panties and started falling along beside me and then when the parachute went up, it hit the top of it and splattered all over me? No, that wouldn’t be good. But I didn’t need a poop…
Niall squeezed my hand as he returned and I noticed a paper bag in his other hand, frowning at it as he tried to make me move, but I didn’t.
“What’s in there? A pastry? I could eat a pastry. Is it a pan au raisin? I love a pan au raisin, but sometimes you can mistake a cinnamon swirl for a pain au raisin and it’s super disappointing. I don’t want a cinnamon swirl, Niall, I really, really want it to be a pain au-”
Niall pressed his fingers to my lips to shut me up.
“Here.” He took the surprise out of the bag and dropped down to one knee in the same moment, offering me up a knife. A beautiful fucking knife too. It was the shiniest silver with a spider wrapped around the hilt and a beautiful web engraved into the blade.
“This is a symbol of that promise I made ya, love. Always and forever. Here’s the proof of that, and if I ever break it, I want you to drive this knife into my worthless heart in payment, you understand?” His dark green eyes blazed at me, like he needed me to swear that to him, like he’d rather die if he ever failed to keep his word to me. And it left me completely speechless.
I nodded mutely, taking the incredible knife into my hand and turning it left and right as I admired it.
“Here.” Niall got back to his feet, opening the backpack in offering and I dropped it inside before leaning in and stealing a kiss from his lips. He had such nice lips, like two lines of blueberries all cuddling together.
He caught the front of my dress in his fist and tugged me closer, deepening the kiss with this hungry kind of need which mirrored my own so perfectly that it stole us away from everyone and everything else and just left us suspended in a bubble of us.
Niall broke away first and I nearly stumbled as I tried to figure out how to stand on solid ground without him anchoring me to it again before he started pulling me along once more.
We finally reached the place he was taking me and I stared up at the red sign above the entrance in shock.
The Chapel at Excalibur.
Niall didn’t look at me as he drew me through the door and started talking to a man in a suit who seemed to be expecting us.
The scent of I dos and heartfelt vows filled my nose and I breathed it all in as I took in the beautiful room with empty chairs either side of the aisle and a medieval chandelier hanging over the altar.
There were only a certain number of events that happened in chapels, and I tried to narrow down which one was the most likely for me to be attending.
A funeral?
A christening?
A Christmas carol service?
No…those ones didn’t line up. They didn’t make sense.
My brain was all whirly as I latched onto the one event that it had to be. And as there was a man with a collar and a book at the end of the aisle, I was pretty sure I was either about to see Niall marry that strange man he was talking to, or the only other person in the room.
Me.
I blew out a sharp breath, turning to look at Brooklyn where she hesitated in the door to the chapel, her eyes wide with wonder and a dawning understanding as she took in the medieval themed room before letting her gaze settle on me.
I jerked my head at her in what was meant to be a command, but which felt like something of a plea as my heart thundered in my chest and my mouth grew dry.
This was it. The moment where she would either make this choice or turn and run from me.
I wouldn’t let her leave. Not really. But if she didn’t want this then I would have to figure out another way to give her everything she deserved and more in this world that had done her so fucking dirty up until this point.
Her hands bunched in the huge skirt she was wearing, her posture tightening and her head turning to look behind her, making everything in my body tense as I expected to see her bolting from me. But instead, she just looked back to me, her hand lifting and pointing at herself in question like she expected there to be someone stood behind her who I was addressing.
“There’s only you, love,” I said in a rough voice, making it clear to her that I wasn’t just talking about her standing there, but that I meant it in all things.
Brooklyn hesitated a moment longer, scrunching her skirt tighter in her fists and raising her chin before stepping into the room. She took her sweet time walking up to me, sliding one foot towards the other and humming a bridal march until someone took pity on her and played the real thing through speakers hidden in the corners of the room – which was especially appreciated as I was fairly sure it was The Imperial March from Star Wars she was actually humming.
I watched her as she drew closer to me, this wedding so unlike the one I’d taken part in before in so many ways. For one, we weren’t being watched by countless people who I hated. Nor was there a family of innocent, oblivious folk taking up the pews to the left, believing in the lies I’d fed them about what I did for a living and who I really was. The girl who walked towards me wasn’t drinking in the sight of a perfectly presented lie.
No.
Brooklyn was looking right at me, darkness, bloodstains and all. And she was still drawing closer with every damn step, her eyes lighting up in a way that made my frantic heart pound. I pushed the dark outa my mind, forcing it to recede and make way for something so much better.
She stopped beside me at last, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip as she looked up at me, this tiny little package of mayhem dressed up like a Tudor princess, looking like she couldn’t hurt a fly when she had in fact laid siege to the heart of a heathen and claimed it for her own empire singlehandedly.
“Niall,” she whispered, cutting a look to the officiant like she thought he couldn’t hear us even though he was barely a few feet away. “Is this because you put your cock inside me?”
The officiant cleared his throat, backing up a step and muttering something about giving us a moment and frowned as I looked down at my little psycho, shaking my head.
“No, love,” I replied, stepping closer to her so that I was dominating all of her space and forcing her to focus on me as I prepared to cut myself open for her and let her see me bleed. “What we did tonight, what you gave me, only made this fate more obvious than it should have been from the fucking start.”
“What fate?”
“You and me, beautiful,” I said roughly. “Two of a kind and all sorts of fucked up.” I reached for her cheek, cupping it in my roughened palm and tipping her head up so that she was fixed in my stare and her lips hovered perilously close to mine. “All this time, I’ve been trying to keep you away from me, working to force some distance between us because I feared the fate you would receive if anyone ever found out about you. I have more enemies than I could even count within other organisations like my pa’s, from within my own family, from the friends and loved ones of those I’ve killed and no doubt many more I haven’t even given any thought to. People like the Nelsons who took Ava from me.”