“And William and Emory?”
I looked down, holding Em’s eyes.
I was going to lose it, I was so nervous.
“Do you promise to believe in each other and stand together?”
I gulped.
Hell, yes.
“We do,” we replied.
The officiant paused for a moment, then continued, “Do you promise to put the family first?”
“We do,” we all answered.
“Do you promise to never break these promises?”
I grinned down at her. “We do.”
We all slipped the rings on the other’s hand, the band wrapping around me and my heart at the same fucking time.
“Michael and Erika, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
“Whoo!” I heard someone yelp, and we all laughed as Michael and Rika kissed.
“Damon and Winter?” the judge said. “I pronounce you husband and wife.”
He took her face and kissed her, still going even after the judge moved on.
“Kai and Nikova, I pronounce you husband and wife.”
“Come here,” Kai said, crashing his mouth down on his wife’s. She giggled.
Banks giggled. I shook my head.
The pulse in my neck pounded, readying myself and feeling like I was about to have a heart attack.
I looked into Em’s eyes, whispering, “I love you, baby.”
“Good,” she told me. “Because I wasn’t actually on the shot like I said I was in the greenhouse.”
Huh? My eyes went wide, and I froze for a moment.
But then I snorted, diving down and kissing her before I was told.
Fuck yeah.
“William and Emory,” the judge said, clearing her throat to try to give us a hint to stop kissing.
But before she could pronounce us husband and wife, thunder pierced the air in the distance, and I jerked, opening my eyes.
What the hell was that?
I pulled back from Emmy, hearing screams and shouting as all of us turned in circles, searching for where the sound came from.
And then we saw it. Beyond the cathedral, far into the black sky toward Cold Point—a cloud of fire and smoke rising into the air like an atomic bomb.