CHAPTER 16
“Darling, you are cooling our guests’ hot meal,” Sir Rodney said, and then nodded to Garth to tap on the table with his wand to break up the ice that was creeping toward Sasha, Hunter, and Silver Hawk.
“But Rodney, this is an outrage!” Queen Cerridwen swept away from the round table and every footfall sent wide concentric circles of frost across the floor.
Nonplussed, the wolves kept eating, needing the rare steak to replenish them after the respective battle injuries sustained and the healings performed.
“Now, my dear, I know this is infuriating, but save the frozen daggers for the Vampires,” Sir Rodney said calmly, taking a liberal sip of his Fae ale.
“What! Save it for the Vampires?” Queen Cerridwen shouted, sputtering tiny snowflakes as she waved her arms about. “I will. I will. ”
“Send them a very cold missive, milady?” Garth stared at the queen.
Nervous servers hastened to Hunter’s side, insistent on giving him more baby carrots, peas, mashed potatoes, and gravy, despite the fact that all he’d said he wanted was the meat on his plate. Silver Hawk just smiled and gave Sasha a sidelong glance.
“You’d do well not to tempt me with sarcasm, old wizard, especially when icicles dance at my fingertips just now.”
“At your own risk, my friend,” Sir Rodney said, slowly standing to stretch. “Our queen is in ill temper after hearing the wolves’ report, or has that fact escaped you?”
“I own up to no sarcasm, sire.” Garth looked at Queen Cerridwen with an open, earnest gaze. “I am quite serious. We need to send the Vampires a missive tonight, but they cannot read our silver-sent messages. The queen, who has been the most savaged by their attacks, with the loss of sixty of her countrymen, compared to a few of our guards that valiantly fought them off in the bayou, should inform them of our displeasure and awareness of their ruse.”
“Quite so?” Queen Cerridwen narrowed her gaze on Garth, searching his expression for fraud. “You are serious.”
“I am, my queen. I owe you an apology. I judged you from the past out of deep loyalty and love for my king.” Garth bowed toward her and then stood straight, lifting his chin. “If we combine forces, what we send should cast daylight in the midst of their night.”
“Oh. I see.. ” Queen Cerridwen returned to the round table and waited for a chair to pull itself back so she could sit. Hunter and Silver Hawk stood and Sir Rodney waited until she sat down. “Thank you, Garth. I should like to repair any unpleasantness that fell hard between us.”
“As you so wish, milady.”
“Good, then it is settled,” Sir Rodney said, sitting down with Hunter and Silver Hawk while Garth remained near them with his hands clasped within the sleeves of his robe. “There are a few points of order.”
Sir Rodney glanced around the massive circular table and waited for everyone’s full attention. “First, the testimony of the Shadow Wolves must be added into the records of the United Council of Entities. Garth, send a Fae missive to them with the blood signatures of the leaders of the North American Shadow Wolf Federation on it. We shall make it known that the wife of Hunter’s brother, also our Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation ally, came under attack to satisfy an old demon debt by those who’d already been put to death by Vlad’s very hand for treason. This debt should have been satisfied by the Vampire Cartel in some other way, and even the young woman’s parents were attacked—he attempted to abduct them as hostages. The felonies involved in this are numerous. In any event, all of that spurious behavior, my friends, is a clear act of war.”
Hunter sat back from the table and laid down his fork. “That’s right. I had forgotten how this really should be understood in the greater context. An attack on Amy and her parents is an attack on the House of Shogun, the house of my brother, thus an attack on the House of the North American Shadows.. ”
Stunned, Sasha held her fork mid-air dripping au jus. “Which means that no matter how the Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation may feel about the internal politics involved with Shogun marrying Amy Chen, this is still an act of war upon the House of Chen-Kwon.” She looked at Hunter and then Silver Hawk. “We need to tell Shogun to get a missive to his people overseas and any people he has here in the states to tell them that he’s safe, Amy and her parents are safe, but that Vampires came after them.”
Garth nodded. “Perhaps our queen could assist in our international communications needs by helping to get the word to the Werewolves in a non-silver method?”
“Consider it done, Garth.” Queen Cerridwen gave him a respectful return nod from where she sat.
“Thus, I believe a marriage would be prudent tonight, before the missives are launched,” Silver Hawk remarked calmly, and then went back to his plate. “We will need a valid marriage to add additional credibility to our claims.”
“But when the attacks actually happened, my brother and Amy were not yet—”
Silver Hawk waved away Hunter’s statement with his fork. “They were betrothed, with an imminent wedding. This is the element of surprise. The Vampires had no way of knowing how important that young lady or her family is to our collective families.” He looked around the table. “The answer is always in the stillness, in the shadows. Just as you saw the truth in the shadow lands, my son. You saw the Erinyes chase the gargoyles out of the demon realms because they’d been called by the Vampires. And the love of your brother for Amy Chen was in the shadows, a secret that none of the Vampires knew until it is now too late.”
“This indeed gives us leverage,” Queen Cerridwen said, making a tent in front of her mouth with her fingers. “They will rue the day they started this war. and by us entering the charges that involve Amy into the record, the Vampire Council of Old would be well advised not to have all of the Unseelie, all of the Seelie, and both factions of wolves hunting their lairs by day.”
Sasha smiled and gave Queen Cerridwen a wink. “It would truly be a foolish move on their part to persist. But, more importantly, this will hopefully give Amy and her family a little respite from being constantly hunted by Vampires who need to make a deal right with some demons.”
“Yes,” Sir Rodney said, landing a firm hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “Your brother needs to know that his new bride will be protected going forward. That is precisely why I also want to call the bluff of old Vlad by asking that the crone of the UCE court call up the demon Erinyes as witness of his debt to them.. This way, none of us have to call a demon or owe a demon, the crone is certainly used to all of the machinations that go along with that, and I’m sure the Erinyes would be more than willing to share their displeasure with any and all who would listen.”
“Brilliant,” Sasha said through a mouthful of steak. She swallowed it quickly, feeling much improved, and then wiped her mouth on her linen napkin. “But those gargoyles aren’t local. I’d like to tag one of the little bastards with a message to send it running back home to wherever worldwide Vampire headquarters is. How much do you want to bet that Elder Vlad didn’t tell The Most Scary that he literally bombed an Unseelie outpost for no reason?”
“And now has a dragon squadron on his ass,” Hunter said, biting into a huge hunk of his steak.
“We could capture a gargoyle,” Garth said slowly. “And we could tag it with an ice missive.” He stared at Sasha. “That is sheer genius.”
Sasha smiled. “All right, then. we’ve got a wedding to do tonight, an ice missive to get over to old Vlad, a silver Fae missive to enter into the UCE court docs, some kinda message to get to Shogun’s people, courtesy of our queen, and a gargoyle to tag, all before sunrise. Piece of cake.”
“Why the rush?” Amy’s father asked as he stared at his wife.
“You ask too many questions, old man,” she said, fixing the bow tie of his tux. “Look around at all of this expense the U.S. government is paying in this witness protection program—and not a penny to be paid by the father of the bride. Our daughter made herself a good bargain.”
“But you were the one who said that our daughter shouldn’t marry into these people who are strange and dangerous!”
“Shush,” she hissed. “This Shogun is wealthy—we saw that from the wedding gifts he sent, and he is of royalty but chooses to do the honorable work of fighting bad men. Our friends will die of envy.”
“Our friends could die of mobster bullets and so could we.”
Mrs. Chen pinched her husband. “Not another word to ruin this night.”
“Ow!” He shrugged away from her and whispered hotly in her ear, “The fortune-teller said that they should marry on a full moon next month! And why can’t they have a good Chinese monk do the ceremony? Who is this Indian shaman? Does he know our ways? Is he licensed to perform legal ceremonies? This is all very rushed and very strange.”
“Next month, this month, it is a full moon and look at your daughter’s face.” Mrs. Chen dabbed her eyes and turned away from her husband. “Look at her beneath the veil; she is so beautiful.. I have waited all my life for this day. And the groom, so handsome. You be quiet about Silver Hawk. This is the groom’s grandfather and cleric, so he will be good enough for us.”
Sasha gave Hunter the eye and Hunter smiled. The man always looked good in a tux. Wolf hearing had helped her decipher the tense exchange between Mr. and Mrs. Chen, and Sasha knew Hunter had heard the loud whispering, too, even though it had occurred all the way across the large formal dining room. She watched as a huge red paper Dragon came to life with the drumming. Lyrical flutes and Chinese strings blended in as tiny Elves maneuvered the Dragon along the aisle. It had taken every bit of negotiating skill she owned to get the Fae to do some of the ceremony with regular labor, lest they send Amy’s parents into apoplexy.
Clearly the Chens were not ready to witness real magick, so a real red Dragon was out of the question, just like a magically floating chair was. No. Regular palace guards would just have to hoist the petite bride up and carry her to Shogun the old-fashioned way while Hunter waited beside him as his good-luck man.
But Mrs. Chen was right. Her daughter was exquisite in her red silk traditional Chinese wedding gown. The handiwork of Fairies was evident to Sasha, because preparing the hall and getting Amy’s hair twisted up into an elaborate basket weave pattern, replete with Chinese bridal crown, would have taken a normal salon six hours. Fairies were known for their attention to detail, and they’d spared no magick in transforming Amy’s makeup, doing her manicure, bathing her in a sweet oil–infused bath, and dusting her with the most sumptuous of fragrances. They’d literally transformed the hall into a red silk paradise, and the tables behind the ceremony were laden with aromatic traditional Chinese dishes kept piping hot by Fae sleight of hand.
However, the young woman’s glow was authentic and all her own. Through the red mesh veil, tears sparkled in Amy’s gorgeous eyes. Her fragile beauty was breathtaking as her lotus blossom bouquet gently trembled the closer she got to Shogun. Sasha blinked quickly and looked up, fighting the moisture in her eyes. She pressed a palm to her heart for a moment and then allowed her palm to fall away from her deep crimson sheath. No two people deserved love and peace more than Amy and Shogun, and to be chosen as Amy’s good-luck woman was definitely an honor. Sasha just hoped she could live up to the title.
“Are you ready, Brother?” Hunter said quietly, glancing at Shogun. Hunter smiled as Shogun simply nodded but never took his eyes off his approaching bride.
Sasha swallowed hard, wishing that she’d had the forethought to take her engagement ring off the silver chain that held her amulet to slip it onto her finger. She’d never attended a wedding in her life and hadn’t expected to be so affected by this beautiful midnight ceremony under the moon.
With deep reverence she watched the couple come together and then go to Amy’s parents to kneel before them and pour tea as Silver Hawk’s deep rumble of words spilled out blessings upon the couple, blessings upon the ancestors, reminding all in attendance of the need for, and strength of, family. Even Queen Cerridwen moved closer to Sir Rodney as Rupert hugged himself and bit his trembling bottom lip.
Unconsciously Sasha’s hand went to her ring as her gaze slid to Hunter. His steady gaze had never left her, and a silent understanding passed between them. Silver Hawk’s words flowed through her soul, breaking down the last of her barriers, the last of her reservations, until suddenly she wished that Doc had been there, wished that her entire team could have seen this. wished that she had not wasted so much time fighting everything and everyone around her, yet there was still more fighting to do.
But not for this lovely couple, she told herself. Not for her brother. Not for her sister. Not for the honorable Chens.
“You are now husband and wife,” Silver Hawk said. “Let the mate seal never be broken. Shogun, you may lift Amy’s veil and kiss your bride.”