Chapter 20

Carmen

There was a knock at the door of Sofia and Elena’s private chambers. “Don’t let him see!” Carmen yelled as Elena helped tie the lace corset of her wedding dress tightly enough to highlight her figure without restricting her breathing or movement. Her sisters had, of course, been chosen as her handmaidens, the Thryal equivalent to maids of honor.

Sofia grinned and patted her shoulder. “I got him.” Although the wedding was more Thryal than human, Carmen insisted on adhering to a few traditions. She wore something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue, and she refused to allow Arccoo to see her in her dress.

They’d had enough bad luck thrown their way already. It was better not to tempt fate further.

Sofia returned a minute later with a smile spread across her cheeks. She held up a box. “He wanted to give you this. Said it was a special delivery from Earth, and he wanted you to open it as soon as you got it.”

Carmen furrowed her brows. What could he have picked up from Earth? Elena and Sofia were smiling knowingly at one another, meaning they had likely conspired with him to get whatever this was.

She opened the box and gasped. Her mother’s wedding veil sat on top of relics from her parents’ wedding. It was embroidered with brightly colored flowers that perfectly complemented the shimmering gown she wore. Underneath sat a set of earrings, a necklace, and El Lazo , a silk lasso that had been used to bind her mother and father in matrimony so many years ago.

Her eyes welled with tears, and she looked up, fanning herself to keep them from falling and ruining her makeup. Giggling and sniffling, she gestured for her sisters to come to her. They embraced.

“How did you find this stuff?” she asked.

Elena stepped back with a grin. “Do you remember when I went off-world on a secret intelligence gathering mission? Arccoo and Sofia had the idea that we incorporate some of our family into the ceremony. It took him and me months to get the king’s permission, but he finally relented enough for me to go with a small group to Earth to pick up some of our things, settle our affairs, and make sure our grandparents didn’t have other powerful relics floating around. I found this stuff with the rest of our parents’ things.”

Carmen had been so distracted by the last-minute details of the wedding planning that it barely registered that her sister went off-world. As soon as she’d been assured that Elena would be perfectly safe on the mission, her focus returned to the endless list of things to do before their wedding.

She threw her arms around her sisters again. “Thank you for this. I love you both so much.” This time, she let the tears fall freely.

“You have no idea how happy we are for you, Carmen,” Sofia said. “You deserve this. Every bit of it. Mom and Dad would be so proud.”

“Guys, I’m going to ruin my makeup,” she complained without any real heat to it. She could fix it later.

Elena flashed a watery smile and offered her a tissue. “Here.”

She dabbed at her eyes and then checked the mirror. Apparently, she didn’t need to fix anything. There wasn’t a smudge on her makeup.

Elena put on their mother’s necklace while Carmen did her own earrings. Then Sofia helped her with the veil. For a moment, she just stood in the mirror and stared at herself, flanked by her two wonderful sisters.

Though the idea of being a princess was always a fantasy, she knew none of the royalty in the fairytale books and movies looked like her. She’d resigned herself to always looking more like the maid or the chubby best friend in those stories than the heroine.

But now, here she was wearing her mother’s veil and a dress that shimmered and changed in the light like an opal. Her hair had been intricately braided with precious stones and her makeup accentuated her eyes. She felt more like a princess from those storybooks than she ever had before.

On her worst days, she often felt herself grow envious of her sisters and their effortless beauty. And today, they looked incredibly beautiful. Elena wore a sky-blue dress with red accents like the beginning of a sunset while Sofia wore a dress of purple so rich that it almost looked black. But between them, she felt for the first time like she was the crown jewel of their little trio.

Behind them, a guard cleared his throat. “My lady, the ceremony is about to begin.”

She smiled and hooked her arms around her sisters. “I’m ready.”

The ceremony was to be held outside in the ancient stone circle where coronations and funerals took place. When Carmen saw the crowd, she gasped. It was primarily made up of Thryals but interspersed with species of all shapes and sizes. She had seen species from other planets, but she had no idea how many different kinds were out there.

At the end of the back rows stood a palanquin surrounded by four soldiers. Arccoo stood in front of it looking stoic with his hand on the hilt of his plasma sword. Her sisters helped her into the palanquin and then joined her.

The door slid shut, and she opened the window in the front to watch the ceremonial walk to the circle. Ahead of them, a Thryal got out of his seat, drew his plasma sword, and attacked. Arccoo easily parried and disarmed him.

The Thryal bowed and took his seat once more. Then another attacked. Her love easily defended himself and the palanquin before repeating the process for the next attacker.

“The battle is supposed to be symbolic,” Arccoo had explained a few days before, during their rehearsal. “When the first king married the first queen, it was during a time of tumult. The second son wanted the throne, which he knew he would never get if the queen married his brother and bore heirs, so he sent assassins after the wedding party.”

He took her hand, entwining their fingers. “The first king stood in front of the palanquin and defended his bride all the way to the stone circle. When they reached it, they thought they had made it to safety, but one last assassin lurked behind them. The queen saw it before her groom did, grabbed his sword, and slayed the assassin before he could attack. All royals recreate this scene in our weddings to symbolize the lengths we must go to protect our families and our futures.”

Carmen’s fingers twitched as she prepared for her own battle. It may have been for show, but she would still be using a real weapon. Apparently, it was bad luck for the bride and groom to have their blood drawn, so she wanted to avoid that while also avoiding hurting the “assassin,” who was just playing a role.

The music picked up as they reached the stone circle, the drums matching the racing thud of her chest as she prepared for her part in the ceremony. Finally, the palanquin came to a stop. The soldiers set it down, and her sisters emerged before helping her out of it. Arccoo was already in position, his chest still heaving slightly from the exertion of battle, but he didn’t have a scratch on him.

When he saw her, he smiled, only for her face to fall. A Thryal with a sword was supposed to attack him, but the assassin behind him raised a blaster and took aim. “Death to the false heir!” he shouted.

Carmen didn’t think. She just moved. Leaping at Arccoo, she tackled him to the ground as the sound of a bullet whizzed past her head. She grabbed his sword, and with a primal battle cry, she charged, knocking the blaster out of his hand.

Arccoo was on his feet right after her. He punched the assassin, knocking him out. The crowd finally caught on to the fact that this wasn’t a part of the ceremony and erupted into screams while the guards grabbed the unconscious would-be assassin and dragged him off for questioning.

“Are you okay?” Sofia asked, studying Carmen while Elena fussed with the accessories in an attempt to wrangle everything back to where it was.

She nodded. “I’m fine.” Turning to Arccoo, she smiled. “Never a dull moment, huh?”

He grinned back. “With you, every second is an adventure. I can do without the assassination attempt next time, though.” He took her by the hands and led her to where the king waited to officiate the ceremony.

To Carmen’s utter shock, the king pulled her into a tight hug. They had come a long way from his utter disdain for her and her species. “Thank you for saving my son.”

“We save each other,” she replied.

He stepped back, gave her a short nod of approval, and began the ceremony. Elena and Sofia wrapped El Lazo around their shoulders while she and Arccoo recited their wedding oaths in Thryal. It had taken her some time to get used to the language, but now, she could speak it almost fluently. She didn’t always need to use the ear translator that Arccoo had placed in the sisters’ ears when they first arrived.

It was hard to focus, though, with the way Arccoo stared at her like she was more precious than any treasure in the galaxy. And judging by the way her face hurt from smiling, she knew she probably looked the same.

A small, melancholic part of her wished again that her parents and grandparents could be here to see this, but that ache was familiar. She knew it intimately and had long learned to honor the feeling and then put it away.

The king drew the ceremony to a close. Arccoo took her hand, entwined their fingers, and raised it so the crowd could see. The audience erupted into cheers.

“I love you,” he said just barely loud enough for her to hear it over the din.

“Love you, too.”

The next few hours were a blur of taking official royal portraits, greeting strangers and royalty from all over the galaxy, and ingratiating herself among Thryal’s elite. They didn’t get the chance to even sit down until the banquet.

She took her seat with a sigh, wiggling her throbbing toes and wishing she had chosen the more comfortable shoes. Sofia and Elena sat to her left side while Arccoo sat to her right. Turning to say something to Arccoo, her face dropped when she saw a guard whispering in his ear.

He got to his feet and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll be right back.”

“Is something else about to go horribly wrong?”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “No, but to borrow an Earth phrase, the guy who tried to kill us apparently sang like a canary as soon as he woke up from that fist-induced nap.”

She nodded. “Do what you have to do.”

Beside her, Sofia raised her eyebrows. “Is everything okay?”

“Just a bit of follow-up on the incident earlier today. Nothing we have to be worried about.”

She nodded. “No mass assassinations planned like that one fantasy show you liked to watch? That was at a wedding, too, right?”

Carmen rolled her eyes. “I was trying not to think about that, thank you very much.”

Arccoo returned by the time the first course arrived. He took his seat, looking grim.

Taking his hand, she leaned against him. “What did he say?”

Arccoo sighed. “He was one of Rocco’s loyalists. Apparently, some consider me to be the false heir and think I set my brother up in the hopes of seizing power. The one who was supposed to pretend to attack us was found tied up in a closet. He’d been drugged but was otherwise fine.”

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “I apologize. Today is supposed to be a day of celebration, but I fear the attack earlier has soured my mood somewhat.”

“I don’t blame you.” She brought the back of his hand up to her lips and kissed it. “It’s enough to shake anyone.”

“You seem to be handling it well.”

“They don’t call me the queen of compartmentalization for nothing. Besides…” She paused and kissed his cheek. “If I let Rocco ruin my day, I’ll be letting the terrorists win. Fuck Rocco. This is our day, and he’s taken up enough of it.”

His lips met hers in a fierce kiss. “How did I get so lucky to have you?”

She giggled. “Hey, that’s supposed to be my line.”

Beside her, Sofia and Elena started making exaggerated gagging noises. Sighing, the lovers parted. She punched Sofia in the arm and then reached over and thumped Elena on the back of the head, not enough to hurt but enough to make her point.

“Elena, I can’t believe our sister is abusive,” Sofia said.

“She’s a cruel, cruel monster,” the youngest replied.

Carmen rolled her eyes. “You guys are idiots.”

Sofia grinned and punched Carmen back. “Yeah, but we’re your idiots.”

After they’d had their fill of the banquet, it was time for the traditional couple’s dance. She and Arccoo had been choreographing it for weeks, blending tango with the Thryal equivalent of a waltz, the refra.

The music picked up as they approached each other from opposite ends of the ballroom. Meeting in the center, they moved in an elegant rhythm. He twirled her out and brought her close again.

“Thank you,” he said, dipping her.

She came up with a giggle, and they returned to their refra starting position. “For what?”

“All my life, I’ve been bound by duty. My life was only ever going to be spent in the service of my people, but you showed me that I could also want things for myself. I don’t always have to compromise my happiness in favor of duty.”

Carmen felt tears prick in her eyes. “I should be thanking you, too. Before I met you, I never truly felt desirable. I learned to love myself but thought I might be forever alone in that. Most people I dated told me to lose weight or made it seem like they were doing me a favor by dating me. You’re the first person who made me feel beautiful and wanted like no one else had before.”

Abandoning the choreography, he pulled her into a kiss. For a moment, the world faded away, and not for the first time, Carmen wondered if she was in a dream. But when they parted, she hadn’t woken up. She was still there in the ballroom with her sisters and her husband, feeling happier than she’d ever felt.