22. Written Fate

"He"s waiting for you downstairs," my aunt told me with a wink, and I had to say, it felt more like a significant moment being the only one to walk down the steps unaccompanied. Like something out of a Disney princess movie as I picked up my floor-length skirt, took a deep breath, and descended down the steps, telling myself,

"You can do this, Ella girl."But then the moment I saw Jared in the crowd standing next to his brother, I could only concentrate on him. Because the nerves simply disappeared, even with his back to me.

It was Orthrus who saw me first and I took it as a good sign the second his eyes widened in utter astonishment. A moment later, he leaned into his brother and said something I, naturally, couldn"t hear but whatever it was, well, it was enough to get Jared's attention. Because he turned to face me, and it was as if my whole world tilted on its axis before righting itself, centering my soul and making everything in my life right. The sight of him in an all-black suit with only a silver tie to match my dress was enough to have me falter in my steps, taking pause for a moment halfway down the staircase.

He was utterly breathtaking, and the most handsome man I"d ever seen in my entire life. I felt as if I couldn"t breathe, and it had nothing to do with the corset of my dress. It didn"t look as if I was the only one stunned in this moment, because his eyes displayed the same shock his brother had for long moments before they quickly became more primal. Those heated eyes glowed silver as they scanned the length of me in a slow and predatory way.

Christ, it looked like he wanted to eat me.

I swallowed down a new lump of nervousness and forced myself to continue before anyone could wonder why I had stopped. I vaguely recognized others around him smirking at his reaction to me, as if they too knew the impact I was having on him. The thought made me nearly giggle because, of course, I wanted to impress him. I wanted to make him think that I was the most beautiful woman in the world despite the sea of beauties in the room.

And with that gaze alone, I blissfully felt as if I had accomplished this.

I felt empowered.

By the time I finally reached the club floor, I had more confidence than I had done at the top of the staircase. This gave me the courage to continue on and close the distance between us, just as he started to do the same. He couldn"t take his eyes off me, caressing every inch of me with his heated gaze, and the effect had me looking down at myself just to check I wasn"t dreaming and actually naked. He looked like he wanted to ravish me, and I blushed, unable to help myself.

The moment I felt his first touch, I knew it was real, a living dream I wanted to hold on to for as long as possible. A single fingertip under my chin raised my head back up to look at him and the first thing from his lips ended up being a mirrored sentiment shared.

"Breathtaking,"he said, and the single word was anything but simple.

It held so much weight, I couldn"t help but suck in a quick breath at the compliment. Of course, Jared had never not been generous with his compliments, always telling me how beautiful he thought I was. But this was something more. It was an occasion that warranted our blissful wonder, because neither of us had seen each other like this before.

After everything we had been through, well, once again I couldn't help but feel as though this was symbolic. Like seeing the rainbow cutting through the storm and with it, bringing through the slither of hope that the turbulent weather would pass. A kaleidoscope of color breaking through the skies of gray.

He clearly couldn"t wait any longer, because he hooked a hand at my hip and pulled me in close. Doing this so he could tell me in a hoarse voice full of emotion,

"I don"t know what it is that I do to deserve such beauty but whatever it is, then I will spend the rest of my life continuing to do it. As long as I get to keep you in it."

I melted at this, needing his strength as his arms wrapped around me so I wouldn"t crumble to the floor. Crumble under the weight of emotions he brought out of me when gifting me with his words.

When gifting me with the truth of his heart.

"Oh Jared."It was all I had the strength in me to utter because tears coated my eyes. In the end, I didn"t know who started the kiss first, but I would like to think it was one of those rare moments where our thoughts and needs we"re totally in sync. The rest of the room simply seemed to fade away and, with it, the audience that witnessed such a loving exchange between us.

In fact, it must have been getting quite heated between us and, no doubt through fear of letting it get out of hand, his brother stepped up behind him and cleared his throat, informing us,

"I hate to be the voice of reason here, but you might want to stop now before it becomes X-rated and the grand entrance the King and Queen are planning doesn't go by unnoticed when you two start fucking on the dance floor."

At this Jared growled, whereas I couldn"t help but giggle, pulling back an inch because that was all that Jared would allow. Then he placed his forehead to mine before his next growl formed words.

"Soon, I will have you."

I whispered the words of my heart in return.

"I am yours, HellBeast."

His eyes flashed silver at this, reminding me of why he picked the color, that also coated my eyes, thanks to the smoky make-up Pip did on me. Thankfully, the plum tone lipstick she had also used was smudge proof because I couldn't see it transferred onto Jared's lips.

But as soon as I said this, I reached up, put my hand to his face, and sealed the promise with another kiss. One that, this time, was soft and tender but unfortunately it was also one that I knew couldn't last. This was because everybody started clapping, and we broke away just in time to see my aunt and uncle descending the stairs. As soon as they made it to the bottom, there was a waiter at my uncle"s side offering him champagne. He took two glasses and handed one to my aunt. I also noticed everyone else with a glass other than Jared and I. Of course, his brother, never missing a thing, snagged two glasses and gave them to us.

"Can't leave out the happy couple," he said with a wink, making Jared grant him a strange look while I just giggled.

"We would like to welcome you all to this New Year"s celebration and wish for you all to know that those among us we consider very dear to our hearts, we can think of no better company than you to see in the new year with. So, with that, if you"ll all please raise a glass and join me in giving blessing to the Fates that have brought us here and to those we personally hold dear," he said this last part when turning to my aunt, making her blush. But in true Keira style, she raised her glass and added,

"What he said!"

This made everyone laugh before we all followed suit and toasted to the Fates.

Once this formal speech was out of the way, the music started to play from the band that I noticed was set up on a stage between the two grand sweeping staircases. Both of which led to the same place, however with the VIP area now left empty for once, it allowed more space for people to mingle. And the room had been transformed from the Christmas Wonderland I had seen that day we made it back from the temple of Janus, into a glittering gold night club.

Huge gold feathered center pieces decorated the tables on black velvet tablecloths, with warm gold bulbs hanging across the ceiling from one side of the room to the next, in diagonal lines. Twinkling gold fairy lights were also wrapped around the pillars and banisters, framing where the band played. There were even gold, black, and white balloons that created arches of color to where tables of drinks and food were placed.

I also noticed that each of the kings were surrounded by their own council, with a few groups mingling among each other. The only ones that I recognized were Jared's men and another woman I was eager to see. Hence why I ran to her the moment I caught her eye, shouting her name,

"Smidge! Oh my God, look at you, you look beautiful!" I said as she spun in her peach-colored halter neck dress that was layers of ruffles to the tops of her knees. Strappy heels the same color and a 50's retro hairstyle completed the look. Oh, and someone else I could see in the corner of my eye, a certain dashing modern day pirate that couldn't keep his eyes off her. He was downing a bottle of beer as Asher chatted away, no doubt asking him a million and one questions, and Marcus's thoughts were clearly elsewhere.

"High praise indeed coming from you, wow, Ella, just wow. No wonder Jared looked like he was going to ravish you on the dance floor. In fact, I don"t think I"ve ever seen him so stunned before, and any times that came close were because of you." Again I blushed at this, it seemed to be the theme of the night.

"He bought me this dress," I told her, making her smirk.

"Oh I know."

"You do…? Oh wait, you had a hand in this, didn"t you?"

At this she held up her hands and said,

"Nope, for once it was all him… although, I might have just given him the names of a couple of designers he might want to check out… the boy did good, huh?" She put an arm around my shoulders and turned us his way. I couldn"t help but grin as I agreed in a soft voice,

"Yeah, he did good."Of course he heard this, because I saw the grin playing at his lips… and that sexy as fuck smirk of his came out to play.

Now, all I wondered was how long we had to be at this party for before we could slip away and be alone. But I didn"t hold out much hope for this being anytime soon, seeing as I knew my parents would be here any time now to join the party. But damn, with the way he looked in that suit, holy shit, I wish he had added a hand fan in that dress box because it was getting damn hot in here.

To say that the man could fill out a suit jacket felt like the biggest understatement of the year and, well, we were on the last day of it, with only a few hours left. With his hair tied back, and his beard freshly trimmed, Christ, he looked made for sin and sex.

"You"re not drinking?" he asked once he had made his way over to me and after he noticed me put down my glass.

"It"s not really my thing," I told him, making a face because this had been the same as when we had been getting ready. I had taken one sip and felt my stomach turn.

"Want me to get you a beer?" he said, nodding toward the bar where I could see a few people working behind it dressed in tuxedos like the rest of the waiting staff.

"Maybe later," I told him.

"Then how about a dance, beautiful?" he asked, surprising me, making me ask,

"You dance?" My tone must have said it all, because he smirked before answering in an amused tone,

"I do."

"Wow, you are just full of surprises tonight, Mr. Cerberus," I told him, making him tell me…

"The night isn't over yet,baby."