Ma’at took her bouquet so that they could approach Savitar who waited for them.
Savitar looked around at the small group that consisted of Ma’at, Asmodeus, Maahes, Ambrose, Thorn, Solin, and them. “Dearly weird and motley beings, we’re gathered here today for… yada, yada, yada. Seth say something profound and sweet to Lydia.”
It took Seth a moment to focus. While he’d never seen a wedding and had no idea what they entailed, Savitar’s strange introduction didn’t seem right to him. But since Lydia didn’t seem to mind, he took a breath to speak the words he’d been practicing to say to her. “My Lydia is like a star rising to guide me through the darkest night.” He glanced back at the men and felt a sick rush at speaking the rest in front of them. When he’d written the words, he hadn’t taken into account who would be in his audience.
After a minute of Seth’s hesitation, Savitar sighed. “Look, kid, I can say the words for you, but I think she’d rather hear them from your lips. Ignore the assholes in the chairs. If one of them laughs, I’ll gut him for you.”
Seth tightened his hand on hers and remembered what Ma’at had told him. Most girls spend their entire lives dreaming and planning for their wedding. Whatever you do, don’t step on her dream. If you love her, let her have this one day and go along with whatever strange thing she wants you to do.
Even if it meant dressing like a freak and wearing shoes that pinched his toes.
His gaze went down to her distended belly where their baby was still forming. This was his family and she was all he loved. The others were completely unimportant to him.
Let them laugh and mock. Not a one of them had a woman so fine to call his own.
But he was the lucky bastard who did.
Seth was the lucky bastard Lydia had claimed – the one she’d risked her precious life to save.
He led her hand to his lips so that he could kiss it before he laced his fingers with hers. “When your hand is in my hand, I tremble with an unimagined joy. Never once did I think I could be as happy as I am right now. And every day that I’m with you is better than the one before it. For you, alone, I would bleed and I would die. But most of all, without you, I could never live. So long as I breathe, I will always love you and I will spend the rest of my life making sure that you never doubt the fact that you are the air I breathe.”
Lydia pressed her lips together to keep from crying as Seth laid his soul bare to her.
And in front of the others, no less. He wasn’t the kind of man who spoke of his feelings and never publicly. If for nothing else, she’d love him for this.
But her reasons for loving him were too many to count.
She laid her hand against his cheek and kissed his lips.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Savitar snapped. “You’re jumping ahead, woman. It’s your turn to make a vow to him.”
She kept her hand on Seth’s cheek as she stared up into the steel blue eyes that had stolen her heart and changed her life in ways she’d have never thought possible. He had made her complete. “When I was a child, I learned a poem that was often read to me by mother. Since she couldn’t be here today, it seems only fitting that I quote it in memory of her… and share her love and mine with you.
“Love is patient. Love is kind.
“It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.
“It is not rude. It is not self-seeking.
“It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
“Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
She bit her lip before she recited her own words to him. “While I lived a life without you, Seth, I no longer can imagine one that doesn’t begin and end with seeing your gorgeous face. My heart beats only for you, and forever I will stand by your side. No matter the challenge or enemy, I am, and will always be, yours.”
Seth couldn’t breathe as he heard her oath. Nothing had ever touched him more.
Savitar made a sound of disgust. “Yeah, okay, beings… now you kiss.”
Seth cupped her face in his hands. He took a moment to savor the beauty of her features before he kissed her. Her stomach brushed against his an instant before their baby kicked him. Laughing, he pulled back to touch her belly. “I hope that was an approval.”
She returned his smile. “Definitely.”
Savitar clapped his hands together. “All right then, to the handful here, let me present Mr. and Mrs. Demigod Jackal Beings…” He frowned at her and Seth. “You know this would be so much easier if some of us had last names.”
Ma’at tossed a flower at Savitar. “Would you stop ruining this for them?”
“I’m not ruining it, Mennie. I’m making it memorable.”
Ignoring them, Lydia grabbed Seth’s hand and started toward the door.
“Where are you going?” her father asked.
Lydia looked at Seth as heat scorched her cheeks. She glanced back at all of them. “I have a promise to keep.”
Seth’s eyebrows shot up in hopeful expectation.
Wrinkling her nose impishly, she nodded. “Yes, it’s that one.”