Page 120 of Of Vows and War: Special Edition
From there, I slowly and painstakingly described each scar. Shah worked diligently throughout the night, listening to every detail. By the time the sun began to rise, our candles had snuffed out and my body was covered in stunning depictions of my scars—of my life after Bellamy had saved me.
“All done,” Shah whispered. She packed up her things in silence after that, the air coated in an odd sort of tranquilitythat felt wrong to break. Nicola, too, got up to leave, kissing my forehead before walking to the door with the Queen of Behman.
When they shut the door behind them, I was left to steep in the heaviness of the past and peace of the future. I cleaned myself up before crawling into Bellamy and I’s bed, ready to sleep and feel at ease once more. Then, I heard someone mumble something from the hall. My eyes opened, watching as the door swung open.
There in the dimly lit doorway, stood the love of my life.
His face was grim as he approached, but he did not say anything about what happened. Instead, he got into the bed beside me and pulled the quilt over us.
“I love you, beautiful creature. You are my everything.”
“And you are mine,” I said with a broken voice. “I just wanted to be whole again. To be better for you. For us.”
His large hands grabbed my face, fingers tracing shapes against my skin. As always, he was made of fire and sunshine, a bright spot in the darkness. It was odd how a pair of hands could feel so right. I thought of Sterling’s grasp on me earlier, how impossibly other it had felt in comparison to the perfection of Bellamy’s warm grip.
“You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are never anything less than whole in my eyes.” A sigh escaped him just as his forehead touched mine. “Should we call off the wedding?”
“What?” I shouted, rearing back. “Of course not!”
His cool chuckle brushed against my face, quickly turning into hysterical laughter. Bewildered, I stared at him with a slack jaw.
“After all this time of dragging your feet, you choose now to get defensive?” he uttered between gasping laughter. And then, I too broke out into giggles, unable to stop the pure irony from getting to me as it did him.
We sat there, holding each other and laughing, for what felt like hours. And when our humor died out, Bellamy began tracing my new tattoos, the skin still raw from whatever Shah used to slow my healing. He willed ice to his fingertips, cooling the inflamed skin.
“Ranbir can make these hurt less. We can call him in here whenever you are ready,” he muttered, leaning down to kiss the ink on my shoulder. I smiled, feeling at home in his arms.
“We are going to survive this, okay?”
“Weddings are not death sentences, Asher,” he guffawed, flicking me on the nose. Before I could say anything else, he leaned forward and kissed the spot he had hit. As always, his lips soon touched my forehead, my cheeks, my chin, and then my lips.
Our kiss was slow, unhurried and calm. The kiss of forever.
“I meant this war, you ridiculous demon.” Our laughter soon kicked in again, and we remained in one another’s arms until the sun was fully up and Noe burst through the door.
“You,” she said, pointing at Bellamy. “Get out. It is wedding day, bitches.”
Chapter Fifty
Asher
“Ouch,” I hissed out, cringing each time Noe pulled at my hair. As she had the last three times I complained, the Moon shushed me with a smack to my head.
“Be still and stop whining!”
“You know, we have a saying in my world. Beauty is pain,” Stassi added from her spot on the bed. Groaning, I peered at her through the mirror in front of me. She was laying down with her legs against the headboard, snacking on chocolate-covered strawberries and powdered pastries that were meant to bemypanic food.
“Why are you here?” I asked, grinding my teeth. Stassi tilted her head back, arching her body until she was looking at me through upside down eyes.
“I heard almost everyone interesting was coming here and figured my invite got lost in the mail.”
Eternity above, this female was a pest. Not that I was too proud to admit it sounded like something I would do too.
“Of course you would assume that.” I practically sighed out the words, almost wiping my sweaty hands on the skirts of what Noe called mypre-dress. It was a short, thin dress made of white silk with no straps, which proved to be an annoying thing as my breasts seemed to seek freedom at every possible moment. “As someone who has the same tendency to be a bitch, I must warn you that many will start to find you annoying.”
Stassi let out a loud scoff before flipping onto her stomach and then pushing herself up onto her knees. A single finger with a long nail painted a deep shade of pink pointed my way through the mirror.
“You better take that back. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you invited the babbling one who acts like Bellamy is a god and the freak who told me to kill myself yesterday!” My eyes flicked towards where Ray and Lara sat huddled together, their own gazes now on Stassi. Ray was slowly shrinking into herself, which left Lara glaring at Stassi.
