“Come on,” she says with a huge grin. Then she turns around, and I follow her around the corner with the dogs trotting behind me to find a large cavern.

The sight makes me still in my tracks. They’ve filled the entire space with hundreds of candles lined along the edges. Balls of colorful light hang suspended from the ceiling courtesy of, I assume, Amya and Nadir. In addition, there are roses everywhere. They cling to the walls, hang from the ceiling, and carpet the floor.

It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“Willow, what did you do?” I whisper, my voice raw with emotion.

“No crying yet,” she says, taking me by the hand and pulling me down the center, where candles light our way. Nadir stands in the middle of the space wearing a tailored black suit and a bright smile that shifts the pieces of my heart. I take in the broadness of his shoulders and the way the fabric molds to the curves of his arms and thighs. His long dark hair shines in the dim light, as smooth as glass. He’s not just beautiful, he’s raw and wild, forged in the knifing chill of arctic winds and the sinuous glow of the northern lights.

He stares at me with the universe reflecting in his gaze, and I’m so overcome I can’t make my feet move.

He tips his head, his smile crooking higher. “Not having second thoughts, are you, Lightning Bug?”

I shake my head, tears blurring my eyes. “Of course not.”

His gaze drags down my body and then lifts as his eyes swirl with points of crimson and cobalt.

I’m wearing the red dress I bought in the Violet District with Amya when I told myself I’d never belong to Nadir.

It was still hanging in his room and felt like the perfect choice. The only choice.

Around my waist is a belt holding the dagger with the heart-shaped jewel he purchased for me in Aphelion.

“That dress,” he says. “I thought I’d never get to see you in it.”

A wave of tears threatens to drown me, but I push them back. Willow is right. No crying yet.

He reaches out a hand, and that’s all I need to stir me into movement. I trip towards him, and he tugs me against him before I collapse into his arms.

“When I first tried this on, I swore you could never claim me,” I say with my hands pressed to his chest and looking up. “That I would always be mine. That I was my own fucking castle.”

He smiles and touches a curl lying against my cheek.

“You will always be your own castle, Lor. I never wanted to take that from you.”

“I know. I see that now.”

“But I am claiming you,” he adds. “Never forget that you are mine.”