Page 338 of Black Reign

“Not anymore.”

I look at him.

There are moments when he says something without understanding the size of it.

This is one.

Not anymore.

I look away before I cry before we've even begun.

The legal details have been handled quietly. Papers signed, registrations arranged, every bureaucratic problem that should have taken weeks somehow bent beneath an army of lawyers and Xavier's terrifying ability to make institutions move faster.

This is the part that matters.

The priest speaks first in French.

Then English.

Marriage.

Choice.

Trust.

Two lives joining.

I hear some of it.

Mostly, I hear Xavier breathing beside me.

Feel his thumb moving across my hand.

Watch the dark eyes that have not left my face since I came out of the cottage.

We weren't going to write vows.

That was the agreement.

This marriage is necessary.

Strategic.

Temporary is a word neither of us has used, which seems important.

Still, vows felt dangerously close to admitting this means something else.

So naturally Xavier breaks the agreement first.

“I want to say something.”

My heart stops.

The priest nods.

I whisper, “We weren't doing this.”

“I changed my mind.”