House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,47

neck while he kissed her, and her hands cradled his horns, both of them. She loved him…irretrievably. And if he was to be part beast, she loved and cherished the beast within him. She loved each and every beautiful part of him, and she wanted him to know it. Their union would move the realms, the very stars in the sky, and she desired every part of him as he pushed within her.

Something happened as he made love to her that night. There was a strange glow that emanated from the forest floor, a soft glow that cast shadows on the mushrooms that sprouted around them and illuminated the swirling torrent of leaves that encircled them, almost like the books from the secret alcove at Pratt had done many, many years before. They were too enraptured with each other to notice and too near the brink of ecstasy to see what happened when Tannin released within her. But Brenna would have known; she would have recognized the magical event that sparked during the instant they had reached that moment because the same thing had happened to her and Brandt the moment Kemma was conceived.

The next day was to be the wedding. Astra had been delighted to task the forest with setting the scene. Everyone had noticed that Tara and Tannin hadn’t come back to the tree the night before, and everyone was sure they knew why, as they snickered and smiled throughout the wedding preparations.

Now that Rolf was dead, all the magic he had stolen had been returned to the people he stole it from upon his death. And even though no one could travel from the world they were in, there was at least still magic abounding for communicating with loved ones. Lopt missed Celeste desperately and would try to figure out a way around the separation of the realms to get back to her, but at least for today, he was able to open a magical window for her to see the wedding in the forest. Today, no one would think of anything else except for the beautiful union of Tara and Tannin. It had been mostly unheard of for immortals to marry, so it was a glorious spectacle for everyone in every realm to behold.

Since no one really knew how to orchestrate a wedding, they just made it up as they went. Astra had the forest decorate itself beautifully with flowers of every color and fragrance, and the trees overhead reached their branches across the path to make an archway. The mushrooms dotted the moss with bright specks of red, and the weather in the forest that day was manipulated by magic to be overcast enough for twinkling stars to show through even in the daytime. It was beautiful, and Tara couldn’t have wished for anything more. They used the stone by the lake as an altar for the ceremony, and Tannin stood to one side of it looking handsome and happy. Astra stood with him since his own mother nor Helia could be there, and she honored the place of the other women at his side. Lopt stood at the altar, being that he was the eldest and most powerful god among them, it seemed fitting that he perform the ceremony. And when Cai walked Tara down the forest path, the fireflies of the forest alighted her hair and made her a crown of light instead of a veil.

Tannin watched her walk toward him, and he couldn’t believe how fortunate he had been, how lucky and grateful he was, to have a bride who he was so deeply in love with.

“You look absolutely breathtaking,” he whispered to Tara as she came to stand beside him.

She smiled.

Lopt didn’t really know what to say for such an occasion, so instead, he let the two lovers profess their love for each other and then called the ceremony a successful marriage. At which point, Tannin reached for Button—who had been sitting on the stone between them—and pulled a ring made from pure magic from where it had been resting on his paw. The ring was crafted from moonlight and obsidian and bound together by magic, something that Tannin had been working on for Tara between his training and recovery. He slid it onto her finger, and her face lit up like that of a thousand moons. Everyone was so happy for them, even if their love had fallen short of the prophecy’s deadline. But when they went to kiss as