Chapter 46
Someone must be playing a joke on her.
Nia stared at Dee, the most obvious culprit. But she and Kessy were both adamant this was how Tellusians got married in the “traditional way.”
All three of them stood in Dee’s shop. Her friend had closed it for the day so they could prepare. Nia understood their cultures were different.
But this….
Her hair piled in loops on the top of her head, she wore only the smallest of underwear—she would have had more coverage holding a palette in front of her—as Dee and Kessy painted her. Blue swirls covered her body from the tips of her toes to her ears and spiraled everywhere in between. Arms, legs, stomach, breasts, no place was left unadorned by the pattern of Mace’s family.
“If you think I’m going out there in only blue paint, you’re—”
“No, no,” Dee insisted. “There’s the traditional gown too.”
Some of her tension eased, but she resentfully stared at the blue dresses the other two wore. While Nia stood practically naked, Dee and Kessy were swathed from throat, to wrist, to ankle entirely in blue. The material hugged all their curves, leaving nothing to the imagination, but at least their skin was covered. Their hair was also piled on the top of their heads in large curls.
Her friends’ gazes focused, they continued to paint. The process was taking forever, and Nia fidgeted, though tried not to for fear of smudging the paint before it dried. All she could do was stand there and think. And worry. And fret.
It had been a month since Orion began orbiting Saturn. During that time, Nia accepted this was her new home. The urge to return to the CORE, to Elara Five, had dissolved into nothing. She missed her parents and being able to communicate with them whenever she wanted, but consciously allowing her old life to slip from her fingers had been…liberating.
Her new life wasn’t without obstacles. With Commander Foley’s death, Mace became the head of security for Orion. He also refused to give up teaching the tyros. Each day was a struggle for him to find balance. From what Nia had seen of his interactions with Cache, his CO was about ready to intervene. But that worry was for another day.
For the time being, Nia had decided to remain in family medicine, taking full shifts instead of abbreviated “captive” ones. She couldn’t say why she’d decided to remain in her original med bay. Since being emancipated, she could apply for other positions. Maybe it was pure stubbornness because Mayra and Faas continued to try and make her life miserable, and she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of chasing her away.
Because both she and Mace were so busy, some days they only saw each other in bed. There wasn’t a night that went by that they didn’t take advantage of being together, of showing how much they loved one another. With what had happened with Foley, and Mace’s injury, both of them almost touching tragedy, they didn’t want to take a second of their time together for granted.
Tragedy…the most painful part of their lives was that Lexi was still missing.
They couldn’t find Mace’s sister—not even word that she’d been executed. Mace had used all of his contacts and assets, everyone close to him doing the same, including Admiral Krispin who’d made a full recovery, but no one could find what had happened to her. It was like she’d been flung out of the system in an escape pod, never to be seen or heard from again. Nia’s stomach lurched at the thought.
That didn’t mean they’d given up. Far from it. Nia swallowed the new batch of nerves bubbling up her throat. Tomorrow would begin a completely new adventure.
Dee and Kessy stepped back, admiring their handiwork. From their expressions, they seemed pleased, but Nia looked down and all she saw were her nipples covered in blue.
“I can not go out like this.” She loved Mace with her whole being, but this was asking too much.
“Oh!” Dee hopped up and scurried to the rear of her shop. “I’ll grab the dress,” she said over her shoulder. “Newly fabricated this morning.”
Kessy’s mischievous smile should have warned her. When Dee returned with the garment, Nia’s jaw dropped.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It wasn’t a dress; it was a blue mesh bag.
Dee frowned. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s entirely see-through! Everyone can see everything!”
Her friend’s frown morphed into a grin. “That’s the point.” She stopped in front of Nia and motioned for her to lower her head. The light material fell onto her shoulders, cascading down her body.
Surprisingly, Nia did feel more covered than she would have thought. Everything was still visible, but it felt like she’d donned shielding.
“Mace is going to lose his shit when he sees you,” Dee murmured.
If it were only him, Nia wouldn’t hesitate walking through the door and head straight to the arboretum where he waited. But knowing other guests waited with him made her bare feet feel like they were glued to the deck.
Thankfully, she’d been told the ceremony would be small. She hoped “small” meant the same thing here as it did for the CORE.
“Ready?” Kessy asked from beside her.
Was she ready to marry Mace?
Technically, they were still married, but Mace kept saying he wanted to “do it right” then would quickly add, “but only if you want to.”
There wasn’t anything she wanted more.
“I’m ready.”
With her friends on either side of her, they left Dee’s shop. The bracing temperature of the deck against her bare feet made her move fast. A few people walked the level, going about their day, but when they saw Nia, they stopped and stepped to the side to wait.
Tension climbed Nia’s spine.
“Don’t worry,” Kessy whispered beside her. “That’s normal. It’s out of respect for the bride.”
Even if everyone only stopped out of respect, it didn’t erase the embarrassing reality that they could see her nipples—whether they were covered in blue paint or not. Swallowing her nerves, she followed the two women who led the way around the atrium to the third level access of the arboretum.
Tiny butterflies danced in her stomach as they walked through the narrow corridor and onto a catwalk that ran the circumference of the arboretum. Moist air wafted around them, saturated by the scent of the trees and earth. It was quiet up here, the dust and rocks of Saturn’s rings reflecting through the crisscrossed lights above. Birds chirped and cawed, the noise of the atrium floating away behind them.
Nia followed Dee along the catwalk, then down a metal staircase, Kessy right behind her. When she stepped onto the composite path that would lead them to her marriage ceremony, those dancing butterflies tried to escape through her throat.
Their clothes whispered as they walked. Nerves crept through her body, unstoppable, but her feet kept moving forward. She pressed a hand to her stomach and took a deep breath. Each of her heartbeats was as loud as a weapon’s blast in her head.
Then, through the trees, she heard voices and saw patches of blue. Dee met her gaze over her shoulder and smiled. They turned the last corner. Up an incline and in a circle of sycamores, stood Mace.
Everything else melted away.
He wore the same sort of mesh garment as she, naked beneath except for a small strip of underwear. His skin was painted, the lines meeting up with the tattoo that covered his abdomen, becoming one unending swirl. Her lips quirked when she realized his nipples were blue. His hair had been tidied and slicked to stay off his face. It made Nia want to go over there and muss it.
Taking a deep breath, she walked toward him, keeping her gait even instead of running over there and throwing herself at him.
A hush settled on those present as she neared. The grass tickled the bottoms of her feet. Cache stood at the top of the incline wearing a formal uniform of dark blue lined with white, a short cape falling from her shoulders. Her black hair was piled in loops on the top of her head. Despite the dress uniform, the commodore looked softer than Nia had ever seen her.
On Mace’s left stood Grey, Betel, Spiro, and a handful of warriors who she didn’t know well yet.
Dee and Kessy joined the group on the other side of the clearing. Sorley and Kilian were there. Next to them stood Lokin, Dee’s son, who was almost the same age as Kilian. All of them were smiling.
But it was Mace’s smile she needed to see. His eyes crinkled, the icy blue warming as his gaze swept her from top to bottom. She lived for his smiles now, to see his joy. It filled her like nothing in her life ever had before.
All the tension in her body disappeared. She was making the right choice.
Lifting her chin, she strode forward until she stood in front of him.
“You look amazing,” he said, hands on her shoulders as he pressed his lips to her temple. When he pulled back, his eyes held so much heat, she knew he wanted to carry her off and have his way with her.
She swallowed as an answering warmth settled low in her stomach.
Mace took her hand, and they turned to face Cache. Everyone else made a circle around them.
“Welcome,” Cache began. Then she spoke in themes of water, life, and connection, first in Tellusian, then translating in Common. The words flowed around them, lyrical and poignant. Nia looked at Mace out of the corner of her eye and found him staring at her, eyes full of emotion.
After that, she couldn’t look away.
When Cache completed the officiator’s portion, Nia and Mace faced each other. They stood palm to palm, breath to breath.
Mace spoke first. “Nia. You are my strength. I am nothing without you. I will spend the rest of my life protecting you and would die in your stead.”
She’d been told they would exchange a vow, had memorized the one she’d made by heart. But after hearing Mace’s declaration, all thoughts left her head. She could only stare at him.
“I don’t want you dying in my stead!” she blurted.
An awkward chuckle rippled around them, and Nia’s cheeks burned. She’d basically refuted his vow. I make a horrible Tellusian.
Amusement crinkled Mace’s eyes and he gave her fingers a squeeze.
Shaking her head at herself, Nia took a deep breath, trying to remember the vow she’d been practicing all week. Staring into Mace’s eyes, seeing the love there, it all came back to her.
“Mace. I came to you empty, and you filled me with life. You have given me hope for a different future. I vow to walk alongside you, to hold your hand, to live up to your strength, and face all obstacles together. Always.”
His lips parted, and the intensity in his eyes made her swallow, like he wanted to devour her. Right now, that seemed like a pretty good idea.
Cache cleared her throat, forcing their eyes on her, and said, “Tellus guide us now and through the veil.”
Then Mace swept Nia into his arms and kissed her like his life depended on it. Everyone in the circle hollered their approval, clapping.
When they broke apart, Mace pressed his forehead against her. “I love you so much, Nia.”
She squeezed him tight. “I love you more than I can say.” Burying her face into his neck she hugged him as hard as she could. They had tonight—their last night of safety and calm.
Because tomorrow…. After two weeks of planning, tomorrow they would head into CORE space to find Lexi. If they couldn’t find her from Tellusian territory, then they would need to work from the inside.
And there was only one CORE official Nia trusted enough to help them: her father.