Coolness stirs my skin against my calf, sending my leg twitching back into the warmth of a blanket. When my foot meets another leg, entwined with my own, my eyes shoot open, my brain momentarily blank.

Where am I? What happened?

The answers return as quickly as my vision focuses on a long arm, outstretched, curled around me. A long, masculine, dark-haired arm. Its owner is pressed against my back, his body large and restful, a solid wall of warm that my leg must have escaped from. My naked leg, which had somehow scooted outside of our blanket, and embraced the wind.

Because we're outside. On a lake. Naked. Together.

And its morning.

No longer in any doubt, I sit bolt upright. Hadrian, wrapped around me, grunts awake as the sheets straighten, pulled tight over my breasts. And luckily it did— I'm facing a crowd of people staring out at the lake, gaping at the spectacle.

Thousands of waterlilies greet the boat.

'Hadrian...' I say. I hear him mumble as he rises to a sitting position beside me, his hair matted in all directions. My hand shoots out and straightens a piece before I can stop it, and he looks at me, incredulous.

'Good morning,' I whisper.

He grins. 'Good morning, darling. Fixing my hair?'

'It's endearingly mussed.'

'That's someone's fault,' he points out, and then smiles at a memory I'm also recalling.

'Last night...' he starts, his eyes darting over my face, to my naked body, to our hands, entwined, and back up again. A small smile plays on his lips. 'Last night we...'

I nod, barely suppressing a grin myself.

Suddenly, I hear him snort, and then the two of us are howling in laughter, clutching each other's sides in a fit of giggles.

'We weren't supposed to do that until later,' he reminds me, and we break out into another set of snorts.

'Whoever heard of having sex before the wedding night?' I laugh, and he runs a hand down his face, shaking his head.

'I just got carried away,' he admits. 'I stopped thinking...'

His words cause the laughter to halt in my throat. I look at him, fearful.

'Do you regret it?' I whisper. He'd definitely said yes. In fact, he'd said it over and over.

We both had.

But you can still regret giving consent.

'Regret it?' his eyebrows shoot up, covered by his bedhead. 'Regret it? The only thing I regret...'

His arm scoops around my waist, pulling me towards him. I let out a soft 'Oh!' as he continues.

'...is not being inside you right now.'

I feel myself turn red even as I press against him. Then, swallowing, I shake my head. 'Hadrian— we have an audience.'

For the first time, he looks around, and sees the lake, the flowers, the people.

'Did you do that?' he gestures helplessly to the waterlilies, so thick that the lake beneath is barely visible.

I shrug. 'I wasn't exactly focused on anything else last night, dearest.'

He gives me a quizzical look. 'We consummated our marriage, Ness...do you feel different?'

'A little sore...?'

He turns a little pink himself. 'I meant power. You're now...'

Queen of the Underworld. He doesn't say it, but it's in his expression. Tender. Happy. Content. I clear my throat, the emotion sticking there.

'True. Well, it's going to make it impossible to get this boat back,' I say huskily. 'Not to mention the onlookers.'

'We could just stay here...in the boat...naked...until they leave,' he pulls me closer. I kiss him squarely on the nose before shaking my head.

'Hadrian...today we get married,' I remind him.

His eyes widen.

Then a boyish grin reappears on his face. This time, his pull is a lure to his lips, and he kisses me passionately, a hand running through my bedraggled hair, another on my hip. Then, breaking the kiss, he leans his forehead on mine and says, 'Let's go get married.'

We dress as discreetly as possible, smirking as we try to find our clothes among the disarray. The boat rocks as we scamper around, and I'm wondering how on earth we didn't tip ourselves overboard with the activity last night. When at last I have some modicum of modesty, Hadrian turns to survey the water. Then, thinking something, he turns to me.

'You make the portal,' he suggests. 'You should have my power now, too. Let me teach you.'

Before I can protest, he takes my hand in his. Warmth radiates from him, and I welcome the chance to stand next to him, our bodies touching. His touch lingers on my wrist as he holds out my hand, directing it towards the water.

'You are now the mistress of the Underworld,' he murmurs. 'My Queen and its Queen. Feel for its current, because Death is now in your veins, and you should feel its rhythm wherever you are.'

I open my mouth to make a sarcastic response, but the seriousness in his tone hushes me. Another part doesn't believe that I'm really Hadrian's Queen, that somehow, it won't have worked. Even though I'm desperate for it, I try to fight the hunger down.

My fingers tingle from holding them aloft. I can feel the blood pulsing within them. I blink, confused, for the pulse isn't regular.

The pulse isn't mine. No, it's not a pulse, I realise— like a swooshing, churning river, I can sense the pull of the current that is Death and the Underworld.

'I feel it,' I whisper, scared I'll lose concentration. Hadrian's face brightens, and I wonder if he too doubted for a moment whether the consummation had worked.

'Good,' he whispers back, his fingers still touching my wrist. His breath tickles my ear. 'Now, you control it. Don't forget that. You pull that current to you, and you open up the path for us to walk through.'

I break my vow not to answer back. 'Helpful,' I whisper, and return to my concentration as a smile flashes over Hadrian's mouth. But, strangely, I understand. Like reaching out a hand, my numb fingertips pass through the wind of the outside world, and pull open another door. Like lifting a curtain, the doorways between life and death are now open to me.

Hadrian laughs. 'You've opened the portal, but it's down there?'

I shake my head. I've opened the door, but I've opened it on the lake, where the surface of the water should be. Rolling his eyes Hadrian encloses his hand around mine.

'Looks like we'll have to jump,' he says. 'This will give those people something to talk about.'

And he gives me a gentle tug. We both step forwards, our bodies vanishing through the gateway, although to any onlooker, we jump into the lake and never surface.

The portal spits us out so fiercely that I roll across the room, Hadrian landing on top of me. He groans, lying prostrate over my legs, trapping my hips beneath his own. A stone floor bites into my back, and I wince.

'Wedding night isn't until later,' I wheeze, his weight putting pressure onto my abdomen. Hadrian's face appears to my left, and he gives me a lazy grin.

'Stuck?' he asks, and I scowl at him.

Footsteps echo behind us, and I waggle my legs and arms to get him to move. He tries— too late— for Jefferson finds us, lying on the floor, scrambling.

'Heavens, look at the dirt I've dug up!' he shrieks, and to my amazement, he covers his eyes. We're not even naked, I want to say. At least, not now...

'Jeff,' Hadrian says gently, 'You can look. There's nothing to see.'

Reluctantly, the old man peers at us, then, affirming his innocence, claps his hands. He returns to business. 'Sir, the ceremonies will start within the hour, sir!'

'An hour?' Hadrian looks faint. I place a reassuring hand on his arm, and smile.

'An hour early,' I remind him, and when he looks back at me, he lets out a breath.

'Well, we'd best get ready,' he says, tucking my arm into his. 'I shall escort you until that friend of yours wrestles me off you.'

I snort, and we follow Jefferson's lead. 'Sybella? Excuse me, don't insult my Maid of Honour.'

'She's your Maid of Honour?'

'What, like I was going to invite Hecate?'

'Well— she's— unique, certainly.'

'Hades...' As I admonish him, we are greeted by the sight of white banners and wildflowers, the scent of lavender and baking and the excited hum of the ballroom, decked out for the wedding, below. For the first time, I feel a nervous tremble rise through my belly. People are here to see me, and of course, there's the small matter of...

...the fact I slept with him last night and already sealed my fate? Bound it, inexorably, to his, and he, to mine?

The nervous tremble became a lump.

Hadrian's hand found mine and squeezed my fingers to a comfortable degree. I breathe out a sigh. We're very attuned to each other today, it seems; probably an after effect of sleeping together and being aware of one another. I can almost sense his worry, palpably feel it beside my own. My own fingers squeeze his.

At the end of the hallway, my dressing room awaits. I watch as Jefferson knocks, and the door is thrown open.

'Her and Char have a— complicated— history. And he is the Best Man...'

Hadrian's still talking. So, to silence him, I give him a quick peck on the lips and quieten him. I sense that he's been struck slightly dumb. When I smile, I get a satisfyingly nervous flutter in return.

Then I hear Sybella. 'NERISSA! GET IN HERE THIS INSTANT!'

An hour, it turns out, isn't enough time to get ready for a wedding. When I emerge, precisely sixty-five minutes later, I'm shaking with adrenaline. Sybella had everyone work on me at once: the make-up, the hair, the dress. I watched with a strange sense of dread as they polished my face with creams, as another woman curled my hair into a cascading knot, as a third and fourth tied on jewellery and sprayed me with perfume. I am reminded fiercely of my day as a sacrifice; the attention, the falseness, the heavy skirts. I don't want this to feel the same. The churning, the pulse racing, rises once more. When I face the mirror, I'm happy to find that the woman staring back isn't afraid. My dress makes Sybella sigh as she gently picks up my trail, the dark grey of the edges contrasting to the starch white of the bodice, spring and winter melting into one another. The petals on the bottom make me smile— my first feeling of belonging in the Underworld had come from that day I'd summoned the petals of spring, and now they follow me to my future.

My maid of honour is resplendent in my favourite colour— a pea-green gown of silk, wrapping around her body. It rustles gently as she walks, tucks in a loose curl of my hair. The piercings on her face have been changed to match the occasion; gentle, glittering, soft. She catches me staring and winks. Then, she helps me fasten on the cape, and as I turn back to the mirror, I cast a striking image.

'My Queen,' Sybella murmurs, and she touches my arm lightly. The cape is thick, protective. I almost hear her hesitation, and then she whispers, 'Today we may go to war.'

She stares at me, and nods as I square my shoulders.

'Today I go to war,' I whisper.

The ceremony is to close the reception. To honour the weddings of gods and goddesses, the guests are greeted and entertained in a hall prior to the vows. The bride is the last to arrive, surrounded by her retinue, and takes the place beside her partner. The guests greet her in order of rank, and then the speeches begin, and then the vows. Then celebrations and dancing, so I'd been told.

I can hear the buzzing of voices and activity in the palace, far below my chambers. Phase one of my wedding is well under way, with guests from across the realms. I realise, for the first time, that I'm going to be meeting other Gods, beyond the Spring Court. Hadrian had invited most of Olympus.

'What's Olympus like?' I ask, my voice quiet in the hallways upstairs. They have been sent to ready the hall for my entrance, to clear the walkway so I can provide the greatest views. I shiver, and clamp down on my chattering teeth.

Sybella places a warm hand on my shoulder. 'Olympus is grand. They love politics, the Olympians. So, I'd say it's a place for sharks to meet and sharpen their teeth.'

'What will I say to them?' I say, wrapping my arms around my body. 'Why didn't I think of this sooner? I don't know anything about these people downstairs...'

Unprepared: that's what I am. And I don't like it. I'm facing an enemy that might have claws or fangs or both.

Sybella gives me a gentle squeeze. 'Just be your usual brass, defiant self. They'll hate you no matter what.'

I poke her in the ribs.

Jefferson's head pops back as he peers around the corner of the stairs. He grins, and, for once, he doesn't kill me with a pun. 'They're ready for you.'

He looks so excited. I must look like I'm going to be sick.

A pounding thunders in my chest; my heart has picked up speed again, tearing off in a slamming pattern. My stomach holds a hummingbird, ceaselessly winging its way through my nerves and scattering them, like leaves falling from trees.

I take one step forward in my high, pointed shoes. Then two. Then, I'm walking down the staircase, and music floats upwards to greet me.

One of my requests to Jefferson and Sybella had been that I did not want a wedding march to play. Not after the macabre affair of my previous "wedding". Sybella had sourced out what sounded like somebody playing a flute, the trilling notes hopeful and lyrical. Each step unfolds below me, until I meet Nate at the bottom, holding out his arm.

My little brother smiles so widely. Then, he covers his hand to his face, choking away emotion.

'You look beautiful, sis,' he says. His voice wavers. I take his proffered arm and lean into him, inhaling in the familiar scent of home.

'I love you,' I tell my brother.

He grins. 'I know you do.'

Together, we reach the closed double doors of the great hall. They announce my arrival, and the doors creak open in a gesture of magnificence. Inside, the flute solo rises, and a hundred faces peer in curiosity out at me.

I only see one.

The first thing I ever noticed about him had been his eyes. A bright, cool, frosty, blue. But the Hadrian I know now is the warmest figure I know, his eyes no longer just a colour, but a gateway to spotting his feelings, his nuances, his ideas. For instance, I know his heart stops a little when I walk in the room. I see his lovely blue eyes widen. I see them halt, taking in only me. And I feel his wonder, deep in my chest, almost as if...

...as if it is my own. My own emotion? No.

I'm not impressed at how I look. I'm not the one speechless.

I'm feeling Hadrian's emotions along with my own. Sleeping with him hadn't made us closer. It had literally joined us, seamless, our souls entwined. Perhaps he realised the moment I did, or perhaps he'd known this whole time and hadn't wanted to rush me. But I see in his eyes the moment I realise, and he smiles with all he's got, and sends an all-encompassing feeling towards me.

Love. 

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A/N: Heeeeelloooooooo.... I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of several wedding chapters to come! ;) Did you like it? What do you think will happen? Thank you so much for your patience with me writing this! 

lots of love

Larissa

xxx