Cress pokes her head into my room at 7:00 sharp and softly calls to me. "Cinder, are you awake?" I turn over and don't respond. I didn't sleep last night or eat at the dinner after rehearsal because my entire being is made of nerves. "Cinder?" she calls again. "I'm going to go get Scarlet to wake you up if you don't get up in the next 10 seconds." I groan.

"Don't do that," I say, not moving, but my face is buried in my pillow so it comes out as, "gufurrfle."

"Fine, here comes Scarlet anyways." I hear Cress talking to Scarlet.

"CINDER," Scarlet yells next to my ear, "it's your wedding day!" Get. Up." I finally sit up and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and groan again. My friends have their work cut out for them. Yes, I know I'm in Kai's palace and that there are servants that will prepare me but I specifically told Kai I refuse to be treated as royalty until I have to be. Of course, that doesn't stop the servants. Or Thorne. Thorne drives me insane calling me Your Imperial Majesty. I know I have to get used to it but that doesn't mean I want to.

Winter pokes in her head in my room and upon seeing the nest on my head her eyes widen. "Oh my stars, we have work to do." She gracefully moves over to my bed and takes my hand and pulls me up towards the bathroom which I swear is the size of a dining hall. Ok, maybe not that big, but big.

"Where's Iko?" I ask. They exchange amused glances.

"She'll be here later," Scarlet says.

"Oh no. Is she with Émilie again? Nothing ever good happens when those two are together and I don't know if I can deal with the added stress." Émile and Iko became fast friends after Scarlet and Wolf's wedding. Best friends actually that are constantly getting themselves into trouble! Winter giggles in response.

"Not quite..." she says. I roll my eyes. I'm obviously not getting anything else out of them. Winter leads me to the mirrors and plops me down in the chair. The closer I get to that birds nest on top of my head the worse it looks. Scarlet rolls me back to the sink and leans me back to wash my hair. Normally I'd relax, but today it's just not happening. I'm so terrified something will go wrong today. I voice my worries aloud. Scarlet looks at me with compassion.

"I know how you feel, don't forget I got married just over a year ago. The best thing you can do is not think about the what ifs and instead focus on the now," she says. I smile shakily.

"Thanks Scarlet." My eyes drift downwards to her stomach. It's barely noticeable, but it's there. A baby bump I mean. The two announced it just a week ago. Fortunately for them, the media has been so busy tracking every detail of Kai and I's wedding and my enthronement they haven't noticed yet. That's rather unfortunate for me however. Have I mentioned I hate paparazzi? Kai announced our engagement the day after Scarlet and Wolf were married again, this time in front of the media. They had a heyday. In fact, they haven't yet stopped having a heyday.

Soon I realize while I had been lost in my flow of thoughts Scarlet had finished washing my hair and was now blowdrying it. Soon she wheels me back over to Winter and Winter ties a bandana around my eyes. I groan. "You guys are a pain, you know that right?" I joke.

"Shh! Just relax! You're not allowed to look until we're done," Cress says. I sigh and lean back not having anything else to do. My mind starts to drift to the list of things not done but I refuse to let it. Like Cress said, I need to relax whenever possible.

Soon my eyes start to close and before I know it Cress is gently shaking me awake. "I know you probably didn't get any sleep last night and are exhausted but you need to eat some breakfast and then we need to get you into your dress," she says. I stretch as best I can without shaking my hair and let Cress lead me to my desk where breakfast is set up. She unites the bandana and I laugh. They've hidden the mirror with one of my sheets.

"You guys really are serious about this!" Scarlet and Winter who have been hanging out in the background getting ready themselves and when they hear me laugh in the background. They and Iko are all bridesmaids of course. I didn't pick a color theme so they were allowed to choose their own dresses (Iko wasn't happy about this, but I reminded her it's my wedding.), and I have a pretty good idea of the colors they picked, but I haven't seen those either. I chose not to have a maid-of-honor in memory of Peony because I would've wanted her to be the maid-of-honor so instead there isn't one in her memory. I miss her. I start to get a little depressed but pull myself back together. While I eat and then a little longer time Cress gets ready. Still no Iko. Odd. You'd think she'd want to be in the middle of this!

Soon Cress reties my blindfold and helps me into my dress. That I did get to pick. It's a beautiful traditional pure white dress with lace sleeves and a lace train with very little decoration on the dress itself. The catch? I got it specially done so the lace is gears. You can't tell unless you're up close. Let's see what the fashion feeds have to say about that! I have chosen not to wear gloves to show I'm proud of the cyborg half of me. Winter comes over and does my makeup and I feel my feet being slipped into heels and think back and remember the last time I wore heels. The first ball, when Levana discovered who I was.

Cress helps me to my floor length mirrors and asks me if I'm ready. I nod and I feel Scarlet, Winter, and Cress fall into place behind me. And something else. The rubbing parts of an android. Iko! Cress tells me she's going to untie my bandana and to keep my eyes closed until she counts to three. "1... 2... 3." I open my eyes and gasp. We all look so beautiful. Scarlet is wearing a modest scarlet maxi dress with a triangle opening near the bottom and a cream lace overlay. Cress is wearing a baby blue above-the-knee dress with white lace sleeves and white gloves. Winter is wearing a pale green knee-length dress with silver sequins and embroidery. And Iko. Oh Iko. She's wearing a hot pink above-the-knee dress with a huge poofy skirt. I love Iko, even when she over does it. Then me. The dress, the shoes, and then the hair. But it's not just my hair. All of our hair is done the same way, done in a diagonal waterfall braid on the back of our heads going down to the left with a blue flower tied on the right side. I look at myself again and realize Scarlet has passed her "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," tradition onto me. The red heels are old, the same ones from the ball, the dress is new, the veil is borrowed from Winter, and the flower is blue.

I look around again and if my eyes could start to get misty, they would be. Winter and Iko give a sigh of contentment at the same time, them burst into giggles. "Thank you all of you," I say. "You all look beautiful and I couldn't have done all this without you."

They give me an amused smile and Iko says, "there's one more thing." Oh, right, Iko's been gone all day putting together my little surprise. I forgot. They lead me over to the bed and there's a box. I carefully tear off the paper and inside is a gold locket. I open it and a holographic image forms with a picture of each of my friends. Cress and Thorne, making silly faces. Jacin and Winter smiling. Scarlet and Wolf trying to be serious but smiling instead. And then Kai and I looking at each other with deep love in our eyes. Iko speaks. "I couldn't find someone that could make this last minute because I just got the idea today." Scarlet clears her throat. "Well, actually, it was Scarlet's idea I procrastinated on." I laugh. Scarlet speaks.

"We thought that you'd like it to always have the people you care about close to your heart when you can't be with us or us with you. Do you want me to put it on?" I nod, speechless, and she steps forward and gently takes it from me and it puts it on. I hear the clasp click and I turn around to look at all of them.

"I'd give you all a giant hug but I don't want to ruin all of our dresses. Plus we have..." I look at the time. "Oh my stars we're supposed to be downstairs in ten minutes."