The Roseblades had taken over administration of the Offreys’ former territory. The luxurious estate the Offreys had built themselves had been too gaudy for Dorothea, so it was demolished; a new castle was being built in its place. Several Armors had been repurposed for that effort, and construction proceeded at a feverish pace.
Armors were often deployed for construction efforts, since this world didn’t have heavy machines like cranes and so on. It helped that Armors could fly, which made erecting tall buildings relatively easy.
With a new lord’s reign on the horizon, the people milling about were both anxious and full of anticipation. It was here, on their land, that Nicks and Dorothea’s wedding was being held.
I sat in the groom’s waiting room, wearing a suit for the occasion, though my collar was unbuttoned. Nicks was in there, too, clad in his white suit. He sprawled on the sofa, his expression despairing. None of us could bring ourselves to say anything to him.
Nicks and I had two sisters, Jenna and Finley. Their personalities were horrible, to put it mildly. Jenna was particularly miserable from her exposure to the capital. She’d turned out every bit as insufferable as most of the girls at the academy. But even she looked at Nicks with pity in her eyes. Meanwhile, Finley tried to shield Colin, our youngest brother, from seeing Nicks like this.
My mom and dad were in the corner of the room, whispering to each other.
“How am I supposed to talk to my son when he’s got a dog collar around his neck?” My dad sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
“I didn’t see this coming, either,” said Mom.
The silence in the waiting room amplified their muted voices, making them echo.
Marie was beside me, wearing a dress she’d prepared expressly for the occasion. She squeezed my hand tight. “How’s it feel to have sold your brother off to the Roseblades?” she asked accusingly. “Don’t you feel any remorse at all, seeing him wear a dog collar?”
The wedding ceremony was held with only close family in attendance, and just as Dorothea had requested, they’d exchanged dog collars instead of rings. Thanks to Deirdre’s warning, I’d known what was coming, but that hadn’t prepared me for just how awful it had been. Earl Roseblade had come to our waiting room before the ceremony and bowed repeatedly in apology. He’d even promised extra gifts to compensate for his daughter’s antics. I couldn’t be too excited over that, though, after seeing my brother’s devastated face.
“Want to know what I think? I think he’s lucky, getting to marry a beauty like her,” I insisted.
“Is a woman’s chest size the only measurement of beauty in your mind? I bet it is.”
“No, dummy. I mean, objectively, Miss Dorothea’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s slender and fit, and yes, she’s got a nice chest. But even I wouldn’t consider marrying someone like her. She’s nice to look at, but that’s it.” I’d never actually have wanted to be with her.
“And that’s the kind of person you forced on your brother,” Marie shot back. “Why don’t you think just a little about what you’ve done?”
“I have thought about it. But I don’t regret it.”
If anything, I wanted her to think a little more about it. Sure, Dorothea’s personality was really abnormal, but how did she compare to the other girls at the academy? Was she really so bad that someone would hesitate to marry her?
“When Nicks graduates, he’ll be a viscount,” I added. “Now he has a gorgeous wife and land that’ll provide him a substantial income in the form of taxes. And if that isn’t enough, he has the Roseblades’ full support. What’s he got to be unhappy about?”
I wouldn’t personally want to exchange dog collars at my wedding, but considering all the benefits he’d receive eventually, it really wasn’t a bad deal.
Pausing to consider everything I’d said, Marie likewise started to see that Nicks was lucky as hell. “When you put it like that, I’m kind of jealous. I mean, I really don’t see what he’s acting so depressed about. He got a winning deal out of this, even if it meant he had to put on a dog collar in the process.” She’d empathized with Nicks up till this point, but once she had the same realization I had, we were suddenly on the same page.
You know, I actually like how easily swayed you are. “See? Like I said. He’s lucky.”
Nicks turned his head to peer at me. It looked for all the world like the stare of an evil spirit. Actually, with the collar around his neck, he resembled some poor sod dragged against his will to the altar—and to death’s door—and offered as a human sacrifice. Well, that’s not totally inaccurate. I sacrificed him, after all!
“If you’re so envious, how about switching places with me?” Nicks asked pointedly.
How sweet of him to offer up his happiness to his beloved little brother. It was honestly almost enough to move me to tears.
“I’ll pass,” I said. As much as I appreciated the gesture, I couldn’t take this away from him.
“You smarmy little jerk!” Nicks burst out, spit flying. “You’ve completely ruined my entire life! How bad do you have to mess things up to land me in a marriage with a woman way out of my league, and on top of that, force a viscount title on me?! I don’t know the first thing about ruling a region!” He shot off the couch and lunged at me, grabbing my collar and shaking me violently.
Look, I get your frustration, but… You really aren’t going to mention the dog collar? Are you saying you don’t mind that, Nicks? Huh? “You told me before that you’d be happy to get married before you were twenty!” I retorted. “I went out of my way to make sure that happened for you. What’ve you got to be upset about?!”
He had no idea how hard it had been negotiating the deal with Earl Roseblade, but it’d be nice if he’d at least appreciate the effort.
“Look up ‘overkill’ in a dictionary, why don’t you! Besides, if you hadn’t sold me off—” His eyes had reddened around the rims, as if he was on the verge of tears. He pulled his arm back like he was about to punch me.
Guess I should let him get a hit in, huh?
Before he could, a loud, impatient knock sounded at the door, which then quickly burst wide open.
“Honey dearest!” Dorothea cried in a singsong voice as she raced in, still wearing her wedding dress. “Your wife’s come to see you!” She carried a chain, one end already connected to her dog collar. I could guess that she planned to connect the chain’s untethered end to Nicks’s collar.
He went white as a sheet. “Miss Dorothea?!”
She flung herself at him and drew circles on his chest. “Please, just call me Dorothea. We’ve already had our sacred ceremony and sworn to love each other eternally, haven’t we? We’ll be together forever and ever. Yes, until the end of time.” That sounded like (an admittedly terrifying) promise.
The light disappeared from Nicks’s eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.” He looked utterly resigned, as if he’d given up on life itself.
Reaching for my hand, Marie whispered, “Their vows were pretty chilling, too, weren’t they?”
“With the collars, I almost couldn’t focus on anything else, honestly,” I replied. “But yeah, everything about their wedding was horrible.”
The exchange of the dog collars had been so shocking and discombobulating, any other off-kilter elements seemed insignificant in comparison. That included the vows—or, rather, Dorothea’s specifically. Those had been unsettling, to put it politely.
“‘However many times we’re reborn, I swear I’ll find and reunite with you,’” Marie quoted. “Based on our experiences, that’s no joke.”
The two of us still remembered our previous lives. We knew reincarnation was real, which was why Dorothea’s words rang differently in our ears. It sounded like she’d sworn to hunt Nicks down in all her lives from this one on, as though he could never get away from her again.
“Actually, that was scarier than the collar.” I shuddered.
Maybe Dorothea hadn’t meant it to come across that way, and it had merely been a way for her to express her love. It just didn’t seem that innocent when I saw the two together. Especially considering how elated she looked when she hooked the other end of her chain to Nicks’s collar.
“You’re my perfect husband,” she cooed. “We’ll never have to be apart for the rest of our lives.”
“No, I guess not,” he answered numbly. His expression was completely blank, as if his soul had left and his body was running on autopilot.
Deirdre stood in the open doorway with some of the Roseblades’ distant relatives. She made a face at her sister but then told her, “I’m glad to see you so happy.” She turned to the rest of us. “Now then, if all of you will follow me, I’d be happy to offer you our family’s hospitality.”
We let her take the lead and treat us to the Roseblades’ incredible generosity.