Secrets And Sins Part 3: Happy ever after

Chapter 78

~Beatrice~

It was nearly time, and Beatrice was nauseous with the rising anticipation.

She looked up into the boughs of the oak tree she stood at the foot of. Someone, probably under Camila's careful instruction, had wound a string of golden fairy lights around the trunk before spiderwebbing them out into the canopy. The tree was one of the oldest on the grounds and one that Beatrice had spent many an afternoon reading at the base of, shaded from the fierce Italian sun. She was especially glad of its shade today, though she really couldn't be sure if the sweat that threatened to roll down her spine was from the heat of the day or the nerves raging under her skin.

Beatrice did her best to practice some breathing exercises as she desperately tried not to think about the many pairs of eyes that were turned in her direction but the low hum of conversation from those gathered was making that rather difficult. She hated being the center of attention, she always had. Perhaps it stemmed from a childhood of being put on display by her parents, well, until she had started pushing back against them anyway. Beatrice still couldn't really believe that the same people who spent her early years trying to force her to fit the expectations sat somewhere out there in the rows of plastic chairs, supporting her marriage to a woman.

Lilith's voice pulled Beatrice's attention back from the branches. "Sooo... have you ever done one of these before?"

Vincent blinked as he glanced up from the book in his hands. When Ava had brought up asking him to be their celebrant, Beatrice hadn't been convinced, he had been the cause of so much suffering after orchestrating the release of Adriel. But, as Ava had reminded her gently, he was also why Adriel could be defeated, and the reason Ava was alive right now. They would never have met if not for the cascade of events Vincent had put in motion... Beatrice's chest tightened slightly at the thought.

"A couple of times," he answered after a long moment of consideration. "A very, very long time ago, but it was a lot more..." Vincent's mouth pulled tight in a slight wince, "... traditional."

"Traditional?" Lilith's voice was laced with distaste.

"Heterosexual," Beatrice muttered without thinking and both Lilith and Vincent looked at her in surprise, she hadn't spoken since they'd arrived here. "You're a Catholic priest, I doubt there was much demand for you to officiate gay weddings."

"That is true, but I more meant marrying the chosen Warrior of the Catholic Church to an ex-nun was the part that bucks tradition the most." Vincent gave her a slightly flustered sort of grin. "I mean there's an actual demon sitting in the wedding congregation."

Beatrice nodded absentmindedly, her eyes pulled forward inevitably to look out over the crowd, only half listening as Lilith and Vincent continued to make small talk.

Bael was quite obvious, seated a couple of rows from the front, and next to... oh my God ... her parents. Who had sat down first? She doubted it had been Bael, well, unless her parents thought they had something to prove? Beatrice watched as Bael shifted in place, leaning towards the Sinclair's and saying something with an enormous sharp toothed smile. He didn't seem to notice how both Olivia and Philip visibly flinched away, polite, if slightly terrified expressions on their faces. Bael laughed, huge and raucous, drawing looks from all those seated around them, and her parents jolted in place. Beatrice couldn't help but grin, oh well, it wasn't her problem.

She continued to scan the faces of those gathered, many of which were the sister warriors she had worked side by side with for much of her young adult life. They were her family in a way that her parents would never be and having them all here was enough to make her want to cry. But then Beatrice's eyes landed on a face that stunned that mushy sort of emotion right out of her. She did a double take.