Origin

life for me, even when I’d been nothing but a giant tool to her. And Halloween night? She would’ve died for Dee and me.

I would’ve died for her.

Where would we go from there? Not just where would we end up living or any of that crap, but both of us had and would sacrifice just about anything for each other. There was a next step involved. I thought about the car ride there, when I’d been staring at her left hand.

My heart did a funny thing in my chest, something between a panicked squeeze and an excited jump. I dipped my head back under the stream. Something was building in my chest, piling up until there was no denying what I wanted. My hands curled into fists against the tile.

Shit.

Was I really thinking this? Yes. Did I really want this? Hell yes. Was it probably the craziest thing I’d ever considered? Most definitely. Was it going to stop me? Nah. Did I feel like I was going to pass out? Only a little.

I’d been in the shower for more than fifteen minutes.

I was such a girl.

That panicked/excited feeling was increasing as I turned to the faucets, shutting the water off. My hand trembled a little, and my eyes narrowed.

I should really think about this.

Then again, who was I kidding? When I set my mind to something, I did it. And my mind was set. No pussyfooting around it. No point in waiting. It was right. It felt right. And that’s what mattered—the only thing that mattered.

I was in love with her. I would always be.

Wrapping a towel around my hips, I entered the bedroom. Kat sat on the bed, cross-legged in jeans and wearing her My Blog Is Better than Your Vlog shirt. Yep, that pretty much sealed the deal for me.

“So I was thinking,” I said, my mouth moving before my brain really caught up with it. “There’re eighty-six thousand, four hundred seconds in a day, right? There’re one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes in a day.”

Her brow knitted. “Okay. I’ll take your word for it.”

“I’m right.” I tapped my finger against my head. “A lot of useless knowledge up here. Anyway, are you following me? There’re one hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. Around eighty-seven hundred and then some hours in a year, and you know what?”

She smiled. “What?”

“I want to spend every second, every minute, every hour with you.” Part of me couldn’t believe something that cheesy had come out of my mouth, but it was also so beautifully true. “I want a year’s worth of seconds and minutes with you. I want a decade’s worth of hours, so many that I can’t add them up.”

Her chest rose sharply as she stared at me, eyes widening.

I took one more step and then went down on one knee in front of her, in a towel. Probably should have put some pants on. “Do you want that?” I asked.

Kat’s eyes met mine, and the answer was immediate. “Yes. I want that. You know I want that.”

“Good.” My lips curved up. “So let’s get married.” 

Chapter 25

Katy

Time stopped. My heart skipped a beat and then took several leaps. My stomach felt like I was hurdling mountains. I stared at him so long that one single dark brow rose.

“Kitten…?” He tipped his head to the side. Strands of wet hair fell across his forehead. “Are you breathing?”

Was I? I wasn’t sure. All I could do was stare at him. He couldn’t have said what I thought he had. Let’s get married. The statement, because I was pretty sure it wasn’t a question, came so far out of left field that I was stunned.

A lopsided grin appeared on his face. “Okay. Your silence is stretching out further than I’d thought it would.”

I blinked. “Sorry. It’s just…what did you ask me?”

He chuckled deeply and reached over, threading his fingers through mine. “I said: let’s get married.”

Sucking in another deep breath, I squeezed his hand as my heart did another flip. “Are you serious?”

“Serious as I’ll ever be,” he replied.

“Did you hit your head in the bathroom? Because you were in there a long time.”

Daemon barked out a laugh. “No. Should I be offended by that question?”

I flushed. “No. It’s just…you want to marry me? Like, really get married?”

“Is there more than one kind of marriage, Kitten?” His lips were tilting up again. “It wouldn’t be legal, because we’d have to use our new IDs, so in a way, it wouldn’t be real, but it would be real to me—to us. I want to do this. Right now. I don’t have a ring, but I promise I’ll get you one worthy of you when things…things die down. We’re in Vegas. No better place. I want to marry you, Kat. Today.”

“Today?” My voice came out a squeak. I thought I might faint.

“Yes. Today.”

“But we’re…” We were young, but really, was there such a thing as too young for us? I was eighteen, months shy from turning nineteen. I had always pictured being at least in my mid-twenties before I tied the knot, but our future was so unknown to us. And it wasn’t the common world that people faced every day, not knowing how short their lives may very well be. We were on the sucky statistic side of things not working in our favor. If we didn’t manage to make it into hiding and were captured again, I doubted Daedalus would be so keen on allowing us to be together. That is, if we survived any of this. We didn’t have the guarantee of years to figure out our relationship.

“But what?” he asked softly.

I wasn’t sure we needed those years to determine if we wanted to be together. I knew right that second that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Daemon, but it wasn’t that simple. Something else could be driving this decision of his.

He squeezed my hand. “Kat?”

My heart was going crazy fast. I felt like I was on top of a roller coaster. “Are you wanting to do this because tomorrow may never come? Is that why you want to marry me? Because there might not be a later to do this?”

He leaned back. “Can I say that doesn’t play some role in wanting to do this now? No. It does. But it’s not the sole reason or even the major reason why I want to marry you. It’s more like the catalyst.”

“The catalyst,” I whispered.

He nodded. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad happens. I will do anything to make sure we have the time for everything that we want, but I’m not stupid enough to disregard the fact that something may happen that I can’t control. And, dammit, I don’t want to look back and see that I didn’t seize the chance to make you mine, to really prove that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That I lost that opportunity.”

Air hitched around the sudden lump in my throat. Tears burned my eyes.

“I want to marry you because I’m in love with you, Kat. I will always be in love with you. That’s not going to change today or two weeks from now. I will be just as in love with you in twenty years as I am today.” He let go of my hand and rose slightly, cupping my cheek. “That’s why I want to marry you.”

The tears welled up, and a few snuck out. He caught each one with his thumb. “Are the tears a good or a bad thing?”

“It’s just…that was such a beautiful thing to say.” I wiped at my face, feeling like an overemotional fool on the verge of having a stroke. “So you really want to get married today?”