Through the Windshield Glass (33 page)

The door opened
again, but instead of Daman or a disguised old woman, Maria walked in. She was
dressed in the same color as Leigh, but her dress was sleeveless and Grecian in
design. The dress gathered just below her bust and fell into a loose skirt down
to her ankles.

“Leigh! Alice!”
Maria shouted when she saw us. Her pronunciation of words had greatly improved
and I was almost pushed to tears when my name sounded the same coming out of
her mouth as it used to when we were alive.

Leigh and I
both raced to embrace Maria. It sent the old ladies around us into a flutter,
they were worried about the dresses being ruined and hair being tangled, but we
didn't care.

“Alice,
bad—man,” Maria stuttered.

Leigh nodded,
“Don’t worry, we have a plan. Alice is going to make everything better.”

“No pressure,”
I muttered to myself

My heart was
beating in my throat as the oldest of the women informed us that it was time to
go. The wedding was supposed to begin at five so we only had minutes to get to
the courtyard before all of our lives were on the line.

“Are you sure
you’re ready for this?” Leigh asked, “I could do it for you.”

Under normal
circumstances I would have laughed at Leigh’s presumption that she could take
my place in a marriage, but instead her selfless offer made me tear up, “No, it
has to be me. I can do it, just make sure to keep smiling for me, okay?”

Leigh nodded
and grabbed my right hand . Together, we followed the old women through
granite-floored halls and out to the courtyard where I was left in a white
tent. It had been raining recently, the grass was cold and damp and the
interior of the tent was slightly humid. I shivered as a chill breeze snuck
under the flaps of the tent and flicked my hair against my neck.

I pulled one of
the anemones out of my bouquet and began anxiously pulling off the petals.
My fingers were ice cold despite how frantically my heart was currently
working. I felt confident my heart would give out before I even had to walk
down the aisle.

Petals fall
like long lost hope,

As the
innocent face the gallows rope.

"Those
petals look happier than you do," a voice said from behind me.

My heart
skipped, I dropped my bouquet and turned around to face the man who would soon
be my brother-in-law," Michael!"

"You look
beautiful, Alice," Michael said. I couldn't say the same about Michael, he
looked horrible. It was easy to tell his nose had been broken, and that the
resulting blood had been shoddily and quickly removed from his face. There were
still bits of dried blood clinging to the end of Michael's nose and his upper
lip was stained red.

"What
happened to you?" I whispered.

"Daman's
friends. They ambushed our camp after we found out you were missing,"
Michael said with an attempt at a smile, "We took out a couple before that
one with the purple eyes froze us all again. I'd really like to have a go with
him alone."

"You and
me both," I replied, "But I don't think that's going to happen. I
guess we changed the plan after all. I'm not sure I like it any better but I'll
survive, most likely."

Michael did not
think my lightheartedness was funny, "I'm going to get you out of
this."

"It's a
little late for that," I whispered. None of it had seemed real until that
point, but as I looked at the tent flaps I could just make out Leigh's shape
waiting to scatter flowers on the aisle.

"There's
no getting me out of this one," I replied. I straightened Michael's tie.
Michael
　
grabbed my hand and
I finally looked into his eyes. He looked tired and terrified, at least that's
what I got before he bent to kiss me for a second time. I turned my face and
caught his kiss on my cheek.

"What's
wrong?" Michael asked.

"I'm about
to get married," I said. I turned away from him and picked up my bouquet
from the ground. The flowers were wilted
　
and
wet now, I straightened them and finally looked back to Michael.

He looked
dumbfounded and like I'd just slapped him in the face, "You're choosing
him?" Michael asked.

"No! I'm
not
choosing
anything" I said quickly, "But this is hard
enough. Don't make this harder for me."

Michael nodded,
"You're right," he said, "I just wish you weren't."

"So do
I," I admitted, "You should
　
go
find a seat if you're going to watch."

"Daman
didn't tell you?"
　
Michael
asked.

"Tell me
what?"

"I'm
supposed to escort you down the aisle," Michael said,
　
"Daman wanted me to be a
part of the wedding."

"How kind
of him," I muttered.

"Wasn't
it?" Michael offered me his arm as the bridal march began to play outside
the tent. I saw
　
Leigh's
shadow begin to move down the aisle
　
and
watched
　
as nonchalantly as
I could while the flaps of the tent opened and Michael and I began to walk
towards my future husband.
　

Chapter Forty-seven

The sound of
hundreds of the kingdom's most important people rising greeted me as I
exited the tent and was blinded by the brilliant sun.

Michael’s grip
tightened on my arm as we looked down the aisle and saw Daman standing there. He
was smirking, but he still looked agitated and anxious. I slowed my pace ever
so slightly to see what the reaction would be. Daman’s head instantly raised
higher, his eyes narrowed until they were nearly shut, and he looked ready to
kill. I pulled Michael up to my original speed again and we pressed on.

The ring I was
supposed to show Daman was tied to a ribbon on my bouquet and I felt it beat
against my right thumb with every step I took.

Tick-tock,
tick-tock.

Leigh scattered
rose petals in my path and periodically looked back to make sure I was still
following her. The aisle seemed to be miles long, and yet it took an impossibly
short time to traverse. Before I was ready, Michael was letting go of my arm,
pulling my veil down over my eyes and kissing my forehead.

"I don't
know if I can do this," I whispered quickly.

"I know
you can," Michael whispered back. He handed me off to Daman and took
his place standing next to his brother.
　
Both
of them looked princely, but there was only one I would actually choose to
marry.
　

I took a deep
breath, discreetly slid the ring off the bouquet ribbon and handed the flowers
to Leigh who then ran to hide behind Maria's skirt. Maria looked more terrified
than Leigh, but she also looked more like herself than I had seen her since
arriving in Beyond. She was standing upright, her makeup and hair had been
done, and she looked more like royalty than I was about to become.

The hair on the
back of my neck rose the minute Daman touched me; I looked quickly at Michael
and held his gaze for a moment before turning back to Daman. There was a fine
film of sweat on Daman’s upper lip. His hair was done neatly, but hairs were
starting to stick up out of the careful coiffeur and his mouth was twitching
around his smile as though he were unsure if what to do with his teeth.

The officiator
of the ceremony looked extremely familiar, but I didn’t have time to think
about who it was because Daman yanked my face back towards him and the ceremony
began.

Daman had opted
to say his vows first and the whole congregation sat in anxious anticipation
for him to begin, “I love you,” Daman said mechanically, “I cannot wait for our
life to start together.”

He hadn’t said
the words with any kind of conviction, but his speech was still met with warm
applause and a few longing sighs from some definitely female mouths. The
officiator ran through the standard vows quickly and finally asked the big
question.

“Do you, King
Alecsander, take Alice Beth Patterson to be your wife?” the officiator asked.
Through my anxiety I noticed the words ‘lawfully wedded’ were omitted from the
inquiry.

“I do,” Daman
said. He looked at me meaningfully before twitching his black eyes towards
where Maria and Leigh were standing. It was obviously a threat, I hadn’t missed
it, and Daman knew it.

The officiator
turned to me and asked for my vows, “I believe Alecs has said it all,” I said.
I imagined dipping my tongue in sugar before speaking the words and it seemed
to have the desired effect. I was even able to look doe-eyed and completely in
love as I said them. Daman wasn’t fooled for a minute of course, but as we had
been forced to hold hands I could feel him beginning to perspire. He was
fighting every attempt of mine to bring on the memory, but he weakened ever so
slightly when I smiled radiantly up at him.

“Do you, Alice
Beth Patterson, take King Alecsander to be your husband?”

I licked my
lips and looked quickly back to Michael, then to Leigh and Maria before
replying, "I do."

I heard Leigh
gasp in surprise and begin crying. I knew she hadn't been expecting me to
actually go through with the marriage. She had been hoping I would suddenly
spring into action and slay Daman in front of the whole wedding party, but that
wasn't the plan and it was too late to go back on it now. Even Daman looked
surprised, but even more relieved.

"You may
now exchange the rings," the officiator said.

Stephano handed
me the ring for Daman and I slid it onto the appropriate finger. No one came
forward to give Daman my ring so I took the chance to slip him
　
the one I'd been hiding.

"You're
always forgetting where you put things, dear," I said teasingly as I
dropped the ring into Daman's hand and offered my left hand for him to put the
ring on.

Daman stared
uncomprehendingly at the ring, I could tell he knew I was planning something by
giving him the ring, but he didn't quite understand what it was yet. I waggled
my hand in front of my face, "I'm waiting," I said in a sing-song
voice.

Daman's Adam's
Apple bobbed up and down, a small drop of sweat fell down his face and along
his jawline, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the ring.

"Oh, I'll
do it," I finally said. I snatched the ring up and put it on, "There,
doesn't that look nice?"

Daman gaped at
me and the officiator took the slightly stunned silence to pronounce Daman and
I man and wife.

"You may
now kiss the bride?" the officiator said it like a question. He finally
seemed to be doubting if he was actually performing his job correctly now.

"Yes, King
Alecsander," I taunted, "Kiss your bride."

Cloudy gray turned
to beetle black over and over in the orbs of Daman's eyes. He couldn't seem to
decide if he wanted to be demon or human. His mouth was twitching again, and he
looked even more terrified than I felt.

I grabbed his
hands which were as cold as ice and glared right into his ever changing eyes.
He couldn't look away from me, he kept swallowing and trying to turn his head,
but he couldn't tear his gaze away from mine. It was too easy, I knew it was
too easy, but the sound of Leigh's crying prompted me to try.

I smiled
malevolently, grabbed Daman's face with both hands, closed my eyes and
kissed him full on the mouth. 

Chapter Forty-eight

 My
stomach jerk and I knew it had worked. I had trapped Daman in a memory, I just
wasn't sure which one yet. When my feet made contact with solid ground again I
broke away from Daman and opened my eyes.

No longer was I
wearing the uncomfortable, earthy smelling wedding dress; but my old jeans, and
Daman's jacket. The ring on my left hand was real and Daman looked just as he
had when I had almost married him in the doors.
　
Something
cold resting on my clavicle told me that the necklace bearing Jane's name had
also been returned to me.

Daman and I
were standing in my hallway, it was not the memory I had hoped to force on him,
but it would have to do. At least we were in a confined space so he couldn't
run, the only problem was I had no weapon.

"You
stupid girl!" Daman screeched. He pushed me hard in the chest and I fell
to my back on the carpet and hit my head, "What were you thinking bringing
us back here?" I was still blinking stars out of my eyes when I felt
Daman's foot connect with my side. The pain was blinding and I knew I was at
least two ribs short of a deluxe meal. I gasped and tried to roll away, but
Daman grabbed my hair and forced me to stand in front of him.

Involuntary
tears streamed down my face, "I brought you here to kill you," I said
truthfully.

"That was
the stupidest thing you could have done," Daman hissed. He threw me head
first towards a door. My head connected painfully with a hinge and blood began
pouring down my face from the middle of my forehead.

"Then stop
beating me up and just kill me already!" I shouted. The effort made me
dizzy, but I steadied myself against the door behind me.

"I'm not
going to kill you," Daman said drunkenly, "I can't kill you or I'm
dead too. You don't understand do you? There's something worse than me out
there. All this time you've been hunting the wrong person, and now because of
you all of your friends are going to pay for it."

"Explain,"
I said forcefully.

"Leif is
coming to the wedding you just left," Daman said. His eyes were completely
black now, his lean body had gone skeletal, his face was gaunt and pale; in
short, he looked like death.

"How do I
get back?" I asked.

Daman cackled,
"The same way you got in, you've got to go through the doors. All of
them."