Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

He didn’t know? He’d been here the whole time. How could this go up without him knowing where it came from?

Michael moved to the center, in front of the judge as he fastened his tie, and we joined him, flanking his side and waiting for Rika and her entourage.

I couldn’t wait to see Emmy. Rika always thought of everything, so I knew she’d handled a dress, but I kind of hoped they’d had fun, too. I wanted her to like my friends. They were family, and they were important to me.

“So, you gonna be a Crist?” Kai teased Michael. “Or a Fane?”

“Shut up,” Michael snipped.

Kai and Damon snorted, laughing to themselves. What was that about?

But before I could catch up on the joke, the music died away, the crowd’s chatter quieting a little, and we all looked around, the hair on my arms rising.

It was time.

“Michael,” Kai whispered.

I looked to Kai, all of us following his gaze out toward the street and the start of the pathway leading up to the gazebo.

She stood there, and my throat swelled with a lump, and for some fucking reason, I was about to burst wide open.

Shit.

Rika looked up at Michael, dressed in her red gown, bold and on fire as she gazed up at him and he drifted to the edge of the stairs, looking down at her twenty-five yards away.

She’d turned into a beautiful woman. The skin of her bare shoulders glowed in the lamp light, her long blonde hair cascading down her back in loose curls, and her red gown, layers of silk spilling over her waist and down her legs, making her look like the force she was. Gold embroidery decorated her bodice and fat, long gold earrings nearly reached her shoulders.

The crowd stood around her but left the path ahead clear.

A haunting piano tune with violins began playing, and without taking her eyes off Michael, she started walking to him.

I shot my eyes around, looking for Emmy, but the other three were still nowhere to be seen.

Michael stood frozen, his chest rising and falling hard as he watched her, looking almost in pain.

Her jaw flexed the closer she got, and I saw tears glisten in her eyes, because it was all too much.

Once upon a time, she was a kid who blew our minds and ran with us all night.

She hadn’t changed.

She ascended the stairs, needing no one to lead her or give her away, and took Michael’s hand, smiling up at him.

“Hey,” she said.

And he dove in, his chest caving as he pressed his forehead to hers and hovered over her mouth.

But Kai pulled him back. “Soon, man.”

Rika and Michael both laughed, Michael watching her lick her lips and struggling to take his eyes off her.

Clasping her hand, he walked with her to the judge, more than ready.

But I stepped up, stopping them. “Where are the girls?” I whispered.

Rika turned to me, smiling like she had a secret.

Then, her eyes flashed beyond the gazebo, and we followed her gaze, seeing the others all standing at the ends of the other three pathways leading up to the gazebo.