The priest began.

“Dearly beloved—”

The words drifted around me, hollow, distant. My veil blurred my vision, but I could still see Damon’s outline — a dark, quiet defiance at the edge of the ceremony.

When the priest reached the line — “Speak now or forever hold your peace” — the silence that followed was unbearable.

I heard someone shift behind the crowd. A breath caught. A heartbeat stuttered.

Damon.

I saw it in the flicker of his shoulders — that ...