It was accelerating.

Chapter 8 — Inside the Vestry

What happened over the next hours, I will tell as plainly as I can, because much of it I did not fully understand until later, and because the heart of the story is not the danger but the reason for it.

There was a threat outside the chapel.

I will not dramatize it; it is enough to say that Commander Hayes and his people moved all of us — my parents, my brother, Lucas, and me — quickly and calmly out of the open doorway and into the shelter of the church, and that the veterans who had come to raise swords over my wedding turned out to be equally prepared to stand between my family and harm.

The heavy doors were secured.