Enchanted Ever After

by Shanna Swendson

  We headed back toward our seats. “Is this is what your life is like all the time?” Nita asked.

  “More or less, yeah,” I said.

  “I seldom leave the lab,” Jake said. “My work is more theoretical. But it’s fun to occasionally apply it in the field.”

  “Thanks for the cover-up back there,” I said to him.

  He shrugged. “Well, I figured that magic to hide magic was about all I could get away with, and you getting arrested would kind of ruin Owen’s bachelor party.”

  “You mean more than a magical battle did?” Nita asked.

  “The magical battle is actually pretty fun,” he said, grinning. “More interesting to me than baseball, to be honest.”

  When we got back to the others, I saw that Merlin had joined them. “Apologies for the delay,” he said. “It took longer than I expected to make it here. I trust that everything is in hand?”

  “Mack got her,” I said as we took our seats.

  “And just in time, too,” Rod said. “It was taking all of us to keep that dragon knocked out. She was pretty determined.”

  “What will happen to the dragon?” I asked.

  “I’ve already put in a call to the sanctuary,” Owen said. “They’ll take care of it after the game.”

  “Now, I suppose we should leave you to your bachelor party,” I said. “It’s not cool for the bride to crash the fun.”

  Owen caught my wrist. “No, don’t go. I mean, unless you want to. But you’re welcome to stay.”

  “It’s not as though we were going to be up to any debauchery, anyway,” Rod added.

  I looked to my friends. “I haven’t been to a game in forever,” Trish said.

  “We might as well, while we’re here,” Gemma said.

  “I’m game,” Marcia said.

  “Ditto,” said Nita.

  “Do you mind if I join you?” Carmen asked.

  “You’re welcome to,” I said.

  “Would having your boss here ruin the fun?” Merlin asked. “I’ve been curious about baseball.”

  “The bigger the party, the better,” Owen said. “I’m hungry. Does anyone want a hot dog? My treat.”

  We seemed to have been given a respite after the great ballgame dragon taming. I’d worried that catching Matilda wouldn’t necessarily stop anything if her family was still out there, but by Tuesday, I still hadn’t seen any reports of anything that sounded like real magic on any of the blogs, and Carmen said she hadn’t received any news releases. The Abigail Williams blog had just about fizzled out, and I hoped that meant her group was defunct.

  With the case closed, I was free to worry about my upcoming wedding. I got through my bachelorette party—a spa day arranged by Gemma—without any of the drama that had hit Owen’s bachelor party. No dragons, no gargoyles, no guests with wings that I hadn’t specifically invited. It was almost a disappointment. I was starting to worry that things were a bit too easy. But there was still time for crazy things to happen at the wedding rehearsal. I wondered if weddings were like stage plays, where a disastrous dress rehearsal was considered an omen of a good opening night.

  Our rehearsal was pretty low-key, with only the people directly involved in the ceremony there—and not even all of them. We waited until everyone had left work for the weekend on Friday evening, and then the wizards helping us with the wedding created the magical decorations, turning the office building’s cathedral-like lobby into something that looked like a chapel in a magical forest. It sounds weird to have a wedding in an office building, but when your office building looks like mine and when that building has a lot to do with your relationship, it makes sense.

  Even on its own, that lobby is gorgeous, but the magical decor was beyond my wildest wedding dreams. A forest glade seemed to have sprouted from the tile floor, with tiny lights twinkling among the branches. Garlands of white flowers arched overhead, creating a canopy over the aisle. The seats were scattered among the trees rather than lined up in neat rows. The ceremony itself would take place on the first landing of the grand staircase, where there were more trees, their branches creating an arch overhead.

  Since my father wouldn’t be at this ceremony (I could only imagine what he’d think of it), Merlin was walking me down the aisle. I’d grown used to the idea of him being my boss, but the thought that the Merlin, such a legendary figure, was playing the father role at my wedding was a little overwhelming.

  Gemma, who was serving as wedding coordinator, got everyone positioned just so, with Owen and Rod standing on the steps in front of the landing and my bridesmaids lined up in front of Merlin and me. The pastor, from Owen’s boyhood church, would be arriving with Owen’s foster parents the next day. As he’d said, he’d done so many weddings he could do them in his sleep, so he hardly needed to rehearse. I would have liked the chance to run through what I would have to do in the ceremony itself, but I supposed it wasn’t really a performance.

  Magical music played, and the bridesmaids walked down the aisle to arrange themselves on the stairs. Then it was my turn. I’d been practicing walking in my gown around the apartment, but I was a little worried about navigating the aisle and the stairs in it. It was a shame that I couldn’t wear it for the rehearsal. Maybe I’d get a chance to practice climbing the steps in the gown before the wedding, I thought, and I was so sidetracked by the thought that I nearly stumbled on the steps in my ordinary clothes and shoes. That didn’t bode well.

  Merlin held my arm, steadying me. “Feel free to levitate me, if necessary,” I said sheepishly.

  “You’ll be fine,” he assured me as he placed my hand in Owen’s.

  “So, there will be the ceremony, ‘I do,’ rings, and all that,” Gemma called out. “Okay, now let’s practice the recessional. Everyone knows their positions?” I didn’t see how anyone didn’t. She’d sent enough charts and diagrams.

  The attendants had made it down the steps, and Owen and I were just starting to make our own descent when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and nearly missed a step. This time, it was Owen who caught me. I was just about to make a quip about the stairs not being such a great idea when I saw Trix whispering to Merlin. That must have been the motion I’d noticed. Fairies didn’t usually shrink to Tinkerbell size and swoop around, at least, not around humans, so I wondered what was up.

  We made it back down the aisle, and Gemma applauded. “I think that should do it,” she said. “Is everyone comfortable with what they’re doing? Any questions?”

  Rina, who planned events for the company and who was helping with the wedding, stepped forward and said, “After that, we’ll transform to reception mode. We’ve got the spells in place to do that. Would you like to see?”

  “Sure,” I said, curious how this would go.

  Rina and her team waved their hands and muttered spells, and soon the room was filled with small tables that gave the impression of a magical woodland picnic. I half expected to see the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit having tea, with Winnie the Pooh and his friends at the adjacent table. “It’s lovely,” I said, but I was still distracted by whatever Trix had told Merlin. He was frowning and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to his surroundings. I didn’t think he’d even noticed that he was now sitting at a table.

  Rina reset the lobby to wedding mode, and the rehearsal was over. We were going to gather at a restaurant for dinner, but first I wanted a chat with Merlin. I grew more alarmed when he approached us first. “You should know that Matilda Mayfair has been released on bond,” he said.

  “What?” I protested, trying not to shriek out loud.

  “I’m not surprised,” Owen said. “With that kind of money and power, I doubted they’d have held her forever.”

  “You don’t think she’ll do something, do you?” I asked.

  “I don’t think you should worry about it,” Merlin said. “You concentrate on your wedding.”

  “We should be safe,” Owen said, giving my hand a squeeze. “After all, their
plan has been to do things in public, and this wedding is too private for them to bother with. It’s also already magical.”

  “Yeah, you have a point there,” I said. “It’s hardly going to be earthshattering if someone uses magic at a magical wedding in a magical office building.” It was reassuring when I thought about it that way. The wedding would likely be the safest place to be. But then that made me worry about something else. “That’s probably when they’ll do something else in public, though,” I said. “They’ll know that most of the people who’ve been defeating them will be here tomorrow night. I wonder what else is going on in the city.”

  “As I said, you don’t have to worry about that,” Merlin said. “The Council is apparently monitoring Miss Mayfair and her associates, and we do have people who won’t be attending the wedding who will be watching the city. Prophets and Lost is scrying to monitor the situation and predict where they might strike next. But you two are officially off-duty until you return from your honeymoon and the ceremony in Texas.”

  “Well, let’s just hope they can do it all without me,” I said.

  It was easier than I would have expected to follow Merlin’s advice and not worry about Matilda and her plotting. It helped that I had so much going on with my wedding. My friends hustled me home right after dinner so I could get my beauty sleep and be well-rested. We had a girls’ brunch the next morning, then it was time for makeup and hair styling. We gathered all the wedding supplies and headed to the office building that afternoon, where my office had been turned into a dressing room, complete with three-way mirror.

  Since we were ahead of schedule, as soon as I had my dress and shoes on, I went out to the lobby and practiced walking down the aisle and up and down the steps a few times. The skirt was stiff enough that it didn’t tangle around my legs, so it was easier than I’d feared. I thought I might actually get through this without falling flat on my face.

  After my last trip up the stairs to the temporary altar, I paused and looked back at the decorated lobby. I remembered the first time I’d walked into this building, nearly two years earlier. I’d had no idea how much my life would be changed by that job interview. I’d learned that magic was real and that my utter ordinariness was so extreme that it counted as a superpower. I’d already met Owen, but then I’d learned what he really was. I’d been attracted to him, but I’d never have imagined then that we’d have ended up married.

  And now, here I was, part of the magical world even though I was totally lacking in magic, about to marry the wizard of my dreams in the lobby of a magical corporation’s office building. In all my childhood daydreams about how my wedding would look, this hadn’t been on the list. It was beyond anything I might have imagined actually happening to me.

  “Katie! There you are!” Gemma cried out as she rushed toward me. “The guests’ll be arriving soon, so you need to go back to your office.”

  “It’s that late?” I asked.

  “Believe it or not.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, in a little over an hour, you’ll be married. I won’t even ask if you want to get out of here because I know you don’t.”

  “I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous about the wedding, but not at all about getting married.”

  “That’s a good sign.”

  I made it rather gracefully down the steps, and she nodded approvingly. “I should have thought about finding a way for you to practice without dragging your dress down here, but it looks like you’ll do fine. Now that I’ve seen you on these steps, I wish we’d got a gown with a train. It would have looked awesome trailing down those steps behind you.”

  “But just imagine the potential for disaster. That really would have taken practice.”

  “And it would have been overkill for the ceremony back home, which might have made people wonder, since you’re supposedly having a City Hall wedding here.”

  We made it back to my office, where Nita had just opened a bottle of champagne. “I think this occasion calls for a toast,” she said, splashing champagne into plastic cups.

  “I’m not sure me drinking right now is a great idea,” I said, eyeing the cup she handed me.

  “Oh, come on, it’s like a tablespoon,” she said. “Even you aren’t going to get so tipsy you can’t walk on a tablespoon of champagne.”

  Once all the cups had been distributed, Nita raised hers and said, “To Katie, Owen, and fairytale romances. May you live happily ever after.”

  Once we’d all touched our cups together—carefully, so there was no sloshing—I took a sip, letting the drink fizz on my tongue. Nita was right about the small amount in the cup, so downing the whole drink in one swallow was barely an achievement.

  “Lipstick check!” Gemma ordered. I turned to face her while she touched up my lipstick and added a slight coat of gloss. “Don’t tell me you’re getting teary-eyed,” she said as she inspected the rest of my makeup.

  I hadn’t realized I was, but my eyes were stinging. Nita’s toast had triggered a burst of emotions. I loved all my friends so much, and I was glad they were here with me. I wanted to tell them, but I was afraid if I did I’d set all of us off. I was determined not to be the kind of bride who was late to my own wedding, and crying with my bridesmaids to the point we all had to redo our makeup would get in the way of that goal. Still, I tucked a tissue into my bouquet, just in case.

  Gemma checked her watch. “Okay, it’s about time. I’ll run up to see if they’re ready.”

  The butterflies in my stomach woke up at the realization that this was it. I checked myself in the mirror and almost didn’t recognize myself. I really did look like a bride. Wow.

  “You look great,” Nita reassured me.

  “But still like you,” Marcia added. “I hate it when brides look so fake, it’s like they’re totally different people for their wedding.”

  Gemma returned. “They’re ready. Let’s go.”

  The security department had an exit that led directly into the vestibule outside the lobby, and that’s where we went. It was a little crowded in there with my bridesmaids, me, Merlin, and my dress. “Oh, my, you look lovely, Miss Chandler,” Merlin said when he held his arm out for me.

  The music began, and the vestibule doors opened. I avoided looking out into the lobby as the bridesmaids began their walk down the aisle. Merlin and I held back until the last second, when the music changed and I heard a rustle as everyone stood. We moved to the doorway and began walking.

  It was pretty much the way things had been the night before, only with more people, but I barely noticed the details as I looked straight down the aisle to see Owen, looking even more handsome than usual in his white tie and tails, looking back at me. It wasn’t the formalwear that made him look so good, now that I considered it. It was the way he smiled so much he practically glowed.

  I smiled in return as Merlin and I made our way down the aisle. The setting really was magical, with all those flowers and tiny lights overhead.

  But then I saw a gleam in the canopy of flowers over the altar at the landing. I didn’t recall that having been there before. It wasn’t lights. It looked like sharp, polished metal, hanging right over where Owen stood.

  20

  I stopped in the middle of the aisle and called out, “Owen! Above you!”

  Just as he looked up, a metal object swung down from above. He ducked, but at the same time, he waved a hand, and the scythe-like thing turned into a shower of flowers.

  I looked above me and saw similar gleams in the garlands over the aisle. Tugging on Merlin’s arm, I said, “They’re over us, too.”

  I heard a swishing sound, ducked, and was soon pelted with flowers. We’d planned for petals to drop like snow at the end of the ceremony, so I supposed this was a sneak preview. Better than us being decapitated. I suspected the blades had been hidden by magical veils, and that’s why none of the people setting up for the wedding had seen them. I’d been so busy looking at the floor earlier when I was practicing walki
ng that I must not have noticed anything then.

  When had they been put up there, and how?

  But the real question was who had done it, and were they here now? I scanned the wedding guests who were ducking for cover, looking for anyone I didn’t recognize. I couldn’t imagine that anyone close enough to us to be invited to a fairly intimate wedding would try to kill us or even disrupt the wedding, and I doubted anyone who’d be in one of the more outrageous factions would have been on the guest list. That left the staff.

  While the food was magically conjured, there had been people hired to serve it and attend to the guests. As Owen had warned me, there was too much that could go wrong with spells used to pass trays of canapés. I hated to be the kind of person who jumped to the conclusion that the help must be to blame, but they were the only people here we didn’t know well.

  I heard a whoosh overhead and instinctively ducked, until I realized the sound was a gargoyle flying in. “You got a target, doll?” Sam asked.

  I picked up my skirts and ran for the staging area where the catering staff waited. Most of them seemed as baffled as the guests were, but one guy turned away as I approached. “Him!” I cried out, pointing.

  When he made a run for it, I recognized the guy I’d come to think of as the “puppy.” I wasn’t sure where he thought he was going or how he was going to get anywhere, considering that he was in the middle of a crowd of wizards. He was swarmed instantly, and frozen by so many spells hitting him simultaneously that I figured it would be weeks of intricate work before they could all be untangled.

  With him out of the way, I scanned the ceiling for anything else I might have missed and checked the trees for booby traps. Once I was certain that there was nothing else hidden to attack me or my guests, I said, “Sorry about that, folks, but this is actually pretty normal for our life. It’s only fitting that our wedding reflects our true selves, I guess. But now let’s take it from where we left off.”