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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.”
There was a titter of uncomfortable laughter, then someone—Rod, I think—started clapping. The rest of the guests picked it up, and I headed back to the aisle to an enthusiastic round of applause. This wasn’t quite what I’d imagined for my wedding, but as I’d said, it was pretty typical. I figured it would make a great story in the future. It was a pity I’d have to limit who I told it to.
I’d almost made it back to Merlin when someone grabbed me. “Nobody move!” a female voice called out from behind me. I couldn’t see who it was, but based on the angle of the arm around my neck, which bent me backward, I suspected it was Matilda. She began walking down the aisle, dragging me with her. Just walking in that dress had been a challenge. Not tripping over it while in a headlock was nearly impossible. As she walked, she ranted. “Why do you keep choosing the wrong side?” she shouted at Owen. “Do you know what you could be? And yet you choose to work in your little lab, marry such an ordinary person. Why do we hide ourselves away? You’re having a secret wedding so you can use magic. You should be able to have a ceremony like this anywhere. We’re wizards! But instead of helping me, you stopped me.”
Owen moved slowly down the steps toward us. “You’re wrong about so many things,” he said, his voice soft but still ringing throughout the space. “But one thing in particular is going to be your downfall.”
“Don’t come any closer!” Matilda warned. “Or something will happen to your bride.”
He raised a hand and made a casual gesture. A surge of magic hit us. I immediately felt the pressure on my neck ease as she fell away from me. I heard a muffled thud when she hit the carpet covering the aisle. “You said she was ordinary,” Owen said, coming to stand over Matilda. “But she’s immune to magic, which is pretty extraordinary. And that means I could hit you with whatever I wanted without hurting her.” Turning to me, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, rubbing my neck. I hoped she hadn’t left red marks that would ruin the pictures. Not that I’d be able to show the pictures from this wedding to everyone in my life, but still.
Sam directed his crew to haul a still-frozen Matilda away. Gemma then called out, “Can we take five and reset? Let’s start all over again.”
Coming down the steps, she came toward me and took my arm. “You’ll have her back in a minute,” she told Owen as she took me back to my office. There, she poured out the last few drops from Nita’s champagne bottle. “Here, you could probably use this,” she said.
If the tablespoon of champagne I’d had earlier hadn’t affected me, I doubted these drops would make much difference, but she was right. I needed the drink. Even just the moisture in my mouth helped. A sudden giggle burst out of me before I was aware it was coming, and that giggle led to another, and soon I was laughing uncontrollably.
“I know you didn’t get enough alcohol to cause that,” Gemma said. “Are you okay?”
I couldn’t control myself enough to speak, but I gave her a thumbs-up gesture. Finally, I was able to stop laughing long enough to take a couple of deep breaths, and then I could speak. “Sorry, it’s just funny,” I said between giggles. “Even my wedding spirals out of control with magic. And to think, I used to see myself as boring and ordinary.”
“I don’t know that you’ve ever been boring, at least, not as long as I’ve known you.”
“Really?”
“Really. When we were in college, I always admired how you just did your own thing, without worrying about whether or not it was cool.”
“It was that obvious how uncool I was?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. What I noticed was that you didn’t care. When you moved to New York, you didn’t try to fit in. You’re always you, wherever you go. I bet that has a lot to do with why Owen’s drawn to you. When I found out where you fit into all the magic stuff, it made so much sense. You see past all the things that everyone else tries to hide behind.”
I pondered this for a moment. “You know, I think I’m okay with all this—even the magical battle in the middle of my wedding. It wouldn’t have felt like it was really my wedding if nothing weird had happened.”
“And we haven’t even made it to the reception yet. Now, let’s see if I can fix your eye makeup. I used waterproof mascara, but even that might not have been enough to withstand that laughing fit. I hope you have it all out of your system.”
“Yeah, I think I’m under control now,” I said. But my face hurt from grinning, and my abs felt like I’d done a hundred crunches.
Gemma attacked the area under my eyes with powder before touching up my mascara and lipstick, then declared me ready to get married. We went back to the vestibule and prepared to repeat the process—this time, without our enemies showing up, I hoped.
