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“Clever girl.” I bend to kiss her forehead before nodding over my shoulder. “We should get back and report this. Just in case that thing wasn’t alone. Annabelle, can you shift back into your other form? I’m afraid someone might try to do you harm if follow us home like that.”
“I’ll wait here,” Annabelle says, widening her stance and lifting her chin bravely. “I’ll guard the house until you can send reinforcements. I’ll keep my girl and her family safe. Don’t worry.”
“She said,” I begin, but Casey cuts me off.
“I understand,” she says, smiling gratefully at our new protector. “I recognize mama bear energy when I see it. Tell her I’m so glad she’s on our side.”
I do and then hustle Casey and Amy back to the mansion, where I inform Darcy of what happened in the woods. He calls Colin, our town sheriff and organizer of all defensive operations, and within thirty minutes, he and his team have completed a sweep of the woods.
They find a blood trail that ends abruptly at the trunk of another giant oak deeper in the wood, leading them to believe the demons somehow managed to open a portal on our protected land. Blaire’s called out to verify the theory and destroy the portal with a counter spell. More guards are stationed in the forest, just in case, but by nine p.m., we’ve done all we can do to address the attack, including question Sultan who, though no longer under Casey’s spell, muses that his former lover may have opened the portal in preparation for the attack.
He also confesses that he had an enchantment placed on Annabelle so that as long as she remained indoors, aside from the occasional potty break on his balcony, she would never achieve her hellhound form.
“I liked her small and cute,” he said with a shrug, as if denying another being the full expression of her Goddess-given self isn’t a sin against Mother Nature.
It would be like cutting off a vampire’s fangs and forcing them to slurp blood from a bowl…something I admit I’d like to do to Sultan after only a few moments in his repulsive company.
But my irritation fades as soon as I return to my apartment to find Darcy and Baron already there, dressed in their tuxedos.
“About time,” Darcy says, glancing at his watch. “You only have fifteen minutes to get pretty for the ceremony.”
Baron grunts. “He’ll only need five, the gorgeous bastard.”
I grin. “Thanks, brother. Is Colin going to be able to make it?”
“Sadly, no,” Darcy says. “He’s busy in the war room, but he sends his love and well wishes.”
“And I’ve heard the first-year anniversary party is always more fun, anyway,” Baron grumbles. “Weddings are stressful.”
I arch a brow his way. “Right. That’s why you looked so blissfully happy at yours, I suppose.”
A rare smile takes hold of my cantankerous brother’s face. “It was the best day of my life. That, and the day Aurora was born. It will be the same for you, brother. She was meant for you and you for her.”
“Truer words were never spoken,” I agree, refusing to let the prickle of despair tugging at my thoughts intrude.
No, I likely won’t live to see my first anniversary, but tonight isn’t a night for dwelling on dark things. And the future should never steal the joy from the present. Casey, Amy, and I could have all died tonight, devoured in one gulp by a danger we never saw coming, and all the time I’ve wasted grieving Priscilla’s curse would have been a tragic waste of time.
This is why we have to live for the present. It’s all we have.
All we’ll ever have.
And tonight, I intend to savor every sweet moment of my present with my best friend, who also happens to be the most beautiful woman on earth.
When I see Casey walking down the aisle in an off the shoulder gown that makes her look like a Greek goddess swathed in off-white, I’m sucker punched by how stunning she is all over again. It’s like that first night at the concert in Chicago. I can’t pull my eyes away from the girl with mischief in her eyes.
Mischief and love…
Any doubt that we’re marrying for love remaining in any friend or family member’s mind will be banished tonight. Casey’s love is a force of nature, swirling through the tent, dancing between us, binding us together even before Blaire, our officiant, says, “By the power vested in me as a Wonderfully Witch of Nightfall and this beautiful bride’s sister, I pronounce you husband and wife.”
“And kid, too!” Amy leaps off her chair at the side of the altar, proudly wearing the heart-shaped locket I gave her during the ceremony, a symbol of my promise to love her as my daughter every day of my life. “Man and wife and kid.”
“And kid,” Casey says, blinking tears from her eyes as she scoops Amy up into her arms.
Amy touches a gentle hand to her mother’s face. “Oh no, Mommy, don’t be sad.”
“I’m not sad, sweetheart,” she says, her eyes finding mine, “I’m so happy it’s running down my face. Now, can you go to Auntie Blaire for a second? I need to give Papa Ed-Ed a big kiss.”
Amy giggles as she reaches for Blaire. I hear her whisper to her aunt, “They really love kissing,” as I pull Casey close.
