Page 123 of Truly Madly Magically

This is enough. We are enough.

Each of us maybe a little banged up but whole, here, alive.

Tonight, that’s what matters.

“Do you really think that will be the end of it?” Georgie asks, chewing on her bottom lip as she stares down at the black rocks still scattered everywhere.

I glance at Rebekah, because she too can reach into the future. She can weigh all the options, see down all the paths. But sometimes...it isn’t worth it. Bad things happen. Threats exist everywhere, not just in this one small river town.

You can lose your way under the weight of the possibilities.

Rebekah and I look at each other, the whole of our long friendship there between us, and the futures we see winding together like a confluence all their own.

“All we can do is focus on the present,” she says quietly.

“That’s how we make our future,” I agree.

And tonight, the rest of our coven lets that go.

Emerson takes a deep breath, and then she grins. “And in the present, we have a ton of work to do before Yule,” she says, making us groan.

But the group huddle turns into a hug, and we’re grinning when we pull away again.

Then there’s St. Cyprian to deal with, and all of witchdom—and it seems like the green is three times as full of witches as the last time I looked.

Like people came from everywhere to see this momentous thing, our scrubby little coven overturning the Joywood after so long that no one can remember who came before them.

Emerson steps off the dais and immediately starts shaking hands and hugging people who’ve always supported us. She even hugs her mother.

Zander and I climb down together, and my mother finds me immediately, pulling me away from him and squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe. But I don’t mind.

I hug her back, hard.

When she finally releases me, I spot Zander behind Mina, being awkwardly hugged by his father, no doubt worried about the damage that’s still visible on Zander’s body.

I don’t want to think about that near miss he’s still not fully recovered from. If I never think about that terrible fire again, that weasel scream, it will be too soon.

We all field lots of positive congratulations, and even some grudging ones. It seems as if a lot of people go out of their way to say a few words to all of us before they begin to filter away, off to celebrate Samhain in the old ways.

I look back toward the Undine, feeling a little strange that she looks like nothing but a statue now. Now that I know she’s watching, waiting, even when it seems that she’s nothing but insensate stone. Still, I like knowing she’ll be judging the Joywood.

Just like I like knowing that we’ll continue to protect each other the way we have our whole lives, no matter what comes next.

By the time the first hints of dawn show up on the horizon, the crowd just begins to thin out. I have the sense that we should all go home and sleep—rituals and trials and unexpected wins take a lot out of a person—and yet none of us suggest it.

Because Samhain has dawned, chilly but right. We have businesses to run, parades to watch, community events to participate in.

And we are the ruling coven now.

I magic us all one of my favorite concoctions, and we sit on the edge of the dais as the sun comes up, sipping a proper witch’s brew and greeting our first day in the whole new world we made, together.

In the late afternoon, I close my shop a little early and make an impromptu trip out to the Bill Wallace house to check on Sadie. Tanith assured me that she cast a little memory spell to make her think anything she might recall is nothing but a Halloween dream, but I want to make sure she’s okay.

Zander insists on coming with me. Not because we’re worried about danger this time, but because I don’t think we’re quite ready to be apart for very long just yet.

And I think he wants to see for himself that Sadie really is okay.

We arrive to much Halloween fanfare. Bill is, no surprise, away on a business trip, doing whatever it is he does out there. But Stephanie is so excited to see us that she nearly shackles us to chairs so we stay for dinner before we even get our coats off.

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