Page 76 of Once Upon a Curse for True Love
“Not you, Miss Bennet,” he told her silently.“We have some unfinished business.”
The others must have noticed the intensity in his gaze because they quickened their pace, slipping out of the office without further comment.Riley didn’t even wait for the last one to clear the doorway before he flicked his wrist—magic slammed the door shut, bumping Malatesta in the butt as it locked with a decisive snap.
Mila sauntered over and nestled in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.“It’s Mrs.King now,” she reminded him aloud, her voice taking on the husky quality that undid him completely.
She leaned in to kiss him then, and Riley surrendered to the inevitable.Department policy and organizational restructuring could wait.After all, he’d committed to solving a situation guaranteed to generate a bureaucratic mess and give him a migraine—he deserved a moment of creative problem-solving with his wife first.
Chapter Thirty-one
Epilog
Eleven months later
ANDROMEDA
Sarah Michelle’s wedding fell on the sort of shimmering afternoon that Salem only produced in the early days of September.Warm golden light filtered through the botanical garden’s ancient oaks, casting dappled shadows across trimmed lawns where two magical dynasties sat rigidly apart from each other.The Callidora coven sparkled in chaotic disarray on the left side of the aisle, a rainbow explosion of mismatched dresses, bare feet, and wind-tousled hair.The Blacks, in stark contrast, occupied the rows on the right, each guest draped in elegant black as if attending a funeral rather than a wedding, their expressions equally somber beneath the cheerful canopy of fairy lights and floating rose petals.
Andromeda adjusted the strap of her sage green bridesmaid dress, silently congratulating herself on having talked the bride out of the original neon coral option.She was standing next to the flower-draped altar where Sarah Michelle and Lorcan stood facing each other, their profiles gilded by the late summer light.
Shelly glowed in her white gown, her once-black locks now a platinum cascade twisted into a sleek, glimmering braid that hung below her shoulders.She’d let her hair grow for the wedding.Lorcan, tall and golden in a suit that was both technically black and yet defiant of his family’s somber dress code, gazed at his bride with undisguised adoration.How these two had overcome centuries of coven rivalry, not to mention Sarah Michelle’s initial determination to arrest him for murder, was a love story even the most cynical witch had to appreciate.
“Twenty bucks says someone objects,” Donatello had whispered in her ear earlier.
“Not a chance,” Andromeda had replied.Sarah Michelle had terrorized every member of her coven into submission, threatening them with eternal hiccups if they so much as sneezed during the ceremony.
At the altar, the officiant—a neutral third party from the Department of Magical Justice who’d been vetted by both families against any hint of coven bias—gestured for Sarah Michelle and Lorcan to join hands.The garden fell silent as they shared their vows.
“I, Sarah Michelle Callidora, take you, Lorcan Black…”
The words were traditional; the emotion behind them, anything but.Her friend, who faced down criminals without blinking, whose voice never wavered even when confronting the darkest magic, stumbled midway through her vows, her eyes bright as she promised to love and cherish the man before her.
Lorcan, too, lost the calm he wore so well when his turn came.His usually composed exterior fractured, revealing the depth of his feelings beneath.
A treacherous sting prickled behind Andromeda’s eyes, and she cast a silent anti-tears spell on herself.Her makeup had taken forty-five minutes to apply, and she wasn’t about to cry it off.
She caught Donatello’s gaze from the third row, and he raised his eyebrows at her as if to say, “Tearing up, Swan, really?”
She rolled her eyes at him but smiled big all the same.Next to him, Mila King was openly weeping, tears tracking down her cheeks.Beside her, Chief Inquisitor Riley King sat ramrod straight in his formal uniform, his expression as impassive as ever.But Andromeda noticed how his hand discreetly moved to magically fix his wife’s makeup as it streamed down her face.
The officiant’s voice rose above the gentle rustle of the garden breeze.“If anyone has reason these two should not be joined in sacred matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
A tense silence fell over the gathering.Andromeda’s eyes darted to the Black section.Right on cue, an elderly witch produced a conspicuous coughing fit, loud enough to draw attention but not to count as an objection.Several heads turned her way, including Sarah Michelle’s, whose glare could have frozen lava.
The grandmother subsided, muttering “couldn’t even wear black to her wedding” before falling silent under the collective weight of the disapproving stares from both sides of the aisle.
The officiant ignored the interruption and continued with the ceremony.When Sarah Michelle and Lorcan were pronounced bonded for life, the garden erupted in applause—enthusiastic and chaotic from the Callidoras, measured and restrained from the Blacks.
The newlyweds turned to face their guests, both grinning like idiots.Lorcan’s arm wrapped around Sarah Michelle’s waist, pulling her close as they ambled down the aisle.
Donatello waited for Andromeda at the edge of the path, elbow raised, tall and impossibly handsome in a dark suit.On their way to the reception, they passed Quill and Nox perched together on the dessert table near the towering macaron display.
“Should we intervene?”Donatello asked, following her gaze.
Andromeda watched as Nox stretched his nimble body toward a pistachio macaron while Quill supervised with imperious brief nods.“Honestly?If this wedding can survive a cross-coven union, it can handle a pastry heist.”
“Fair point.”Donatello slipped his arm around her waist.
He and Andromeda found their seats at the main table as the appetizers were served.Sarah Michelle and Lorcan made their grand entrance last, the guests cheering until the newlyweds were seated at the head table.A lavish banquet followed.
