Page 47

“Your beauty undoes me, my bride,” he growls, lifting my hand to press a kiss to my knuckle right below my ring.

The local justice of the peace looks a little bemused as she starts the ceremony. While orcs and wood nymphs probably look human without much bother, I wonder what she and the other non-magical humans see in place of the walking tulips and pixies.

Severin and I stand facing each other, hands clasped, as she leads us through our vows. We decided to keep them fairly standard for the human part of the service, since so much else about the wedding is fantastical.

“I, Severin, do take you, Hannah, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forth.”

His deep voice gives the words a solemn promise that goes straight to my heart.

I tear up, especially when he turns to take a ring from Varyn.

Then Severin slides it up my finger, a beautiful gold band, made to resemble the twining stems of a flower, perfectly matching my engagement ring. I love it.

“I, Hannah, do take you, Severin, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forth.”

My voice sounds breathy to my ears, but Severin’s eyes never leave mine, full of love. I reach out a hand blindly, and Varyn lays a ring on my palm, a large, platinum band shaped with the same twining plant-stem design as mine. I slide it onto Severin’s finger.

The justice of the peace steps back, giving us space for the fae part of the ceremony.

Severin takes my left hand in his, retrieves the ribbon from Varyn, and drapes it over our clasped hands.

“Hannah, until I met you, I had no idea what love meant. In giving me your heart, you’ve given me mine. I love you and vow to spend the rest of my days making you happy.” He winds one end of the ribbon around our hands even as one of his shadows coils around my calf like a hug.

Tears prickle my eyes at the beauty of his words. God, I love this man!

“Severin, I never imagined I’d find someone so thoughtful and kind. You let me dream my dreams, then you help me make them come true. I love you and want to spend every day making you happy.” I wrap the other end of the ribbon around our bound hands.

Magic swirls around us, and his eyes meet mine, so full of love my heart skips.

“You may kiss!” the justice of the peace calls out.

Severin dips me backward. I cling to him, toes curling as his voice goes growly and possessive. “My wife. Mine .” His mouth takes mine in a searing kiss that makes me totally forget we have an audience.

When he finally pulls me upright, people laugh and cheer.

He unbinds the ribbon and slips it into his pocket so that a beaming and crying Mom can push my bouquet into my hands.

Severin escorts me back down the aisle, everyone throwing birdseed over us, and I grin to think of the doves having a feast in the morning.

Rune, Luke, and Shadow leap into action, ushering everyone to the end of the green.

In the center of the space, circular tables appear by magic, the chairs from the ceremony now arranged around each.

Then a long rectangular table appears at the other end of the green, topped with the five-tier wedding cake.

Severin leads me to our table, where we’re joined by my parents and the bridal party.

Since we had our wedding rather late in the day, the better to enjoy the floating Faerie lights and pixies, we eat dinner right away.

The pixies fly several types of pizza to each table.

Severin must have given them a strong talking to about what’s appropriate for a wedding, because they don’t scream “Pizza!” for the deliveries.

Mom makes a point of saying how “modern” it is to serve pizza at a wedding, but Dad says it’s refreshing to have food people actually want to eat instead of the over-cooked chicken he’s given at so many public events.

“Pizza has a special meaning for us,” Severin says, picking up my hand. “Hannah and I ate pizza for our very first date.”

That melts Mom’s heart, and she doesn’t say another word about any of our non-traditional choices.

Next comes the cake. It’s so beautiful, iced white and decorated with intricate sugar flowers tinted in the palest blushes of pastels. It’s also a feat of engineering, with each tier on its own platform raised above the ones below using little columns.

“It seems a shame to cut it,” I whisper as Severin picks up the knife.

“It would be more of a shame not to eat it,” he murmurs, looking vaguely horrified at the thought of no cake.

He wraps my fingers around the hilt and curls his over mine as we cut and plate the first slice. Turning to face the crowd, he feeds me a small bite. The airy cake melts over my tongue in a burst of vanilla, followed by the sweet tang of raspberries as I get a bit of the filling.

“Oh, that’s good!”

He smirks. “Told you.”

I shove cake into that smirk, and he opens wide, his lips wrapping around my fingers and making me shiver.

He insists on hand feeding me a bite from every layer, each flavor more delicious than the last. I return the favor. By the time we finish, the crowd has grown restless, and my butterflies careen around on a sugar bender, excited by all the finger licking.

We step away from the cake, and Pepperpot springs forward, sending magic rippling through the air. In a flash, multiple pieces of cake from each layer are plated and spread across the table for people to choose from.

Mom walks up, looking a little dazed. “Your help is amazingly efficient. I’ve never seen anyone move so quickly.”

“Yep.” I grin, wondering what the protective spell showed her.

Pepperpot hands Severin a special cupcake with a little orange fox face on top, and we go over to feed the treat to Finn.

“For me?” His ears perk up. “I thought I couldn’t have cake. ”

“This is fox cake.” Severin peels off the paper and sets the cupcake on the ground. “It’s made from nut flours.”

“It’s just for you, bud.” I lean over to scratch his ears. “A treat for the best ring and ribbon bearer ever.”

“Of course I am.” Then his nose is buried in his cupcake as he makes little snuffling noises.

The harpist finishes and takes a bow, and with his photographer duties mostly done, Jared takes over as DJ, starting us off with the father-daughter dance.

Dad walks me over to the grassy area set aside as the dance floor, and we do a basic waltz. “I’m proud of you, Hannah. You’ve really turned this place around.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I smile up at him. “Coming from you, that means a lot.” Out of everyone here, Dad probably has a better idea than anyone of the huge amount of change it took to get Ferndale Falls to where it is today.

“You know, we could use a young mover and shaker like you in the capital.”

His words thrill me. I’ve always looked up to him and longed for his approval.

At the same time, I never really wanted his life: the one so busy he barely has time for family.

Yet that’s almost what I became, these past couple of years: the person with no life but my job.

Until Finn and his easy affection. Until the Witch Bitches and their support and friendship.

Until all of Severin’s love and the quiet joy of relaxed mornings lazing in bed with him and cinnamon rolls.

I glance over the green, taking in all these people and the town, seeing everything I love the most in this world or any other. Then I look back at him. “Nope, sorry. Ferndale Falls is home. I can’t imagine living anywhere but here.”

He gives me a wry smile and whirls me into one last spin before letting me go.

As soon as we finish, Naomi and May come over, hugging me in congratulations. Skye and Autumn join us, and we lose ourselves to the beat of some of our favorite songs from high school.

Several of the fae stand beside the dance floor, watching us. When I try to wave them over, Shadow leaps right into the middle of the group, shaking his groove thing and tossing his silver-tipped hair this way and that.

Rune and Luke both scowl and shake their heads, but they don’t leave. They just keep standing there like matching, grumpy mountains, staring at the dancers.

“What’s up with them?” I yell to Skye and Naomi, hooking a thumb toward the two men.

“No idea!” Skye shrugs, her eyes flicking toward the moody dragon.

Autumn adds, “Dance or go home, I say.” But even though she’s trying to sound blasé, she turns her back on them and does an extra butt shimmy.

The werewolf scowls even harder.

This is going to be very interesting to watch over the next little bit. I might need popcorn.

After dancing to one more song, I bow out with a laugh and head back over to our table just in time to hear Mom say to Severin, “I’m certain that’s how Hannah was conceived.”

Oh, god. My worst nightmare has come to life. Mom’s telling him the washing machine story! Why don’t I have gnome magic? It sure as hell would be amazing if I could get the ground to open and swallow me whole right about now.

Instead, I clamp a hand onto his shoulder. “It’s time for us to have our first couple’s dance.” Then I wave to Jared, and he starts playing “Made for Me” by Muni Long.

Severin takes me into his arms and whirls me around a suddenly empty dance floor so smoothly I feel like I’m floating.

“I’m sorry about Mom. Was it horrible? I promise she’s not going to be one of those evil mother-in-laws. She uses up all her filter doing the political stuff with Dad, so when she talks to me, everything she’s thinking comes out.”

“It was very informative.”

Ah, shit.

“I think I need to buy several of these human washing machines for our bedroom at the palace.” He smirks. “Your mother makes them sound very appealing.”