“I, Kate Guerra, didn’t want the big formal wedding, but I was having one to please my parents. I wanted the life with my beloved and not the show, and I said ‘baby’ because having a baby with my beloved is my heart’s desire.”
“I, Josh Hernandez, love Kate so much, and I wanted a baby too. And a wedding’s a nice idea and all, but Katy and a baby are really my heart’s desire.”
Dante smiled at that, thinking a baby would be a blessing, and then listened as Alex confessed to wanting passion—with Simon—and Simon confessed to not seeing the excitement present in small, plain Alex Kennedy immediately, but eventually seeing the light.
Then Macklin confessed to knowing his life needed to change, knowing he needed roots and a family, and being so grateful Jordan’s family had teleported him forcefully into their midst out of need and then adopted him out of love.
And then Jordan spoke. “I wanted magic,” he said. “That was my word. And in spite of the miracles all of you had wrought, I didn’t see enough magic in myself to dare to ask for more. And now I’ve fallen in love, and we are all together tonight, and I cannot think of anything more magical than the group of us here together to break bread and go forward with the big moments of our lives, and to love each other and be family. My word still stands—magic. But I need it to include all of you, and all of this, and all our plans. In the name of God, Goddess, and other, in the name of our hopes, our dreams, and our love, so may it be.”
And everybody repeated, “So may it be.”
And the lights in the house all clicked off, leaving them under a skylight full of stars, and the table underneath them began to shift and change as their colors—yellow, amber, purple, aquamarine, black, green, lapis lazuli, sapphire, and Cully’s gold and Dante’s red shot up to the sky to meet the light from the stars.
And then they were all thrown backward on their asses, although the table didn’t spark once beneath their hands.
A scene of exceeding beauty and joy passed in front of Dante’s eyes: He and all his friends, dressed formally on a spring day, by a bonfire in the center of the pentacle made by the hearths and homes of all the people he loved.
There were picnic tables full of food and an altar of flowers and a baby in a car seat and Glinda, decked in white and gold.
There were Jordan’s dads, standing in the center of the altar, calling friends, coworkers, parents, all come to celebrate the marriage of five couples, so much a family that they bound their lives to their lovers on the same day, cementing their pledge to always stay friends.
And there was the ten of them, standing before their gods, their parents, and their coven, pledging their love and their loyalty and their intention to only do good with the gifts they’d been given.
And a sense of serenity and joy Dante had never felt before permeated the moment with the scent of oak and jasmine and roses.
THE lights came back on, and everybody crawled to their feet, grumbling.
“Flat on my back,” Josh said. “Every damned time.”
“Yeah, me too, but I got padding,” Kate muttered. “Guys, look at the table.”
They all stood and approached the once seven-sided table and found that the top was still the same—and still beautiful and filled with color and motion and the mystery of the cosmos—but that the shape had changed slightly.
Ten points and ten sides—enough to fit all of them, sitting together to make magic and break bread.
And as they came to their senses and talked about the spell, sitting down to do exactly that, Bartholomew asked in a quiet voice, “Did any of you see… uhm… a vision?”
And they were all touching the table, so they had to tell the truth.
“Us?” Jordan asked, “Getting married? In about”—he eyeballed Kate—“eighteen months, so probably on Beltane?”
“Yes!” they all answered, probably reluctant to make that nasty electric shock they’d all feared happen.
Jordan nodded. “Life goals, people? Should we aim to make it so?”
Not a soul objected.
They broke bread on it.
They planned.
And Dante held Cully’s hand, secure and in love and overjoyed to know the people they loved most in the world were with them. In his head he could still feel the two realities—and so could Cully and the others. One to remind them what they could have if they believed in themselves and each other, and one to remind them that they always, always had so much to learn.
Like the reality in which two people loved each other and looked forward to the future, they would all make the happy ever after happen.
So may it be.
Now Available
Shortbread and Shadows
By Amy Lane
Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club: Book One
When a coven of hedge witches casts a spell for their hearts’ desires, the world turns upside down.
Bartholomew Baker is afraid to hope for his heart’s true desire—the gregarious woodworker who sells his wares next to Bartholomew at the local craft fairs—so he writes the spell for his baking business to thrive and allow him to quit his office job. He’d rather pour his energy into emotionally gratifying pastry! But the magic won’t allow him to lie, even to himself, and the spellcasting has unexpected consequences.
For two years Lachlan has been flirting with Bartholomew, but the shy baker with the beautiful gray eyes runs away whenever their conversation turns personal. He’s about to give up hope… and then Bartholomew rushes into a convention in the midst of a spellcasting disaster of epic proportions.
Suddenly everybody wants a taste of Bartholomew’s baked goods—and Bartholomew himself. Lachlan gladly jumps on for the ride, enduring rioting crowds and supernatural birds for a chance with Bartholomew. Can Bartholomew overcome the shyness that has kept him from giving his heart to Lachlan?
Now Available
Portals and Puppy Dogs
By Amy Lane
Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club: Book Two
Sometimes love is flashier than magic.
On the surface, Alex Kennedy is unremarkable: average looks, boring accounting job, predictable crush on his handsome playboy boss, Simon Reddick.
But he’s also a witch.
Business powerhouse Simon goes for flash and glamour… most of the time. But something about Alex makes Simon wonder what’s underneath that sweet, gentle exterior.
Alex could probably dance around their attraction forever… if not for the spell gone wrong tearing apart his haunted cul-de-sac. When a portal through time and space swallows the dog he’s petsitting, only for the pampered pooch to appear in the next instant on Simon’s doorstep, Alex and Simon must confront not only the rogue magic trying to take over Alex’s coven, but the long-buried passion they’ve been harboring for each other.
Now Available
Pentacles and Pelting Plants
By Amy Lane
Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club: Book Three
A month ago, Jordan Bryne and his coven of hedge witches cast a spell that went hideously wrong and captured two of their number in a pocket of space and time. The magic is beyond their capabilities to unravel so, in desperation, they send up a beacon for supernatural aid.