Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic Bonus Scene: The Big Day

*Note - In all current versions of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic, this story is the epilogue included in the ebook, so you might have already read it. Amazon should update your ebook copy automatically to include this as the epilogue (if you have that option selected in your account). In the meantime, you can read it here :-)

Aria

The day of my wedding dawned bright and sunny, with a cool summer breeze carrying the scent of flowers and the sea. Callan and I had decided to do something small and private at the tower, with a party to follow. Later tonight, The Sea Shanty would be hopping. Exchanging the vows, though—that we wanted to be just us and family.

“Knock, knock!” Gran cried before pushing open the door to my bedroom.

I turned to her. “You know you’re actually supposed to knock, then wait for me to tell you to enter?”

“Psh.” She waved a hand, unimpressed. She was already sporting the deep purple dress she would wear for the ceremony, and her white hair was done up on top of her head with lavender flowers.

“You look beautiful, Gran.”

“I know.” She smiled. “But today isn’t about me.” She held out a strand of pearls, so lustrous and beautiful that they made me gasp. “I wore these on my wedding day, and I thought you might like to do the same.”

Tears pricked my eyes as I hugged her. “Oh, Gran.”

“Now, now, none of that.” But I could hear the emotion in her voice. “It’s time to get you ready. Why you chose to have such an early ceremony, I’ll never know.”

“For the party after.” I grinned. “We need all the time we can get.”

“Fair enough.”

Tabitha bustled into the room, holding a dress on a hanger high over her head, the white fabric billowing around her. “I’ve got your dress!”

I blew out a breath at the sight of it. Gorgeous. We’d found it in a vintage shop in a nearby village, and the clouds of gauzy white fabric were divine. If there was a breeze at the tower, which there was sure to be, it would flow behind me like I was a princess.

I felt like a princess, with my Prince Charming waiting for me.

“Come on, now.” Tabitha shooed me deeper into the room. “Time to get you dressed!”

* * *

Callan

“It’s perfect, don’t you think?” I asked the little girl at my side. While Aria dressed for the wedding with her gran and Tabitha, Catrina had accompanied me to the tower. She’d said she wanted to make sure everything looked perfect, and I was glad for the company.

Catrina looked up the flower arch that I’d created, tilting her head to the side. “Are you sure you don’t want to use magic?”

“Hey.” I nudged her playfully. “I think it looks great.”

She might have had a point, however. I’d collected the fluffy white flowers—I still didn’t know what they were called—from the Garden of Enchantment early that morning. My idea had been to create a wedding arch against the tower wall using flowers that Aria loved, and we would get married in front of it. “Doing it without magic was more difficult, which means it’s a better gift.”

“I guess.” She still sounded doubtful. “It’s just kind of wonky. And those are already wilting.” She pointed to the first blooms that I’d attached to the wall by sticking their stems into cracks between the stone.

“Fair.” I grimaced. I already had a massive honeymoon planned. Aria and I were going to a private island in Greece—just us and the sea and sun and a fourteen-bedroom estate I’d spent a fortune to rent. But spending a fortune was easy for me. So was magic, which I’d already used for another wedding gift.

Doing something like the flower arch by hand was another matter entirely. It was important that I put effort in. But Catrina was right. It was looking a little wilted.

I looked down at her. “How about I use magic to keep them alive and nice looking, but they stay the way I designed them?”

“I don’t love it, but it’s a compromise, so I’ll accept it.”

I stifled a laugh, then used my power to give the flowers a bit of life and longevity. They did look better, and the thought was still there.

“Are you excited?” Catrina asked.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Nervous, too, though. Not about committing to Aria. I knew I wanted her for a lifetime. She was the light in my life.

I was nervous that she might change her mind. How had I been so lucky? What did she see in me? It certainly wasn’t my skill with flower arches.

“She’ll come, don’t worry,” Catrina said.

“You’re a mind reader now?”

She grinned. “I can do a lot of things.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

* * *

Aria

We arrived at the tower twenty minutes before the ceremony was meant to begin. Gran had been ordained at the Internet Church of Something or Other just for the occasion, and she’d wanted to have some time to practice. She’d gone ahead to the spot where we planned to conduct the ceremony, while Tabitha and I had stayed outside the tower wall where we couldn’t see Callan.

“How do you feel?” Tabitha asked.

“Good. Excited.”

She grinned. “Me, too. The party is going to be lit.”

I laughed and nudged her in her shoulder. “That’s not the point of today.”

“Sure, sure.” She looked around. “Do you think your grandfather will show?”

“Maybe.” A little burst of hope filled my chest. “He hasn’t appeared yet, even though I’ve come by a few times. But maybe today is the day. It’s a special one, after all.”

“Let me give you some alone time. Maybe that will help.”

“Thanks.” I doubted it, since his spirit had never appeared in the past when there were people at the tower, but it was worth a try.

She gave me a big hug. “I’ll see you soon.”

I grinned at her, and she turned and left.

Once she was gone, I spun in a circle. Today was the day I would marry Callan. I couldn’t believe it.

When I completed the three-sixty, I spotted the telltale sparkle in the air that meant my grandfather was near. Joy filled my chest, bubbling over like a bottle of shaken champagne. I couldn’t believe it.

Tabitha was right. Today was a special day.

The sparkles coalesced to form the figure of my grandfather—tall and strong and handsome. He was partially transparent, as spirits were, but that didn’t stop me from seeing the huge smile he gave me.

I beamed. “Granddad.”

“Pumpkin. You look beautiful. And I think I recognize those pearls. Just like your gran.”

My eyes stung, and I blinked back tears for the second time that day. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Your young man brought a Spirit Mage here yesterday. I’ve never seen one so powerful, and the two of them managed to weaken the barrier between my realm and yours.”

I gasped. “Callan did this?”

He nodded. “I tried to come to you before the mage visited, but I could never get through. This place changed after it was filled with so many people. I think Callan must have sensed why and brought someone to fix it.”

My heart filled with so much love that I thought I might explode.

“You’ve got a good one, Pumpkin.” He smiled.

My throat tightened. “I know.”

“And you look like you’ve grown up to be a fine witch. I can sense your power from here. I always knew you were special.”

Even more tears filled my eyes. “Stop saying nice things. It will ruin my makeup.”

“Come here.” He stepped toward me and folded me into his arms.

Shock and elation filled me. We’d never been able to touch before, but something must have changed after the Spirit Mage’s visit. The familiar feel of my grandfather’s arms around me was enough to make the tears spill over my cheeks. Screw my mascara.

I hugged him back, unable to believe what was happening.

After a while, he pulled back. “I think I hear someone coming.”

“You’ve got to go. Of course.”

“I’ve got go see your Gran, that’s what I’ve got to do.”

I smiled at him so widely that it made my cheeks hurt. “She’ll love that.”

“So will I.” He squeezed my shoulders. “Then I think I’ll come back and walk you down the aisle.”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

Grandad left to find Gran, and Callan appeared a moment alter, stepping around the side of the tower wall.

I blotted the tears away from my cheeks. “You’re not allowed to see me before the wedding.”

He smiled and walked up to me, then cupped my cheek. “Nothing about this wedding is normal. Boris is currently practicing how he’ll walk down the aisle with the rings. He’s trying out something new, he says.”

I laughed and pressed a kiss to his lips, then pulled back and met his impossibly blue gaze. He was so handsome, it was hard to believe.

“You look beautiful,” he said. “The most beautiful woman in the world.”

I smiled. “Thank you so much for Granddad.”

“Of course. I’d have done it sooner, but it took time to find the mage.”

“It’s perfect. Thank you. Everything is perfect.”

“Wait until you see my flower arch.”

My brows rose. “A flower arch?”

“Made it by hand.”

Laughter slipped free despite my damp face. “I can’t wait.”

My gran’s joyous cry rose through the air, and I grinned. “I’ve got to see this.”

I hurried to a gap in the wall where a window had once been and looked through in time to see my gran launch herself into my grandad’s arms. As he swung her around, I smiled back at Callan. “I didn’t know it was possible to be so happy.”

“I want to spend the rest of my life making you look like this.” He pulled me into his embrace, which felt like home.

I threw my arms around him and kissed him. “I could live with that.”

“I love you, Aria.”

“And I you love, Callan. Forever.”