That’s because you saved their asses. Maybe she’ll thank us with a kiss.
More like a kick between the legs.
Chelsea looks over at me then, before quickly glancing away. But not before I see it—the flicker of something in her eyes. Not fear. Not resignation. Hope, maybe. Or curiosity. Something that makes my chest feel less like a cage.
God, I feel like such shit.
But shit that is marrying a creature so divine I’m going to write poems about her,Nightmare says with a sigh.
You don’t even know her.
I know her. My magic knows her.
That can’t be argued with. It feels like our magic knows one another, which might be why she’s infiltrated my and Nightmare’s thoughts so much in the past few days.
Though Nightmare takes things farther than it should.
“Is there a ring?” her grandmother asks.
The ghostly apparition looks down her nose at me, and wow—how could I drop the ball like this?
I told you we were forgetting something when we left the manor this morning.
Yes, but you didn’t say what.
Nobody’s perfect.
“Just a moment.” I press a hand to my heart. “One second.”
I step outside, onto the front porch—yes, I’ve left my own wedding—and reach into my jacket. Rain pelts my head and shoulders, but it’s not lightning, so there’s that.
Kaboom!
Well, therewasthat. I sigh and feel around the inside of my jacket before pulling out one of her golden roses.
What are you going to do with that?
Just wait.
Using our magic, I shrink the rose until it becomes a gold wedding band.
So boring. You should add one of the black roses to it.
You’re right, Nightmare.
I reach into my jacket again, pulling the black rose through space and time until it’s in my hand. I shrink it, mold it to the gold band. The two together look like lava and gold, molten and liquid.
Perfect.
I step back inside and find Chelsea tapping her sparkly purple sneaker. Does she have a pair in every color?
“Sorry about that. Here’s the ring.”
I hold it up, and Chelsea stares at it a moment and then looks at me, searching my face for an explanation.
“May we continue?” I ask her ghostly grandmother.
“Please put the ring on her finger.”
