Page 21 of A Dead End Wedding

The Fae were tricky that way.

Speaking of which …

“Tomorrow shall be the second part of the first Trial, which is Courage,” the queen proclaimed. “Your champion shall meet ours here, at midnight, in a battle of magic. Farewell until then.”

With that, the entire Fae contingent disappeared.

“Showboats,” Andy muttered.

“No kidding,” Tess said. “But we won!”

We all rushed forward to congratulate Mrs. Frost and admire the golden arrow. It was only fifteen minutes later, when we were ready to go home, that we realized what had happened.

“Hey!” Bubba shouted. “How did they do that?”

The wagon, previously filled with jars of cookies, was entirely empty.

Thursday, lunchtime

After not enough sleep, Tess rushed out of the house at dawn. I fed her cat Lou, ate a quick half-dozen eggs, and drove to my place. Tess was hard at work getting the shop ready for her absence during our honeymoon, and I was spending a lot of time getting my house in shape. Normal stuff like painting and decluttering my late uncle’s hoard of possessions, but also more serious things like replacing the roof and updating the plumbing.

We planned to live at Tess’s house, especially since I’d added the swimming pool and built her a garage. My granddad and I were toying with the idea of selling our house. He was off consulting on movies in Hollywood with his professor girlfriend and had no plans to live in Dead End again anytime soon. It would be hard to give it up, though, since it had always been my home. It’s not like I needed the money, with the jewels and gold the Atlanteans had forced on me.

Sheesh.

Help save a lost continent from demons and get stuck with more money than you could spend in a dozen lifetimes. I didn’t need it, and I hadn’t wanted it, but I hadn’t wanted to cause aninternational incident by refusing. I had to admit, though, using it to help people was a pretty nice way to spend it.

Tess had promised to sort through Uncle Jeremiah’s stuff with me, and my grandad might want some of it. Anything we didn’t want to keep, she’d sell at the shop, or we’d donate. It was a tough job complicated by sorrow. I hadn’t seen my uncle in a long time, and then the old evil sheriff and a blood-magic witch had conspired to murder him, so I never would again.

Tess had helped me forgive myself for my absence with her usual combination of kindness and common sense.“You were helping save North America from evil vampires, and you didn’t want any of the bad guys to follow you home. He understood, Jack, and he was so proud of you.”

I hoped that was true. The man had raised me after my parents disappeared. All these years later, I still didn’t know where they’d gone, why they’d gone, or if they were even still alive.

Not for lack of trying, though. I’d searched the continent for them and still to this day had feelers out. Someday, somehow, I’d learn what had happened to them.

Now, I was driving up to Tess’s aunt and uncle’s farm to meet everybody for lunch. School was out for the summer, so my favorite kid in the world, Tess’s little sister Shelley, would be there. She always wanted to show me the new tricks she’d taught Pickles, her pug.

I grinned when I saw her waiting on the porch, dancing with impatience, but then any amusement faded. Shelley was a witch, like her late mother. The sweet little girl was also the most powerful magic user in all of Dead End. Maybe even all of Florida.

There was no way I was letting her compete in the Fae’s games. Maybe they wouldn’t be dangerous. Last night had posed no threat to Mrs. Frost, as far as we knew. But even if not, thethought that Shelley might have to carry the burden of feeling like she’d let down the whole town was absolutely out of the question.

Tess drove up when I was stepping out of my truck, and I winced when she parked so close she almost clipped my fender. Tess had many, many, many exceptional qualities, but the ability to park a car in any reasonable fashion was not one of them.

We won’t talk about her singing, either.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I called out, smiling at Shelley.

She laughed and raced across the yard to jump into my arms. I hugged her carefully, although she was filling out into a sturdy little girl instead of the too-thin waif she’d been when we’d rescued her from the same monsters who’d killed my uncle.

“Hey, I taught Pickles to roll over! Except she keeps rolling and rolling till she gets dizzy!”

Shelley was still in her exclamation point phase. Ruby had said that Tess had grown out of that by about age twelve, so we still had a way to go. I winced a little, and Shelley noticed immediately.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Uncle Jack,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t shout next to your super-tiger ears.”

“Hey, don’t I get a hug?” Tess walked over to us, and Shelley kissed my cheek, hopped down, and hugged her sister.

“Do I still get to be a maid of honor?” She looked uncertain. “I understand if you only want old people like Molly.”

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