by Tegan Maher
He pulled in a deep breath. “How much does it suck that she survived numerous battles with evil witches, but died at the hands of somebody she thought was a friend?”
Unlike it was for so many others, murder wasn’t just a part of life to me, and though I hadn’t known her, a part of me still mourned her. Or at least mourned the fact that somebody so young and vivacious had been robbed of the majority of her life.
“It sucks to the nth degree,” I said. “As a matter of fact, hang on a second.”
I studied the area around us and crafted the spells I would need. “Stand back,” I said, and pulled him out of the space I was about to charm.
I pulled my magic from my depths, reaching out to the ocean because what I was about to do would take more juice than I had readily available. As I muttered the incantations and let the magic swirl from deep inside of me and out through my hands, the trail diverted away from where she had died. A small clearing formed around the area, and wildflowers in a riot of colors sprouted around the edges, making a circle. Finally, in the spot where she had fallen, the sand swirled and formed a statue of a Valkyrie woman embracing a Fae man.
“There,” I said, placing a ward around the entire thing to keep people from trampling the flowers. “I can’t bring her back, but I can turn a spot of ugliness and violence into a place of peace and life.”
He placed his arms around me from behind and kissed me on the ear. “That’s ... incredible. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, Destiny Maganti, and I’m honored just to know you.”
I turned in his arms and tilted my mouth up for a kiss. The lingering sadness of a life cut short didn’t disappear, but it did settle into the space in my heart where memories lived.
The weather was gorgeous, I was with a wonderful man who loved me, and my family was safe and healthy. It was a beautiful day to be me.
The End
Thank You!
I LOVE VISITING THIS world and just want to hang out with the crew on the beach once I type the end. Know that I appreciate your time and kind words via email and reviews. Thanks for giving me a few hours of your time and I hope you enjoyed meeting Destiny and spending time on the Enchanted Coast. If you’d please take a minute to leave a review so others can decide whether this series is for them, I would be grateful.
Want more Enchanted Coast? Book 4, High Tide Homicide, is coming in the fall of 2020. You can preorder it here and have it delivered straight to your Kindle on release day. Until then, check out Wickedly Ever After, where Destiny attends the Angels Ball and finds herself in a twisted version of a beloved fairytale!
If you’d like to read the first chapter, turn the page. ☺
Wickedly Ever After
Chapter 1
“OUCH!” I EXCLAIMED when Lucinda stabbed me with a pin for the hundredth time.
“Quit being a whiner,” she growled back around the pins she was holding in her mouth. Her platinum hair was coming loose from her messy bun, and the snap of magic in the air made it clear she was about to lose her cool with me. “If you’d keep your arms out like I told you to, I wouldn’t stab you.”
I huffed out a breath but held my arms out a little farther, even though it about killed me to do it. We’d been on a marathon fitting session for the last three hours, and she’d had me holding poses that would have challenged a professional yogi. My entire body felt like a limp noodle.
“It’s your own fault, you know,” my cousin Mila said. “You shouldn’t have put off your costume for the angels’ ball ’til the last minute.”
Easy for her to say since she was lounging on my bed flipping through an old issue of Cosmo while I was being tortured.
“Agreed,” Lucinda replied. “I’ve been trying to schedule with you for the last two weeks. How is it the mortals put it? It’s been like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.”
I heaved a sigh and she scowled up at me when the fabric shifted.
“You’re a fairy godmother, though,” I said. “I figured when you said you’d make my gown, you meant you’d just bibbity-bobbity-boo it.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m a fairy godmother. Not your fairy godmother. The magic doesn’t work like that. And stop using that expression. It’s racist and inaccurate. Nobody really says that, and we don’t bee-bop around waving our wands and singing.”
She huffed out a disgusted breath. “I swear, one of us lets herself go and then decides to go Hollywood, and we all end up bibbity-bobbity-bood into a box labeled fat and ditzy. Do I look either fat or ditzy to you?”
“Tread carefully, Destiny,” Mila said, smirking. “The life you save may be your own.”
“Of course not, Lucy,” I replied, deciding it was best to smooth her feathers before I ended up permanently sewn into thirty pounds of peach satin and white lace.
I wasn’t lying, though; she may be several centuries old, but she doesn’t look a day over fifty and probably has less body fat than I do. And outside of her work uniform, she wouldn’t be caught dead in a ball gown.
“I, for one, think you should count yourself lucky,” my arctic fox, Tempest, said. “Lucy doesn’t do this for just anyone, and you couldn’t have bought a gown like this.” She gave me a smug smile and curled her tail around her feet. “Plus, she gave me a sneak peek of your mask; you’d have never found one that equals what she’s making.”
Lucinda snorted. “Lucky’s right. There’s a reason I gave up being a seamstress. I’ve never been so happy in my life as I was when somebody invented the internet. I’m perfectly content making my living embroidering snarky expressions onto throw pillows. All those ungrateful, entitled princess types can kiss my lily—”
“Okay,” I said, raising my hand and cutting her off before she worked herself into a full-blown snit. “Nobody agrees with you more than I do. Remember—I still have to make my living catering to them.”
Unlike a lot of magical folks, Lucy had embraced modern technology and ran a successful Etsy business. After all, the fairy godmother gig didn’t pay diddlysquat. Even so, beneath all the gruff and sarcasm, she was a romantic at heart and seemed to be enjoying flexing her fashion flair by making my gown.
Before you get the wrong impression, I’m not a gown person, either. I’ve worn one exactly three times in my life—to my junior and senior proms in the human world, and now to the Angels Ball, an uber-exclusive formal event hosted by—you guessed it—the angels. And not the baseball team, either. Real, honest-to-gods angels, complete with ancient magic and wings. Well, at least when they choose to show them.
One of the founders of the Enchanted Coast, the paranormal resort where I work, had invited me when I’d solved a murder and saved the resort a few months back. Between who he was and what he was, I didn’t have much choice but to go.
“There,” Lucy said, pinning one last gap in the fabric. “That should do it. I think I have enough to finish it up. We’ll do one more fitting tomorrow morning, but I think it’ll be good.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped carefully out of the lacy confection.
“Thanks, Lucy, really. Tempest is right. I’m lucky to have you as a friend.”
She waved a hand, her cheeks pinking. “Go on, now. You’re gonna be late for work, and I’m gonna be up half the night finishing this. We can’t have you representing the resort dressed in rags.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, and she scowled at me.
“That was an expression, not a comparison to that ... other situation. No fairy godmother worth her wand would let one of her charges be embarrassed like that. It was shoddy magic, casting a spell that expired at midnight. Back then, balls went ’til the wee hours of the morning, and she knew that. It’s a wonder those two hooked back up at all.”
Mila gave a dreamy sigh at the mention of a ball. “I’m having a serious case of FOMO, you know. Nobody that’s not an angel’s ever been to one of these as far as I know. It’s a huge honor.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course she had a fear of m
issing out. She was one of those people who could fit into any situation like she was born to it.
I, on the other hand, am a bull in a china shop on the best of days. Take me out of my element, and I’m a total train wreck, and a formal ball held at a massive castle in Celestial City was about as far out of my comfort zone as it got. I’m not the most socially graceful person. My mouth tends to run before my brain engages, and angels aren’t exactly the type of creatures you wanted to offend. I’d have gladly given her my ticket if I could have.
Lucy must have sensed my trepidation because she laid a hand on my arm. “You’ll be fine,” she said. “Everybody loves you, and besides, it’s not like you’re going alone. Colin will be there to help you navigate.”
Colin was my boyfriend and thus my plus-one, and she was right. He was a wolf shifter and an attorney. He was used to rubbing elbows with powerful beings, so he didn’t have the same issues that I did.
“True,” I said. “I’ll stick with him and try to say as little as I can get away with.”
Lucy tilted her head at me. “Where’s this coming from? You’re one of the most confident people I’ve ever met.”
“I’m confident when I’m on my own turf,” I said as I pulled my work tank top on. “A heavenly palace is about as far from that as a frog is to a prince.”
She smiled. “If you think about that story, they’re not as far apart as they seemed. I have faith in you.”
“I’m glad somebody does,” I mumbled, then headed out of my cottage toward the tiki bar. Hopefully, we’d be busy, and I wouldn’t have time to think about all the ways I could mess things up.
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Other Books by Tegan Maher
Witches of Keyhole Lake Series
Witches of Keyhole Lake Shorts
Bubble, Bubble, Here Comes Trouble
Witching for a Miracle
Moonshine Valentine
Cori Sloane Witchy Werewolf Mysteries
Haunted Lodge Mysteries
Enchanted Coast Magical Mystery Series
About Tegan
I WAS BORN AND RAISED in the South and even hung my motorcycle helmet in Colorado for a few months. I've always had a touch of wanderlust and have never feared just packing up and going on new adventures, whether in real life or via the pages of a great book.
When I was a little girl, I didn't want to grow up to be a writer—I wanted to raise unicorns and be a superhero. When those gigs fell through, I chose the next best thing: creating my own magical lands filled with adventure, magic, humor, and romance.
I live in Florida with my two dogs. When I'm not writing or reading, I'm racing motorcycles or binge-watching anything magical on Netflix.
I'm eternally grateful for all the people who help make my life what is today - friends, readers, family. No woman is an island.