I moved away from the wall and came to stand beside Luna at the counter, running my fingers through her soft white fur.“I’m not mad, but I am worried about you. Your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, but clearly something is very wrong here.”
Luna stared up at me with glistening blue eyes, her mouth drawn in a deep frown.“I just couldn’t go through with it. I love Merlin, and I am committed to him for the rest of our lives. But I can’t go through with the wedding, not with the way everyone was saying such awful things about him.”
“That makes total sense, but why did you have to destroy the arch? Couldn’t you have just told everyone the wedding was canceled?”
“I didn’t know how else to get everyone to leave and go away. At least not without inviting years of gossip. You know how cats talk. So taking out the arch seemed like the easiest way to call off the wedding. I should have been braver, Gracie. I should have just come right out and said what I was feeling, but I didn’t want to give them even more terrible things to say about me and Merlin.”
“Gracie, this isyour day. You get to decide who’s there and who’s not.”
She frowned and whispered,“But nobody can return to Nocturna until nightfall tomorrow.”
The circumstances were certainly less than ideal, but that didn’t mean they were impossible.
“Luna, I have an idea if you’re willing to trust me.”
“Oh, Gracie. I should have trusted you from the start. I’m so, so sorry,” she cried.
“Don’t worry about that, but listen up. We have to act fast if we’re going to make this work…”
12
“Did you get it?” I asked Mr. Fluffikins about twenty minutes after my conversation with Luna in the bathroom. I’d quickly clued both him and Merlin in on the plan while Luna kept the guests distracted and happy. We’d now been waiting for the black cat to return for at least ten minutes nowand were eager to put our new wedding plan into action.
“Yes, I secured the goods,” Fluffikins said with a slight nod. “Now where shall I take them?”
I sank into a crouch, keeping my voice low in case any of our guests from Nocturna were watching from nearby.“Go get a human—any human, most of the cats in there won’t know the difference—and then move forward with the rest of the plan as slowly as you possibly can. That will make them angry, but at least it will keep them distracted. Oh, but first, please put up a barrier in the backyard.”
“All right, I’ll handle it from here,” Fluffikins said, then disappeared in a pink, glittery poof.
A few minutes later, he was back with several brown paper grocery bags filled with canned cat food and a pink-haired woman to assist.“This is Tawny,” he said.
I gave her a friendly wave.“Hi, Tawny. Thanks for coming by on such short notice.”
“It’s no problem,” she said before picking up the bags and following Mr. Fluffikins inside.
I turned to Luna who was sitting in the grass at my feet.“Are you ready?”
“Ready.” She rose to her feet and stretched.
“Wait,” I said softly. “Before we go back, I have something for you.”
I crossed to the side of the house to retrieve my latest handicraft.“It’s not much, but I was able to salvage a few of the flowers from your arch, and I made this.”
“Oh, Gracie,” Luna whispered as I set the small crown of flowers on top of her head. “It’s perfect.”
“Shall we?” I said, trying not to cry over how beautiful my cat looked in that moment. The colorful crown of flowers contrasted her pure white fur beautifully, giving her a classic bridal look.
“We shall,” Luna answered and allowed me to pick her up and cradle her in my arms.
Carrying her, I walked around the house and into the backyard where Merlin sat waiting amidst a kaleidoscope of floating dewdrops.
Both Luna and I gasped as we took in the magnificent scene.
“My rainbow magic got better with how much Mr. Fluffikins made me use it tonight,” he explained with a half smile. “Now I hardly have to think about it at all to keep the magic going.”
When I set Luna on the ground beside him, Merlin’s smile widened to such an extent that he looked almost comical, like a silly cartoon character with exaggerated proportions. I half-expected his heart to thump right out of his chest or his eyes to pop out of his head.
“Dearly beloved…” I began, choosing to act as both the officiant and the one who was giving Luna away in our private mini wedding. I’d already modified the ceremony to exclude rings. Now, as I delivered my lines, I also chose to get rid of that part that allowed anyone to reject to the union, because when I looked at these two crazy cats, it was plain to see just how much they loved one another, how they truly belonged together.
“I promise to love you for all my nine lives,” Merlin said now, reciting the vows he’d written ahead of time. “We may have been born to magic, but I never knew true magic until I found you. You give me the strength and courage I need to get through whatever life throws at us—and life suredoes seem to like to throw a lot our way. Luna, I love you with everything that I am, and I’ll keep telling you until my very last breath. I’m so excited to be your mate for life.”
Luna sniffled while I began to openly sob. Who would have ever thought that my cats would be the ones to teach me the true meaning of love? Definitely not me.
“Merlin, dear,” Luna said softly as she rubbed her nose against his cheek. “I love you so much that sometimes I can’t even believe it. It’s just one of those things that is always there, a thing you don’t stop to think about until the moment you realize that, without it, you would ceaseto exist. You keep my heart beating, loving, believing. And even if no one else understands, I know it with every fiber of my being. We weren’t just made for each other. We are a part of each other. Two halves of a whole. I promise to always be yours. No matter what or who tries to get in our way. Merlin, without you, I’m not me. We belong to each other. Always. Forever. And completely. I love you so much.”
It took me a moment to realize it was my turn to speak, but even as I dawdled, the two lovebirds continued to stare deep into one another’s eyes, unbothered by my momentary lapse.
At last, I cleared my throat and spoke once again.“I have no power vested in me, but it’s also not up to me to declare that you are joined for life. You have already taken that step together. Your love is already complete, but let this day remind you always of the promise you have made to each other and to the greater world. Merlin, you may now kiss your bride. Luna, you can go ahead and groom your groom.”
As I said those last words, the shredded flowers that had once been part of the wedding arch burst into the air. This fresh confetti mixed with the colored water droplets to form a dizzyingly beautiful spectacle.
I glanced around the yard and spotted Mr. Fluffikins sitting nearby and wearing an enormous grin on his normally unsmiling face. I caught his eye and offered a thumbs up as Luna and Merlin exchanged licks and kisses along with even more assurances of their great love for each other.
Yes, the wedding hadn’t gone to plan, but it had turned out wonderfully just the same.
And in the end, despite my annoyance with him, Mr. Fluffikins had been right about what flowers were needed for the altar. Without his chrysanthemums, I may never have figured out what was truly happening in Luna’s heart, and she and Merlin may not have gotten this one perfect moment that they could look back on for all their lives to come.
But you know what?
My wisteria helped, too. Because not a single demon managed to crash the wedding that day.
And I’d say that made our sneaky little backyard ceremony a roaring success.
3. MERLIN KILLS A ZOMBIE
1
Hey there, I’m Gracie Springs. I’m a twenty-something barista working my way through grad school. Okay, I should have gotten my degree several months ago, but I haven’t found the time to finish my thesis yet.