Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Epilogue - Happy Endings and strange beginnings

Dawn's light streamed into the bedroom and onto Annika's face. She fluttered her eyes open and smiled. Was it possible to die from happiness? She turned her head and saw Sofie asleep on her stomach with her arm thrown over Annika.

She smiled again. Well, she was still alive so she supposed the answer was no. Happiness was most definitely not fatal. At least not today or any day for the last several months since the day she had become engaged. She smiled again. Would she ever be able to stop smiling?

She shook Sofie. They had a lot to do today.

Finally, it was the day of her engagement party and in one short week she would be marrying Ebenebius and become Mrs. Eben Fisher. She laughed at the thought. She hadn't even known that he had a last name until a few weeks ago when Gertie came to help prepare the wedding invitations. Apparently, magician's chose a name when made master. At learning that bit of trivia, Toby informed her that he would be called "Tobenebius" upon making master. She answered this by throwing a waded up handkerchief at him. She still had so much to learn about this strange world that she would be entering.

"Whasrong?" Sofie asked from her sleep.

"It's time to get up."

"fi-morminutes." She said as she sucked in a bubble of drool. Annika laughed and hit her with the pillow causing Sofie to shoot up and grab her own pillow.

"Defend yourself, Sissy!"

The Armageddon of pillow fights soon followed.

Annika emerged from their bedroom dressed almost completely feather free in her mint green dress to see her father sitting at their table. It was placed precisely in the room by the window overlooking Main Street. After they had been forced to leave their apartment, they moved in with Mrs. Pender where they stayed until Ebenebius and Andri had showed up with the keys to what was formerly Mrs. Cooke's flowershop and presented them to Annika as a wedding present.

It really was the very best present they could have possibly given her and soon it would be Sofie's shop. Finally her family would be independent.

They had moved into the rooms above the shop immediately and got to work turning the shop into the perfect stop for travelers. They still sold flowers, but they also sold homemade perfumes, dried flowers, cards, toys, vases, and the small carved wooden animals that her father made. They had named it "Gerst's Gifts" and it had quickly become a hit in their town.

The little statues became immensely popular after a certain prince came in and bought one for his sister. No one in town needed to know that upon receiving the wooden cow, she had chucked it at his head.

Also, no one needed to know that the prince had picked up the cow and left without paying for it and his father's steward Pieter had to come a few days later to settle the account.

Though everyone knew that upon seeing pretty smiling Sofie, Pieter had turned the color of a beet and had bought everything in the shop. Annika chuckled wrapping her arms around herself. The too serious young steward now came to Wohnort almost as much as Andri. Which was entirely more often than she felt necessary especially when they used the portal doors in Other to come.

Good morning, my rose!" her father stood and greeted her properly before she pushed him back down into his chair. He was an old man after all. He was smiling, it was something he did quite often of late.

"Good morning, papa." She said as she came over giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"What time is the dinner tonight?" He asked.