Epilogue

“ I made you a new pair of ice slippers,” Jack told me, handing them over. “They’re enchanted to always stay warm.”

“Worried about her getting cold feet on your wedding day, are you?” Beryl sniggered as I put them on. Peggy giggled as well, holding fast to Kodiak’s leash and clutching the small pillow with my and Jack’s golden wedding rings. We had lost five of the practice rings during rehearsal before we had decided to stitch them to the pillow.

Jack rolled his eyes at Beryl. “You’ve been dying to make that joke, haven’t you?”

“Ever since that ball almost a year ago. This seemed like the perfect moment. And I think they’re ready for you.”

Jack straightened his suit jacket and left, leaving me with Beryl, Kodiak, and Peggy. I drew in a long, shuddering breath of excitement and listened to the rumble of the crowd behind the doors. As the first official wedding between a mage and non-mage, our ceremony had become a point of interest for the entire kingdom.

“You look beautiful,” Peggy told me, staring in awe at my flowing dress. Jack had made his own additions to this gown as well, weaving tiny threads of his magical ice throughout so that I always felt warm even though the day was freezing cold.

“Thank you. Are you ready to help Kodiak do his job?”

“Yes!” Peggy swelled with pride at having such an important role.

Trumpets blasted, and my chest nearly exploded with joy. It was time.

Guards opened the doors and I slowly walked down the aisle while eleven pipers played a melodious tune that danced around the great hall. My toes wriggled inside the shoes, reveling in the constant heat. Up ahead, Jack’s smile stretched across his face as he watched me get closer.

King Wenceslas and Queen Isolde sat on the front row, beaming at me as well. Almost all of the ten lords were present, but Valencia, who had been instated as the final lord, was the only exception. Even though she had petitioned to attend, saying that if it hadn’t been for her, Jack and I never would have met, I denied her request to come to the wedding, as well as Vanessa’s. Vallia, however, was in attendance, sitting next to Stephen and holding his hand. They had yet to announce an engagement, but Jack and I had predicted that it was only a matter of time. Ever a friend, Trista and her now-husband Cal sat close to Stephen and Vallia, and Trista held their sleeping newborn in her arms, rocking him gently from side to side.

The actual ceremony flashed by. Jack and I couldn’t stop smiling at each other so by the time the priest had finished speaking, my cheeks hurt.

“You have the rings?” he asked Jack.

Right on cue, Peggy came through the doors, holding Kodiak’s leash. Kodiak trotted down the aisle, carrying the pillow bearing our rings and wagging his tail like a fluffy banner. It was fortunate we had sewn the rings on, because halfway down the aisle, he dropped the pillow and sniffed enthusiastically at one of my mage students’ shoes. Laughter rippled through the crowd as Peggy hastily stuffed the pillow back into Kodiak’s mouth and pointed him up to where I stood.

Kodiak’s ears pricked forward, and he padded down the carpet once more until he finally reached up and proudly deposited the soggy cushion into the priest’s hand. I smiled to myself as the priest tried his best to hide his disgust at the slobber dripping into his palm. Kodiak sat, watching the crowd with his tongue lolling to the side, as proud as if he were the one getting married.

Jack’s electric-blue eyes sparkled as he slipped a ring onto my finger, and immediately, frost crept around the band so that the diamond sparkled more than ever. A light snow began to fall over the assembly, who all oohed and aahed, holding their hands out to touch the soft snowflakes and marveling aloud how Jack could create such a phenomenon indoors.

“I now pronounce you man and wife!” the priest announced loudly. “You may kiss the bride.”

Jack swept me into a kiss that wasn’t forbidden in the least.

“Go on, get out of here,” we heard Beryl call as we broke apart.

Twelve drummers lined the carpet leading outside to where the dog sled was staked, and the dogs added their barking and howls to the drumming and the crowd’s cheering so that the cacophony nearly deafened me. On the way to the dog sled, I spotted Stephen and Vallia, applauding along with everyone else. I threw my bouquet to Vallia, who caught it, surprised, then blushed pink and buried her nose into the flowers.

Shining golden bells had been fastened all over Jack’s sled, and as we pulled out, they rang merrily through the crisp winter air. The cheering from the crowd faded until we only heard the sled’s runners whisking through the snow.

“Only a week before we’re back to our regular work again,” Jack told me. “We’d better enjoy it while it lasts.”

“What’s not to enjoy when we get back? We’ll finally be able to live together, and Cinder will have her puppies soon?—”

“And they will undoubtedly be the fastest dog sled team in the kingdom. I just wish Pumpkin wanted to run, too.”

I laughed. “He’s much too busy being fed treats all day.”

It was true. Pumpkin was living up to his name and becoming just as round as a gourd from all the treats my students snuck to him when I wasn’t looking. He had been adopted as the new school’s mascot, and I found no shortage of doodles of pumpkins with dog faces in the margins of my students’ work throughout the school day.

“At least Valencia can’t shut this school down.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Since it was entirely legal and intended for Valencia to inherit the estate and act as the next lord, my stepmother had thrown herself into her duties. She refused to reopen my original school and instead lobbied to have mages accepted into all schools throughout the kingdom without any segregation, which I grudgingly had to admit was even better for the mage community than what I’d done. Valencia no longer wore wigs, but styled her white hair proudly as she championed mage rights just as fiercely as I had done, but now with the money and power of being a lord. Even though I still didn’t care for her personally, I could accept that my way was not the only way.

But my passion for teaching was still deeply engrained in me, and even though I didn’t teach exclusively mages any longer, I had opened a new school and several of my former students transferred in so I had a higher percentage of mages that I taught alongside Jack each day. We had ice skating and dog racing teams that competed throughout the kingdom.

We pulled to a stop in front of the house that Jack had built for us, nestled beside the lake where we first skated together. Now, we would be able to skate anytime we wanted, we were equally close to the castle’s dog yard and the new school, and I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anything else.

In the months after she’d been announced as the next lord, Valencia had let slip several snide remarks about how my mission had failed, and I supposed I could say that she was right. I hadn’t saved my original school and I hadn’t gotten any inheritance, but I’d gotten something so much better.

I had Jack.