The Book of Magic

The family holds a small funeral for Franny in the Owens Cemetery. She’s buried next to her husband, and the family members light 100 white candles and wear white. Antonia comforts Vincent, who cries black tears.

A year later, on June 1, Reverend Willard officiates at Sally and Ian’s wedding. The ceremony is held under the tree that Samuel Dias planted for Maria Owens in Massachusetts. They bake the largest Chocolate Tipsy Cake the town has ever seen, large enough for 50 people. Everyone in the wedding party wears blue thread. Vincent’s date is David Ward; they met up shortly after Franny’s death and have been living together in La Flotte with Dodger. Sally has been living in England with Ian and plans to return after the wedding. They bought and have been renovating the Witch’s House near the fens. Instead of referring to people by the books they check out, Sally learns the names of the locals.

Kylie’s hair remains black. Her family keeps an eye on her because she was under Tom’s spell, which is called being toad. Kylie and Gideon live in the house on Magnolia Street, and Gideon drives to Cambridge for classes. Kylie transferred to Simmons University to study library science and works in the Owens Library. In addition, she studies the grimoire and switches on the porch light to help the neighbors via magic. One client gives her a black kitten, which she names Raven.

Gillian and Ben move into the same apartment and visit the house on Magnolia Street every weekend. Margaret’s conception remedy works, and Gillian gives birth to a daughter named Francesca Bridget, usually called Birdie, on March 21. She can already call birds to her window by waving her hand, and she looks like Franny. Antonia named her son, who looks like Vincent, Leo. Leo can telekinetically move books. She and Ariel have dinner at the house every Sunday.

The night before her wedding, Sally goes into the library and puts The Book of the Raven back in the rare book room, so the next woman who needs it can find it. Then, she goes to a celebration for her at the Black Rabbit Inn. Gillian creates a new cocktail called the toad, and Sally dances joyfully. Miss Hardwick gives a speech in an Emily Dickson costume; she has taken Sally’s position and will give it to Kylie when she finishes school.

Sally works at the Cat’s Library. Ian works on his new book, The Uses of Magic, there. It is about local witches who wrote grimoires. His first book, The History of Magic, is published. Margaret has been teaching Sally the Unnamed Art. Sally learns it and, like Margaret, can do magic without being a bloodline witch. On March 21, a crow becomes Sally’s familiar, and she names him Houdini.

At the wedding, Sally wears Franny’s red boots and black dress and Maria’s sapphire pendant. Margaret visits the US for the first time to attend Ian’s wedding. After seeing the Owens’s greenhouse, she asks Ian to build her one. Before the wedding, Sally takes Margaret to the site of the gallows, and they talk about how she taught Ian to take care of himself and how he’ll take care of Margaret in her old age. Ian gets Sally’s name tattooed on his left wrist.

After the wedding ceremony, Sally and Gillian visit both Jet and Franny’s graves in the two different cemeteries. According to their tradition, they take cake to the dead after a wedding. Rafael is sitting at Jet’s grave with Daisy. He says he comes by every Sunday. Sally invites him to the reception. They thank Franny as they give her cake.

Gillian and Sally go to Leech Lake. After putting the sleeping Birdie in her stroller in the shade, the sisters take off their clothes and get in the water. They talk about the supposed sea monster. Gillian floats, but Sally can dive. They believe that life is paying a price for being happy and agree that they’ll never be “normal.” They emerge from the water and get dressed. As they walk back to the house, they talk about spending the summer in France with Vincent. They hold hands walking up to the house, just as they did the first time they arrived there.