How Does 'Impractical Magic' End?

To settle a debt of gratitude, Adriana Adler left her first love and married Chris Slater—a man who, by all appearances, was paralyzed from the waist down. For five years of marriage, he had been her husband. Before that, he'd been the protector she'd known since they were kids. She played her part as his devoted wife—the quiet shadow behind his wheelchair. Chris was certain that no matter how openly he doted on his ex-fiancée—who had just returned from overseas with a child—Adriana would never leave him. What he didn't know was that in Adriana's heart, only obligation remained. The love had died years ago. The day the truth came out, she set the divorce papers calmly in front of him. He panicked. His eyes burned as he grabbed for her, desperate, clinging like she was the only thing keeping him grounded. Adriana looked down at his legs—standing firm and strong—and felt a deep, icy quiet fill her chest. Five years of lies. Five years stolen from the man she truly loved. There would be no forgiveness. The once-untouchable Chris dropped to one knee, his eyes red-rimmed and raw. "Adriana… you're all I have left." Her expression didn't waver. Not a flicker of softness crossed her face. She stepped back toward the man she'd never stopped loving, her voice steady. "But you're not all I have, Chris." He was the power player all of high society scrambled to please—the one who'd lit up her younger years. He'd always assumed she would love him forever; it never crossed his mind she might walk away. But the poised, mixed-heritage gentleman who'd loved her all along said nothing. He simply slid a priceless diamond ring onto her finger. This was the day he had waited five years for. This was the happiness Adriana should have had all along.

MAGICAL (Everything about us... is magical.) Melanie Spears thought she was an ordinary high school girl until she learned she wasn’t. Dragged into a hidden realm where magic rules and royal blood matters, she’s faced with choices no teenager should ever make. Torn between homework and hidden powers, a mysterious stranger guides her toward a destiny she never asked for. As she steps into her royal role, Melanie discovers perks she never imagined, and dangers that could destroy everything she loves. With supernatural forces stirring in both her world and the human realm, she’ll have to be braver than she’s ever been. School assignments clash with forbidden secrets. Friendships are tested. Emotions run wild and so does her magic. When she hears the word “danger,” it’s not a warning. It’s a prophecy. Can she balance teenage life and a destiny she didn’t ask for? Excerpt from the story: "Melanie, can you please stay back?" "What do you mean?" "Can you not go to school today? Stay at home, please." She pleaded with glassy eyes. I pulled her into an embrace. "Can you tell me why you don't want me to leave?" "Danger." she whispered. "I wouldn't have wished for the latter. I should have just maintained the first prayer. All because what I saw...was going to be the end of me, what I saw was terrifying. It was death!"

When Jeremy Cooper marries Camilla Sloan, he's certain they will live happily ever after. Her family, however, never stops showing their contempt for the union—and Camilla herself promises her sick childhood friend, Zachary Larson, that she will fulfill 99 wishes for him. Jeremy witnesses the extreme lengths Camilla is willing to go to just to accomplish that. She walks out of an important meeting because Zachary tells her he feels like having some roasted sweet potatoes. In the middle of the night, when the mood is just right between Jeremy and Camilla, she will jump out of bed and rush to the hospital simply because Zachary says the thunderstorm is scaring him. When Jeremy asks whether Camilla realizes she's crossing the line a bit, she curtly replies, "Don't worry about it. I know my boundaries." Jeremy slowly grows disillusioned. The two start giving each other the cold shoulder, and they grow distant from each other. But even so, Camilla refuses to back down. One day, under the guise of being inebriated, she arrives on Jeremy's doorstep, but a gorgeous woman in a bathrobe opens the door instead. At last, she panics.

After five years of dating, my girlfriend, Rachel Meyers, cancels our wedding 52 times. The first time, her intern, Ethan Cole, messes up a form at the law firm where she works. She rushes back to fix it, leaving me stranded on the beach for the entire day. The second time, during the wedding ceremony, she hears that Ethan is being bullied by another attorney. She abandons everything to help him, leaving me to become the laughingstock of our guests. After that, no matter when we hold the wedding, Ethan always seems to have some kind of emergency that demands her attention. Eventually, I grow numb and decide to break up with her. But on the day I move out of Westerbay, Rachel loses her mind trying to find me.

Maverick Lloyd finally agrees to marry me after five years of dating. We head to the hospital to tell my ill mother the good news. On the way there, Maverick receives a call from his true love. He turns the car around and takes me to a bar instead—his true love is short of people at the bar, so he tells me to help out as a bargirl. When I'm being harassed and sullied in a private room, he's living it up with his true love next door. The hospital calls to tell me my mother's condition has worsened. I jump out of the third-floor window to get away. However, when I arrive at the hospital, all I see is my mother's cold body. Meanwhile, Maverick's true love updates her social media. "He appears before me like a hero whenever I'm in danger." It comes with a photo of her cuddling in Maverick's arms. My heart dies. I take off my engagement ring and place it with my mother's body to be destroyed during the cremation. Then, I like Maverick's true love's post. "I hope you two stay together forever. Don't ever harm anyone else."

I'm a good luck charm to my wife by nature. After marrying me, Heather Seymour, who's crippled because of a car crash, miraculously stands up on her own and gets to ditch the wheelchair. On top of that, her business is booming as well. In less than half a year, she successfully establishes her own company. After Heather's company goes public, she tells me with a smile that she wants to give me a huge gift at the celebration party. I'm filled with anticipation, thinking that Heather finally wants to fulfill her promise of having a child with me. But instead, Heather is seen lacing fingers with her subordinate, Lucas Mallard, at the celebration party. Not only does she announce her relationship with Lucas, but she also tosses me a divorce agreement. Her expression remains icy as she says, "Randall Grahm, if it wasn't for the fact that I got into an accident when Lucas was studying abroad, I wouldn't have married you, to begin with! "Now that my legs have recovered, my company is listed, and I'm pregnant with Lucas' baby, it's high time for you to return the position as the CEO's husband to him! Our family of three will finally be whole again!" It turns out that Heather married me just so I can take over the responsibilities of taking care of her back then. Everyone thinks that I'll go ballistic from rage, so they can't wait to see me humiliate myself. But I just agree with the divorce with a smile before dropping my signature on the paperwork. What Heather doesn't know is that I'm only a good luck charm to her simply because of the system I'm bound to. Once the divorce is official, the things that I've given to her—that are exchanged from the system—will be taken back one by one!