I Am Totally a Real-Life Wizard (Not Clickbait, I Swear!)

Valeri scowled. "That no-good piece of celery--" She sat up and punched the ground. "Where's the wedding?"

Cody looked up from where he had slumped to the ground inside the cell. "Knowing Joe, it'll likely be at some expensive venue..."

Vendetta pulled out their phone and began angrily tapping on the screen. "Joesphinzo... wedding... news." They reared back in surprise. "Hah! I thought so. Joe did this whole interview about it. He's getting married in this fancy hotel called The LINE DC. Really fancy hotel place."

Valeri's face darkened. "Well then. It's time to crash a wedding. Dawn, would you please cut the bars of Cody's cell?"

Dawn glowed a brighter pink and zipped over to the bars. The edge of their blade caught the light as they neatly sliced through a couple of bars. Once a human-sized opening had been made, Dawn hovered nervously. "How are we going to get to the wedding, though?"

Cody stepped out of the bars. "The same way Joe crashed my wedding. Loudly."

Vendetta frowned. "But what about Khalil how do we stop the love potion?"

Dusk glowed a deep indigo. "Most love potions run on a timer. So the effects should wear off eventually..."

"How long is 'eventually?'"

"A few hours to a few weeks?"

Cody started pacing. "I don't care how long it takes. We're getting xem out of there." They shook their head. "Oh, Khalil. How many times am I going to get stuck in these situations?"

Dawn hummed sympathetically. "You guys deserve a nice, long vacation after all this. But for now, how are we going to get to the wedding?"

Valeri held up their phone. "My screen got cracked when I passed out, but I can call an Uber."

Vendetta nodded. "Call away, then. We don't have much time."

Dusk swayed from side to side. "How is anyone letting this happen? Khalil and Cody aren't even divorced!"

"Joe's a shady guy." Dawn glowed a dark orange. "I'm sure he's come up with some kind of story about how the marriage was annulled or whatever when Khalil 'died'..."

Valeri tapped something into her phone, then glanced back up. "The Uber'll be here in five minutes."

Vendetta nodded. "So, what's our plan?"

Cody scowled. "Rescue Khalil."

"That's more of an end goal, but A for effort!"

"We storm in and threaten Joe until he backs off?" Valeri suggested.

"No violence, please." Dawn glowed golden yellow. "But yes to interrupting the wedding."

"How many WANNABES do you think will be there?"

Vendetta shrugged. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll have to just find out.”

Cody crossed his arms. “We need to convince his guests that Khalil is under a love potion.”

“Okay. How do we do that? Is there a universal sign of being love-potioned?”

“…no.”

"Oh, great."

"What about Khalil's family? Wouldn't they know that xe loves you?" Valeri frowned. "Or can we get one of the WANNABES to confirm that Joe made a love potion?"

Cody sighed. “Khalil’s family never really liked me. Xer mom is-“ They shuddered. “-a little scary.”

Vendetta groaned. “And what WANNABE is going to be willing to talk to us?”

"Good point." Valeri sighed. "I thought you got through to Amy a little, and Wormy's always seemed like one of the nicer ones... but we can't count on any help from them."