by Sarah Noffke
“Yes, and as you know, my name is Hyacinth,” the gnome said, pulling a pincushion from the pocket of her dress. “Weird, Gregory doesn’t usually give customers my name. Just the address.” She shrugged dismissively. “He must have let it slip.”
“Your name really is Hyacinth?” Sophia asked, not believing the irony. “Don’t tell me there’s an Elizabeth here too?”
The gnome pointed to the back. “She is taking a lunch break. Elizabeth is my apprentice.”
Sophia felt a chill run down her arms. What a strange thing her imagination had done in Kensington.
“Now, you need a dress to see Saint Valentine,” the gnome said, standing back and closing one eye at her, as though trying to see her from a different point of view. “Oh, yes, this will be fun. You have a nice figure and good boo—”
“You’re the seamstress?” Sophia interrupted, confused why the dressmaker worked out of an antique shop.
“Yes, and welcome to my workshop,” the gnome said, casting a short arm around. “Oh, it still looks like an antique store to you, doesn’t it?” She waved her hand in the air, and before Sophia’s eyes, the entire store transformed, all of the little trinkets and old furniture disappearing. They were replaced with row after row of beautiful fabrics. There were patterns of all sorts in a wide array of colors.
Drawn to the nearest one, Sophia reached out to touch a paisley red silk fabric, craving the soft feel on her fingertips.
“Oh, lovely choice,” the gnome said, arriving at Sophia’s side and looking up at the bolt of fabric.
Sophia’s hand paused before touching the silk. “May I?”
The gnome’s bulbous nose wrinkled when she smiled. “Of course. Its magical properties will not work on you until I’ve fashioned it into a dress.”
“Magical properties?” Sophia asked.
The gnome nodded, chuckling. “Well, of course. You didn’t think I ran a normal seamstress business I disguised as an antique shop, did you?”
“I’m not sure what to think anymore.”
Hyacinth pointed to a bolt of fabric next to the red one. “This one will make the wearer skinnier if made into a dress or outfit.” She ran her eyes over Sophia, the spectacles on her nose sliding down a bit. “Not something you need, magician. Oh, in my next life I get to be like you, eating whatever I like and not having it stick to my bones.”
“Wow,” Sophia said, amazed by what she was learning. “This fabric will make people skinnier?”
She shook her head in reply. “No, it makes them appear skinnier. Nothing but good nutrition, exercise, and genetics can make anyone skinny. Not even magic. Well, not for long. There are certain things that can’t be done with magic. You can’t make someone fall in love with you, can’t make yourself skinnier, and you can’t bring back the dead. There are of course exceptions, as with everything, but let’s not get off task.”
Sophia knew the gnome was correct. For the most part, magic could not be used for major things, as she said. However, King Rudolf Sweetwater had proven he could defy the laws by bringing back his wife Serena from the dead using magic Father Time had forbidden. Of course, he was an exception, and that was probably one of the only cases in the entire history of the world where magic brought back the dead.
“What are some other magical properties these fabrics hold?” Sophia asked, turning around to study the shop filled with rows of material. The round pink sofa, she realized now, was a seamstress stand, with measuring tapes and pins and scissors. Beside it was a standing mirror Sophia remembered seeing when the workshop had been glamoured to look like an antique store.
“Well,” Hyacinth began, pointing around the room, “this could take a while so I can’t run you through them all. But for instance, that one there will make others think the wearer is rich.” She indicated a shiny metallic fabric and then pointed to a black one beside it. “That one makes others believe you’re famous. The spring line over here.”
Sophia turned to spy the row of fabrics in pastels.
“These do everything from increase fertility to protect against sun damage,” Hyacinth explained before laying her hand on the red fabric that had pulled at Sophia’s attention from the start. “But the one you chose, well, it’s very special indeed and perfect for a dress worn for a meeting with Saint Valentine.”
“What does it do?” Sophia asked.
The gnome’s face lit up when she smiled. “It will make you flawless.”
Chapter Eighty-Five
Holding the red silk up, Sophia peered at herself in the full-length mirror. “So, when you fashion me a dress with this, it will make me appear flawless?”
The seamstress was on her hand and knees, busy taking measurements. “That’s right. It enhances all of your features. Your hair will appear healthier, shiner. Your skin will glow even more. Your eyes will sparkle. You get the idea.”
“Wow, that’s really incredible,” Sophia mused, already liking the way the red fabric looked on her, although its magical properties were not working yet. On its own, the silk was beautiful.
“It was a good choice on your part,” Hyacinth advised, measuring Sophia’s legs. “Saint Valentine only likes to look at beautiful people. That’s why he requires I make their attire prior to meetings. I usually pick out something that will make the wearer even more attractive, but you found the perfect fabric right away. I would have chosen it for you.”
“I can’t wait to see this dress,” Sophia related, trying to remain still so Hyacinth could do her work.
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a bit,” the seamstress told her. “I have a few orders in front of yours.” She glanced up suddenly, worry in her eyes. “When is your appointment with Saint Valentine?”
Sophia shook her head, trying to dispel the concern. “Not for another month, apparently.”
Hyacinth blew out a relieved breath. “Oh, good. I’ll have it done by then. Hopefully well before then. Being early is always good for these appointments.”
“That’s what Gregory said,” Sophia remarked.
“Okay, so tell me about your reason for making this appointment,” Hyacinth asked. “That will help me to craft the right design.”
“Well, I need Saint Valentine to help my friend,” Sophia began but then found her mouth dry. Calling Wilder a friend felt weird.
The gnome must have picked up on the tension. “No one has ever gone to see Saint Valentine about a friend. Try again.”
Sophia gulped, trying to make her throat not close up again. “There’s a guy…”
“That’s better,” Hyacinth said with a laugh. “Keep going.”
“He got hit by cupid’s arrow,” Sophia said in a rush.
With wide eyes, the gnome looked up at her. “Oh.”
Sophia nodded. “Now he is in love with me and well…it isn’t that I don’t want him to be, but we’re not really allowed to be together. If he did love me, I would prefer for him to do it because…”
“Because that’s how he truly felt and not because he was forced,” Hyacinth said, finishing Sophia’s sentence.
She nodded, her chest tightening.
“That’s a good reason to see Saint Valentine.” Hyacinth stood from the floor, her height not changing much. “He will be able to fix your friend.” There was a sly expression in her eyes when she said the last part.
“Thanks. That’s a relief. I do have another friend I would like him to look at too,” Sophia said, thinking of Ainsley. It suddenly occurred to her Saint Valentine would have to come to the Gullington, since Sophia doubted she could get Wilder and Ainsley to him. The shapeshifter could leave, but not for long. She made a mental note to make a special request with Quiet to let the saint into the Gullington. Hopefully he could make an exception. It might be a way to start making amends with the housekeeper by allowing the one person who could help her have access to a place usually restricted to outsiders.
Hyacinth took the red silk from Sophia and gave her a pleasant expression. “
I’ll be in touch with you once the dress is ready.”
“Will I need to come back for fittings?” Sophia asked, knowing she didn’t need to clarify how the gnome would be in touch. Those in the magical world had ways of sending messages.
She shook her head. “Not only am I the only seamstress in the world who works with magical fabric and makes dresses people literally have died for, but I never make a mistake and defy the old cliché. I measure once and cut twice. Your dress will fit better than anything you have ever worn. I promise you that.”
Chapter Eighty-Six
A craft shop that appeared too whimsical to not be spelled with magic caught Sophia’s attention when she left Hyacinth’s store. She realized it was filled with magic when the ceramic in the front window came alive. It was a frog, and it hopped over to Sophia and croaked before saying, “Get in here and make something special for your mom.”
“My mom’s dead,” Sophia said, offended.
It croaked. “Then make something to put on her tombstone.”
“Why don’t you shut your mouth, you stupid, insensitive talking frog,” Sophia refuted, considering marching into the shop and telling the store owner off.
“That’s fine,” the frog said, appearing suddenly bored. “I bet whatever you made would be awful and not even worthy of hanging on a refrigerator.”
“What? How dare you?”
The ceramic frog painted in many different shades of blue licked his lips. “You don’t seem like the crafty type. I bet you don’t even know how to hold a paintbrush.”
“That isn’t true,” Sophia argued. “I’m totally crafty, and if you’re not careful, I’m going to come in there and smash you to pieces.”
“Do it!” he encouraged. “Come show me a thing or two. While you’re in here, you can sign up for a craft class. We have some for beginners. You won’t mind the rest of the class is preschoolers, do you?”
Sophia tipped forward about to take off into the craft store. Someone caught her shoulder and held her back.
She turned, surprised to find the person standing at her back had a warning expression on their face.
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Only Liv would have been able to sneak up on Sophia like she had. For a moment, the dragonrider thought she was dreaming. How could her sister be there right then? When Liv threw her arms around Sophia and hugged her tightly, she knew it was anything but a dream.
“What are you doing here?” Sophia asked when Liv released her.
“Looks like I’m saving you from beating up a defenseless ceramic frog,” Liv remarked. She pointed at the jerk frog who was sticking his tongue out at the both of them.
“He had it coming,” she argued. “He was taunting me.”
Liv nodded understandingly. “I get it. Then you would have waltzed into that shop, fallen under the ‘buy everything’ spells the shop owner is using to take customer’s money, and I would be bailing you out of the local jail when you figured it out and torched the place.” She held up her hands. “I’m here to save the day.”
Sophia shook her head. “Seriously, why are you here? How did you find me?”
Her sister smiled. “With a bit of cosmic fate, I believe.” She pointed to the boardwalk that lined the sidewalk in front of the shops. “Shall we walk? There’s a fantastic ice cream store just down the way.”
“Sure,” Sophia said, realizing the only thing she had had to eat recently was ice cream. “Maybe we can stop off at a restaurant and grab some real food, but whatever you do, don’t tell my fairy godmother if I have a salad.”
“Gosh, you and I really live in a strange reverse-y world, don’t we?” Liv winked at her. “Your secret is safe with me.”
The pair started down the path, petting dogs tied up outside of shops while their owners browsed and waving at the locals as they passed. After a moment, Liv said, “So like I said, cosmic fate seemed to have brought us together. I had a mission to go and reinforce magical law with that craft store you found. As you can see, they’re breaking tons of laws spelling their ceramics to taunt potential buyers to come into the shop. Once in there, mortals and even magical creatures fall under a dozen other spells that rip them off, leaving them penniless and with a bunch of crafts that will clutter up their homes. I’m all for art, but let the consumer choose to purchase a gigantic ceramic dragon on their own.”
Sophia whipped back in the direction of the craft store. “They have a large ceramic dragon. I want it.”
Liv encouraged her to turn around. “No, you don’t. I’ll deal with that shop after we have had a chance to visit.”
“That’s so weird your mission brought you here and I was here as well,” Sophia mused.
The Warrior nodded. “That’s often how the universe works. It’s wonderful and mysterious. For instance, how many times have you been thinking about someone and they call or message you?”
“Tons of times,” Sophia answered.
“We’re all connected, and when we think about each other, it’s like little beacons that shine on us, ringing a phone.”
Sophia smiled, loving this concept.
“I was thinking about you,” Liv continued. “As I often do, but not just because I was missing you. I knew I needed to relay some information, so I checked your coordinates and found you were here. It worked out perfectly!”
“You checked my coordinates?” Sophia asked.
Liv chuckled, steering her into a restaurant with a buffalo on the sign. “This work?”
Sophia nodded, thinking she could eat just about anything. “Coordinates. Do tell.”
“You haven’t figured out I have one of those location sharing apps installed on your phone?” Liv gave her an incredulous expression.
Sophia whipped out her phone. “Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Liv gave her an embarrassed grin. “Because when you left for the Dragon Elite, I knew you needed to prove you could do things on your own. And I believed in you. Clark was worried as hell, though, because he’s Clark. Anyway, to make him feel better and because I’m your big sister, I installed a location-sharing app on your phone covertly. It works in the magical world for all the strange places you go that wouldn’t register otherwise. You’ve been to other planets, which is very cool.” Her sister looked impressed.
Sophia laughed, remembering going to Oriceran. “Yeah, my travels take me to as many interesting places as I’m sure yours do.”
“True that,” Liv said, waving at the hostess as they entered the restaurant. She led them to a corner booth tucked away from the rest of the busy place.
“Are you mad?” Liv asked as they slid into the booth.
Sophia shook her head right away. “No, why would I be? You’re just looking out for me. I left home to join a secret society of dragonriders stuck in the seventeenth century. I think I would be offended if you hadn’t installed a location-sharing app on my phone.”
Liv nodded. She hadn’t even glanced at the menu when the waitress came to their table. “I’ll have nachos with extra cheese. No sour cream. If there’s sour cream on it, I’ll send it back. While you’re at it, substitute the guacamole for more cheese.”
The waitress gave her an uncertain expression. “You want nachos with extra cheese and then more extra cheese?”
“That’s right,” Liv affirmed.
“Okay,” the woman said, drawing out the word and turned her attention on Sophia. “And for you?”
“Make that two orders of nachos with triple cheese,” Sophia stated.
“The nachos are actually pretty big,” the waitress told them. “Do you two want to share?”
Liv and Sophia both laughed.
“Yeah, right. I would cut this one if we had to share,” Liv laughed.
“Um…all right,” the very confused waitress muttered as she walked away, probably rolling her eyes.
Liv looked across the table and smiled proudly at her little sister. “I taught you well, didn’t I, ordering nachos an
d making mortals rethink if we should be allowed loose in public.”
Sophia nodded. “Now, you said you needed to talk to me about something, and that’s why you tracked me down with your secret location-sharing app. What is it?”
The light expression on her sister’s face dropped. “Yeah, about that. I have some bad news.”
Chapter Eighty-Eight
“Is it Clark?” Sophia asked in a rush but immediately dismissed the idea. There was no way Liv would be laughing and ordering nachos if something had happened to one of the three last remaining Beaufonts.
“He is fine,” Liv assured her. “Well, he’s Clark, so he isn’t really fine. He is neurotic and annoying me to death. Even for as big as my place is, he seems to always be in my space, reorganizing the pantry or complaining I don’t use a coaster. Can he come and live with you at the Gullington? You all have a few extra bedrooms, right?”
“A few,” Sophia agreed, knowing dozens of dragonriders used to call the Castle home. “I’m afraid the one time you all were able to come to the Gullington might be the last. Outsiders really aren’t allowed inside the Barrier, which is why I’ve got to figure out how to get the gnome to allow Saint Valentine into the Castle.”
“I have so many questions related to that string of words, but we will get to them later,” Liv said as the waitress slid two huge mounds of nachos in front of the two women.
“Should I bring a to-go container?” the waitress asked with a snobbish glare.
“If you like wasting time,” Liv replied. “Come back in a few. I might need to order some more food.”
Sophia stared at her food, not as hungry as she had been while she waited for the bad news. Liv didn’t wait to dig into her pile of nachos, looking as ungraceful as ever as she crammed chips into her mouth. She paused when she realized her sister wasn’t eating and pushed back from the table.
“Oh, sorry,” Liv apologized. “You want to know about the bad news.”