Page 14 of Silk Skullduggery (Haven Hollow #40)

Dragging myself into work was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was either that or pacing the house and trying not to climb the walls.

Poppy wasn’t feeling well still, so her texts were sporadic. I kept glancing up and out the window, and seeing Poppy’s Potions closed and dark was like getting smacked in the face every time.

Lorcan was, if anything, texting too much. I didn’t know what was going on with him, but as soon as this whole curse business was wrapped up, I was going to get to the bottom of that, even if I had to sit on him to make him talk to me.

I wasn’t about to try and wrangle the Black Cat Cocktail Club without Poppy, and Taliyah was all tied up in the same mess I was, so it would have just been me, Darla, Fifi, and maybe Bailey if we could wrangle her away from her new beau. But I also knew I was too on edge for all that socialization without Poppy there to act like a buffer and keep everyone from getting all maudlin.

So, work. And I was lucky that it was busy enough to keep my thoughts from going in circles chasing their tail too much.

I’d just packed off a man who’d purchased a suit for a job interview the next day, enchanted for a bit of self-confidence and to ward against nervousness, when the bell over the door chimed again and a young woman stepped inside with a beaming smile.

She looked cheerful enough to remind me a bit of a younger Poppy, and my edges softened a little, turning my customer service smile into a real one.

“Hi,” she said, looking around eagerly. “I was hoping to find a dress for my engagement party? Nothing too elaborate. Just pretty, and a little elegant?”

I was definitely getting soft. Normally someone ending every sentence like it was a question would have driven me up the wall. Instead, I came around in front of the counter, already mentally flipping through my inventory. “Did you have something specific in mind?”

“Not really,” she said, apologetic. “I’m not really one for fancy parties.”

“But an engagement party is pretty fancy?”

She nodded. “Right. I was happy with the little get together we threw at the Half-Moon, but my fiancé’s parents—well, they want to throw something for their whole side of the family and they’re into everything—well, over the top.”

I tapped a finger to my lips, thinking. “I can pick out some things for you to try on that I think might work for you.”

Her smile lit up her whole face. “Yes, please, that would be perfect.”

There was nothing quite so engaging as getting the chance to play doll with living people. Especially when they gave me free rein to really make them feel their best. That was what clothing was supposed to be. It could be an invitation, a threat, a way to seduce or intimidate, but ultimately, clothes should make the wearers feel good about themselves, and present themselves the way they wanted to be seen.

I lost myself in the racks for a while, checking and double-checking colors, cuts, necklines. My customer had a similar complexion to Imani, so nothing too pastel, or it would just look washed out against her dark skin. Also, maybe nothing too revealing, since it was her would be in-law’s party. Humans could be silly about those things.

I found a few selections, and she smiled to see them. But then I whipped my ultimate choice from behind my back, and she actually gasped, eyes shining bright. A halter top with a high waist that draped to just below the knee, but moved with the wearer when they walked, and in one of the prettiest shades of rose pink I’d ever seen. Not too heavy for the weather, elegant, clean lines, and Maverick had even done a bit of embroidery down one side of the skirt, for easing stress in social situations as well as an extra potion for luck.

I bundled the girl off to try them all on, telling her I could make alterations to her choice, but I was almost one hundred percent certain she’d go for the pink dress. The lilac or the lemon yellow would also look amazing on her, but she cradled my favorite to her chest like a baby as she walked into the dressing room.

I gave myself a little mental high-five.

I still had it.

When she came out in the dress I’d chosen and actually teared up with happiness at the sight of herself in the mirror, I was ridiculously smug. She looked like a million dollars, and with a few stitches here or there, a tuck or a dart, she’d look like a billion.

She hadn’t brought any shoes along with her, but with the tea length of the dress, that wasn’t a big deal. I got her up onto the stage so I could put a few pins in while she chatted eagerly away about her fiancé, about their plans, how long they’d known each other. Honestly, it mostly went in one ear and out the other. All my focus was on the fabric under my hands, and making it work for me.

I was jolted back to reality when someone wrenched my store’s door open so hard that the bell slapped against the ceiling, and another young woman came storming in. This one a red-head, and between her body language and her expression, I knew we were in for some trouble as she marched towards my bride-to-be client.

Witches almost always have black hair, but every once in a while, a red-head will crop up, like Betanya or my cousin, Astrid. A red-headed witch is always going to be one to stir things up in a coven—they were meant for big things. But even if this girl was a redhead, she wasn’t a witch, but even so—seeing her storming in had me standing up and putting myself between her and my client.

I didn’t want the dress to get damaged, after all.

“Oh, hey Miranda, what are you… what’s wrong?” My bride client’s smile faded, worry taking over her features.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong ? I can’t believe you, Sadie! I can’t believe you’re getting married.” A vein pulsed in Miranda’s forehead, her face an alarming shade of red.

Sadie stammered, wide eyed. She clutched the dress to herself, like that would protect her. “I... I mean, is it that big of a surprise?”

Miranda scowled, her face twisted with some ugly emotion. “It had nothing to do with surprises! And everything to do with the fact that it’s totally unfair! Why do you have everything, and I have nothing ?”

With something that came as close to a roar as the human throat could make, Miranda threw herself towards Sadie, who screamed and backpedaled, trying to stay out of range. I reached out with one hand, and hit Miranda with a sleeping hex before she came close. The red-headed woman collapsed to the floor in a pile of loose limbs, just like that.

Sadie stared down at her friend, clutching at the dress’s skirt, her chest heaving with her panicked breaths. “What… what just happened?”

“Your friend is having some kind of fit that’s causing her to act out,” I answered, pretending like I hadn’t just hit her with a spell. As far as Sadie was concerned, all that had happened was that I’d put my hand out and then her friend had dropped to the ground. But that didn’t mean I’d done anything to her. “I need you to go back to the dressing room and call for an ambulance, please. My phone is out of batteries.” I mean, I had hit her with a pretty strong hex, so it was a good idea for a doc to look her over.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.” Sadie nodded so quickly that she looked like a bobble head doll. “I can do that. Yes. Okay. Is she going to be alright?”

It was a struggle to keep my voice calm and soothing. I could have really used Poppy’s backup again, but I’d make do. “She’ll be fine, but she needs to go to the hospital just to make sure.”

“Okay, I can do that. Okay.” She hiked up the skirts of the rose dress and all but ran back towards the dressing rooms.

With any luck, it would take her a minute to get dressed, and she wouldn’t do too much damage to my dress before she managed to get herself out of it. I was going to need a bit of time with Miranda without a panicking, mundane girl standing over my shoulder.

Because Miranda, as it turned out, was wrapped up tight with dozens and dozens of sticky, clinging, curse strands. She wasn’t quite as bad as the two men from last night had been, but from the way she’d absolutely thrown herself at her supposed ‘friend’ told me that Miranda was heading in that direction, and fast. It looked like envy was also on the memo for our mystery creepy crawler to feast on. I was surprised Miranda hadn’t come through my door absolutely emerald green after that display.

It was lucky that the threads hadn’t had as much time to sink in, so I managed to burn them all away with magic before Sadie came stumbling out of the dressing room. Miranda already looked better. I’d straightened her out, so she wasn’t sprawled on the carpet, and her color looked more pinky-fair than furious red. She murmured quietly in her magical sleep.

The bride to be was still on her phone when she walked into the main room of the store, her clothing rumpled and hastily thrown back on. I noticed she’d taken the time to hang the rose dress up properly, and was clutching the hanger forgotten in the hand not holding her phone.

“The ambulance is on its way,” she told me as she dropped down to her knees beside her friend. “They should be here soon.”

There were tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, and in an attempt to avoid an emotional meltdown, I said, “She’s going to be just fine.”

“I hope so.” Sadie dabbed under her eyes and sniffed. “I just don’t understand. She was so happy for me last night; she kept congratulating us. What could have made her go from that, to yelling at me?”

“Well, it was probably just–wait, did you say last night?”

She glanced at me, confused. “Yes?”

“What—what was going on last night?”

“My impromptu engagement party?” she said in a way that probably meant she’d already told me this, but I hadn’t been paying attention.

“Oh, right—remind me where that was again and with whom?”

“Oh, just some friends, my fiancé and I… we, uh, all went out to the Half-Moon. It was nice. Fun.” She sniffled again. “And Miranda was just so happy for us. I don’t understand…”

They were at the bar, before the two guys went MMA on each other. Did that mean something? I could only wonder why each of the victims were being targeted when they didn’t seem to have much of anything in common other than having some pretty extreme emotions. That was a pretty broad pool to fish from, so why those people specifically?

But the neighbor had been close to the old man, the men and the jealous friend had been at the Half-Moon. The woman from the road could have bumped into any one of them at any time. Was it really just a matter of this entity simply jumping from one victim to the next?

I gave Miranda a cursory once over, or the best I could with a witness sitting next to me crying softly. I didn’t see any magical tags or tracking spells attached to her. But then, maybe the curse acted as its own tracking spell? There were still too many questions, and it was really starting to tick me off.

The bride to be sniffled once more, turning wide, tear filled eyes towards me. “Is it terrible that I still want the dress?” she asked me, misery in her voice.

I almost laughed, but I managed to rein it in. No one knew better than me that when you found the right dress, nothing else would do.

I patted her on the arm gently. “There isn’t much you can do before the ambulance gets here. So we might as well get you sorted out.”