Chapter 7
“Julia? What do you know about sprites?” Sabrina figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. Julia might not be a practicing witch, but she had to know more about supernatural creatures than Sabrina did.
Julia stopped dusting. “Um, they’re unpredictable, a little self-centered, prone to dramatic highs and lows, and can have wicked tempers. Why?”
“Just curious.”
Something sparked in Julia’s eyes. “Is this about the Marchand job? What’s going on? You can tell me.”
“I can’t. I swear, I would if I could, but she asked me not to talk about it.”
Julia stuck out her bottom lip. “Drat. But I get it. If I was a big, powerful witch like Amelia, I wouldn’t want anyone talking about my business either. Which is not to say I’m not jealous, because I am so jealous that I keep expecting my skin to turn green.” She laughed.
“If anything changes and I can talk about it, you’ll be the first to know. Well, you and Trip.”
“Natch,” Julia said. “Hey, what are you doing Sunday? You want to head out to the enchanted forest after you do your rounds and see if we can find the book?”
Sundays they were closed, which was when Sabrina drove through the neighborhoods looking for yard sales, hoping to find things she could fix and resell. Julia often went with her.
And at least one Sunday a month, after their hunt for repairables, she went home to work on her new treasures and Julia spent time searching the enchanted forest for the book that was supposedly hidden out there. Legend had it that writing your name in the book would take away your curse.
Obviously, Julia had never been successful, but that hadn’t stopped her from trying.
“I’d love to, but I’m not sure of my plans yet.
” She doubted the sprite situation would be taken care of by then, but the truth was, she didn’t really want to go.
There was no telling what kinds of broken things she might run into out there.
In her worst-case scenario, she and Julia found the book, then her curse made her take on all the curses that were in the book so she could fix them.
Nope. A trip to the Enchanted Forest was the last thing she needed.
Although maybe she could get Gideon to keep an eye on Korrin again while she worked on painting the box.
Although Gideon had barely seemed willing to watch him today. He was such an odd man. Kept to himself. Barely had a business, although he seemed to be doing better financially than she was.
Julia shrugged. “Okay. Let me know.”
A customer came in, and Julia went to help the woman, who was looking for some kind of shelving unit.
Sabrina immediately wondered if that was the kind of thing she should look for when she was out hunting for items. She did occasionally see shelves, but most of the time there was nothing wrong with them. Nothing to be fixed.
Didn’t mean she couldn’t just repaint them or something.
There was no real rhyme or reason to what she sold other than it called to her in some way.
It had to need her attention in order to be useful again.
Some of those things came from online auctions, some came from things she found curbside that people no longer wanted, and a lot of it came from local garage sales and the occasional flea market that popped up.
She knew a more targeted approach would probably mean more sales, but how could she dedicate the store to just furniture when she didn’t know what the next piece would be?
Gideon had a pretty narrow sales focus in that he hardly sold anything at all, and he seemed to be doing just fine. Did he really make enough from repairs? Maybe she should ask his opinion. Would he give her business advice, though?
Something made her think he wouldn’t. Or he wouldn’t give her anything useful. What was his deal?
Could it be that he was cursed to be cold and standoffish? Anything was possible in this town. And it was generally understood that you didn’t ask people about their curses, so she couldn’t do that.
Hmm. It could very well be that he was suffering from his curse and helpless to do anything about it. She had to put aside her initial impression of him and remain kind and friendly.
He was a very handsome man. It must be his curse that kept him alone because there was no way a man who looked like that shouldn’t have a girlfriend if he wanted one. His demeanor, however, would be enough to put off any woman.
Okay, so he’d helped her, albeit begrudgingly, with the music box.
Maybe that was progress for him. Maybe that was him fighting against his curse.
She had no way of knowing, unless he volunteered the information.
But she felt she owed it to him to be understanding about whatever was holding him back, as a way of showing her gratitude for his help.
Of course, he’d get paid, too. How much remained to be seen.
She’d have to work it into her estimate for Amelia. She’d figure out her side of it tonight.
Julia returned to the counter with the woman, who’d found something to buy. A small table with a mosaicked top.
Sabrina was proud of that table. Instead of tiles, she’d repurposed bits of broken plates to decorate the top. It had taken her a while to position all the pieces just right. Too long, really. The more time spent on an item, the less profit there was.
But if she cared about that, she’d have nothing for sale. What she did took time. That was just all there was to it.
Julia finished ringing the woman up, then gave Sabrina a look. “You working late?”
“What?” She glanced at the time. Two minutes after six. She jumped up. “No, I’m going right now.”
She grabbed her tote, and with Julia’s help, put Trip in his carrier, which she then slung over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow!”
She hustled next door to collect Korrin.
Gideon was standing in the doorway to the work room, frowning. “It’s six-oh-six. You’re late—” His gaze went to straight to the carrier. “What is that?”
“That’s my cat, Trip.”
His brows rose. “You brought a black cat into my establishment?”
“He’s not black. He’s a dark gray tabby. And what does that matter?”
Gideon honestly looked like he was about to panic. “Black cats are bad—”
“No,” she snapped, cutting him off. “They are not bad anything. Don’t you dare say that.
I don’t care what you think or believe, because you’re wrong.
” She took a few steps closer, keeping a firm grip on the carrier strap.
“Do you know that the ignorant belief about black cats makes them harder to adopt? That more of them are euthanized in shelters than any other kind because they can’t find homes?
I hate that. And I hate that such obvious stupidity is the reason black cats have such a hard time in life.
Also, once again, Trip is a dark gray tabby. ”
Eyes wide, he stared at her, mouth closed.
She wasn’t sure what had set her off. Especially after she’d resolved to be more understanding toward Gideon. Obviously, she loved Trip and she cared about animals, but she had never responded like that to anyone about anything.
She was about to apologize when Korrin came flying out of the work room, his list in one hand.
He zipped past Gideon and went straight to Sabrina.
“You have a cat? I want to pet him. Is he soft? Can I ride him around like a trusty steed? Oh, I could get a sword.” He folded the list into an impossibly small square, tucked it away into a pocket she couldn’t see, and hovered in front of the carrier, waving. “Hi, kitty.”
She caught her breath. “One step at a time, Korrie. I have no idea how Trip will react to you. We should take it slow.”
Gideon found his voice. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll think the sprite’s a snack.”
She cut her eyes at him in a silent warning. She opened her tote bag that now mostly held her purse and the velvet box that held the ceramic housing of the music box. “Korrin, why don’t you get in my bag until we get into the car?”
With a shrug, he flew into the bag. “Don’t squash me.”
“I’ll be very careful.” She looked at Gideon. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He stayed silent as she left. She went straight to her car, thankful she didn’t run into anyone she knew.
It wasn’t that she thought a sprite would be out of place in Shadowvale. He wouldn’t be, not really, not with all the odd things that went on due to people’s curses. But she did not want word getting back to Amelia that a sprite had been seen.
There was no way Amelia didn’t know the sprite had been inside the music box.
That was probably the reason she’d bought the box in the first place.
Made sense to Sabrina. Wouldn’t a powerful witch seek out powerful magical objects in hopes of …
whatever witches did with things like that? Increased their own power somehow?
She really needed to learn more about the creatures who lived in town. But for the moment, her plate was full enough.
She put Trip on the front passenger seat, then set her tote bag in the footwell.
This way, Korrin could stand on the music box and see Trip.
He immediately found a comfortable spot, arms resting on the edge of the seat so he could stare into the carrier.
He was all smiles and seemed completely taken by Trip.
She got behind the wheel and put her seat belt on. “Won’t be a long drive.”
“Does the cat always stay in the carrier?”
“No, that’s just to safely transport him. At home, he’s free to run around.” She pulled onto the street and headed for her house.
“Is he soft?”
“He’s very soft.”
“Why is he missing his front leg?”
“Because he was in a bad accident and it couldn’t be saved.”
Korrin glared at her, a look so pointed she could practically feel it. “Did you cause the accident?”
“No.” She glared right back at him. Briefly. She was also trying to watch the road. “He was found that way, and the rescue paid for him to be fixed up. I adopted him like that.”
The glaring ended, replaced by a much softer expression. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you adopt a cat with only three legs?”
“Because I …” She hesitated. Telling Korrin about her curse didn’t feel right. “Because I fell in love with him just the way he was. And nothing else mattered.”
Korrin smiled. “I like you.”
“I like you too.”
“Gideon likes you, too.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
Korrin shrugged and went back to watching Trip. “I wouldn’t lie about a thing like that.”