Couture and Curses Read online

“Listen, I’m taking my seat; I’ll call you when I get the information. Okay?”

  “All right,” he agreed, still not sounding thrilled. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  We hung up and I sat down beside a weathered looking witch who had two pairs of knitting needles floating before her. From the look of concentration on her lined face, I assumed the task took quite a bit of energy. I didn’t interrupt her, even though I wanted to ask just how it was she could control the simultaneous projects without lifting a finger.

  She must have sensed my curiosity though, because when the bus started down the street, she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye before returning her attention to the needles. “I have twin grand babies on the way.”

  “Oh, how lovely!”

  The woman smiled. “A boy and a girl.”

  “Congratulations.”

  She bobbed her head, barely blinking. The needles picked up speed and when the bus reached my stop, I could see the projects taking shape, a pair of matching baby booties. Lavender for the girl, green for the boy. I wished her well and then scurried toward the exit before the nearest doors closed again.

  The sign for Clarke Estates and Auction House hung on the side of what appeared to be some kind of warehouse. A green awning extended over the frosted door that bore the business name and operating hours. I crossed the empty parking lot and wondered if my errand was in vain.

  The door was unlocked and I opened it slowly. A chime sounded, and as I crossed the threshold, a woman with short hair and a haggard expression appeared from some kind of back room and came to stand behind the desk that occupied most of the small room. “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Um, I hope so. Are you Carolyn Berry?”

  “That’s right. Are you here to pick up an order?” she replied, not waiting for my answer before bending to consult a clipboard that lay on the desk. “Hannah Pasqual?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “My name is Anastasia Winters. I’m here to see if you might have information on a piece that was sold at an estate sale a few months ago.”

  She scoffed. “Do you have any idea how many items we sell? This warehouse is packed from top to bottom with stuff waiting to be sold or auctioned off. You can’t possibly expect me to remember one item.”

  “I think this item would be memorable,” I replied, infusing a little edge of force to my voice. I didn’t want to argue with the woman, but I wasn’t leaving without at least some kind of answer.

  Carolyn crossed her arms. “Oh? What kind of item?”

  “It was a heart-shaped sapphire, at least a couple of carats.”

  A flicker of recognition passed over Carolyn’s eyes. She snorted a dry laugh and shook her head. “You people just won’t stop. Listen, like I told your friend, all sales are final and confidential. I won’t be harangued into breaking our policies.”

  “I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding,” I started. “I haven’t—”

  Carolyn held up a hand, cutting me off. “Save it, honey. I’m not interested. I have a lot of work to do and I don’t have time for whatever this game is. Now, I think you should leave, before I call security.”

  I balked, staring at the woman with disbelief. “Please, this is really important. The jewel was stolen—”

  Carolyn raised her hand and snapped her fingers high above her head. A rumble followed the sound and a small door I hadn’t noticed opened to my left. I took a step backward as a surly looking dwarf appeared. “What do we have here, Boss?” he asked Carolyn, not taking his beady eyes off me.

  “Another nosy busybody looking for the Heart of Poseidon. Get her out of here.”

  With that, Carolyn turned and stalked back through the door she’d come through, slamming it behind her for emphasis.

  “Please,” I pleaded with the dwarf, “I’m not here to cause trouble. I was just hoping to get a picture of the jewel. I already know who it was sold to. She’s a client of mine.”

  “Then ask her for a photo. This isn’t a museum, lady.”

  He took a few steps toward me, and while his short stature didn’t allow for a terribly long stride, I backed up all the same. “Now, you can leave on your own two legs, or I’ll toss you out on your can. Your choice.”

  I glanced helplessly around, wishing someone would swoop in and insist it was all some kind of misunderstanding, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. “All right. I’m sorry. I’m going.” I held out both hands and moved toward the door.

  The dwarf planted himself and folded his arms as I backed my way across the small room. I reached behind me and found the door handle and yanked it open. I stumbled back into the parking lot, my heart pounding, and scrambled back to the bus stop, peeking over my shoulder as I waited for the next bus to come around.

  I waited to call Caleb until I was back home—and my pulse had returned to normal—and as soon as I told him we weren’t the only ones interested in the stone, he insisted on coming over. There was no point in objecting; besides, I knew that he’d pick up takeout on his way over, so I agreed.

  He arrived, dinner in hand, half an hour later and we settled in at the dining room table as had become our custom. Harmony was working her shift at Luna, so we had the place to ourselves. “They called it the Heart of Poseidon?” he asked.

  I nodded, my mouth full.

  Caleb stood and retrieved the folder he’d brought in with the bag of takeout. He opened the cover and removed a glossy photo, then set it before me. I nearly choked on my food.

  “That’s the stone?” I sputtered.

  Stone wasn’t even a good word for it. It looked like something that belonged in the tiara of a wealthy queen. The heart shape was clean but obviously not manmade. Though, I supposed, it might be possible that it was magically altered somehow.

  “After our call this afternoon, I had an agent do some digging to see what they could find. This stone was in SPA records as part of evidence against a jewel thief a few years back. According to SPA records, it was returned to the original owner once the case against the thief was closed.”

  “I just can’t imagine such a valuable stone ending up at an estate sale,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from the photo. “I mean, surely someone with this in their possession would have wanted to keep it in the family, or at the very least, have sold it to a jeweler, not some low-rent estate and auction house on the east side of the haven. It doesn’t add up.”

  Caleb retook his seat. “I agree.”

  I sighed and pushed the photo away. “Well, however it happened, there’s no way I’m going to be able to figure it out. Cagey doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

  “I’ll send an agent over to their office first thing tomorrow,” Caleb said. “They can either tell my agent where the stone came from, or we can take them into custody and they can explain it to the council.”

  I blinked. “You can do that?”

  “If there’s a suspicion it was stolen, we sure can.”

  “Is that what you think happened? Someone stole it and pawned it off as belonging to their relative or something?”

  A smile tugged at Caleb’s lips. “Trust me, I’ve heard crazier.”

  I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me. The entire case was crazy, so why not throw a jewel thief into the mix. Although, I realized, the shadow man likely didn’t have a use for a pricey sapphire, which left me wondering if we weren’t chasing the wrong lead.

  There was only one way to find out.

  Chapter 9

  Hyacinth called a staff meeting the following morning and the entire office shuddered with simultaneous dread. We had regular, scheduled meetings every Monday morning. On a Tuesday, a staff meeting could only mean one thing: we were all in for a lecture. In the half an hour between her memo and the start of the meeting, associates scrambled from desk to desk, whispering and comparing notes, trying to figure out what the subject matter might be this time. From my desk, I had a clear line of sight to CeeCee’s desk and notice
d she was the only associate not up in a panic. The realization made my heart sink. She didn’t need to speculate as to what the meeting might be about, which could only mean she was the reason for the meeting.

  I reached out with a pulse of magic, sending a whisper-light hand to tap on her shoulder. She turned abruptly when the invisible fingers found her and I beckoned her into my office. With an expression akin to a dejected old hound dog, she trudged over.

  “You got the job, huh?”

  She clasped her hands together and gave a guilty nod.

  I offered a quiet smile. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you.”

  She cocked her head.

  “I am!” I protested. “Less happy for me, but for you, yes, I am.”

  Only then did she allow a smile to peek through. “Thanks, Ana. That really means a lot.”

  “How’d Hyacinth take it?”

  “Oh, you know,” CeeCee said, shaking her head, a flare of irritation crossing her face, “about as well as can be expected.”

  I chuckled softly. “Did she give you the loyalty speech?”

  CeeCee rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah.”

  To Hyacinth, the magic wedding planning department was like her family. And though we were a big, unwieldy, and often dysfunctional family, that didn’t stop her from taking it as a personal assault when one of us wanted to leave.

  “She’ll move on,” I said. “And, even if she doesn’t, you won’t care, because you’ll have your fancy new job!”

  CeeCee laughed. “I’m just hoping she doesn’t punish the hotel by blackballing it as an event space. She thinks they poached me away from her.”

  I scoffed. “Of course she does. To her, this is Mount Olympus and anything else is to waste away with peasants.”

  Naturally, Hyacinth fancied herself Hera in this scenario. Whereas, I might argue she had more in common with Narcissus.

  “I’ll still hold events there,” I told CeeCee. “Blackballed or not, it’s a great hotel. When do you start?”

  “The end of the month. I gave Hyacinth three weeks’ notice. I figured that was more than fair.” She shrugged.

  Outside my office door, a small stampede was marching toward the conference room. CeeCee and I exchanged a look and then went out to follow along. Hyacinth took her place at the head of the table and cleared her throat before giving CeeCee a betrayed look.

  I squeezed CeeCee’s hand under the table.

  As expected, Hyacinth’s lips were puckered as she made the announcement of CeeCee’s pending departure. Then, as an extra dig of the knife, she informed me that Kait Gerrick would be filling CeeCee’s role as my main assistant. Kait and I both raised concerns, but they died quickly with a warning look from Hyacinth.

  Kait and I had started working for the firm within weeks of each other, leap-frogging at every promotion and new opportunity, until we both reached the second to the top rung of the ladder: junior wedding associate. We worked for two years, knowing that the next wedding planner slot that opened would ignite a battle to the death for the shot at the promotion. In the end, I wound up on top and Kait remained stalled out as an assistant.

  We’d always had a tense rivalry but when I was promoted over her, things went from fraught to downright ugly. Kait was a far better witch than me and put her magical efforts into making me look inept and sloppy in front of top-notch clients whenever possible. The wealthier or more prestigious the client, the higher she raised the stakes on her pranking efforts. I’d never stooped to complaining about it to Hyacinth. It would have likely fallen on deaf ears anyway.

  Six months ago, we’d been forced to work together and in the process, had almost bonded. Almost. Things had been a little better since then—at least, I hadn’t had any magic whoopee cushions under my chair mid-client meetings—but the idea of working with her elbow-to-elbow on a full time basis made me want to smack something.

  CeeCee leaned over in her chair. “You have room in your apartment for a punching bag?”

  I frowned.

  Hyacinth cut me with a glare and then lifted the copy of the Haven Herald she’d had placed before her on the table. I’d assumed she’d been flipping through it as she waited for everyone to arrive, but now realized there was another reason for its presence at the staff meeting. “Has everyone seen the paper this morning?” she asked, though it was clearly rhetorical because she barreled on before anyone had a chance to answer. “Then you’ll know our Anastasia found herself in the middle of another high-profile SPA investigation.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  Hyacinth tossed the paper, catching it with a gust of magic, before she pushed it to me as though on a draft of wind.

  Snatching it out of the air, I tore it open and searched the headlines.

  Psychic Wedding Planner Communes with Dress Maker’s Assailant

  My eyes widened as I read. The article—all cloaked in anonymity—recounted the event at the hospital when I’d touched Aurelia’s hand and blacked out. According to the unnamed source, I’d had a psychic vision and knew the identity of the attacker and was somehow connected to them with a psychic link.

  “This is garbage!” I shouted, slamming the paper down with disgust. “I don’t know who attacked Aurelia and if I did, I would have told the SPA right away! I’m not covering for them or whatever this article is insinuating.”

  “We’ve had three brides call since the article went live and request to be transferred to other planners within the firm. One canceled outright, said she had a bad experience with a psychic once and stays away from anything with a psychic aura, I believe were her exact words.”

  I recoiled, as if struck. “I—I’ll call her. All of them! I’ll make it clear this is all a big misunderstanding.”

  Hyacinth crossed her arms. “I’m afraid the damage is done.”

  I shot to my feet, snagging the newspaper as I swept to the conference room door. “We’ll see about that.”

  Without a second thought, I marched out of the office and caught the Shimmer Bus to the hospital. I hadn’t been back to visit Aurelia since the last time. The whole thing had left me rattled, and while I felt guilty ignoring her, especially when it appeared as though I was one of the only visitors she’d had since the attack, I couldn’t bring myself to step into her room.

  One of the regular nurses approached when I arrived. “Ms. Winters, how nice of you to stop by. I’m sure Aurelia would love to see you.”

  For a moment, my anger faded and I thought the nurse meant there’d been a change in Aurelia’s status, but from the look of pity in the woman’s eyes, I realized that hadn’t been what she meant.

  “Do you know who was on duty the last time I was here to visit?” I asked her, the sizzle of irritation returning.

  The nurse looked confused. “Uh, I’m not sure, but if you’d like to speak with one of Aurelia’s healers, I’d be happy to see who’s available.”

  I held out the rolled up newspaper. “Have you seen this?”

  The witch’s bewilderment deepened as she tentatively took the paper and unrolled it. She scanned the headline and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ms. Winters but I’m not sure what it is I’m looking for.”

  “The Herald ran a story today about the investigation into Aurelia’s attack, and the article quotes an anonymous hospital source who told them about my so-called fainting spell the last time I was here. I’d like to know who gave the reporter that information.”

  The nurse stared open-mouthed at the paper.

  “It’s on page three,” I snapped.

  The nurse looked up. “I’m so sorry this happened, but I really don’t know who would have given out that information. You were a patient too, that night. I can’t begin to imagine one of our nurses or healers violating our ethics policies and going as far as speaking to the press about the reasons surrounding your visit here.”

  “Well, one of them did.”

  The woman studied the paper, her expression crestfallen. “I’ll get to the botto
m of this. As soon as I find out what happened, I’ll give you a call.”

  My anger deflated, giving way to a wash of embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” I said, raking my hand through my hair. “It’s not your fault.”

  The nurse reached out and tentatively placed a hand on my forearm. “I’m going to figure this out, Ms. Winters. And I assure you, when I have the name of the one responsible, there will be consequences.”

  I bobbed my head and thanked her, but as I wandered off, I knew it didn’t matter. The damage was already done. The news was all over the haven and once again, thanks to the good old daily newspaper, my career was hanging by a thread.

  All I could do was hope it didn’t snap before I found a safe place to land.

  Chapter 10

  I wasn’t the only one crashing face first into a dead end. When Caleb arrived for dinner, he informed me that Felicia, Aurelia’s assistant, had an alibi for the time of the attack. And in a double punch, she had no idea where Aurelia had kept the sapphire. She hadn’t even heard of the stone before the SPA agent asked about it.

  “You think it’s possible she didn’t know about the stone?” Caleb asked me over dinner.

  I considered it but then nodded. “Aurelia has always been fiercely private when it comes to her work. I don’t think she trusts anyone. You saw what happened at the convention when she accused Kara of stealing her work.”

  “Actually,” Caleb said, “it was the other way around. At least, according to Kara.”

  “Either way, if I were in her shoes, I’d probably be the same way. I’ve seen firsthand how competitive the industry is and can only imagine the lengths Aurelia’s had to go to in order to climb to the top.”

  Kait’s taunting voice echoed in my head, a fresh reminder of the nastier side of my field. Sure, it was wrapped in sequins, breathtaking floral displays, and good-enough-to-make-you-cry wedding vows and toasts, but there, just under the surface, were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours of work—some of which were filled with tension and undercutting.