The Antique Shop
Friday, noon
Sophie did not want to join the enchantresses. She had so much more to worry about than humoring a pair of dotty old ladies. Yes, the magic had been helpful the night before, but she didn’t think that committee meetings about how to handle the fairy situation would be of much use. Unfortunately, the fairies took debts and obligations very seriously, and if she didn’t carry through on what she’d promised Tallulah, she might be asked for something even worse. She went to the antique shop the next day.
As the bells on the door jangled at Sophie’s entrance, Athena looked up. She was dressed in gingham and denim trimmed with eyelet lace today. Sophie let Beau off his leash, and he went straight to his bed.
“You’ve reconsidered?” Athena said.
“I have.”
Athena clapped her hands excitedly. “I knew you’d come around.”
“I wouldn’t really say that I’ve come around,” Sophie said, already regretting this move. She suspected it was about to complicate her life even further. “It’s more of an obligation.”
Athena made a “tsk, tsk” sound and said, “I’d have thought you’d know better than to oblige yourself to their kind.”
“This is a very old obligation.” Sophie sighed. She might as well come out with it instead of wasting time talking in circles. “It turns out I was wrong, about everything. Tallulah didn’t take Emily, and Emily wasn’t the price for my training. It’s Maeve who has Emily, and no one seems to know why. But Tallulah has called in the debt I owe her, and she said I had to accept the offer I was extended yesterday. So here I am. Quite reluctantly, to be honest.”
“Oh, my. I’d better call Amelia. But in the meantime, you can start learning some basics.” She went behind the counter and brought out a stack of binders. “I created a curriculum,” she said as she handed the binders to Sophie.
Of course you did, Sophie thought. She opened the first binder with some trepidation, not sure what to expect of a magical training course. It turned out to be along the lines of “Dick and Jane Learn to Channel Mystical Forces,” complete with short, simple sentences and colorful illustrations on laminated pages.
“I wrote that for Amelia’s daughter, years ago,” Athena said. “I don’t mean to insult your intelligence. You can sit at that table over there and I’ll be back in a moment.”
Sophie sat and read about how Hortense realized she had magical power when she knocked her brother Mortimer away from her toys without touching him. Her mother then taught her to use her power properly. Younger brother Mortimer mostly served as the person Hortense didn’t magically kill for being an idiot. Sophie got the impression that Amelia’s daughter had a younger brother who’d been in danger of being turned into a toad.
“Oh, Hortense, honey, there are so many other ways to deal with younger siblings,” Sophie muttered as she read. Or were there? Had everything she’d done actually been magic and not just intimidation and wits?
She looked up to see Athena standing in front of her. “Amelia should be here soon. Do you have any questions about what you’ve read?”
“I think I figured out most of this for myself without realizing it involved magic.”
“You have good instincts, and your association with the fairies may have taught you more than you realized. I’m surprised they didn’t recognize what you were. When did you stop visiting the fairy realm?”
“Before I was eighteen.”
“Ah, that explains it. Your power wasn’t fully developed then. You may have had stirrings, but they wouldn’t have thought to look for magic in you.”
“I didn’t think to look for magic in me, but it’s probably always been there. For instance, I’ve always thought I just had a forceful personality. People usually do what I want them to do. I suppose I was making them do it.”
Athena nodded. “Yes, Emily told us that about you.”
“Before last night, I’d never consciously tried to get through any door I knew was locked, but I’ve also never been locked out of the house or my car—or have I?”
“And I would bet that things generally go your way. You get what you want.”
Sophie sighed dejectedly. “I just thought I was clever and good and people liked me—or feared me.”
With a wry smirk, Athena asked, “Is it any worse that you were doing magic all that time?”
“It makes me reevaluate everything I thought I knew about myself.”
Athena patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. “All of us should do that from time to time, magic or not.”
The bell on the door rang, and they looked up to see Amelia entering. “I hear you’ve agreed to join us,” she said to Sophie.
“For the time being. I don’t know yet if this will have to be a permanent arrangement.”
“I suppose that will depend on what else Tallulah demands of you,” Amelia said, taking a seat at the table.
“I briefed her,” Athena said, joining Sophie and Amelia at the table. “Now, why don’t you tell us what happened last night to change your mind about your magical abilities?”
Sophie was about to deny that anything other than Tallulah’s demand had happened, but she recalled letting it slip that she hadn’t tried opening a locked door until last night. Drat. She must have really been rattled. “As I mentioned, I had a meeting with Tallulah. While we were talking, two fae men who’d been part of Tallulah’s group tried to capture me.” She went on to describe the fight in detail. In spite of her earlier reluctance, it felt good to get it off her chest, to verify that it hadn’t been a nightmare. “It seemed like I was able to undo any spell they tried on me, and I could also affect them,” she concluded.
Amelia nodded. “Our magic usually trumps fairy magic. Their magic is actually rather ephemeral. It’s mostly about illusion.”
Sophie rubbed the burn on her wrist, which was starting to itch. “It felt real enough.”
“Oh, it can be real. It’s just that they’re more accustomed to glamour than to doing anything real, which means they’re not as good at it. We could do glamour if we wished, but we focus on practical matters.”
“Would that include opening locked doors?”
“Yes,” Athena said. “Magic allows you to manipulate things as well as people.”
“How do you resist the temptation to use magic all the time?” Sophie asked.
“Who says we do?” Amelia asked with graceful shrug. “We don’t make a show of it, but we may simplify our lives somewhat.”
“Isn’t that cheating?”
“What do you call what you’ve been doing all along?”
“I didn’t know I was using magic. I was just being me.”
“Using magic is just being me. It’s a shame to waste a gift.”
“Yes, it is,” Sophie said with a sigh, though she wasn’t talking about magic. One of the many things she was trying not to think about was the fact that she’d given up her dance career for what turned out to be a misconception. Her heart would break if she let herself consider what she’d lost. A thought occurred to her, and she asked, “Does Emily have this power?”
“A little,” Athena said. “If our priority hadn’t been protecting her from the fairies, we might have tried teaching her, but she wasn’t our ideal candidate, for a number of reasons. The magic is much stronger in you, just as her hair is redder.”
“And she’s so much taller.”
Athena looked at her for a moment before saying, “Yes, I suppose she is. I hadn’t thought about that, but then I’ve never seen you two next to each other.” Sophie stared at her, waiting for a laugh or some other sign that she was joking, but she seemed to be deadly serious. The height difference was usually the first thing anyone noticed about the Drake sisters.
The tinkling of the bell on the door interrupted the conversation, and the sisters got up to greet the customer. The customer was a ditherer, unable to choose between a blue or a pink flowered teapot but not willing to listen to the shopkeepers’ suggestions about which piece was more valuable. At this rate, she’d never leave, and Sophie had more important things to deal with. She thought it was as good an opportunity as any to test her magical persuasive ability. In the past, she’d always spoken with people when convincing them to do what she wanted, but this time, she sent out a silent suggestion that the customer pick the blue teapot and get out of there. A moment later, the woman held up the blue teapot and said, “I’ll take this one.”
When the customer was gone, Amelia turned to Sophie and said, “If you hadn’t done that, I would have, though I would have played fair and suggested the less expensive item.”
“I didn’t see the price tags. I was going by the colors she wore. I thought she’d like that one better,” Sophie said.
The sisters exchanged a look, and Athena said with a grin, “I told you she’d be good.”
They returned to the table, and Amelia said, “Now that we’ve discussed Sophie, I have news. There’s a market tonight at Belvedere Castle. That’s our best chance to gather intelligence and see what Maeve’s up to. You’ll join us, of course, Sophie.”
“What do we have to trade?” Athena mused, knitting her brow in concentration. “If I’d had more warning, I could have made something.”
“We won’t bring anything,” Amelia said. “We’ve got all the currency we should need.”
“Do we?” Athena asked, then she followed her sister’s gaze to Sophie. “Ah, yes.”
“Are you going to trade me to the fairies?” Sophie asked.
“No, but you are a fairy-taught dancer. The fairies love nothing more than a good dance. Ballet should enthrall them, especially danced by one with fairy skills.”
“I might as well get some use out of it,” Sophie said, swallowing a lump in her throat. She rose and snapped her fingers to summon Beau. “I suppose I’ll see you tonight at midnight at Belvedere Castle.”
Athena walked her to the door. “I’m looking forward to seeing you dance. Emily said you’re wonderful.”
Sophie gave her a smile, then hurried out the door and up the stairs before any of the tears welling in her eyes could fall. She let them spill silently as she walked back, wiping them away when she reached Emily’s block. She was letting herself into Emily’s apartment when Michael appeared on the upper landing. “Sophie,” he said, his voice grave. “I’ve just heard from Tanaka.” Instead of finishing the thought, he came downstairs, moving slowly. He was dressed to go out, she noticed.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Let’s go inside.”
“No, tell me now.”
She knew it was bad when he took her hand in his good one. Then he said, “They may have found Emily.”