Chapter 14

The drive to our destination was quiet, which gave me time to think. I was still puzzled as to why Jordan was taken. Assuming Valory was involved, and no evidence had been found to suggest she wasn’t, then I knew the answer to my question: she wanted me to stay out of her business. Of course, there was the nagging problem of why she hadn’t tried to contact me to make sure I understood what she wanted. Which suggested she didn’t know Jordan was my Fonti, or she simply didn’t care. Of course, that also begged the question, why did she need so many women to begin with?

I looked out the window and realized where we were, just south of my apartment complex. We were stopped at a red light on West Arkansas Lane, waiting to cross South Cooper. I looked at Dana. “There’s a tailor shop this close to my apartment?”

“Why does that surprise you?” she asked in return.

I shrugged. She had a point.

We crossed Cooper and drove for about a block and a half before turning left and pulling into the parking lot for a Goodwill. Asking any questions at the moment seemed moot. If her friend worked for Goodwill, she would have said so. So, I sat there and waited.

At the back of the building, there was an off-shoot of other smaller stores. It was like a small strip mall was attached to the bigger store. Everything looked busy, except for one shop. Guess where we parked.

Dana killed the engine and climbed out. “C’mon,” she said.

I got out and looked up at the sign. The name of the place was Pink Rabbit Tailoring and, like the sign for Joyce’s Rack, there was a blue symbol behind the letters. This symbol was of a different shape though. I thought to ask Dana about it but decided to wait until we were inside.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in, maybe a boutique, but this wasn’t anything like I had seen before. In fact, the store turned out to be smaller than any I had ever been in. A wooden table dominated the center of the room with a single stool next to it. Numerous spools, scraps of cloth and various other things cluttered the table. Next to it stood a tailor’s mannequin wearing a long, semi-transparent blouse.

Along the wall to our right and the wall at the back were racks with various clothes, mostly blouses and skirts with a few jackets here and there. The wall to our left had a table with more tailoring supplies, several totes filled with various other supplies and a big, full-length mirror. Dark orange curtains hung in the corner at the back on the left side. The whole thing reminded me of Raven’s little fetish room above her garage.

No one was in the store. In fact, it was much quieter than I had expected. I looked behind me and could clearly see traffic flowing by outside, some seventy yards away, but I couldn’t hear the cars and trucks. The only things I could hear were music coming from somewhere and the hush of the vents.

The store was warm enough to be comfortable without a coat, so I took mine off. Dana took hers off too and hung it on an empty coat rack next to the rack of clothes to our right.

I stepped over next to Dana, so as to talk quietly. The place made me feel like I should talk quietly, like a library or something. I made myself look busy by hanging my coat next to hers and said, “Hey, about the sign. I saw a symbol on it that wasn’t a part of the name of the store or anything. What’s that about?”

“Simple,” she said, perusing the clothes near her coat, “Any stores owned and run by Magi will have their mark on the sign so other Magi can find them more easily.” She glanced at me. “It’s not like we have our own phone book.”

I nodded. It made sense. With the Law of Secrecy dominating how any of us could do anything, we had to find our own ways of making ourselves known to each other.

With that question answered, I decided to look through the clothes here too. Dana might have been just looking, but that didn’t mean I was the only one here to pick up something. So, I stepped over to the rack at the back wall and started going through them. That was when it hit me. I looked around at the other clothes, as well as the dress Dana had pulled out and was holding up to see herself in the mirror. All the clothing were for women.

I walked over to Dana, stood behind her, and whispered, “All the clothes here are for women.”

She nodded. “M-hmm. That’s her specialty.”

Her specialty. That didn’t mean she couldn’t make clothes for men or even children, she primarily worked on clothes for women. I wasn’t sure if I felt better or not. What if she tried to sew in cups in the shirt out of habit? No, she wouldn’t do something like that, would she?

Dana was still focused on the mirror and the dress she held over herself. “What do you think?”

I looked at the dress and realized how little there was to it. My shock must have shown because Dana giggled. “It’s not that bad, is it?”

I tried to shake off my surprise and said, “Well, it covers all the right places.”

Dana rolled her eyes and hit me in the stomach with her elbow. “I know that, I want to know what you think of it on me.”

I looked it over again and tried to picture Dana wearing it. “You might have trouble keeping your breasts covered without any straps, but I think it would look good.”

She arched an eyebrow. “What are you trying to say?”

“I think you’re bigger in the bust than that dress was designed for,” I said even quieter.

She smiled wryly. “Well, that would certainly keep you interested, wouldn’t it?”

I was saved when the curtains parted and a woman came out. She wore a pale cream-colored top that had short sleeves and dipped down to show off the top of her cleavage. It hugged her every curve all the way down to the tight black skirt she also wore. The skirt stopped a few inches above her knees and the rest of her legs were encased in black stockings. A fine gold chain adorned her right ankle and black high heels gave her a couple of inches of height over Dana. A mass of black wavy locks framed her face, spilled over her shoulders and fell to the middle of her back, her eyes were so dark they looked black, and her expression was a of coy attitude. She smiled up at me and then looked at my companion. Recognition set in and she said, “Dana?”

Dana looked up and pushed the dress she’d been modeling into my hands. “Shondra!” she said with a smile and went to give the store owner a hug.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the dress, mostly because I didn’t see where Dana had gotten it. Leaving it on the small table seemed thoughtless, but I really didn’t want to be seen holding it when their attention turned my way. I decided to go around and hung it over the stool.

Shondra looked past Dana at me. “So, this is him,” she said and it wasn’t a question.

Dana turned to look at me and nodded. Then she held out her hand. “Shondra, this is Seth Connors.”

I gave her a slight bow of my head.

“And Seth, this is Shondra Ambrose, the store owner,” Dana finished.

Shondra smiled pleasantly while her eyes drifted over me again. “You’re younger than I thought you’d be,” she said with a southern drawl that went with the attitude in her expression. Her eyes rose to meet mine and her eyebrow arched. “And it appears that most of the measurements Dana gave me were accurate.”

Measurements? When did Dana measure me?

Dana looked me over too. “What did I get wrong?”

Shondra looked at Dana with both eyebrows raised. She was trying to convey an idea that I wasn’t meant to understand.

Dana looked at her friend and understanding flooded her face. “Oh!” she said and then looked at me again. “Yes,” she said. Her voice dropped a bit with her smile, reminding me of the low moans she had back at the warehouse. “He is at that.”

I wasn’t sure whether to frown in indignation or smile with pride.

“I’m glad you brought him today,” Shondra said, drawing Dana’s attention back to her. “I have the suits you asked me to make, but before I give them to you, I need his help first.”

Dana frowned. “That wasn’t our arrangement.”

“I know,” Shondra said, “and I apologize for that. Regrettably, my situation has changed.”

Dana looked ready to argue. I decided we didn’t have time. “What favor?” I asked.

Shondra looked up at me. “I need you to make a magic item for me, and I need it by dawn.”

“I was the one who promised you a favor,” Dana said through gritted teeth.

“I know that,” Shondra said and looked at Dana, “but you’re not the one who is free of the Lockdown.” She looked up at me again.

Her request did indeed seem simple. After all, making my fetish had only taken a few minutes. Now that I knew how to do that, making something that didn’t require personal magic couldn’t be that much more difficult. Yet, she was asking me to do this. There was only one reason for that. “We’re not that far from the edge of the Lockdown. Why not leave the area to make one yourself?”

Shondra studied my face with a curious expression. She pointed at the curtains. “Here in my store, I have enchantments that help speed up the process. If it weren’t for the Lockdown, I would be able to make one for myself in the allotted time. Without the enchantments, it would take me roughly three days to make even the simplest item.”

Three days? Why would it take anyone that long to make one magic item? And what kinds of enchantments could help speed up the process? Maybe making this item for her wasn’t such a good idea, especially since it was obviously far more complicated than making a fetish.

“What is this magic item for?” I asked.

“Why do you need to know?” she asked in return. “It only matters that I have to have one.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t tell my why it’s so important.”

She swallowed but then narrowed her eyes. “You need the suits I’ve made for your formal meetings. Without them, things won’t go as well as you would hope.”

“The Lockdown has been up for months,” I said in return. “I don’t have a schedule to keep. I can go to someone else who would be willing to do the work. You don’t have the luxury of time.”

Shondra’s whole face tightened down, and then she turned away from me.

“What do you need the item for?” I asked again.

She spun and met my eyes. Hers burned with emotion. If I was right, several were mixed in there. “I need the item for my House dues,” she said with short, clipped words. “An adjuster will be here in the morning to collect.”