Curiosity continued to get the best of me. I tested the sink. Its connection to the wall felt sturdy, as did its two metal legs. I stacked the medicine cabinet atop the supply shelf on the opposite wall, rested my butt on the sink, and prayed for stability.
Crap. I’d left my phone on the desk upstairs. I reached into the lightless maw, touched one of the manila ropes, and jerked my hand back. The thick twists of hemp—I was my mother’s daughter and could identify fibers blindfolded—vibrated with magic. I circled my hand around the same one and slowly squeezed until my skin made full contact with the rough surface. The current within flowed upward. I tested the other three and found one more with the same feel. The currents in the other two flowed downward.
Working left to right, I tried tugging each rope. They didn’t budge. Next, I tried holding two, one in each hand, and released them both with a muffled squeal when my arms began to rise upward. I landed awkwardly on the edge of the sink and stared at my palms. Red lines imprinted with twisted strands stared back.
I hopped off the sink, pressed my hand to the sides of the rectangular hole, and pushed. Maybe there was a hidden door here, like the one in Mom’s ground floor office.
The walls didn’t budge. I put both hands on the bottom of the hole and pushed down. Nothing. I even reached my arms through and up and only made it halfway between my elbows and my shoulders. There was no way a normal-sized body could fit through the opening.
“Beryl? Rosey? Could you guys come here?” I exited the bathroom as they approached. Kostya’s head popped out from the stairwell and he joined my sisters. “Have any of you seen a toolbox? I’ve got something to show you.”
“There’s one behind the front counter,” Rosey said, spinning on her heel. “I’ll grab it.”
We waited for her to join us. Kostya checked his phone and announced it was now after eleven. I assured him my discovery was worth a short delay.
“We’re all going to have to get in here,” I said. “C’mon.”
The demon pressed his back against the set of narrow shelves. Beryl squeezed in next. I ignored the suggestive wiggle she gave Kostya. Alderose placed the toolbox under the sink. I positioned myself next to her.
“Doing some plumbing, Clemmie?”
“Doing some magic-finding is more like it. See those ropes?” I shifted, pressing my shoulder against the door. I wanted to give them enough room to see into the squarish hole. “They’re imbued with magic. The current flows upward in two and downward in two, and you can feel it when you hold two ropes at once, as long as the ropes’ energies match. Watch.”
I pressed the front of my pelvis against the sink, took hold of the two upward-flowing ropes, and was tugged forward. Alderose gasped, grasped my closest forearm, and pulled. “Don’t do that, Clementine! We have no idea where the ropes would take you.”
“That’s why I wanted the toolbox,” I said, grinning. “We’re going to take this room apart, down to the stud walls.”
“Clem, that’s horsehair plaster back there,” Kostya cautioned. “We’d need more face masks and bigger tools than what’re inside that little red box.”
“Let me try the ring first,” Alderose suggested. “You guys scoot. Give me room to work.”
Kostya convinced Alderose he should stay in the bathroom with her. Beryl and I crowded outside the doorway and watched as our sister centered herself. She turned the ring and slowly raised her arm, palm and emerald facing forward. She swept side to side and up and down. When a series of clicks sounded from behind the wall, she motioned me and Beryl to stay put.
The bathroom began to shudder. I grabbed my sister’s arm and dragged her into the cramped space with me as the entire room began to sink. Everything rattled—porcelain, metal, the little shelf stocked with toilet paper. The medicine cabinet slid off the toilet and landed on the toes of Alderose’s boots. We watched the shop disappear above our heads as the top of another doorway appeared directly below the one to the shop.
The bathroom shuddered to a stop in front of a door that was the twin of the one to the third-floor workroom. Alderose asked for our consent before she pressed the emerald into the keyhole and looked over her shoulder at Kostya. He nodded, fired up his hands, and assumed a ready stance.
Alderose pushed. The door resisted, metal scraping and scree-ing against metal, then gave way when Kostya shoved the kick plate with his booted foot. An intensely musty smell wafted into the bathroom. I sneezed twice. The demon raised his arm, illuminating the closest portion of the room.
Beryl slid between me and Kostya and flicked her wand. One candle lit, then another, followed by a couple more, all hovering at waist height. As my eyes adjusted, I made out the silhouette of an elaborate silver candelabra set on a narrow table, which was placed in the center of an equally narrow room.
At the closest end of the room was an oval mirror on a pedestal stand, and beside it, a tall, silver julep cup loaded with tubes of mascara like the one sticking out of my back pocket.
7
The four of us stepped into the room as one. The only sound was our breathing. Kostya increased the intensity of the flames dancing along the surface of his palms.
I was drawn to the mirror. I tugged at the bottom of the stretchy camisole under my sweater and swiped the surface of the glass with it. I bent at the waist, bringing my face close to the mirror. My breath left no trace on the reflective surface.
Weird. I plucked a tube of mascara from the cup and applied the wand to my lashes. One coat. A second coat. I straightened. Though
