Once Upon a Craft Shop, page 22
part #1 of Craft Shop Mysteries Series
“The Enchanted Realm, yes,” Maddie confirmed with a smile. “Although I’m not entirely sure what part he’s from.” Her smile turned deprecating. “That’s part of the curse, you see. When people appear here in your Realm, they don’t remember who they are. And, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to help them remember.”
Her smile thinned around the edges. “In fact, most of the time, I don’t even know who they are. I couldn’t tell them if I wanted to.”
I stared at Maddie. “What is this curse? It sounds absolutely horrible.”
The older woman shrugged. “I don’t remember all of it. I’m not sure I ever knew to begin with. The only thing I know for certain is that someone very powerful placed a curse on the inhabitants of the Enchanted Realm.”
“All of them?” I shook my head. It sounded crazy—but also exactly like something you’d expect from a fairytale. “Why?”
Maddie shrugged again, spreading her hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. But—” Her forehead abruptly scrunched into a frown. She closed her eyes, raising her hands to massage her temples as though she was in pain.
I waited, caught between hopeful curiosity and a slightly guilty feeling that I’d caused this by asking too many questions.
“I think I’ve remembered.” Maddie opened her eyes, a short-lived expression of triumph flashing across her face. “When someone reaches their happy ending, instead of getting to live it out, they’re brought here to this Realm with no memory of who they are.”
“That’s terrible.” I shook my head, sympathy knotting my stomach. “That would be terrible for anyone, let alone—” I broke off, a delayed thought finally dawning on me, arriving like the lag on a video chat when the internet was particularly slow.
I stared at Maddie, a shiver of excitement and wondering running through me. “You’re a fairy godmother from the Enchanted Realm. And these people are losing their happy endings?”
Maddie lifted a patient eyebrow. “I believe we have already covered this, Celia.”
Her tone said she was humoring me, but I didn’t notice. Straightening on the bench, I stared at her with wide eyes. “You mean, like in fairytales? A fairy godmother and happy endings from fairytales?” My voice cracked on the last part.
“Yes, dear.” Maddie gave me a chiding look that said this should have been patently obvious. “Fairytales. That’s what your Realm calls the stories of our peoples’ lives.”
The world spun around me again. Agnes was one thing, but…people from fairytales? I sank back against the park bench and buried my face in my hands. There are actual fairytale creatures living here in Starhaven.
A gentle hand touched my shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to take in, dear,” Maddie said kindly. “And I truly don’t know what it is about you.”
Dropping my hands, I turned my head to find her considering me again, those green eyes filled with something ancient and scrutinizing all at once.
“But I think you came here for a reason, Celia.”
“Maddie, I’m not—”
“I think you can help us.”
“What?” A weak, borderline hysterical chuckle escaped me. “Are you thinking I should just march around town and ask everybody what character in fairytale they are?”
“Oh, no, dear.” Maddie dismissed that idiotic statement with a flick of her fingers. “It’s not that simple. Random questions won’t break the curse. You’ll have to be intentional about it.”
I drew in another deep breath, staring hard in the direction of the clearing while I tried to make sense of the maddening jumble of thoughts swirling through my head. Part of me screamed that this entire conversation was insane. But the other part of me recalled Agnes…and Cedric…and some of the other strange things I’d noticed about this town.
Slowly, the world shifted into a new paradigm around me, settling like the invisible folds of a beautiful ballgown.
“Okay.” I blew out a breath and straightened up on the bench. “Say I believe you. And there really are a bunch of—” I fluttered a hand, “—fairytale characters living here in Starhaven. Say I broke your curse.” I drilled Maddie with steady look. “Why can’t you break other people’s curses?”
An air of misery washed over Maddie, before she clamped down on it. “I tried. But apparently the curse thought of that too. There’s no loophole, as far as I’m concerned.” She frowned, shaking her head. “No, the curse has to be broken by a human from this Realm.”
Her frown faded, to be replaced by a beautiful smile. “By you, Celia.”
Chapter
Forty-Six
I don’t really remember much of what happened after that. Maddie and I talked for a few minutes more before she sent me home with a pat on the back and an almost grandmotherly smile. Somehow, I made it back to my apartment and managed to fix myself dinner and clean up before I crawled straight into bed.
My bed felt like the best place to be right now. A cozy little oasis from the crazy that had inexplicably taken over my life.
Frowning, I stared up at the ceiling through the darkness that filled my bedroom. I’d hung room-darkening curtains to block the lights from the streetlights outside, so it didn’t matter that the last of the evening light hadn’t quite faded.
Once again, Maddie’s words kept ringing in my ears, mixed with a montage of all the strange little things I’d noticed since I moved to Starhaven. Actual fairytale characters from fairytales, here in our world. And I was supposed to help them.
I rubbed my forehead. How was it possible that someone like me was capable of breaking a curse from a place called the Enchanted Realm?
It sounded like some crazy science fiction thing—portals opening between dimensions, or realms, or whatever you wanted to call them, and stranding people here.
I rolled over to punch my pillow into a more comfortable shape, but paused as that thought really struck home. Portals opening between dimensions. It wasn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever heard—at least not when it came to the storylines in movies, video games, or books.
But in the real world? Yeah, that was totally nuts.
I stifled a slightly hysterical laugh. Of course, in the real world, people didn’t have brownies living in their apartment, either. Maybe I was the one who’d stepped through a portal into some strange new dimension.
My mind racing, I lay back against my pillow. No, I had to accept that there was some element of truth to what Maddie said. I mean, she did glitter. And there was a brownie living in my apartment.
And that man, Cedric, had appeared in the clearing from nowhere.
So… I bit my lip. That meant that I had to admit it was possible that clearing contained a portal leading to another Realm.
A portal leading to a fictional Realm, yes, but…still.
Another Realm.
And the way Maddie explained it, most of these new arrivals in Starhaven had no idea who they were or where they were from. That made my heart hurt. I thought of Cedric again.
A shudder wracked my shoulders. I could only imagine how terrible it would be to wind up somewhere strange and have no memory of who I was.
Somehow, Maddie was an exception to that part of the curse, but she hadn’t explained why. That was curious, too. I’d have to ask her about it.
But, never mind. I waved my hand through the darkness, mentally telling myself to carry on. I could circle around to that later. Back to the notion of fairytale characters being citizens of Starhaven.
Maddie believed that I could help break their curse. She’d also implied that that meant I had to know who a particular character was—or at least have a good idea.
An unladylike snort escaped me. How was I supposed to pull that off? I’d gone through a fairytale stage when I was a child, reading everything I could get my hands on, but there were dozens, if not hundreds, of fairytales from all over the world.
I ticked them off on my fingers in the dark. There were well-known stories like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and lesser-known stories like the Twelve Dancing Princesses. There were stories specific to Africa and Asia and other countries, and…
The list just went on.
It was an impossible task—how in the world was I supposed to figure out who these people were?
I thumped a fist on my bedspread. And that was supposing that they were major characters in these fairytales, and not minor characters.
A second later, I had to amend that thought—I’d remembered something else Maddie said. The curse prevented characters from getting their happy endings.
All at once, I sat up in bed and ran my fingers through my hair, thinking furiously. If the curse had to do with preventing happy endings, then maybe the people showing up in Starhaven were main characters after all. Minor characters didn’t typically get happy endings in fairytales— unless one counted living in a kingdom at peace as a happy ending.
But really, most characters would never rate high enough for someone to bother cursing them. Not on this scale—and this did sound like a curse on a massive scale.
The faces of everyone I’d met so far in Starhaven filtered through my head. It would be impossible to determine who might have come from this Realm, and who was just an ordinary human being. How was I supposed to tell the difference?
Frowning, I drummed my fingers on my mattress. I’d just have to ask Maddie who had come through the portal. Frankly, I was surprised she didn’t already have a list of names ready for me.
And then a thought occurred to me, like a lightning bolt piercing the darkness of my room with vivid intensity. I might not know right now which other Starhaven citizens had come through the portal, but I did know at least one person.
Cedric.
Poor, confused, blind Cedric. A man with no memory of he was and who talked like he had escaped from a Renaissance fair.
My eyes narrowed as I stared through the darkness at my oak dresser. Since he was the only person I knew for a fact had probably come through that portal, I would start with him. What fairytale might a blind nobleman or prince belong to?
A vague memory fluttered in the corner of my mind. I had read something like that once, I thought. Fortunately, I didn’t have to rely on my memory.
Reaching over to my nightstand, I snagged my phone and brought up a browser. Typing in ‘fairytale with blind prince’, I hit search. I expected to filter through half a dozen stories at least, but to my surprise, there was only one major story in which the prince was blinded.
The fairytale about Rapunzel.
Specifically, the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel.
I wrinkled my nose as I skimmed through the outline. Well, parts of this didn’t seem quite that romantic. Perhaps there was more to the story.
But anyway, Cedric had to be the prince from Rapunzel’s fairytale. If he wasn’t…well, I wasn’t sure who else he could be.
I spent a few more minutes poking around the internet, asking different questions and trying to see if I could bring up anything else. But everything boiled down to Rapunzel’s story and Rapunzel’s story alone.
No, Cedric had to be Rapunzel’s prince.
Excitement fluttered in the pit of my stomach. Now, all I had to do was somehow get him to realize that.
In all the excitement of curling back up under my blankets and plotting ways to possibly break Cedric’s curse, I forgot to ask myself another question: if Rapunzel’s prince was here, where was Rapunzel?
Chapter
Forty-Seven
The realization that I had forgotten about Rapunzel dawned on me at breakfast the next morning. I’d woken up early, too excited to sleep. Halfway through a piece of buttered toast and a fried egg, it occurred to me that I had no idea if Rapunzel was here or not.
My fork froze on its way to my mouth. Would I break Cedric’s curse only for him to remain here in Starhaven without the love of his life?
Well. I blinked down at my half-finished piece of toast. I assumed Rapunzel was the love of his life. Fairytales are, after all, a little short on depth and true feelings and long on hormonal love at first sight.
Grabbing my phone, I pulled up the fairytale again and read through it again, a little slower than I had at two AM this morning. If the Grimms’ version was the right fairytale, his Rapunzel would have twins.
Twins. I jolted in shock, nearly knocking my coffee mug over. The only person in Starhaven I had met so far who had twins was Zel. Was it possible? She was a single mom with twins.
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I realized how insane I sounded.
“Just because she’s a single mom with twins does not mean she’s Rapunzel under a curse,” I told myself out loud. “Plus, she doesn’t have super long hair.”
But she wouldn’t, whispered a voice in my mind. Not now.
My eyes dropped back to my phone screen. I read through the rest of the fairytale, even more slowly, and then leaned back in my chair, the rest of my breakfast completely forgotten. No, Rapunzel didn’t have long hair at the end of the story. The old witch chopped her hair off before she cast Rapunzel out into the wilderness—and then she used Rapunzel’s hair to set a trap for the prince.
Zel had short golden blonde hair—but that still didn’t mean anything…did it?
I bit my lip. Oh, boy. I could picture it now—if I started asking Zel questions about Rapunzel and indicated I thought she was a character from a fairytale, she would think I had absolutely lost my mind.
The worst part was that if was wrong…she’d be right.
I took a deep, bracing breath. What was I going to do? All I had was speculation. Crazy speculation. Surely there were other young women in this town who had blonde hair and twins.
Absently, I tapped my leg. Where do I start? According to the fairytale, the prince never knew he had children until after he found Rapunzel again. Do I try to find Rapunzel first? Or do I see if Cedric is the prince?
Another, far more dire, thought occurred to me. Say Zel really was Rapunzel and Cedric really was her prince. If they were both cursed, would they even recognize each other if they did see each other again?
I blew out a frustrated breath. There really wasn’t a safe way to get them together, either. I mean, I couldn’t just drag Zel and her children to meet up with a strange man without any explanation. That wouldn’t be right.
I tried to brainstorm other options. Could I casually take her into the antique store with me? (I completely dismissed the fact that I wasn’t welcome there, as far as Dave was concerned) That was a possibility, wasn’t it?
All at once, it hit me what I was doing. Propping my elbows on the table, I buried my head in my hands. You’re losing it, Celia. I told myself. Absolutely losing it.
This was bonkers. Here I was, contemplating running around Starhaven and asking people if they were characters from a fairytale. On the word of an old lady I hadn’t known very long.
On paper, it did sound bonkers. But… I blew out another breath. Call me a romantic, but if there was a cursed, amnesiac Rapunzel living in Starhaven, the idea of breaking the curse and reuniting her with her prince was really appealing.
And not just reuniting them, but reuniting their family. Didn’t their children deserve to have both parents in their lives, if at all possible?
Swallowing, I fixed a few strands of hair that had slipped out of my ponytail. Well, when you came right down to it, most of the town already thought I was nuts. And I didn’t know most people here anyway.
What did it matter if half of Starhaven decided I was a little crazier than they’d expected? I thought about Dave and his perpetually sour expression. At least I was the nice kind of crazy.
Somehow, that thought did not comfort me as much as I thought it should have.
Chapter
Forty-Eight
The idea of whether I should approach Cedric or Zel first tortured me for the rest of the day, overnight, and well into the following morning. Finally, I made up my mind. I’d start with trying to find Rapunzel.
And that meant starting with Zel.
Because she was still the only young, short-haired, blonde, single mom of twins that I knew in this town.
To that end, I sent Zel a text, inviting her to have pizza from Tam’s and a picnic in the park after work that evening. I even brought a sheet for the children to play on. It hadn’t taken much convincing. Tam’s pizza was that good—and Zel needed some conversation with another adult who wasn’t her new boss.
So, here I was on a Friday evening, sitting cross-legged on a cheerful watermelon print sheet I’d spread out on the park grass. It was an absolutely perfect evening—warm and breezy without being either overly hot or humid. A boxed pizza waited temptingly to one side of the sheet. I’d brought a couple paper plates and a few napkins, as well as several cold cans of Dr. Pepper. Zel and I both liked that soft drink.
When I caught sight of Zel pushing her stroller up the sidewalk towards the park, I waved. She was wearing another of her favorite flowery skirts, and her shoulder-length blonde hair fluttered in the breeze. Rowan and Rosalie smiled and clapped in their stroller as Zel pushed it toward the grass where I sat.
I had positioned myself so I could keep the clearing in view. I don’t know why, I just felt like I needed to keep an eye on it. That meant I was in the perfect position to see Zel freeze for a second as she came across the grass and her gaze caught the trees concealing the clearing.
A very peculiar kind of shudder traveled over her body, but it was over in an instant and then she carried on as though nothing that happened. Had Maddie not completely piqued my curiosity, I wouldn’t have been paying close enough attention to her to have even noticed.
Now, I thought ruefully, I’m probably in danger of reading too much into everything.
“Hi,” Zel said a little breathlessly, as she maneuvered the stroller up to the watermelon sheet and stopped.
“Hey.” I smiled at her and nodded toward the stroller. “Can I help you?”
