Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2), Lan Chan [readict TXT] 📗

said we’d be going shopping in Rivia with Sophie’s dad. Even Astrid didn’t seem that interested.

“Why?” she’d said. “I love my father, but I would rather not have his opinion on what I wear.”

She didn’t know the half of it. Apparently, Mani thought of himself as some kind of wardrobe whisperer. The only problem was that his idea of cool kind of died in the sixties. When the words “shoulder pads” came out of his mouth, I think Sophie actually shed a tear. We banished him to the food pavilion where he could watch us enter and exit stores but couldn’t give his two cents.

He grumbled but complied. Sophie dragged me through the main Rivia thoroughfare. “I wish we could have gone to France,” she said. “I hear the shopping there is much better.”

“Calm down, missy. A week ago, you didn’t even want to go to this thing.”

She hiked through the shops and manoeuvred around pedestrians with more stealth than I’d seen her perform in Weaponry and Combat. Clearly when she set her mind to something she could be as focused as Nora.

I saw the elegant black script of the store she was heading for well before we arrived. The shopfront looked like it could very well have come out of a French magazine. There was a climbing rose trailing over one side of the window. As we got closer, what I thought were ornaments dangling from the branches turned out to be roses. Black roses.

“That’s impossible,” I said.

“Nothing is impossible for Madame Familiar.”

She ushered me inside. I felt decidedly out of place in my usual getup. There was a smudge on my knee from where I’d been kneeling in the dirt that morning. I’d only ever glanced inside boutiques like this. In Melbourne, these stores usually looked so cold and stark. In here, the lighting was provided by a candlelit chandelier. More votive candles had been placed along the windowsill.

There weren’t many people in the store, but it was one of those places you didn’t really walk into unless you had some place to go.

“Stunning, isn’t it?” Sophie said.

I had pulled my arms behind my back so I couldn’t touch any of the gowns on the few mannequins. Apart from those clothes, there was nothing else in this part of the store. I tried to look for a price tag on any of the clothes, but I didn’t find anything.

“Hello there,” a petite blonde said. She walked out from the back in a pair of ballet flats that made no noise. Her legs were sculpted in tight-fitting black jeans. She wore a matching long-sleeved black turtleneck. There was a single red apple pin that kept the bangs of her bob out of her eyes. She saw Sophie and winked.

“Back again!” she said. She turned to me. “I’m Madame Familiar. But you may call me Celine.”

“Lex.”

Her face spasmed. “You have a boy’s name.”

I got that a lot. She was so fabulous I couldn’t really feel offended. Sophie flushed with pleasure. “We’ve been invited to a party in Seraphina.”

Celine clapped her hands. “Well, then you’re going to need something spectacular.”

“I’m thinking flowing,” Sophie said.

Celine paused. She glanced at Sophie and then up and down at me. “No. You want to stand out. Gowns are a dime a dozen in Seraphina. We need something with colour for you. Something structured.”

She went into the back of the store. Sophie threw her arms in the air and spun around in a circle. “You’re awfully excited for someone who isn’t really into this!” I said.

She shook my arms. “We’re in a beautiful store being attended to. You have a manna card with no limit in your pocket. Can you appreciate the situation a bit, please?”

“I do appreciate it,” I said. This was why I was standing there like a robot. I was terrified I’d ruin something.

Celine came back out with a black dress. It had a peach-coloured poppy motif on it. The flowers were huge so that the pattern didn’t look biddy. It was cut with a V-neck and had a cinched waist. The skirt flared and would sit just below Sophie’s knees. Sophie swallowed.

“It’s stunning,” she said.

“Try it on.”

Sophie grabbed the dress and raced into the change room. That left me alone with Celine. The dressmaker wasn’t all that much taller than me. She managed to pull off effortless grace. I was the poster girl for lazy comfort.

“Very small,” she said, inspecting me like a prized pig. Or a runt in this case. “Any requirements?”

I was about to say no when I remembered what Kai had said. The thought made me grin. I was sure he was kidding. Now I wanted to do it just to see his reaction. “Short,” I said.

Celine raised a brow. “In Seraphina?”

“Yes. Unless it’s against the rules or something.”

She laughed. “There is no such thing with fashion.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be fashionable if it was going to get me thrown in Nephilim prison again. But she was already walking away.

Sophie came out of the dressing room. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The dress made her waist look tiny. By comparison her boobs looked massive. Max was going to have a heart attack. “You look incredible!”

“My, don’t we clean up very nicely,” Celine said. She came sweeping over to us. She had a slip of pale cream in her arms. “Thoughts, darling?”

“I love it!” Sophie said. She brushed her arms over the skirt. The material was a heavy satin type. It bounced right back.

“Shall I box it up for you?”

That’s when Sophie hesitated. I remembered how crazily expensive these dresses were. I also had a manna card in my pocket. “Yes, please,” I said. When Sophie glanced at me, I smiled. “On Kai!”

Celine waved the slip of material at me. “Where’s the rest of it?” I said.

Her laugh was silky like her clothing. “I defy you not to love this.”

“I defy you to see it.”

She pushed me into the dressing room. Thankfully Sophie had made