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I shook my head. “Believe me, I’m not from around here. I dropped through a hole in the sky a week ago.”
The older woman’s eyebrows slowly raised. “I see, then that rumor at least, was true.”
“Rumor?” he repeated.
“Of a dark portal appearing above the city in the middle of the day. The sisters and I feared the worst, and many prayers were to be had in the days preceding the event.” She gave me a smile. “I’m glad to see that the portal brought only good tidings.”
I gave her a sheepish grin. “Well, I can’t guarantee I won’t run amok every now and then, but the stick is safe with me.”
She blinked at me. “The stick?”
“The Prima Staff,” Ben explained as he nodded at the canister on my left arm. “She discovered it in her world and it’s what brought her to ours.”
“I see,” she mused as she dropped her attention to the container. “That would explain the powerful aura I feel from her arm.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “But if memory serves, wasn’t the staff much larger?”
“I forget to take it out of my pocket before tossing it into the wash.”
She chuckled. “I see. The last few days must have been eventful for you both, if one is to take the stories true.”
Ben nodded. “If those stories involve the House of Gaspar and the Shroud, along with the disappearance of Victor Dunn, then yes.”
Her twinkling eyes flickered between us. “How very interesting. You two must have grown quite close during such adventures.”
“Mother. . .” Ben warned her.
She sighed. “Can a mother not hope to have a grandchild over her knee?”
“We came here for a story, not a wedding,” he reminded her.
Her bright expression slipped into gloom as she cast a questioning look at her son. “Of course. Where shall I begin?”
“At the beginning, and don’t spare the explanation. She knows about my hobby.”
CHAPTERFOUR
I snorted.“Only that you like to dress up in a lot of black and go wandering around the city at night with wings on your back.”
A ghost of a smile touched her lips, and she leaned toward me and lowered her voice a little. “He is rather dramatic, isn’t he?”
“The subject at hand, Mother,” Ben lightly scolded her.
Sofia dropped back into her chair and sighed. “Very well. My family-that is, the Rookwoods, have, since time immemorial, shown a distinct skill in using magic of all sorts. Element, shadow, children’s parlor tricks. Nothing had been done that hadn’t been done by my bloodline.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “What can you do?”
A sly smile curled onto her lips before she raised one hand with the palm turned upward. The tapestry I had so admired shuddered before the thousands of strands pulled themselves forward, stretching out the scene as a three-dimensional view. The ropes around the edges mingled together and crafted themselves into a cloth carriage that rolled down the driveway and up to the door.
My mouth hung open so far that my jaw began to ache. I snapped it shut as the scene folded back to what it was before, an innocent-looking tapestry.
Sofia set her hand back in her lap and her eyes twinkled at me. “As you can see, I have the ability to bend objects to my will.”
I could hardly dig myself out of my stupor. “All objects?”
She chuckled. “No. Only small ones like cloth and fabrics.” She nodded at her son. “Ben here showed a unique proficiency at bending shadows to his will.”
I cocked my head to one side. “What kind of control?”
Sofia smiled at him and used a hand to gesture to him. “Show her.”
