Page 40 of Midnight Salvation

Ash:And what am I supposed to do with this erection.

I snapped a quick photo of my hand and sent it to him.

Me:I believe it’s called the five-finger shuffle.

I finished it with three little blowing kiss emojis.

Ash:Damn right you’ll be blowing me later.

A smile curved my lips before I bit down on them. I definitely should have tried this sexting sooner.

Harold emerged from his workshop when he heard the buzzer in the display room. “There you are!” He engulfed me in a hug and swayed me from side to side. Over the past few months, we’d talked quite a bit about designs and he’d become a bit of a mentor to me.

“How are you, Harold?”

“Better for seeing you here. Now, who is this delightful creature? She is too similar to you not to be one of your sisters.” He beamed at Catarina.

“This is my sister Catarina. She’s only here today because we promised her shoes.”

His laughter boomed around us. “Then we must sort our business out before you’re taken away on that very important task.”

Catarina wandered off, staring into the display cases, her eyes wide at all the shiny things for her to see.

“Your last design was very masculine,” I said, stopping to admire the suit of armour that sat out the back in his work area. “I thought this time, you should try a different theme.”

“What are you thinking?” Harold sat at his computer and indicated that I sit down.

I retrieved the pad from my bag and flipped to my sketches. The elaborate bodice was created from a central golden column that ran from between the breasts to the pelvic bone with a crown at the top and a floral pattern at the bottom. Delicate swirls and flowers formed almost a totem pole along that central column. Two golden ropes created arches from the pattern at the pelvic bone over the hips to the back. Two golden braids were between the main column and the hip arches, and joined the rigid cups of the bra that circled the breasts. I may have pinched a little inspiration from a golden bikini in a film. The straps were an intricate pattern that formed almost a web of chains to lie across the shoulders. Gemstones enhanced every piece of the design, and the panels at the front were created in a deep, almost black metal with runes carved onto it.

“What the hell is this?” Harold said slowly.

I almost blanched back at his tone until I looked at his face. He was staring at the sketch, his finger tracing over the design.

“It would never have occurred to me to do something like this,” he continued.

“Every knight needs a lady at his side to give him a favour,” I muttered. I’d read too many historical romances when I was younger. “I haven’t gotten around to sorting out her trousers, since I wanted to get your opinion on this.”

“I love it,” Harold said. “A knight and his lady for the final. I doubt anyone else will think of it.”

“You could use deep amethyst on the main structural elements to accentuate her corset, and we’d need to try and work out how to fasten it at the back…” My voice trailed off because he was staring at me and I hated when people did that. It left me shy and tongue-tied.

“You’re a genius,” Harold said, standing to drag me into another bear hug that left me with bruised ribs. “Now come and help me start to upload this into my computer so I can work on the design.”

Catarina was delighted when Harold asked her to be our model, measuring her to input the data into his design. It dragged her out of her low mood, and she started to make suggestions for the design. If anyone knew about fashion, it was my sister.

The minutes ticked past into hours, until we were finished. We searched flower meanings to get the right floral patterns that represented strength and a warrior spirit. The crown had diamonds placed on it to be the highlight of the piece, and the other end of the central column now looked like a tree with rubies dotted through it, reminiscent of an apple tree and the forbidden fruit on it.

“It reminds me of the crown and root chakra,” Catarina said, which led to another round of edits to incorporate the chakras from the base to the crown.

“She’ll need a headpiece,” Harold mused. “Something fierce but feminine.”

“I’ll work on it over the next few days. It’ll take you a while to sort all this out with the intricacies.”

He nodded happily, caught up in the creation process. “You must come back and model it for us,” he said to Catarina.

My sister lit up like a firework and I realised how miserable she’d been lately. When was the last time she smiled like that? I vowed to speak to Ash about her when I next saw him.

Harold stored my zip drive to upload my other designs into his system later. There was no point in annoying him now that he was in his zone. I couldn’t wait to see the creation when it was made.

---