There I was, outside Deep Cuts, a cosy salon with black-and-white tiling and a dramatic chandelier that gleamed in the sunlight that streamed in through the huge front windows. The salon was helmed by Pandora, a stunning older goth woman with a blunt-cut fringe and crisp eye makeup that surely took hours to apply every morning. Or night, given that I was pretty sure Pandora was nocturnal.
A green-eyed black cat by the front door meowed a greeting as I entered, ducking my head to try to hide my wayward hair. Siouxsie and the Banshees played softly on an old record player, and rows of candles glowed softly in one corner. The shop smelled of incense and freshly ground coffee, and Iinstantly felt at home. I’d only ever had one haircut here – the time Lara and I, at thirteen, had decided that bleaching our hair in the bathtub and then colouring it with permanent markers was a good idea – but I’d tagged along a few times while Rosie had her roots touched up. I loved listening to her and Pandora chat, and the smell of the salon had always put me at ease.
‘Hey there, Molly!’ Pandora, who was on the phone while sweeping up after her previous client, waggled bejewelled fingernails at me. ‘One second.’
She went back to her call. ‘I’ve never had that happen with the serum before, Anita. Stop by and I’ll replace it with a fresh one. We’ll get that frizz sorted out.’
She rang off, then turned her attention back to me. ‘Sorry about that. Apparently I messed up the hex on my serum bottles. There’s a first time for everything, I suppose. Oh, but you’re a vision, aren’t you? Just the spitting image of your parents – and they’re both stunners.’
I flushed, spinning Josephine’s ring awkwardly on my finger.
‘Nice ring,’ said Pandora, gesturing for me to sit down on the middle of the three vintage black chairs facing a series of ornately framed mirrors. The chair spun slightly as I settled into it.
‘It’s definitely a curiosity,’ I said, glancing down at the ring with its three darkened moonstones. The other stones remained bright and shimmery, at least.
‘Magical?’
I nodded. ‘It seems to have a vested interest in my love life. In fact, I’m pretty sure it had something to do with this.’
I untied the scarf with a grimace, revealing my head of frizz in all its glory.
‘Wow.’ Pandora’s thin eyebrows arched in bemusement. ‘Although, the Bride of Frankenstein look isn’t terrible on you. Yours is the bone structure that launched a thousand ships.’
‘Thanks. I’m not quite sure what we’re dealing with here,’ I admitted, regarding myself in the multiple mirrors, all of which reflected an incredibly flattering version of myself back at me. Yes, even with the wild hair. This was Pandora’s magic: she always brought out your inner beauty. Mostly by making any haircut look good, even if you were the type of person whose idea of styling was going to bed with wet hair and letting nature do its thing. (I.e. me. I was that type of person.)
‘Well, I’m here to help.’ Pandora touched my hair with a comb, as though to check it wasn’t going to zap her. ‘Do you have a preference for length? Colour? Style?’
‘Just not this,’ I said ruefully.
‘Understood.’ Pandora brought me some herbal tea in a delicate cup decorated with black blooms. I sipped gratefully, feeling its warmth spread through me. ‘So, do we know what triggered the magic burst that caused this?’
I sighed.
‘I’m trying to choose between two boys.’ I turned the cup in my hand, feeling the gentle sparkle of the charm its maker had infused into it. It was probably from All Fired Up, the pottery studio behind The Scoop.
‘Only two?’ Pandora winked. ‘I’d expect at least four.’
I grimaced. ‘Four sounds stressful. Two is plenty.’
‘So, a love triangle, hmm?’ Pandora took a brush and began gently combing my frizzy locks, her magic going to work counteracting the spell from last night. ‘Now this is the stuff of great literature.’
‘I’d prefer to be reading about it than living it.’ I set down my teacup on the tray on the shelf in front of me. ‘Anyway, they’re both aware, and things are getting complicated.’
Pandora lifted the ends of my hair, regarding it thoughtfully. ‘They both have magic, hmm?’
I nodded. ‘There’s a lot of it in the air right now.’
‘I bet.’ Pandora chuckled. ‘Let’s do a wash, shall we? I think a charmed rinse can handle the worst of it.’
She rolled me over towards the back of the salon, tilting my head back against the padded sink.
‘So, tell me about this ring,’ said Pandora, as the warm water coursed over my scalp. My skin tingled as Pandora’s gentle magic went to work undoing the spell that had caused the frizz.
‘I dug it out from the sand near the Heart Tree – I guess it was calling to me somehow.AndI found the owner’s diary at The Last Word.’
‘Talk about fate.’
I nodded, marvelling at how Pandora was somehow managing to wash my hair without getting water in my ears. Unlike pretty much every other hairdresser I’d visited over the years.
