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I moved from the chair to sit beside her on the bed.

“I’ve been trying so hard to keep you safe that I haven’t always stopped to see what you’re ready to learn. There are still going to be things I won’t let you do. Some of the materials and tools I used professionally aren’t appropriate for you, and I’m going to be careful about what you work with. But I can teach you how to draw, sculpt, make costumes, and create special effects without putting you in danger.”

She looked at me with more interest than she’d shown since we left the festival.

“Even monsters?”

I smiled.

“Especially monsters. I’ve made enough of them that I’d better be able to teach you something.”

That finally earned a small laugh.

I put my arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against me.

For a while we sat together, looking at the drawings spread across her lap.

Then she flipped toward the back of the book and held out a page.

It showed the Bride of Frankenstein.

She’d drawn a pale face with dark shading beneath the eyes, black hair swept upward with white streaks through the sides, and a crooked line of stitches along one cheek.

Beneath the face she’d sketched a full costume, using the dress we’d already bought as the starting point.

“I wanted to do this tonight,” she said quietly. “I wasn’t going to use real blood or anything gross. I just wanted the makeup to look like it belonged on her.”

I studied the drawing.

The hairstyle would take some work, and we’d need proper makeup. The stitched scar was ambitious, but there was no reason we couldn’t create the illusion with skin-safe cosmetics.

“Then how about we see whether we can make it?”

Sienna stared at me.

“You mean it?”

“I mean it. We’ll need to get a few supplies, and I want to check what we’re using before anything goes on your face. But I think we can do a pretty convincing Bride of Frankenstein.”

She launched herself into my arms so suddenly that I nearly fell off the bed.

I hugged her tightly, laughing when she squeezed my neck.

“Thank you, Dad!”

“You’re welcome. Although if you expect me to get that hairstyle right on the first try, you might be disappointed.”

She drew back with a grin.

“Goldie knows how to do hair.”

I smiled despite the ache that came with hearing her name.

“She does. But I think we ought to see what the two of us can manage first.”

The drugstore still had a decent selection of Halloween makeup, although the shelves had been picked over by people making last-minute costume decisions.

Sienna helped me choose a small palette of washable theatrical colors, a pair of cosmetic brushes, a sponge, and two white hair extensions that could be clipped into her dark hair. We checked the products together before buying them.