Nothing.
“Roy?”
Still nothing.
It was the weirdest thing I’d ever experienced. The absence wasn't empty. It was wrong. Like screaming into a canyon and realizing there should have been an echo...but there wasn't.
Looking at Maeve and Theresa, I let the first thing that came to mind fly from my lips. “Well, fuck!”
As both women’s eyes opened so wide, there was more white than color; I had a thought. “YES!”
Shoving my right hand into the back pocket of my jeans, I growled, “Where the hell is that thing?”
Spinning toward the bar in the coffee shop so quickly that everything was a blur, I slapped the high-polished wood with the flat of my hand and ground out, “Where in all that’s holy is my phone?”
“In your hand,” Maeve huffed.
Turning on her, I got as far as, “No, it is…,” When I saw the bright pink device in my left hand.
“Oh,” I breathed.
Then, before Maeve could go into her rant about how I needed to be taking every vitamin, mineral, and supplement, I hit the speed dial for my bestie, the next Witch in line to be the Baba Yaga, and put it to my ear. For what seemed like the millionth time, the damn thing was ringing.
But this time I got an answer.
“If this is another emergency involving glitter, sequins, or a hot glue gun, I quit,” the petite redhead with enough Magic to power every light for Christmas in July and keep them bright until December twenty-fifth huffed.
“Kai's gone.” Two words that broke my heart to say.
“I'm coming.”
There were no questions. No hesitation. Zelda was a true friend. She was the one person who knew all my secrets because she had been there when most of them were created.
Holding up the phone and giving a fist pump, I shouted, “She’s coming!” And headed for the door.
Racing outside, my left foot hit the welcome mat with Martha’s Brew House & Bougie Bags in pink and white letters; my right foot was just about to follow suit, and I was half-turned with my hand out to grab the handle and pull the door shut. Not even waiting for the ringing of the bell hanging from the frame, both feet were on the mat, and I was taking off when a flash of light gray fur flashed to my right.
But I didn’t have time to stop. Zelda was on the way, and we were going to find Kai.
We had to find Kai.
Moving at a high rate of speed, well, fast for me, I literally got half a step when my tummy hit something immovable. The bottom half of me came to a screeching halt. My top half kept going.
My life flashed before my eyes.
My face was heading for the asphalt.
I could see it all playing out. I saw my big, swollen, broken nose, my two black eyes, my fat lip, and all of it immortalized in the ten thousand and three wedding pictures I planned to have taken. No, it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened.
Yes, it was in the top ten.
And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it but tuck and roll.
Everything flipped to slow motion. A red haze fell over my eyes. The shit was about to hit the fan, and my boobs were too big to properly tuck and roll.
But dammit all to Hell, I was gonna try.
Chin to chest, arms crossed over my face, I shrieked like my cousin the Banshee as my feet left the ground. Trying with all my might to get my knees to my chest, I vowed to start exercising and maybe eat one less blueberry cake donut a day when things went sideways, upside-down, topsy-turvy, and higgledy-piggledy.
