Page 10 of Bitten By the Basilisk

“Where did what go?”

“I think I saw a hitodama,” she said, scanning the room.

“Oh?” Mom fully opened the door. “The town’s rife with all sorts of ghost lights and will-o’-the-wisps, although they tend to stay outdoors. I can’t say I’ve seen one in the spa.”

“Is that bad?” she asked, aware that ghost lights were sometimes mischievous.

Mom shrugged. “Not necessarily. It simply might have been curious. I’ll have my staff keep an eye out.”

Alice followed her mom to a massage room where a nice werewolf named Lisa worked the tension out of her lower back. Her mom then returned to do her facial, utilizing cleansers, scrubs, serums, and moisturizers that were all witch-made and far more effective than any wallet-denting human-made product.

“I really like how this one smells,” she murmured as her mom applied a cooling mousse to her face.

“Aloe and cucumber. We sell a lot of this stuff. Almost can’t keep it stocked.”

“So, business is good?”

“It is,” Mom said, a smile in her voice. “I just miss my daughter.”

A hollow feeling opened up in her chest. “I miss you, too.”

“You know, Kenji is single.”

She let out a sigh of frustration. “Mom.”

“What, you don’t like horns?”

“He’s very handsome.” Not a lie. Kenji was a hunk. “He’s also not the One.”

“Neither was your dad, and he still made me very happy.”

But then we lost him.

Would Dad still be alive if the red thread had linked him to Mom? Would it have somehow protected him? Had he died because Mom had chosen him when fate hadn’t?

Alice never said such things aloud, but she imagined her mom had wondered the same.

“If you move here, you could get back into art,” Mom then suggested.

Alice sighed. “I realize rent is cheaper here, but selling the occasional painting is far from enough.”

“You could live with me,” her mom happily countered.

She held up her arms in an X of refusal. “Absolutely not.”

“All right, all right,” Mom said good-naturedly, nudging her to put her arms down. “Have you settled on plans for this week?”

Hallowe’en Week was a busy time of year for the spa, as it always brought a surge of normie tourists seeking to treat themselves to a hot soak or massage in between any of the town’s planned events and activities, meaning Alice would be fending for herself most days. Mom would be busy with technical and dress rehearsals, then back-to-back showings of a one-hour stage play about another of Indigo Cove’s local legends—the Undrowned Pirate.

They chatted about all that she might see and do in town and then made plans to meet up whenever her mom had a gap in her schedule.

“But just so you know, I won’t mind if you ditch me to go have fun with a new friend,” Mom said, her tone teeming with innuendo. “Kenji isn’t the only good-looking supe in town.”

Alice cringed. “Oh my god, Mom.”

“All I ask is that you let me know if you decide to spend the night somewhere else. Otherwise, I’ll worry.”

“Please stop talking to me about this,” she begged, earning a giggle.