Page 45 of Bitten By the Basilisk

Nic swept his gaze over her, then nodded. “I’ll send you some options.”

Her heart squeezed. She had accepted that procuring an evening gown on short notice presented little difficulty for a wealthy shifter in a town full of magic, but Silas’s unhesitating willingness to do so sent another thrill through her middle.

“Someone will also need to pick her up,” Silas said.

“I can manage that,” Bruno volunteered.

“Is someone going to take her back to the spa first?” Alice interjected. “She does have other plans today.”

And work to get done, she added in a morose internal mutter.

Nic made a sound in his throat that she suspected was a laugh.

“I’ll gladly drive you back, kitten,” Silas said, staring evenly at Nic before meeting her gaze with a lopsided smile. “We’ll leave as soon as I’m dressed and caffeinated.”

“No breakfast?” Bruno asked with a disappointed frown.

Silas’s eyes swayed toward Bruno but quickly returned to her. “Are you hungry?”

Even though she would happily devour a slice or two of toast with jam, she shook her head to eliminate the possibility that Silas would spend thirty minutes making something more complicated when she had work to do—and emotional distance to cultivate.

“Find some leftovers,” Silas told Bruno, releasing her. He headed toward the hall, presumably to go get dressed. “We’re late as it is, aren’t we?”

Alice fought back a smile at Bruno’s petulant grumble as he turned to jerk open the fridge and stick his head inside. Nic meanwhile prepared three more cups of coffee. They chatted while she finished hers and while Bruno ate from a big container of reheated pasta coated in a red sauce.

As she’d presumed, they were the two friends whom Silas had fed his cooking, which Bruno clearly continued to enjoy. It did smell really good. Nic and Bruno had been born a year after Silas and were closest to him in age out of everyone in the nest. Their familiarity with him and his home spoke to their friendship and loyalty.

Alice wanted to ask what Nic had been talking about earlier with Silas, but she sensed Nic would tell her to ask Silas directly.

“You two must have run into each other at Renart last night,” Nic observed, leaning on the island, his fingers gripping the handle of his cup.

“We did,” she confirmed. “But, by coincidence, we saw each other earlier as well, when I first arrived in town. I admit that I was…drawn to him even then. I could tell he was a shifter, but not what kind.”

Nic hummed pensively. “How soon did you learn he’s our Basilisk?”

He’s probing, she realized. “Not until hours into our night together, after he’d already asked to see each other again.”

“You didn’t suspect it earlier?”

“Stop it, Nic,” Bruno said, his cheeks full of food.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Nic retorted.

Bruno continued speaking anyway, his attention now on Alice. “Nic’s just trying to look out for him. Power and wealth tend to attract the wrong sort.”

“I get it,” she said, starting to understand why Nic had been cautioning Silas. “Once he admitted who he was, I told him it would be best if we parted ways, but…”

She took a deep breath, recalling what had happened after she had mentioned their lack of a red thread. Her cheeks warmed as the reflected image of his powerful body slamming into her flashed before her mind’s eye. “He…managed to persuade me.”

Bruno snorted, still chewing but smiling slightly. Nic nodded slowly as he brushed his thumb along the handle of his mug, regarding her with less suspicion than a moment ago.

Her phone buzzed then. She picked it up to check her messages.

Booooo, her mom had texted, emphasizing her disappointment with several frowning emojis. Her next message read, Yes, we’ll meet at home first.

Alice smiled as she sent back a thumbs-up.

Silas reappeared then, this time wearing a black dress shirt with an open collar that exposed the dip in his throat as well as a gold pendant necklace. His shirt was neatly tucked into black slacks secured with a thin belt, the sleeves folded up to show off the pronounced veins in his forearms.