Page 98 of Bitten By the Basilisk

“That red line on the side,” he said in a low voice, entering her space. “Is that also a coincidence?”

He didn’t need to look at her print, having stared at his so long he could summon each image at will. Instead, he watched her expression—her gaze as it traced the red line, her parted lips, which she pressed together before swallowing.

“I’m sure it’s just a printing error,” she said as she stashed it in her bag, not sounding terribly convinced.

“Kitten,” he rasped. “Don’t leave. Please.”

She closed her eyes, took a calming breath, then lifted her gaze to meet his. “I challenge you to give me space, Silas. Do you accept?”

How could his heart hurt so much when there was hole where it should be? “For how long?”

She briefly considered. “Until the full moon rises.”

“Can I at least text you?”

Again, a short pause wherein her brows tightened. “Don’t expect me to reply.”

Silas didn’t argue, understanding she could have said no. “Very well. Challenge accepted,” he said with a somber nod. “Bruno, do you mind giving her a ride back?”

Nic and Bruno had hardly moved a muscle, both silently witnessing what felt like the worst moment of his life.

“Yeah, no problem, Boss.” Bruno dug into his hoodie pocket and took out his keys. The lights of his car flashed. “Right over here.”

“Thank you,” Alice murmured, moving to follow him.

She didn’t tell Silas not to open her door for her, so he did, hoping for a soft look, a touch, anything that might indicate she wasn’t about to exit his life forever.

That hope disappeared shortly after she got into her seat.

“If you see me again, it’ll be at the gala,” she said, reaching for the interior door handle, before looking up at him with a sad, uncertain expression. “Good night, Silas.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Alice

Alice managed to get inside her mom’s apartment before breaking down in tears, overwhelmed after all the revelations of the past hour or so.

She had realized she was in love with Silas. Paul had been fired, and she had been offered a big promotion. She had discovered she could summon fox fire!

By far, the biggest reason for her tears was learning that some psycho planned to murder Silas tomorrow, if he could, and that Silas would have let her show up to the mating gala not knowing that fact.

Once she had a good cry, she washed her face, drank some cold water, then sent her mom a carefully worded text. She didn’t want Mom to abandon the play and run home in a panic, but rather return as soon as she reasonably could.

When her mom arrived at around nine, she was all smiles, happy to see her when she’d been expecting Alice to be out until quite late. Then Mom saw Alice’s red-tinged, puffy eyes and instantly switched into Parental Mode.

Alice cried only a little as she recounted her highly eventful day. Silas’s courtship gift, the weird sensations while she was shaping hot glass, Silas leaving to respond to an instance of defenestration, Paul being fired, her promotion offer…

The mood turned joyful when she showed off her new power. Her mom cheered so loudly, jumping in excitement, that Alice was certain her voice reached the parking lot.

“Why did I discover this power now, and not as a kid?” she wondered a few moments later, idly spinning a small, empty cup that had contained a celebratory pour of sake.

Her mom sat across from her, still nursing her portion. She picked up the bottle sitting on the table between them and refilled Alice’s cup. “I once asked your grandpa if our ancestor might still be alive. He believed in his gut that she is.”

Their kitsune progenitor had left Grandpa with his human father, Alice’s great-grandfather, shortly after having him, and hadn’t been seen or heard from since.

Grandpa hadn’t been able to get the full truth out of him before his father had passed away of cancer, but he had suspected that their ancestor had foreseen his father’s death and left rather than endure it.

“He also believed that once she grew enough in wisdom to gain another tail and greater power,” Mom continued, “her descendants would likewise access more of her abilities.”