Page 99 of Bitten By the Basilisk

Could that be the reason for Alice’s new power? Was their kitsune ancestor out there somewhere with a brand-new tail?

Yōko’s face appeared in her mind.

“Speaking of kitsune…” Alice hadn’t yet told her mom everything she’d learned the last time she had spoken to Yōko, so she took the opportunity to do so. While Mom was intrigued to learn Yōko was a three-tailed fox, what shocked her more was learning that Alice could not see her own red thread of fate.

“Sweetie, if that’s true, then—” Mom reached across the table to take her hand. “Silas could be the One, right?”

“So, about that…” Alice raised her cup to her lips and downed its contents in one go. Once the slight sting faded, she explained what had happened after she used her power for the first time in that private garage, sans all the kissing.

Lance crashing their arrival at the Nest, issuing his challenge, threatening Silas’s life, and another serpent-folk—Basilisk Conrad—revealing Silas’s father had barely survived his battle against Lance, something Silas had kept from her.

“This Lance guy sounds like a real piece of work,” her mom said, frowning as she poured more sake into Alice’s cup. Alice made sure to reciprocate. “When Gabriel Stone announced his retirement two years ago, I do remember something about him barely fending off a challenger. He didn’t visit the spa for almost two months.”

Alice ended by describing her final conversation with Silas, including what he’d said about there being signs they were connected by a red thread.

“Hmm. Can I see what he meant about the photos?” her mom asked.

Alice nearly choked on her next swallow of sake. “Um, so… They’re kind of…intimate?”

The way her mom froze and her eyes widened would’ve been comical if Alice weren’t so pinched with embarrassment. “How badly do you want my opinion, I guess?”

In the end, Alice decided to hand over the print, then hid her face, preferring not to see her mom’s reaction.

After a few agonizingly quiet seconds, Mom cleared her throat. “Uh, would you say this line is the right color?”

“It’s…pretty close,” she admitted into her palms.

“Honestly, either of you could be right.” Mom slid the print back to her—face down. Alice quickly put it away. “You could go back and use the photo booth again on your own,” she then suggested. “See if the printing error happens again.”

“That’s a good idea. I need to go back to the glassworks anyway and pick up the pieces I made.”

Once Mom found out Alice hadn’t eaten dinner, she brought out crackers, cheese, and blueberries and made Alice eat until she was satisfied. By then, Alice was on her fourth shot of sake and feeling much calmer.

“Did you tell Silas about not being able to see your own thread?” Mom asked, stealing one of her blueberries.

Alice shook her head.

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t want to give him false hope.”

“Is it false, though?”

“I…guess not, no.”

“I suppose I just find it interesting that you kept that a secret, and yet you were upset to learn he still had a secret of his own.”

Alice let out a deep sigh. The same had occurred to her when she was in the middle of sobbing into her pillow.

“How did you feel when you learned Gabriel Stone nearly lost his life fighting Lance?”

She didn’t need long to answer. “Terrified. I realized Silas could die tomorrow and….”

“You don’t want to lose him,” Mom said, her voice soft, her message poignant.

Alice closed her eyes, willing them to stop stinging. “Yeah. I don’t want to lose him.”

She and her mom stayed up late talking, eventually finishing the sake. Mom planned to reschedule her appointments tomorrow so she and Alice could spend the day together, at least until she had to be back at the community center.