I stumble backward, and Sabine reaches out a hand to steady me. “You okay, Tansy?”
“Yeah… uh… I’m sorry… I have to…” I gesture to the other side of the room near the bar, not really pointing at anything as I veer away from the dance floor, needing to escape the things I want and can’t have.
I clamber up the rainbow stairs as fast as I can, kicking myself.
I thought a strategic path would work best—check each level carefully—but I need to start thinking like Mother Kadris. She’s as old as the hills. She wouldn’t waste her time bumping hips on a dance floor.
She would keep to the shadows.
I don’t kid myself that I’ll take her by surprise. She’ll sense me coming a mile away. I need to find her before she locates me first and puts me on my ass.
Taking a deep breath, I tell myself to put fear into action. It’s time to use my magic.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Istop halfway up the stairs, pretending to adjust my heels as I wait for the supernaturals behind me to pass.
Then I reach for one of the spells attached to my waist, passing my index finger across it as I cup it in my other palm.
At my touch, my golden handwriting appears.
I whisper the spell to myself: “Lovely ladybug locate the lost lady.”
The leaf curls and folds around on itself, reforming into the shape of a glowing crimson ladybug, its tiny transparent wings a glittering blur as it flits ahead of me.
I follow it with quick steps, reaching the second level loft that lines the perimeter of the building and opens to the dance floor below.
Massive cubes glow in each corner, and circular chairs line each side. To my immediate left, a pink cube, the size of a small room, glows iridescent. It’s pretty but takes up too much space to be a mere decoration. It’s large enough that I wonder if supernaturals are inside it.
I race after the ladybug as it zips to the right, passing a circular couch and two swing chairs—both occupied—before I approach the next corner cube, a purple one this time.
Striding along the row of soft-looking chairs that line the long edge of the building, I quickly assess the couples sitting in them. Mother Kadris is unlikely to be here with someone. A witch like her wouldn’t compromise herself with random dalliances.
I halt outside the next corner cube, which is a soft neon blue color. This one is open at the front, and I’m surprised to see that it has padded leather walls inside with a bed reaching all the way to the walls on each side. Colorful pillows are scattered across the bed’s surface. It confirms my suspicion that the purple one is closed because someone is inside it. Given the number of couples sucking each other’s tongues nearby, I’m surprised this one is empty.
I hurry after the ladybug as it continues to flit past the next corner and all the way back to the pink corner cube I first stopped beside.
It suddenly bursts into a cloud of crimson glitter that sprinkles the floor, falling like my hope of finding Mother Kadris.
What now?
I fight my growing frustration—and lose the battle.
My instinctive magic rises like a boiling mass inside me, confused and unhelpful. I try to use it to reach out for her location, but it’s like reaching into an abyss. Every time I close my eyes, all I see is darkness.
Feeding my worry into my fists, I bunch them in my skirt as I study the cube in front of me.
Wait a minute…
The cube is open and a petite woman sits on a couch inside it in a short off-the-shoulder dress barely reaching her thighs.Waves of deep black hair fall beyond her waist, holding hints of red glinting in the light as she turns in my direction.
Her fingers are laden with rings, but it’s the pack of cards she holds that draws my attention. Her grip on the cards is deceptively casual, and the air of power around her is deliberately controlled.
She must be a card mage, a powerful one, which means she’ll protect her cards with her life. It also means she could read the cards to find out where Mother Kadris is…
I mentally debate the wisdom of asking a stranger for help, but the strong aura glowing around her draws me inside the cube.
It’s only once I step through the entrance that I realize I cut in line. The supernaturals milling around the entrance as they wait for a card reading let me pass.
