Page 107 of The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium

Then, as Dahlia laughed, Talula and Simon speed-walked away from the town square.

“Volunteering yourself was risky,” Simon panted as they hurried. “But clever. Where’s that maddening orisha now?”

“The café.”

“Then we have no time to waste.”

When they entered the Blue Moon, Elegba was waiting, lounging on the café counter with a rascally smile. “Hello, lovely assistant. And assistant to the assistant. Four legs look good on you, M.”

“M?” Talula raised an eyebrow at Simon.

Simon ignored her in favor of yelling at the orisha. “You don’t get to call me pet names after pulling that stunt in front of humans!” Simon’s fur was poofed out to the maximum, his ears flat against his head in irritation.

“I couldn’t help it.” Elegba took off his top hat and clasped it to his chest. “The stage, she calls to me.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “Why are you really here?”

“Sara sent me.” Elegba flicked his wrist, sending his hat cartwheeling up his arm and onto his head. He turned to Talula. “But my, it’s wonderful to see this little sorceress again. You’ve grown since I was last here.”

Memory clicked. “I remember you. You visited Pine Hollow when I was eight. We looked for secret passages in the house.”

“We found a few, if I recall,” Elegba remembered fondly.

Talula put the pieces together. “You’re the master of roads and doors.”

“Among other things.” Elegba grinned. “That’s why Sara asked me to meet her here. She heard you needed to add a little something extra to the Volta’s ward lines.” Elegba preened, dusting the shoulders of his bicolored tux. “I’ll be so disappointed if she missed my performance. I was hoping she’d catch it.”

“Mom’s not here yet. But you’re welcome to stay with us until she gets back.”

“If you promise to refrain from any more nonsense,” Simon added threateningly, drawing himself to his mightiest eleven-and-a-half inches of height.

“Sara’s not here?” Elegba’s jovial grin was gone, replaced with a firm, worried line. “That cannot be possible.”

Elegba’s words gripped Talula’s heart in a vise. “What do you mean?”

“I set Sara on the return road to Pine Hollow. I wove it from ashe myself.” Elegba’s uneasy gaze met Talula’s. “She should’ve been here two days ago.”

An hour later, Talula sat exhausted on the café couch, dressed in freshly conjured sweats. A dozen calls, scores of texts, and various attempts at astral projection later, and Sara was still missing. Simon had contacted the Council, along with every magical person her mother might have seen in the last few weeks. As far as anyone knew, Sara was headed back to Pine Hollow. Talula pressed the heels of her palms into her temples, trying to squeeze out any new ideas for getting in touch with her mother.

Suddenly, Elegba appeared in the middle of the café. He shook his head at Talula’s hopeful look. “Nothing. The ashe road led me back to where I saw your mother two days ago, but there was no sign of her.”

“You’re sure Sara said she’d meet you here?” Simon’s tone skipped polite, somersaulted past passive-aggressive, and landed smack-dab in rude territory.

“You forget yourself, wizard.” In an instant, the orisha stood toe-to-paw with Simon, towering over the sorcerer-turned-dog. “Travelers fall under my protection. As do keepers of roads and doorways. I have my fun, but there are lines I will never cross.”

“But isn’t ashe a kind of magic?” Talula bit her bottom lip. “Mom said that the hunters had a way of tracking magical activity.”

Elegba shook his head. “Ashe is magic and it isn’t. It’s the will of the world, the fiber of the universe, the power of being. It’s in all things, magical and mortal. It was the only way Sara could travel undetected.”

“Then what happened to my mom?” Talula asked quietly.

Elegba’s shoulders visibly drooped in his tux.

“She can’t have just disappeared,” Simon said worriedly.

“Not disappeared.” Fear gripped Talula’s chest so tightly, she could barely breathe. “Hunted.”

Simon and Elegba said nothing, their silence taut with worry.