Page 101 of Bitten By the Basilisk

However, coming out of the ice cream shop next door were a trio of high school students she recognized—the teenage girls who had caught her and Silas making out in the photo booth, and who had used the photo booth right after. Had they gotten the same printing error?

Her steps slowed, and she stepped to the side, out of the flow of foot traffic, to work up the courage to overcome her lingering embarrassment.

Firming her spine, she approached the girls, who were still wearing their backpacks and eating cones of ice cream.

“Excuse me, but do you three remember me from the arcade a couple of days ago?”

The trio turned to her. After staring at her for a second, the one eating a vanilla cone hid her giggle behind it. “Oh, uh… The photo booth, right?”

The other two girls’ jaws dropped.

“Right! You were with your boyfriend,” gasped the one eating mint chocolate chip, before she and the third girl also giggled.

“Thanks again for the tokens. And the plushies,” said the one eating a chocolate cone.

“You’re welcome,” Alice replied. “I wanted to ask whether your photos also came out with a printing error?”

The girls exchanged glances, turning their lips down in confusion.

“I didn’t notice anything,” Vanilla said, shrugging.

“Ooh, I still have mine,” Chocolate chimed in. Mint Chip held her cone while she pulled off her backpack and dug through it. “Here it is!”

Chocolate examined the print, her friends crowding close to see it. “Looks fine.” She then handed it over to Alice.

Indeed, the girls’ stack of photos didn’t have any printing errors, let alone a red line. Alice’s heart had been ramping up for the past moment, and now it was trying to jump out of her chest.

“Oh….weird,” she said, lightly panting. “Ours, uh…had this long red line on the side.” She handed the print back to Chocolate.

“Aww, that’s a bummer,” Vanilla said. Her friends agreed.

Alice shook her head, a smile spreading across her face. “It’s okay. Thanks. Enjoy your ice cream.”

The girls raised their cones in a farewell toast, and Alice moved on, grinning from ear to ear, her steps light.

Her walk back to her mom’s place, despite taking close to thirty minutes, felt like three instead. When she arrived, she discovered a dark-red dress box tied shut with a black silk ribbon outside the door.

Inside was a new gown made of burgundy embroidered lace that wasn’t entirely opaque. When she put her hand under the bodice, her skin tone came through. Included with the dress was a matching faux-fur wrap, yet another brand-new clutch, and a pair of low heels.

Silas’s most recent text said that a car would arrive in the parking lot behind her mom’s apartment at seven and would wait for up to thirty minutes to take her to the Nest for the mating gala, the implication being that she didn’t have to get in.

With the couple of hours Alice had until seven, she ate a light dinner, washed up, then visited the salon to see if anyone was available. Gina ended up giving her a loose, wavy style.

The dress fit as well as the previous one did—perfectly. And as expected, the mesh-lined bodice with its sweetheart neckline was just transparent enough for her skin color to come through, the result looking like expensive lingerie.

She went without jewelry, as she had already returned the lockbox and didn’t own anything that would match her gown. Once she pulled the wrap around her shoulders, she stood before her mom’s mirror and lightly placed the leaf Mom had given her onto the top of her hair.

Flawless makeup faded into existence. Her skin shimmered.

Though she had a few minutes to spare before the car arrived that would take her to Silas, she couldn’t stand to wait inside and prepared to leave, tucking her phone into her clutch, placing the box containing Silas’s glass snake into one of the spa’s gift bags, and stepping into her heels.

She was smiling brightly as she opened the door to head out. But that smile quickly died.

Eric stood in her way. Every time she’d seen Lance, the dark-haired serpent-folk before her had been right beside him.

Every fiber of her being, magical or not, bristled in warning, but before she could slam the door in his face, he barged into the apartment.

She screamed in fright, dropping everything in her hands, scrambling to stay out of his reach, but he was much faster and not wearing a long skirt.