Page 107 of Bitten By the Basilisk

She moved out of his way so he could lean into the car and take the paralyzed driver into his arms, making it look as easy as picking up a chihuahua.

“Will you put in a good word for me with your mum?” Brett asked as he backed up, allowing her to climb into the vehicle.

“I will,” she told him, nodding.

Brett let out a sigh. “I appreciate it. Good luck to you, Alice.”

He and the driver then disappeared in a burst of black mist.

After depositing Silas’s gift on the passenger seat, she made sure the hem of her dress wasn’t hanging out of the car, then pulled the door shut and put the vehicle into drive.

As she accelerated out of the lot and up the street, a persistent beeping started up to remind her to put on her seat belt. Once she did, she tried again to call Silas, but again he didn’t pick up.

The way to the Nest wasn’t complicated, taking only a few minutes—fewer even, when driving well over the speed limit—but her heart was racing a mile a minute by the time she neared the gate.

“Open, open, open,” she softly begged. If it didn’t, she was going to have to scale the wall in an evening gown.

Thankfully, the gate began rolling aside, although not as fast as she would’ve liked. The second she had enough clearance, she zoomed through.

Where did she go from here, though? She knew which building was Silas’s, but not where the gala was being held. Peering past the glamour didn’t reveal anything obvious. Would it be on one of the roofs?

Just as she decided to head to Silas’s building, an unexpected sight made her gasp and slam on the brakes, sending the items in the passenger seat to the floor. Fortunately, she didn’t hear anything break.

Panting in disbelief, she held up her left hand to stare at the glowing red string neatly tied to her pinky. The rest of its length hung in the air, extending through the windshield and toward the front doors of the nearest building.

Not wasting any time, she put the car into park, right in the middle of the Nest’s private drive, then grabbed the one thing she needed from the floor of the passenger seat and ran as fast as she could in heels and a long skirt.

Her red thread of fate guided her to the elevator inside the building’s palatial, intimately lit lobby. She followed it down, past several levels of parking, to a floor simply labeled “D,” shedding her fur wrap as the elevator descended and hanging the gift bag from her wrist.

The doors of the elevator opened into a long hallway with dark marble floors, dark wood trim, and burgundy damask walls and carpeting. Distant shouts echoed from what appeared to be a large room straight ahead. Shouts that sounded like a crowd watching a fight.

Alice hiked up her skirt and sped down the hallway, passing the occasional door and alcove, the clack of her heels muffled. The air here was surprisingly warm and carried the scent of piquant spices.

She paused at the threshold of an enormous marble chamber, where hundreds of serpent-folk were engrossed in the one-on-one fight taking place in the center.

Her red thread led directly to Silas, one of the two combatants who were currently circling each other, their tails tensed and ready to spring.

He wore nothing but vambraces and had a nasty-looking contusion on his arm, as if he had blocked a heavy blow. Though he was snarling and had separated his jaw for biting, his eyes brimmed with anguish.

“I don’t understand. I expected Silas to end this challenge quickly,” said one nearby serpent-folk to another.

“It’s like he’s not fighting back at all,” the other one replied.

“Take him down, Silas!” the first shouted.

Alice called out his name, desperate to get his attention, but his opponent lunged at him with a loud roar that drowned out her voice. She gasped as Silas barely blocked a blow that would have sliced open his chest.

Lance now had a grip on Silas’s armored forearm and swung him violently, sending him across the floor in her direction.

She had to get closer.

Not trusting that she wouldn’t roll her ankle hopping down the enormous steps in her heels, she kicked off them off and jumped down on her bare feet, doing her best not to step on or trip over any tails as she raced toward her mate.

“Silas!” she shouted again, but the crowd around her was too loud.

He hadn’t yet recovered, and Lance was poised to strike.

Before she knew she was doing it, she summoned her fox fire in a burst and shot it straight at Lance’s head.