Chapter 7

SEVEN

COLLINS

“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

“What did you say?” Bash cocked his head to the side and looked down at me.

Jada repeated it, then glanced around. “I do not see a gin joint. Where did you see her?”

I sighed. “It’s a quote from the movie Casablanca. ”

“It’s a metaphor in this context, Jada.” Mom gave me a sad smile when I glanced over my shoulder to her. “She’s saying she can’t believe the person we have to find is here in Las Vegas where we’ve lived for most of her life.”

Bash wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me flush to his side while we walked through the front doors of the Excalibur casino. “It feels a vicious twist of fate to have to face home again like this.”

I nodded. “I mean, The Sapphire casino we worked at is at the opposite end of the strip, so that’s good. But, like, we didn’t live far from here. We used to come here to this casino often because it’s less expensive than the bougie ones and definitely less crowded.”

“We?” Jada turned to walk backwards so she could face us while talking. “Who is we ? I cannot imagine Sandra or Philip in a casino.”

“ Tallulah .” I whispered her name because it hurt too much to say out loud.

Mom groaned. “She’s safe where she’s at?—”

“You mean safer than being here with us right now,” I grumbled. “Because Tallulah would def demand to be at my side fighting Tephine.”

“And getting herself hurt in the process, or worse.”

“Mom—”

“Philip has been in contact with the people who found her. She’s alive and well. Focus on that for now please.”

“I’m so sorry, my love. That’s all my fault—” Bash rubbed his hand up and down my arm as he held me close to him.

“No, it’s not. It’s mine. I knew I was in danger, and I agreed to take that stupid Freaky Friday potion.” I reached up and squeezed his hand draped over my shoulder. “I was too naive. It was mine and Tally’s fault for not taking the risk and danger Mom told us about seriously.”

“But it’s my fault she fell through that portal.” His face fell in disappointment.

I shook my head. “You couldn’t even talk, Bash. Tallulah is a force of nature. I can see exactly how that whole moment went down because I know her better than anyone else.”

“Still, I’m sorry.”

I smiled up at him. “Thank you. We’ll find her as soon as we can. Right, Mom?”

My mom nodded. “The very second Third Realm is saved.”

I took a deep breath to try and settle the anxiety boiling inside of me at the thought of my best friend. But I couldn’t think about her right now. It killed my heart to have to pretend like my best friend in the whole world was trapped in another realm and potentially in danger. There was definitely something Mom wasn’t telling me. I just couldn’t ask yet. I had to stay put on my task.

My task.

My stomach tightened into knots. My pulse was as chaotic as the casino we were walking through. It was only ten in the morning in Las Vegas and yet the casino was packed full. Vegas was the real city that never slept, a nocturnal’s playground all the way. The lack of windows inside all of these casinos made it impossible to tell the time of day. I remembered the first time Tallulah and I walked through the casinos by ourselves without a parent to lead the way. It was overwhelming. We got lost every time.

But fate was a funny thing sometimes.

I knew exactly where we were going. While I’d never met this Isolda Ward, I’d seen her and heard her name because Tallulah loved going to her shop to have psychic readings done. She’d told me all about the witch in the store named Isolda who did palm readings, aura readings, and even tarot card readings. Tallulah loved that stuff. I’d never wanted to know. I always felt ignorance was bliss. I’d bought plenty of crystals from her store while waiting for Tallulah though, so I knew where I was going. If only I’d talked to Isolda even once.

It was too weird to have this be where we were.

Part of me worried Prince Riven was somehow messing with me.

Collins, not petite chuchoteuse, that was what he’d said to me.

I didn’t know why that stuck out as significant to me. But it’d been bouncing around my head like a pinball. Do not make me regret this. That was the problem, because I had a sickening feeling we were going to do just that whether we intended to or not. There was something we definitely did not know about Riven and it had everything to do with whatever our answer was. It made me loathe Tephine even more.

“Love?”

I jumped and looked around. “What?”

Bash tipped my chin up, forcing my eyes up to him. “You stopped walking?”

“Oh.” I scowled and glanced around. “Oh. Right. It’s over there. Turn right.”

“Are you all right?” Bash asked as we made a sharp right turn down another walkway through the casino, cutting through roulette tables.

I sighed. “Not really. I’m a mess over Tallulah. It bothers me that this Isolda lives here in Vegas, like is Riven just messing with me? And even though I grew up here and I worked in a casino, somehow the last time I was in one is the memory my mind and anxiety are clinging to.”

“What happened the last time?” Jada asked as we swerved around a group of college students.

“Well, Jada, I was stalked by this pretty guy with light-blue hair who kept vanishing out of my sight and then reappearing. Oh, and Venus showed up?—”

Bash groaned. “This is different.”

“It is. And it’s not?—”

“There it is.” Jada stopped short, holding her arms out to stop us from walking. She spun around, then backed away. “Let me check it out. Just in case.”

I didn’t fight her. The rest of us walked behind one of the stone pillars to wait out of sight. Mom and Bash had their eyes on the crowd, watching everything that moved and everything that didn’t. For good reason. I just wished we’d brought Stellan and Ellie with us for more backup, but Mom had insisted they needed to remain at The Emerald in case Tephine slipped back through and attacked. Someone needed to have Jada’s back, so I slid to the edge of the pillar and peeked around to Isolda’s Lady of the Lake shop.

The entire front wall of the shop was made of glass, meaning the entire store was perfectly in view. I saw glass shelves stacked with crystals of every shape and color. They called out to me, greeting me as I stood there. To the far right was the long glass case full of jewelry. Jada strolled closer but stayed outside of the shop like she was a customer just window shopping, and for once she actually blended with the humans. She’d traded her normal Nephilim armor for a black sweater, black jeans, and black boots. Definitely Ellie’s go-to uniform, and since she put it on her with magic, it made sense. She looked fierce in all black with her pale-blonde faux-hawk. So far, Jada made it halfway down the glass wall and I didn’t see a single person inside.

Where are you, Isolda?

I gnawed on my bottom lip and gripped the pillar. After about a minute, a small, petite woman with blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail emerged from the hallway on the left side of the store. She was fighting with buttons on a black coat, so she didn’t see Jada peering through the windows and moving toward her. When she got to the front door of the shop, she paused to flip a little switch and all the lights inside the shop went off. She stepped out and closed the door behind her, stopping only to lock it. She pushed the strap of her little red purse up on her shoulder and took off hurrying down the hall.

We cursed and sprinted to catch up before we lost her in the crowd because she was booking. Jada caught up to us around the corner, but we had to hang back a little to not scare her off. We needed to have a private conversation, so grabbing her in the middle of a casino wasn’t going to help anything. She pushed open a glass door to go outside, then held it open for a woman using crutches, so we hung back. As she watched the woman hobble her way in, she glanced up and our eyes met. I panicked and looked away.

“Shit. Give it a second. She saw me.” I pulled Bash behind a pillar because there was absolutely nothing subtle about him. “Maybe we should just wait for her to come back? I feel weird about chasing her down.”

“The sign on the door said they are closed until four this afternoon,” Jada grumbled.

I cursed. “We can’t wait six hours. Right, okay, let’s just see if we can get her attention. C’mon, let’s go.”

“I can get her attention?—”

“No, not yet.” I waved Bash off. “I don’t want to scare her and that’s terrifying. It won’t help us get her to talk to us.”

But Isolda wasn’t slowing down. She moved expertly through the crowd, which I wasn’t surprised by since she was a local. The Excalibur’s theme was a castle, like in the King Arthur legends, so everything was built to look like a castle. Problem was, there was no covering on the raised walkways, like in most of Vegas, and the sun reflecting off the pavement was blinding. So it wasn’t until we made a turn and I saw the tower up ahead that I realized where we were headed.

“She’s getting on the tram.” I cursed. “Hurry, we have to be on the same tram with her or we’ll lose her in Mandalay Bay.”

By the time we caught up to Isolda, she was stepping onto the tram idling at the platform. All four of us jumped onto the tram, which made all two-dozen people inside flinch and look up at us. Isolda frowned, moved farther down the car, and hid behind a family of six. Bash took my hand and led me in the opposite direction.

“How do you know where this tram is going?” Bash peered out the windows.

“Because this tram only goes between the Excalibur, the Luxor, and Mandalay Bay, and when you get on here it’s an express ride back to Mandalay.” I shrugged. “I live here, remember?”

He tugged playfully on one of my braids. “I did, actually.”

“You two try not to look in her direction. She’s definitely spotted both of you, and you don’t exactly blend with that hair. Either of you.” Mom sighed and hid behind Bash. “Jada and I will keep eyes on her.”

“We are handling this abhorrently.” I shook my head and leaned into Bash, resting my chin on his chest. “This is not your strong suit.”

He chuckled and cupped my face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs across my cheekbones. “Perhaps she’ll think we’re lost and overwhelmed tourists.”

“I need food,” I grumbled. But then he licked his lips, and my eyes tracked the movement. I pushed up on my tiptoes. “I need . . .”

He grinned and pressed his lips to mine. I knew we were in the middle of something important, and in the middle of a public space with people all around us, but for just a moment I let myself get lost in my soulmate’s kiss.

Until my mother groaned. “All right. That’s enough.”

Bash chuckled and pulled away from me. “We’re blending?”

“Not what I had in mind,” she grumbled.

“I’m not a child, Mother,” I said with a sigh, but I gave in to her request and rested my face on his chest instead. My poor mother was also going through hell. I could be easy on her.

A few minutes later, the tram slowed. We rushed to be the first people off the tram when the doors opened to try and be less obvious that we were following Isolda. But we couldn’t go far, so we went about thirty feet up, then Mom stopped and pretended to need to tie her shoe. I kept my gaze locked on Mom, but in my peripheral vision I saw Isolda scurry past us. We let her get about twenty feet ahead before we followed. I had no idea where she was going inside Mandalay, but we couldn’t follow her forever. Soon we would have to just approach her. I knew Bash was ready to take her senses at the drop of a hat, but I really didn’t want to scare her. He didn’t know just how terrifying his magic was, but I’d felt the full force of it for a matter of seconds and it would haunt me forever.

For now, we followed her. Mandalay Bay was much fancier than the Excalibur, with shiny tiled floor that was probably not marble but kind of looked like it. And I knew the main part of the casino and hotel was huge and would be crazy crowded. So, I wrapped my arm around Bash’s and locked my eyes on the back of Isolda’s head. “I’ll watch her. You guys make sure I don’t run into anything.”

We followed her for several minutes, but the longer we did, the weirder her path got. She would walk around random tables and groups of people for seemingly no reason. She bounced back and forth across the casino, walking around a set of slot machines on the right and then shooting all the way across to the left. It was like a pinball machine in real life. It made no sense. When she got to the Noodle Shop, she made a hard right turn to walk to the other side of the casino but going back in the direction we’d just come from. She was making a giant U-turn when she could’ve just made a right turn off the tram.

Maybe she’s lost? Maybe SHE is new here and she’s looking for something in particular? The signs could get confusing in Vegas, I knew that firsthand. But I knew her store in Excalibur had been there a hot minute, so she should’ve known the floorplan of the nearby casinos by now. She walked straight to the House of Blues restaurant, then stopped to talk to the hostess. They smiled and chatted for about thirty seconds, only for Isolda to turn and shoot directly across the hall to the box office for the Michael Jackson show. She pulled her phone out and snapped some pictures of herself with the casino and show sign behind her, then kept walking.

“Where is she going?” Bash sighed. “We can’t keep this up.”

“I know, I know. Let’s wait for the first chance we have to corner her where maybe there are less people?”

But Isolda was a fast walker. Normally that would’ve been fine, but all four of us speed-walking after her was creepy as hell. Bash was right. We couldn’t keep this up. I was about to tell him to just take her senses when she leapt onto the escalator leading up to the Shoppes at Mandalay Place. I cursed. The little mall was going to be hectic.

“Maybe we can follow her into a store where there will be less eyes?” I whispered to them.

“Her aura is . . . off.” Bash shook his head. "I doubt she’s shopping.”

“I know.”

Just when we thought she’d never go into a store, she made an abrupt left turn into one of those tourist shops with the graphic tees and souvenirs with your name on it and the Las Vegas sign. We all slowed to a stop in the middle of the mall, in between two kiosks. Mom and Jada pretended to be looking at the one behind us that sold little remote-control toys for kids while Bash and I picked up hair styling products and acted like we were really serious about them.

Bash chuckled. “I mean, it’s a believable stop for us?”

I rolled my eyes. “Right, I can see you using a curling iron?—”

“Maybe he should.” A beautiful raven-haired woman in a skintight nude bodycon dress that left nothing to the imagination stepped out from behind the kiosk next to me. “I’d love to be of . . . service to you, sir.”

“Just him?” I rolled my eyes and laughed.

“A woman knows how to handle her own hair, doesn’t she?” She ran her fingers over one of my braids and winked at me, then sashayed over to Bash. Her nude dress was basically see-through with only strategically placed red velvet lace to cover her private bits. She ran her thin fingers with stiletto-pointed red nails through his long pale-blue hair. “What beautiful hair you have.”

Bash just looked down at her and gave her a smile. “Thank you.”

No doubt this outfit was designed to stop people in their tracks to look at her so she could try and sell them something.

“Hey there, sugar,” she purred and twirled his finger around her bony finger. “Can I practice on you?”

Excuse me? I narrowed my eyes on her and focused on her aura. It was pulsating with lust. Okay, easy, Collins. It’s not his fault he’s beautiful and women want him.

She batted her dark eyelashes at him, and those green eyes sparkled as she continued to play with his hair. “What do you say?”

"Like I said,” I spoke loudly, “I can’t see my boyfriend using a curling iron.”

Apparently, the word boyfriend did not mean anything to her because she put both of her hands on his bicep and squeezed. “Look at these muscles. I bet he can do lots of things.”

I ground my teeth together and balled my hands into fists. “Okay, let’s take our hands off my boyfriend.”

“Fine.” She ran her tongue over her top teeth seductively. “I’m here seven days a week. Come back when you ditch her.”

I grabbed Bash’s hand and dragged him away from the kiosk and straight over to my mom and Jada. “We need to step this up. I swear I hate it here."

“Relax, Collins,” Bash snapped. “She was harmless.”

“ Harmless? ” I whirled around on him with wide eyes. “Since when is groping a stranger harmless?”

He rolled his eyes at me. Actually rolled them. “She was harmlessly flirting in an attempt to sell her products.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, she was the product she wanted you to buy, and she was literally all over you even after I said you were my boyfriend.”

“If I wasn’t uncomfortable, then you had no reason to come to my defense?—”

“ Why weren’t you uncomfortable, Bastien? Hmm? ” I arched my eyebrow and put my hands on my hips. Mom and Jada were watching, but I just didn’t care. “So you’re totally comfortable with another woman touching you? A woman who isn’t your soulmate.”

“It wasn’t a big deal?—”

“ Yes, it fucking is, Bastien. It matters to me and therefore my feelings should matter to you. ”

He leaned closer and snarled, “ Stop calling me Bastien. Only my family called me that.”

I stepped up close and smiled. “Then stop acting like your family.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“Did I stutter?” I gestured to the kiosk we’d been at even though the woman was nowhere in sight. “Your selfish family would have no problem with what just happened.”

“Nothing happened, Collins?—”

“Right. Next hot guy I see I’ll let him touch my body and play with my hair while making blatant sexual advances, and we’ll see how you like it.”

He smirked. “Now who’s acting like my family?”

“Spite is acceptable when provoked, not when it’s your default personality?—”

“Okay, you two. Break it up.” Mom stepped in between us with wide blue eyes. “What the hell just happened?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. I had no idea what the hell just happened. One minute we were good and the next some skank was all over him and jealousy took over. But what’s mine is mine, and Bash is all mine . “Ask Bastien and his little mistress.”

He put his hands on his hips and shook his head, his jaw clenched tight. “You need to learn the definition of trust.”

“You need to earn it first?—”

“Whoa, whoa. Cheese and crackers.” Mom grabbed my elbow and dragged me across the hall to stand just outside the glass wall of the store Isolda had gone in. When I looked up, I saw Jada had dragged Bash over to us, unfortunately. Mom cursed. “You two were just sucking face in the tram. Now you’re biting each other’s heads off? Get ahold of yourselves.”

“She had ahold of him just fine?—”

“Do you want to die?” Jada asked softly, her eyes narrowed. “Or do you want all of Third Realm to die?”

Cold chills swept over my body. I shivered and shook my head. “No, of course not.”

She nodded. “Focus. We need to go in there and find Isolda?—”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna work for me.”

We all gasped and spun around at the sound of a man’s deep voice to find a guy standing right behind us. None of us had heard him walk up. This man had short black hair and a matching scruffy beard. He was tall—shorter than Bash, but tall for a human man. I craned my neck back to see his face, and my breath left me in a rush. I knew that face. I’d seen this man before.

“I’m going to ask you this once and only once, and don’t think about lying to me.” He narrowed green eyes at us, then pulled a wallet out of his inside blazer pocket. When he flipped it around, I saw a police badge and it confirmed I knew him. “Explain to me why you’ve followed that woman all the way from the Excalibur to here?”

I knew he’d asked us a question, and a fair one, but when I opened my mouth, the only words that came out were, “ Detective Daniel? ”