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So yes, I was going to get involved in their romance again, even though I’d rather be set on fire or deal with Jack freeing himself from the demon compulsion I had Lilith put on him.

But whining about not wanting to get involved would not make it happen any faster or go any easier. I needed to suck it and start looking for answers.

* * *

The hair shopwas a busy place when I got there. I stepped inside and found myself in a line waiting to be greeted. There was another line of people waiting on haircuts. And from what I could see, all the chairs were full. It took a full fifteen minutes just to get to talk to someone.

The woman’s eyes widened at the sight of me.

“Hello,” I said, smiling at her. “Is Mulan here?”

Her head moved side-to-side. “I haven’t seen Mulan in two weeks. Do you know where she is? I have a hundred questions for her.”

I looked around and blinked. What could be so horrendous that Mulan would ignore the successful hair shop she couldn’t stop bragging about?

“Do ya think she went home to China to visit her family?”

The woman shrugged. “I have no idea. She hasn’t been in touch.”

I had another unpleasant thought. What if some antiquities person turned Mulan in for hocking Jack’s god statue? What if she was on the run or in jail? Would she have called me?

“Did ya notify the police that she was missing?”

The woman bit her lip. “No. Should I?”

I sighed loudly and shook my head. “No. Let me see if I can find her first. She hasn’t answered my texts or calls, so I came looking for her. Do you know where she lives?”

The woman made another slow head movement from side to side. “She preferred for us not to know so we wouldn’t invade her personal space.”

Well, I didn’t blame her, but I didn’t want to scare the woman more. “Can I look at her office for a minute? Maybe she left a clue there.”

“I don’t know if I should let you. She might get really mad.”

I blew out a breath. “Ya can tell her I blew past ya and wouldn’t take no for an answer. And ya can trust me when I say she’ll believe ya. Mulan and I are gut-wrenchingly honest with each other.”

Ignoring her wide eyes, I stomped past and made my way through the rooms until I found Mulan’s private area. I glanced around at its tidiness. Her private hair wash bowl was as dry as the Sahara and too clean to have been used recently.

I invaded her office and looked around. There was nothing, not even the box of turtle shells she’d used when she tried to break the demon compulsions on Rasmus. I also found no shaman tools or any sign of her magick. The only scrap of her was a cloth ponytail holder with some of Mulan’s dark hair still trapped in it.

“Well, at least now I can scry for her,” I said, shoving the hairy ponytail holder into my pocket.

I hadn’t made it out of Mulan’s private area before a powerful vision of her hit me. My knees gave out and I sunk to her polished concrete floor. I was down on all fours with my eyes scrunched shut when suddenly I saw Mulan in a garden setting. The vision was as clear as if I was standing a few feet away.

Sweat dripped from the Wu Shaman’s face and arms. Most of her was bloody and bruised. She battled with an unmarked man in a pristine white robe and pants. He swept her staff out of her hands and used his own to bludgeon her as she tried to escape him. She called her staff back to her hand and used the end of it to send him retreating.

My anger ignited at seeing her getting the crap beat out of her. It was the principle of it that offended me. Why was Mulan punishing herself?

I crawled to the nearest chair and used it to get to my feet. The vision remained as I stood. When I was sure I could walk, I stumbled my way back to the front of the shop. The woman at the counter stared at me until I stopped in front of her. Pulling the hair-covered band out of my pocket, I showed it to her. “I’m taking this to help me find her.”

She chewed her lip but nodded as I limped by her.

Outside on the street, I leaned against the bricks that made up the front of the building. Where had that powerful vision come from? Had I developed some new power that was finally manifesting? Normally, the only visions I had were while I was scrying.

Then I remembered something.

I pulled the scrying necklace Sarah Templeton had gifted to me out of my t-shirt to examine it. The necklace had felt so natural against my skin the day she gave it to me that I rarely went without wearing it now.

Could the necklace have caused the vision when I got intensely focused on finding Mulan? If that were true, the new-age scrying tool was certainly more powerful than it looked.