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Glancing over her shoulder, Carmen wasn’t expecting to find Lola in a cable-knit sweater and jeans. And she had no idea what to think of her hair cascading in long, loose waves. Lola was always buttoned up so tight. Even naked, she was controlled and sharp. But with her edges softened, she looked like a new version of her self.

Lola’s eyebrows, dark and perfect like she got up at dawn to shape them every morning, furrowed. “What?”

Carmen snapped out of it and turned back to putting lids on the coffee cups. “Discovering the secret for turning iron into gold,” she replied, sarcasm masking her loss of balance at how disarming Lola looked in civilian clothes.

“What is that?” There was a strangeness in Lola’s voice. An uncertainty.

Carmen debated her response, deciding to use Lola’s mother tongue. Aggressive sarcasm. “It’s a sacrifice to the gods in hopes they’ll grant me the strength not to strangle you at some point on this lovely road trip.” She slapped on an exaggerated smile.

“I can get my own coffee,” Lola grumbled.

“In some parts of the world, people just saythank you.” Carmen forced the cup into her hand. “Let’s go. We’re burning daylight,” she added before Lola could object, wishing that at least one interaction between them could be easy.

After a second of Carmen holding her breath as she walked toward the hotel’s front door, Lola followed.

Outside, the morning was hazy and colder than the night had been. Carmen wished she’d worn more than a cashmere sweater with a thin t-shirt underneath. When she packed for California, she’d been thinking sun and beaches. She should have checked the weather, but there had been so many things to do at once.

From her bag, Carmen pulled the key to her rental sedan, red and half-covered in dust, and unlocked it with the fob. She felt Lola stop walking behind her and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Carmen strode to the car parked on the street before she looked back at Lola. Standing a few feet from the hotel’s entrance, Lola’s expression was one of consternation. Had it just dawned on her that they were going to sit in the same car for the drive to Fortune’s compound?

“You’re free to rent your own car.” Carmen let her irritation show, Lola was being ridiculous even by Lola standards. “Or walk. Or stay. I don’t care. You can stick your tongue in my—”

“Alright!” Lola started moving toward her like facing the business-end of a pirate ship’s plank.

Rolling her eyes again, this time as openly and obviously as she could to make her annoyance clear, Carmen got in the car and started it.

The long, country-road drive was awkward and stilted and uncomfortably silent. Lola was being strange in a brand-new way, and Carmen could not for the life of her figure out why. She was usually suspicious and combative, but never cold and quiet.

Despite her best efforts, Carmen couldn’t find a neutral topic of conversation that might make the drive into the woods less painful.

After what felt like an eternity, a sign appeared ahead — The Institute of the Open Mind. Lola sat up straighter, gaze sharpening with interest. Carmen breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, something to focus on besides the weird tension hanging between them.

She turned down a long gravel driveway flanked by towering pines. To Carmen’s surprise, the gate was open. The way the girl from the gift shop described it, Carmen had expected the place to be secured. There were high fences surrounding the place, but those only mattered if the entrance wasn’t wide open.

At the end sat a sprawling log cabin-style lodge, surrounded by lush gardens and a burbling stone fountain. New Age wind-chimes swung in the breeze.

“How many of those do you think there are?” Lola asked, speaking for the first time since they’d gotten in the car.

Carmen followed her line of sight, spotting the small cabins that blended into the tree line. If she didn’t know that this place was probably a home-base for a cult, she would find it rustic and charming.

“They’re small. There could be more in the forest.”

Lola nodded, her attention still focused on the distance. In the gravel parking lot, Carmen pulled up next to one of the few cars and trucks stationed on one side of the lodge. She made a note of all the different tags. Utah, Missouri, Texas, and even Ontario.

Before Carmen even turned the car off, the front door swung open. An ethereal woman in colorful flowing robes and delicate jewelry floated down the steps to greet them.

“She looks like a mini-Fortune,” Lola muttered, leaning closer to Carmen to speak quietly, gaze fixed on the rearview and the woman standing at the lodge door.

“You think she knew we were coming?” Carmen tried not to move her mouth while she whispered, just in case the woman had a superhuman lip-reading ability.

“Spies in town?” Lola asked, sounding more like herself. Dark eyes scanning their surroundings, assessing.

Carmen hated to agree, but it seemed more likely than them having materialized in Fortune Jr.’s crystal ball. “Let’s walk through the looking-glass.”

The moment they stepped out of the car, they were blasted with a gust of freezing cold air that sent a chill racing down Carmen’s spine. Fortune Jr. opened her arms, fabrics flowing like she was calling the wind.

“Blessed day, sisters!” She clasped her hands together. “We are so pleased you have come. I am Serenity, a humble guide on the path to spiritual awakening.”