Page 98 of A Witchy Spell Ride

I felt it.

A silence under the noise.

A cold pulse in my chest.

Selene had been gone too long. Not long enough for panic, but too long for peace.

I told myself to wait. To stay calm. To trust that she was just helping a club girl with makeup, or checking on Briar, or adjusting her corset in the bathroom mirror.

But I knew better.

I always fucking knew better.

The moment that prospect, Daisy, or Rose, I didn’t catch her name, stumbled into the room, and stammered, “Has anyone seen Selene?” the world dropped out from under me.

I moved fast. Bar. Kitchen. Bathrooms. Every room upstairs. Nothing. No red corset. No glitter crown. Just her scent, fading. Her presence, missing.

When I hit the hallway and saw her heel on the floor, one strap snapped, one drop of blood on the tile—

I lost it.

“FUCK!”

I roared so loud the room went still.

Briar appeared like a bullet, face pale, glitter sharp on her cheekbones. “What do you mean she’s not here?”

“She’s gone,” I growled, already storming back into the chapel, boot crashing through the door. “She’s gone, and someone took her from inside this fucking club!”

Reaper was already on his feet. “You sure?” he asked, voice razor-sharp.

I held up the heel. “Unless she decided to take a midnight jog barefoot through the bayou, yeah, I’m sure.”

Bones stood, chair screeching. “Lock it down.”

Cross was already at the wall panel. “On it.”

The steel shutters dropped over every entrance. Doors slammed. The back gate sealed. No one in, no one out. The clubhouse took a breath and became a bunker.

Ash grabbed his cut. “You think it was Adam?”

“I know it was,” I said. “But how the fuck did he get in?”

And that’s when Vex, silent until now, muttered, “He didn’t.”

Everyone turned. “What?”

“He didn’t get in,” Vex said, eyes flashing. “He got help from someone who already was.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Then Reaper spoke. “Where the fuck is Banks?”

Heads turned. Ash bolted down the hall. Two minutes later, he returned, breath hard. “His bunk’s empty. So is his cut.”

My jaw clenched so tight I felt bone pop. “I knew something was off.”

Reaper’s voice was death. “We find her. We burn the fucking world if we have to.”