Karina waited for May. She knew her friend was capable, but at the same time…

  “There is something wrong happening. If only things were reversed, and May was waiting for me, I’m sure she would check the cards or something.” The girl talked to herself. “Maybe I should try it… What is the worst that can happen anyway?”

  Karina looked for one of May’s decks. She took one she knew her friend wouldn’t mind. There was something about every deck’s own energy. But checking the cards was plain and simple, to a point, Karina asked herself if it would work or not.

  She let her magical powers move through her. She knew deep down that the secret of divination was a matter of interpreting wrong and wrong.

  As the girl was about to shuffle the deck, she noticed a single card that faced the wrong direction.

  “Oh, that must mean something. Let’s see.”

  The card was the Fool, upright. Karina tried to remember its meaning, although nothing came to her mind.

  “Well, I gotta be creative. I believe I remember that this is a positive one. But what do I see?” She questioned herself. “It looks like someone is traveling. Maybe an adventure. Should I go investigate?”

  Unfortunately for Karina, the card posed more questions than answers. She sighed, but decided to explore the halls. Maybe May needed her help.

  Karina wore a coat over her nightgown and went to the halls. Unlike the nights before, when the strange darkness covered everything, the lights were on, and she identified people coming and going out of their own rooms.

  Karina couldn’t use any complex magic, or else she would be detected. But she knew one trick or two. She closed her eyes and let the traces of magic guide her. The girl kept her friend in her thoughts, her mind in a state of trance as she repeated:

  “May, May, May…”

  She searched through different places across the halls. But each and every time, she ended up at a dead end.

  “I hope it’s not something wrong with my magic. This used to work so well…”

  As she got frustrated, a middle-aged man approached her.

  “Huh, looking for something here, miss?”

  With the sound of his voice, Karina turned on her heels before she answered.

  “Not exactly. I’m just, you know, getting to know the place. It’s pretty damn big, right?”

  “Yeah, right. I guess you could say that. The view from the outside just doesn’t do justice to its size.”

  “So I was exploring by myself. Especially because I can’t get to sleep.”

  “Some people say the Casino has this effect on people. It makes you lose sleep. I’m not sure it’s something specific about it here. It’s probably the lights and the music…”

  “Yeah, everything is so bright!”

  The man shifted his stance.

  “But I don’t judge you, not at all. I myself like indulging in these night walks. A whole life working the night shift, you can’t just change these kinds of habits in a click.”

  “I guess so. I never worked at night; I’m a day person. But yet, here I am.” Karina gestured to herself.

  “You’re pretty young. When we get older, it’s almost inescapable, switching the day for night. But I will let you continue your walk. I need to get back to my room. See you.”

  The man said as he moved further into the hall, far from Karina’s view.

  ---

  Karina looked for May, and she found herself in a strange scene. Her magic had taken her there. It was a hall like the others. The weirdest thing was the people there. There were more than a dozen people. Their eyes were devoid of emotion as they faced the wall. They moved their hands and grasped the air. It was like they tried to catch something she couldn’t see.

  When she tried to talk to someone in this state, the person didn’t answer. Instead, they looked ahead, as if Karina wasn’t even there.

  “Why do these things happen when I’m alone? I swear, May would solve everything here in a heartbeat.” Karina complained to herself. “I bet she’s back to our room…”

  Karina went back to the room. And found it as empty as when she had left earlier.

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  “Okay, this is unusual. Should I send a message through a familiar?” Karina pondered the question, but decided not to. She remembered the accident that happened to Otto and the disappearances of familiars around the Casino.

  “I just hope May is well…” Karina whispered, as she let the sleep take over her mind.

  That night, she dreamed about May lost and wandering, her friend looking for something. She wanted to help May, but something kept pulling her back.

  ***

  Karina decided that she would try something risky. Something May had prepared long ago, in case anything happened. But doing it would expose her for a moment, so she needed to be in a place where she could run if necessary.

  The girl ran past halls filled with people, and she even saw the family they had seen on the terrace the other day. And that gave her the idea to go back to the place. Even though it only had one route of escape.

  But at the same time, if she considered how open the place was, she would have one chance to not be detected. And she would take any chance she could.

  At the terrace, she perceived that it was emptier than before. Karina sat in one of the chairs there.

  The thing she was about to do, they had planned it in case one of them was kidnapped or disappeared. Karina wasn’t sure if it would work or not.

  It was something magical May had done. A link shared between two people that would help them communicate wherever they were. According to the book May had read about the enchantment, not even death would be a barrier to it.

  Karina focused on her feelings. She turned to her inner vision. And in a split second, the moment she activated the spell, she became visible to every creature, monster, witch, and wizard around the area.

  When she released it, it felt like a click. It was like a malfunctioning radio. But it didn’t matter; she could hear May.

  “Karina, is that you? Did you use our spell? Can you hear me?”

  “Calm down, May. I can hear you, and I did our spell. Now I’m trying to stay vigilant. To see if anyone caught it.”

  “That makes sense. But let me explain the situation I’m in.”

  And May explained, everything from her hypothesis about the barrier, then Wren and his mission, and how they were trapped in a maze.

  “How can I help you, May? I can try to find the fold, too.”

  “Oh, no. Don’t do that. I guess you would end up trapped here, too.”

  “I can try to punch it…”

  “I don’t know if that would work. Plus, you could attract even more attention. And that would jeopardize the mission for sure. No, I guess the best course of action is: I’ll try to get out of here. I don’t know how, but I will find a way.”

  “I trust you, May. But what about me? What do I do?”

  “You keep the mission. You keep investigating. There are a lot of things to uncover yet.”

  Karina didn’t reply immediately; she looked down at her own hands.

  “You know I trust you a lot, K. And you should trust me too,” May said, before she added. “But now we gotta end this connection. I can feel them coming after you. And you can’t let yourself be identified. So I guess it’s goodbye for now. But soon I’ll be back.”

  Karina muttered a simple “okay” and then a “bye” before she severed the connection. A single tear fell from her face. But she needed to keep going.

  Karina covered her eyes with sunglasses and went back to the hotel halls. As she passed through a couple of halls, she found the guards. For the ordinary or untrained eye, they would seem casual. But Karina knew better than that: they were trying to catch her in the act. But little did they know, she had already concealed her magical power. The guards had a gist of where the magic had come from, but they couldn’t know who had done it.

  Karina even smiled coyly at one of the guards. She toyed with them in a hall full of people because she knew they couldn’t be sure of anything. And by how they acted since the girls had first arrived at the hotel, she knew they also played safe when it came to exposing magic and things like that.

  But what should she do next? The investigation headed in a direction, but that was when she was investigating with May. Now all by herself, what should she do? The only thing Karina could think of was trying the games again. Maybe now she would grasp some sort of insight.

  She headed to the room she shared with her friend. And she changed her clothes into an elegant black gown. She wore pearls around her neck and styled her pink and blonde hair pushed back. Karina admired herself in the mirror.

  “Wow, I look like a woman from high society…”

  ***

  The gaming room wasn’t full like it had been before. People played in sparse groups, and some played card games, but most of them that night preferred the individual experience of the slot machines.

  “Let’s observe the people from afar. I don’t need any unnecessary attention.” Karina spoke to herself.

  She watched the same card game that May had played the night before. A heterogeneous group played it this time. The people were focused on the cards in front of them. Unlike back then, the mood at the table was tense. Karina watched as a woman lost all the coins in front of her. The woman fell from her chair, motionless. But the strangest thing was the woman’s eyes: they were out of focus, and they spun lazily in her sockets.

  Karina was about to give the woman a hand and help her get up when a few guards appeared. They took the woman to some room in the back, and Karina made a mental note that she hadn’t investigated that place yet.

  The game continued as usual, although the tense mood at the table got darker. Amidst the players, Karina recognized the woman who played: it was the same woman she had seen with the children and husband on the terrace a few days ago and in the hall before the enchantment. The woman’s family wasn’t near this time.

  “I need to win, I need to win, I need to win. I can’t lose again. Oh, God. I can’t lose. I don’t know what I’d do if I lose again. I feel like throwing up, oh my God. I don’t wanna lose. If anyone could help me.” The woman said as she looked to the sides, her jewelry shook with the movement. The croupier didn’t seem impressed; instead, he just urged the woman to place her bets. Her expression was tense, but she proceeded with it. When the results were revealed, and the woman lost, she screamed.

  “No, no, no. This is wrong. Please, no. Give me another chance. You know I can’t lose.” She fell to the ground, her eyes blanked out. The words were incoherent as they came out of her mouth. And soon she shut down completely, like the man before her.

  Karina wasn’t surprised when the guards came once again and took that woman too. And she was even less surprised when the game kept going, after everything that had happened. It was like the people at the table weren’t aware of the woman who had been taken.

  “I need to investigate it further,” Karina said to herself as she clenched her fists.