Free A Dash of Magic: A Bliss Novel by Kathryn Littlewood Page B

whole thing over with?” said Rose.
    “It’s kind of unlike you to want to break into someone’s room and steal something, Rose.”
    “I don’t want to steal; I just want to make sure we get the Booke back, and I don’t think I can do it by winning the contest,” she replied.
    Jacques shook his narrow little head. “ Non, non. I cannot show you how to get up to the Fantasy Floor. It is too dangerous.”
    Rose thought for a moment. “I suppose a slice of Brie wouldn’t change your mind?” she said.
     
    Jacques sat in the front pocket of Rose’s hooded sweatshirt as she and her brothers walked through the hotel lobby. On one side of the room stretched the hotel’s ornate front desk. A flower arrangement dominated the room’s center, towering nearly to the massive chandelier hanging from the frescoed ceiling.
    According to the huge clock above the front desk, it was a half hour past midnight. While the chandelier above them burned brightly, the rest of the lights in the room were dimmed, and the lobby was nearly empty.
    Rose and her brothers continued past the elevators to the hotel café and a door marked TOILETTE. On the other side of the door was a red velvet staircase.
    “Keep going,” Jacques instructed.
    They climbed the stairs and came to a hallway cordoned off by a delicate chain. A sign hanging from the chain read PRIVÉ.
    “That means ‘private,’ doesn’t it, Jacques?” said Rose. “We can’t go in.”
    “You wanted to get to the Fantasy Floor, non ?” answered the mouse. “This is the way.”
    Her brothers nodded. Rose took a deep breath and stepped over the chain.
    The hallway was dim, lit only by a medieval-style wall sconce. At the end of the short hall was a single brass elevator bank. Instead of a set of UP and DOWN buttons, there was a panel of multiple buttons, each button corresponding to a letter of the alphabet.
    “This elevator can only be opened with a special code,” Jacques said. “Each guest decides his or her own.”
    “What is Lily’s code?” Sage asked.
    “Je ne sais pas!” said Jacques. “I just waited here in the corner until a bellhop called the elevator, then darted in after him. He was bringing the famous woman her caviar.”
    “Did you see how many buttons the bellhop pressed?” Rose asked.
    Jacques thought a minute. “I think . . . he pressed five buttons.”
    Rose thought a minute.
    Ty was shaking his head. “I don’t get it,” he said. “ TIABLO is six letters.”
    As Sage stifled a laugh, Rose held her finger above the buttons, took a deep breath, then typed in B O O K E .
    A lamp above the elevator lit up, a bell dinged, and the elevator doors slid open. Ty patted Rose on the back. “Nice one, mi hermana .”
    “Guess Lily’s got the Cookery Booke on the brain,” said Sage as they stepped inside.
    The elevator itself contained only one button, numbered 17 .
    “But there are only sixteen floors in this hotel!” said Rose.
    “Or so you thought ,” said Jacques.
    Rose pressed 17 . The doors closed, and the elevator rumbled as it ascended to the secret floor. After just a moment or two, a bell dinged, and the doors opened into a small antechamber with a door on each wall.
    “Through that door,” whispered Jacques, pointing with one little claw at the door opposite the elevator.
    Rose padded across the room, then jiggled the doorknob of the main room; but the door wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked!”
    Ty groaned. “Why didn’t you tell us we needed a key?” he asked Jacques.
    Jacques was fretfully chewing on his tail. “The witch woman opened the door for the bellhop. I never saw a key.”
    Rose sighed as Sage knelt down in front of the doorknob. “Look!” he whispered. “There’s a keyhole!”
    Rose knelt next to her brother. Sure enough, under the door handle was a keyhole large enough to actually see through. The door to the Bliss family suite used a modern key card lock. Rose figured it must have been part of the charm of