Chapter Five #3
I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with it.
It wasn’t wrong enough to name, only unfinished.
I stared at the deck.
My head had only recently stopped aching from the reading I’d done for Geo that morning.
That should’ve been enough reason to leave the cards alone.
It wasn’t.
I sat at the table and unwrapped them.
The first shuffle sent a faint pulse behind my right eye.
“Great.”
I should stop.
Instead, I cut the deck.
I wasn’t asking who killed Antonio.
I wasn’t asking whether Volkov was guilty.
I wasn’t asking the cards to hand me a future they’d never handed anyone cleanly.
I only wanted to know what I was missing about the Halloween operation.
The first card was The Moon.
Unease crawled over my skin.
The second was the Seven of Swords.
The pressure behind my eye sharpened.
“No.”
I wasn’t saying no to the cards. I was saying no to the feeling that came with them.
I stared at the images.
The Moon gave me uncertainty, distortion, things hidden behind what appeared obvious.
The Seven of Swords pointed to deception—a lie, someone moving around the truth instead of through it.
My stomach rolled.
I put both hands flat against the table.
The safe house shifted slightly beneath me.
I closed my eyes.
A fragment came.
There was no face or room, nothing clean enough to use.
I only knew that something being offered as protection was part of the lie.
I couldn’t trust it just because someone called it safe.
Then the image vanished.
Pain punched behind my eye.
I bent forward and breathed through the nausea.
“Stella?”
Geo’s voice came from the hallway.
I opened my eyes.
He was already moving toward me, trousers on and shirtless.
He glanced at the cards.
“What happened?”
“I pulled two.”
He stopped beside the table.
“You look sick.”
“I feel sick.”
Geo reached for the water pitcher and filled my glass.
He set it beside me.
“What did you get?”
I took a drink first.
“The Moon and Seven of Swords.”
“What does that mean?”
“Deception. Something hidden. Something not being what it looks like.”
His expression sharpened.
“About the casino?”
“Yes.”
“Anything specific?”
I shook my head and immediately regretted it when the room tilted.
Geo put a hand on the back of my chair but didn’t touch me.
“Easy.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re dizzy.”
“I can be both.”
“That sentence makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense when you’re me.”
Geo waited until I took another drink.
“What did you see?”
“Not enough.”
“Tell me what you did see.”
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
“Security. Safety. Something about them being tied to the deception.”
His jaw hardened.
“Volkov.”
“I don’t know.”
“He runs security.”
“I know, but that isn’t what I saw.” I faced him. “I didn’t see him. I didn’t see a person at all.”
Geo stayed quiet.
“That matters,” I said. “I’m not turning two cards and a fragment into proof because we already suspect him.”
“Good.”
“I knew you’d approve of that.”
“I’m trying very hard not to say anything about evidence.”
“You’re growing.”
“Slowly.”
I glanced down at The Moon.
Geo pulled out the chair beside mine.
“Do we cancel?”
The question surprised me.
What surprised me wasn’t that he wanted to cancel. It was that he asked me.
“We could.”
“Yes.”
“But the warning is too broad.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s harmless.”
“No. It means we don’t know what to avoid.”
Geo leaned forward, forearms on his thighs.
“We already decided not to trust an unplanned move by casino security.”
“Yes.”
“This makes that more important.”
“Yes.”
“If anybody tells you I sent them, you verify it with me.”
“Already planned.”
“If anybody says they’re moving you somewhere secure—”
“I don’t go just because they say it’s secure.”
Geo went still.
My stomach knotted at the word secure.
“That’s closer,” I said.
“To what?”
“The feeling.”
“What about it?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t push.
I turned the Seven of Swords over, then The Moon.
“I hate this part.”
“Not knowing?”
“Knowing just enough to be scared and not enough to do anything useful with it.”
Geo’s hand opened on the table beside mine.
I put my hand in it.
“You did something useful,” he said.
“What?”
“You told me.”
I turned toward him.
“You could’ve kept this to yourself because you knew I might cancel the operation.”
“I thought about it for approximately three seconds.”
“Three too many.”
“Don’t ruin the moment.”
His thumb moved over my fingers.
“If the warning changes at the casino, you trigger the tracker.”
“Even if I can’t explain it.”
“Especially then.”
“And you won’t make me prove it first.”
“No.”
“I need the tracker active before we enter the casino,” I said.
“It will be.”
“Not just the location. The alert needs to stay ready the whole time.”
“Yes.”
“If anything matches this feeling—anything involving security moving me, separating us, or telling me someplace is safe when it doesn’t feel safe—I trigger it.”
“Yes.”
“And Locke hears it.”
“Immediately.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Then we keep the plan.”
Geo’s mouth flattened.
“You know I’d rather cancel.”
“I do.”
“But you still want to go.”
“Yes.”
He was quiet for a moment.
Then he nodded.
“All right.”
I focused on the two face-down cards.
At The Exchange, someone might lie to me about what was safe.
Geo knew that now too.
Whatever happened next, neither of us would walk into it alone.