Chapter Four
Athena
Las Vegas was alive.
I mean, I knew it would be because, well…
it was Las Vegas, but knowing something intellectually and experiencing it with your entire soul were two completely different things.
The moment I stepped out of the airport, I felt it.
The energy. The vibration. The cosmic hum of a thousand destinies colliding at once.
“Oh my Goddess,” I whispered, stopping dead in my tracks to take it all in.
The lights. The lights. Even in daylight, they were everywhere—flashing, spinning, beckoning. Neon signs advertising shows and buffets, and wedding chapels. Digital billboards that were the size of buildings. Everything was bright and loud and excessive and absolutely perfect.
Someone bumped into me from behind.
“Sorry!” I called over my shoulder, not really paying attention because I was too busy staring at a massive LED screen showing a tiger. Or maybe it was a lion? Some kind of big cat. It was roaring silently, its mouth opening wide enough to swallow the sky.
“The universe brought me here,” I said to no one in particular, or maybe to everyone in particular, because wasn’t that the same thing? “This is where it all begins.”
I started walking, though “walking” might be too generous a term. I was more... drifting. Floating. Moving in the general direction of the Strip while my head swiveled in every direction at once, trying to absorb everything.
A fountain shot water fifty feet into the air.
A man dressed as Elvis walked past me, talking on his phone.
Someone was handing out flyers for a magic show.
“Magic,” I breathed. “Of course there’s magic here. The universe is speaking to me.”
I pulled out my phone to take a picture of the Elvis impersonator, but he’d already disappeared into the crowd. That was fine. Some moments weren’t meant to be captured. They were meant to be experienced. To be felt. To be absorbed into your soul like spiritual nutrients.
I was so busy contemplating spiritual nutrients that I didn’t notice the man in front of me had stopped walking.
I crashed into him with enough force to make him stumble forward a step.
“Oh! Oh my Goddess, I’m so sorry!” I grabbed his arm to steady him, which, in retrospect, probably just made things worse. “I wasn’t looking where I was...”
He turned around, and I forgot what I was saying.
He was handsome. Not in the obvious way, not like the shirtless men on the billboard I’d just passed advertising some show called “Thunder from Down Under.” This was different.
Subtle. Refined. He had dark hair that was perfectly styled, sharp cheekbones, and eyes that were currently narrowed in what I could only describe as profound irritation.
He was also wearing a suit. A full suit. In Las Vegas. In the middle of the day.
“You should watch where you’re going,” he said, his voice clipped and precise, as if each word had been measured and approved before being released into the world.
“I know, I’m sorry, I was just... the lights are so... and there was an Elvis.” I gestured vaguely at everything and nothing. “The energy here is just so intense, you know?”
He stared at me as if I’d just spoken in tongues.
“I don’t have time for this,” he muttered, more to himself than to me. He adjusted his suit jacket, which hadn’t even wrinkled from our collision, and started to walk away.
“Wait!” I called after him. “I really am sorry! I didn’t mean to...”
But he was already gone, swallowed up by the crowd, moving with the kind of purposeful stride that suggested he knew exactly where he was going and exactly how long it would take him to get there.
I stood there, watching the space where he’d disappeared, feeling oddly... unsettled.
“Where was he going in such a hurry?” I asked the universe.
The universe, as usual, didn’t answer directly. But I felt something. A pull. A tug. Like a string had been tied around my heart and someone had just given it a gentle yank.
“Huh?”
My phone rang.
I fumbled it out of my bag, nearly dropping my rose quartz in the process, and saw two names on the screen: Freyja and Phoebe. They were calling at the same time, which meant they’d coordinated this, which meant something important had happened.
I answered and immediately regretted it.
“ATHENA!”
“ATHENA!”
Both of my sisters were shouting at once, their voices overlapping in a way that made it impossible to understand either of them.
“One at a time!” I pressed my finger to my other ear, trying to block out the sound of slot machines and street performers. “I can’t understand you when you both talk.”
“You’ve met him!” Phoebe shrieked.
“Already!” Freyja added. “You’ve already met your soulmate!”
I blinked. Looked around. The crowd was a sea of tourists in shorts and fanny packs, families with strollers, and groups of women wearing matching T-shirts that said “brIDE TRIBE.”
“I... what? No, I haven’t. I just got here. I literally just walked out of the airport.”
“The cards don’t lie,” Phoebe said, and I could hear the sound of her shuffling her deck in the background. “I did a reading the moment you landed, and, Athena, the cards are screaming. The Lovers, The Magician, The Wheel of Fortune—”
“Lucille confirmed it,” Freyja interrupted. “I asked her specifically, and she said, and I quote... ‘The threads have already crossed.’”
“Lucille said that?” I asked, because Lucille was Freyja’s spirit guide and she usually spoke in much vaguer terms. Things like “The path reveals itself” or “Trust the journey.” Actual specific information was rare.
“Word for word,” Freyja confirmed. “She’s never been this clear about anything. Athena, you’ve already met him. Your soulmate. He’s there. In Las Vegas. And you’ve already crossed paths.”
I looked around again, more carefully this time. A man in a Hawaiian shirt was eating a hot dog. A woman was taking a selfie with a showgirl. A group of college-aged guys were laughing about something on someone’s phone.
“I don’t see anyone,” I said slowly.
“Think!” Phoebe urged. “Since you landed, have you talked to anyone? Bumped into anyone? Made eye contact with anyone?”
“I mean, I bumped into someone like two minutes ago, but he was just some grumpy guy in a suit who—”
“THAT’S HIM!” they both screamed in unison.
I winced and pulled the phone away from my ear. “What? No, he was... he was rude. He didn’t even let me apologize. He just walked away.”
“Describe him,” Freyja demanded.
“I don’t know, he was... tall? Dark hair? Wearing a suit? He looked like he was late for a very important meeting with other people who also take themselves too seriously.”
“Was he handsome?” Phoebe asked.
I hesitated. “I mean... objectively, yes. But that doesn’t—”
“IT’S HIM!” they shrieked again in unison.
“You don’t know that! You can’t possibly know that from—”
“The cards know,” Phoebe said firmly. “And the cards are never wrong.”
“Never,” Freyja agreed. “Athena, listen to me. I’m going to talk to Lucille right now. I’m going to ask her for a location, a sign, something specific. She said the threads have crossed, which means the universe has already put you two together. Now we just need to figure out where he is.”
“But—”
“No buts. Stay where you are. Well, don’t stay exactly where you are—that would be weird. But stay in the general area. Walk around. Explore. Let the universe guide you. I’ll call you back as soon as Lucille gives me something concrete.”
“Freyja—”
“Trust the process, little sister,” Phoebe said, her voice suddenly gentle. “When have my readings ever been wrong?”
I wanted to say “plenty of times,” but that would be a lie.
Phoebe’s readings were annoyingly accurate.
She’d predicted Freyja would find her soulmate in New Orleans before Freyja had even met her husband, Duncan.
She’d predicted the birth of her son before her surrogate and friend Sarah had even taken the test. She’d even predicted that I’d end up staying at the Bourbon Bar, though she’d been vague about the details.
“Fine,” I sighed. “But if this turns out to be nothing.”
“It won’t be nothing,” Freyja said. “I promise. Now go. Explore. We’ll call you soon.”
They hung up before I could argue further.
I stood there, phone in hand, staring at the screen.
“The grumpy suit guy?” I asked the universe. “Really? That’s my soulmate?”
A breeze kicked up, warm and dry, carrying the scent of sunscreen and possibility.
“I mean, I guess he was handsome,” I admitted. “In a very... structured way. Like someone had designed him using a ruler and a protractor.”
I started walking again, this time paying slightly more attention to where I was going. But only slightly. Because how was I supposed to focus on pedestrian traffic when there was so much to see?
The Bellagio fountains were dancing in the distance.
The Eiffel Tower... well, a half-sized replica of the Eiffel Tower that rose into the sky.
Everything was bigger, brighter, louder than it had any right to be.
“Okay, universe,” I said, dodging around a family taking a group photo. “I’m here. I’m open. I’m receptive. If that guy in the suit is really my soulmate, you’re going to have to give me a sign. A real sign. Not just my sisters insisting that—”
I walked past a wedding chapel.
The sign out front read: “DESTINY AWAITS.”
I stopped. Stared at the sign. Looked up at the sky.
“Really?” I asked. “That’s your sign? A wedding chapel called Destiny?”
The universe, in its infinite wisdom, chose that moment to have someone exit the chapel, a couple in full wedding attire, laughing and kissing and looking absolutely radiant.
“Okay,” I said. “Point taken.”
I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the chapel, then sent it to my sisters with the caption: The universe has a sense of humor.
Phoebe responded immediately: The universe has a PLAN!
Freyja’s response came a second later: Lucille is meditating. Will update soon. In the meantime, EXPLORE!
I pocketed my phone and looked around, really looked, at the chaos and magic of Las Vegas.
Somewhere in this city was a grumpy man in a suit who apparently didn’t believe in watching where he was going, or accepting apologies, or basic human kindness.
And according to my sisters, and the universe, and Lucille, and Phoebe’s cards, he was my soulmate.
“Well,” I said to no one in particular, “this should be interesting.”
I adjusted my bag, made sure my crystals were secure, and started walking toward the Strip.
If the universe wanted me to explore, I’d explore.
And if I happened to run into Mr. Grumpy Suit again?
Well, that would just prove that destiny had a sense of humor after all.