5. Fortune Teller Aesthetic #2
Man, I really fucked up tonight.
I was about to sit when I caught sight of the various bell jars filled with skulls and preserved insects lining the mantel. A shiver of fear lanced up my spine, and Lucia straightened near me. Her gaze followed mine. More embarrassment and also…empathy flowed through the bond.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, pulling a few shawls from a drawer to cover them as Gertrude made herself at home at the table.
She spread Lucia’s notes across the one clear patch of table, shoving crystals aside.
The pages were a mix of Lucia’s looping handwriting and photographs of something much older, made up of glyphs and unfamiliar symbols.
She withdrew a pair of reading glasses from her breast pocket as Snowflake made himself at home on Lucia’s velvet chaise.
“Yucatec Maya, mostly,” Gertrude remarked, answering my unasked question as she traced a line of the mysterious glyphs. “Luckily, a language I’ve spent a good deal of time studying. All of this is from your great-grandmother’s expedition, right?”
She peered over her glasses at Lucia, who nodded.
“Hawk, read this portion to me.” She pointed at some notes Lucia had written.
I wanted to grumble at the old woman to read them herself, but a spark of hope cut through the sadness inside Lucia’s chest, and I couldn’t resist that any more than the light in her greenhouse.
“It says, ‘Working hypothesis, revised: The Moon Queen pollen functions as a binding agent. Historical accounts describe a single dyadic connection producing full emotional transparency between participants.
“‘Dilution of the pollen may be the solution. If the essence can be attenuated and dispersed across many weak connections rather than concentrated in one potent dose, the effect should remain. Not true emotional connection, but enough to act as a counter-curse across a wide audience.’
“Then there’s a bunch of ingredients and, like…scientific magic stuff I don’t understand beneath that.”
Lucia looked at Gertrude expectantly, and that spark of hope in her chest grew until I couldn’t look away.
Gertrude blinked at me once. Twice. “I’m going to assume that Lucia’s notes are actually some sort of useful observation and not the string of curses I just heard come out of your mouth.”
That hope in Lucia’s chest shriveled up, replaced by a sadness so deep and cold it had me wincing.
“This is good and tells us several things.”
Lucia and I snapped our heads toward her, confusion rising in both of us.
“One, you and this young man, Hawk, have been bonded by the Moon Queen flower. That much is obvious. This bond circumvents your curse, and he hears you clearly. However, he could not read your written words aloud without the curse taking effect, but he could tell me the events of tonight. This means that as long as Hawk speaks from his own heart and mind, he can still be understood. But if he simply repeats your words, the curse will still take effect.”
Her eyes dropped to the glyphs on the page.
“Here’s what I can give you tonight. This is old magic, and old magic is unruly, but it never does anything by accident.” She gave Lucia a pointed look. “I know you think that magic is all equations and alchemy, but this old bird has seen some things in her day. Magic has a will of its own.”
Lucia didn’t do it, but I could feel her deep, deep desire to roll her eyes.
“And it does not easily give back what it has claimed,” Gertrude continued. “Every day this bond goes unbroken, it roots a little deeper, until eventually, it likely can’t be undone at all.”
Lucia’s dread went cold in my chest. I felt her want to speak, and felt her not, and I was starting to understand how much of her life had existed in that space between.
“How long do we have?” I asked for her.
“The ancients knew well the barrier between our world and the spirit world. The one that is thinnest on All Hallows’ Eve. That’s the only time two souls can be pried loose from one another without permanent damage.” Gertrude folded her hands. “And it’s coming up in two weeks.”
Two weeks stuck within twenty feet of a witch I didn’t know. Two weeks of no deliveries, no route, no bike. For the last decade, I hadn’t stayed anywhere longer than a few nights, and now I couldn’t walk more than shouting distance away from a beautiful stranger.
I was panicking, to say the least, and so was Lucia. But beneath that was something warm and…stable. It felt like that inviting light I wouldn’t—hadn’t—been able to resist.
Lucia looked at me, and I looked at the table.
“You’ll need the full counter-ritual,” Gertrude went on, “which is somewhere in this.” She flicked the Yucatec pages. “I can help you with the grammar and some of the obscure symbols, but I’m seventy, and I do not do all-nighters anymore. You two will finish it. Together.”
A knowing pause.
“You’ll be doing everything together for a while, I’d imagine.”
Warm light spread its wings in Lucia’s chest, and through this bond that was only growing stronger by the moment, I knew my company meant more to her than she would say.
“But those are tomorrow’s problems. Tonight”—she pointed at me—“you get that glass out of your hand before it festers, and you”—she pointed at Lucia—“put him somewhere he can sleep without irritating the bond. Closer, if you are brave.”
The old woman winked, and Lucia’s ears went scarlet. Mine went with them.
“That’s the spirit,” Gertrude said fondly. “Hawk, help me to the door.”
I stood, picking up her carpetbag and following her. It didn’t really seem like she needed help, but when she pulled open the front door, she turned to me.
“Something to remember,” she whispered. “Sometimes the cruelty of a curse isn’t in the spellwork, but in who cast it.”
She stared at me pointedly, like I should know what that meant.
“Do witches always speak in riddles?”
“Yes.” She clicked her tongue.
Mugen howled from atop the banister as four white legs trailed after her, and she closed the door.
Dust motes floated down from the ornate chandelier above, and I turned to see Lucia lingering in the parlor doorway. It was very quiet, just the two of us now.
“So,” I said, trying to ease the tension. “Where am I sleeping?”
“I have a guest room, but let’s get you patched up first.”