Chapter 42 #2
Laughter erupts from the group. Elaine watches me with narrowed eyes. Crap. How long have I been staring at Jessica? Maybe she’ll think I’m looking at Emily. Fuck, I hope so.
The elderly woman sits at her table, holding a deck of cards toward Liam.
“Come on. Give it a try. Maybe it will say we are destined to be together,” Cassie purrs in Liam’s ear.
He grimaces. Cassie is curvy, dressed in the latest fashion, with light brown, wavy hair.
She’s taken to social media and wants to act or model.
She may be pretty, but she’s average, nothing special about her looks or her personality.
Sodie slaps Liam on the back. “Just do it. The faster you get it done, the faster she will realize she’s not your destiny.” Sodie chuckles. Liam motions for the elderly woman to hand him a card. She shuffles the deck, fans it out, and instructs Liam to pick one.
He pulls a card and flips it over. He scowls while everyone starts to laugh and cheer. Cassie bats her fake eyelashes. Liam shows the elderly woman the card.
She smiles. “Ah, the Lovers card. Destined to be together. Joined by fate. True mates.” Then, she frowns.
“You’re fighting it. Why?” She shuffles the cards again and lifts one from the top of the deck.
“The King of Cups, reversed,” she explains.
“If you don’t let love in, you will still achieve everything you’re destined for, but you will live a lonely and miserable life.
The monster within will be unleashed and leave you a very feared man, a man you fight so hard to refrain from becoming.
” She takes the Lovers card and places it over the King of Cups.
“Let love in, and you will gain everything your heart desires. The choice is yours.”
Cassie smiles and intertwines her hand with Liam’s. He glances at their hands and then at Cassie. “I told you we were destined to be together,” she announces.
The old woman cackles. “Oh, sweetheart, it’s not you. He knows exactly who it is.” A slight reprieve crosses Liam’s features before he schools his normal expression.
Cassie huffs. “We’ll see about that!” She stomps away and turns back to look at Liam. He doesn’t follow.
“Take it. You need the reminder,” the old woman says to Liam, handing him the cards.
Elaine intertwines her fingers with mine. “Your turn, baby,” she sings.
I remove my hand from hers and move toward the table, taking Liam’s place. I smile at the woman, flashing her my dimples, and she blushes.
“You’re a horrible flirt,” she claims.
At least I know it still works. I wink, and she shakes her head.
“You know, that charm will not work on everyone. Sometimes, you need to work a little harder to gain a certain someone’s attention,” she says with her own wink.
I chuckle. “I hear you, old woman, loud and clear.” She smiles, showing her brown and yellow teeth, and fans the cards in front of me.
I pull one, but another falls from the deck onto the table.
She rests her hand over it, sliding it toward her, but she doesn’t place it back into the deck.
Gesturing to the card in my hand, I flip it over. The King of Pentacles.
“Ah. You will be a great king when it becomes your turn. But we already knew that. Didn’t we?
That’s not what you want to know. Is it?
” She smiles widely, and her eyes shine, like she knows a secret.
She retrieves the card that fell and turns it over.
The Queen of Wands reversed. She tsks. “You let the influences of others drive you to make a very wrong and hurtful decision.”
The blood drains from my face. How could she possibly know that? Am I too late?
“But fear not. There is hope. You cannot rely on charm and that pretty face. You must dig deep and work hard to make things right. It will not happen overnight. Be mindful of those around you. The influences can cause more damage than you know.”
She flips another card. The World. She smiles.
“Big changes are coming—some bad, some good. If you handle them well, it can all be yours. Just remember one important thing. It will look nothing like how you think it will. Once you accept that, she can be yours, too.”
I frown. I don’t understand that last part. She doesn’t explain, hands me the cards, and repeats the same message she told Liam.
Elaine pushes me to the side. “Who is she?” she asks, crossing her arms.
The woman laughs and shuffles the deck. One tumbles out, face up. The High Priestess. “Someone very important.” She looks at all of us before replacing it back in the stack.
“It’s my turn,” Elaine whines. I’m not sure why I stay to listen, but my feet seem rooted in place. I wait for Elaine’s cards to show.
Elaine looks smug, knowing she’s now the center of attention. She thrives on it. Elaine has a cute face and tan-colored hair. Like Cassie, she dresses in the latest fashion, but she doesn’t have Cassie’s curves.
Underneath the carefully applied makeup and clothing, she is the ugliest girl I have ever met. Elaine is shallow, petty, and manipulative, but everyone knows it. Unlike the girl who used me, who hid and lied, Elaine wears her true colors.
Elaine growls, “What the fuck is this?!” She holds the Devil card. Snickers circle around the girls. Wills, her own brother, coughs and covers his smile. “This is not funny, Wills,” she screeches.
The old woman smirks. “I don’t have to explain this card to you. It’s obvious you know what it means. But the divine is giving you a chance… to choose a different path. Jealousy is your one true enemy.”
“And where the fuck did you get that from? One of your tacky quotes in those ugly, handmade cards in your store?!”
“Elaine,” I warn.
She turns on me with eyes brimming with tears, “This isn’t fair. I want another card!”
The woman obliges by shuffling the deck. She pauses before fanning them out. “You may not want the other card. Greed doesn’t make you a better person.”
Elaine snarls, “I want the other card.”
“I will give you another card only if you allow me to say what you need to hear.” She raises an eyebrow in anticipation of Elaine’s answer.
“Fine,” she snaps.
The woman leans forward and fans the cards before her. Elaine pulls a card, and as it did for me, another falls from the deck. The woman palms it.
When Elaine flips her pulled card, she finds Death. She begins panting, and her face turns red.
I side-eye Sodie, who readies to grab her if needed.
“What the fuck,” she breathes.
The woman sits back and studies Elaine. “I was going to tell you that you have an opportunity to change, that jealousy will only eat you alive and ruin your life. It won’t ruin just your life.
Your jealousy will ruin others.” She searches Elaine’s face.
“I’m afraid you already made up your mind, and as a result, someone will die because of you.
In fact, many will die because of your jealousy and your greed.
” The woman frowns. “But maybe, just maybe, you can change.”
“I’ve never been jealous of anyone in my entire life! I think you have it wrong. People are jealous of me!”
The woman sadly shakes her head. “Then you made your choice. I see.” She lifts her palm to peek at the fallen card. She hesitates before continuing, “You will meet a great adversary.” The woman quickly places the card in the deck.
“Give me back the card!” Elaine screams.
The woman looks down, slides the card back out of the deck, and flips it over. The Fool. “You won’t win,” she whispers.
Elaine screeches and throws the cards at the woman.
“You changed it on purpose. You’re trying to make me look like a fool.
Well, I have news for you! I don’t believe in any of this crap.
I make my own destiny! I. Always. Get. What.
I. Want!” Elaine turns, hesitates, then turns back, taking the money from the old woman’s tip jar and stomps off.
I roll my eyes. The girls follow Elaine. Stan snorts. “She’s a piece of work.”
Darwin whistles. “That’s the definition of crazy. I think we need to tighten security on you,” he teases.
My blood runs cold. “I won’t lie. She fucking scares the shit out of me,” I admit, halfheartedly lightening the mood. I retrieve my wallet and place a fifty in the woman’s jar. “Sorry about that. I hope this makes up for what she took.”
The other guys follow suit, placing bills in her jar.
The old woman smiles. Crooking her finger, she stops us in our tracks. “I need to show you something.” She sets a card on the table. The High Priestess. “This is the card I didn’t want to show her, her greatest adversary. You need to protect her. If that girl gets what she wants…”
She bends down and picks up the cards Elaine threw at her. Without looking at them, she covers the High Priestess with the Death card and then the Devil.
“Let her win, and it will destroy the entire LS territory.” The woman’s expression is overcome with sadness. Tapping the High Priestess, she cautions, “Protect her. Protect yourselves. Take care of one another.”