: Chapter 24

Savannah

I stepped into the tent, which smelled of cinnamon and incense. It took my eyes a couple seconds to adjust to the meager light shed by half a dozen dim candles floating in the air.

A young woman in a ’90s jean jacket sat behind a table hung with purple and gold cloth. She gave a knowing smile. “Jaxson Laurent. I see you found your Strength. Let me see her.” The woman motioned me over, and a dozen gold bracelets jingled around her arm.

I didn’t move a muscle.

“What’s the matter? I won’t bite.”

“I…saw you in a dream.”

She swept the braids of her long black hair over her shoulder and extended a hand. “Oh, that’s highly probable. The fates have been trying to lead you to me. I am Lady Fortune, after all. But you can call me Dominique. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

I cocked my head in confusion as I extended my hand to shake hers. “Savannah Caine. What do you mean?”

She started inspecting my palm. “The fates have plans for us all. Some of us need a push. You were in danger, so I sent Mr. Laurent to you after I read his fortune—though to be honest, I did not know if he would make it in time.”

“Oh, he showed up. Right after I ran my attackers over with my car.”

I glared at him, and he tensed. I could practically smell his irritation.

Lady Fortune raised her eyebrows and gave me a wide grin. “Well, the card I pulled for you certainly seems accurate, though maybe I should have pulled the Chariot.”

My curiosity flared to life, burning away any apprehension I’d had. “What card did you pull for me?”

“Strength,” Jaxson said, his voice low and hard, almost hitching.

Lady Fortune released my hand and flipped over the top card of the large tarot deck sitting on her table.

Strength. It showed a woman taming a lion.

“Don’t let your success so far go to your head,” she cautioned. “You are not out of danger. Far from it.” She slid the card to the bottom of the deck. “Sit, and we will discuss your fate.”

The seer pointed at the chair in front of her table and snapped her fingers. The chair shook itself like a wet dog, and suddenly, a duplicate chair sprang out and skittered over to me like a crab. I jumped back with a yelp.

She raised her eyebrows. “Sorry. I forgot that you’re new to town. I should have warned you.”

I nodded. The entire fair had been wondrous from a distance, but now that I was caught up in it, I was completely overwhelmed.

The seer gestured to sit, so I slowly lowered myself onto the chair, making sure it wasn’t just an illusion. Solid. I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that I should be surprised by anything at this point.

Jaxson took the other chair and laid a stack of bills on the table. My heartbeat picked up, and my palms went damp. I hadn’t ever seen so much cash in one place.

He just walked around with that in his pocket? Then again, he could rip someone’s throat out in a second. He’d probably savor it.

Lady Fortune bowed her head slightly. “You have anticipated my next request. Perhaps you have a little seer in you, Mr. Laurent.”

She went to snap her fingers, but she paused and looked at me. “Just to warn you, I’m going to do another magic thing. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

She snapped twice. A little pink purse ran out of the back room, hopped up on her lap, and started wiggling like a small, over-excited dog. It popped open and trembled with restrained excitement. The seer plucked the cash from the table and dropped it in, and the pouch snapped shut, jumped down, and scampered back to the other room.

“He’s very excitable,” Lady Fortune mused.

My heart hammered with excitement. “Oh. My. God. How do I get one of those?”

“It’s tough. They’re very expensive and hard to train.”

“Damn. I need a job,” I muttered to myself.

She winked. “I recommend fortune-telling. The customers usually hate what you tell them, but it pays well. They don’t call me Lady Fortune for nothing.”

Jaxson grunted. “You didn’t count the money this time.”

Lady Fortune stuck a hand on her hip and raised her chin. “With a lady present? Never. Anyway, you tipped well enough last time that I don’t think I have anything to worry about.”

At least Jaxson was generous with his money, if nothing else.

She pushed a clipboard with a pen and contract across the table.

“What’s this?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Liability release. Just in case you want to blame me for a bad fortune or any of the crazy things you’re going to do once you hear it.”

I glanced at Jaxson, becoming less certain of this plan every second. He nodded, so I skimmed the agreement and signed, hoping I hadn’t just sold my soul.

The seer began shuffling her cards impossibly fast, then she slammed the deck down on the table. “Now, you’ve come a long way from Wisconsin. Tell me what it is that you want to know.”

Hell, how much did she already know about me? I had so many questions eating at me that I could feel them trying to tear their way out of my chest. Could I only ask one? “Why are people hunting me, and who are they?”

Lady Fortune rested her long pink nails on the top of the tarot deck. “Two for the price of one? Cheeky, but I’ll indulge you since you’re new to town. Let us see what the fates have to say. Watch out. Magic is about to happen, and it scares the willies out of me every time.”

Electricity crackled through the air. The candles dimmed, and the scent of fresh coffee filled the tent. I heard the sound of a heartbeat pounding deep in the earth, shaking the space around us. My own heart began to beat in time, faster and faster, and my breath caught as darkness swirled around the room. The shadows became serpents, constricting around us, squeezing the air from my lungs, and whirling like a hurricane. Darkness swallowed us, and my stomach lurched, as if falling from the sky. I grabbed the table to steady myself and to fight the rising nausea.

The only light left came from a single candle, flickering overhead.

I looked to Jaxson with frightened eyes, but he nodded calmly and touched my hand. Electricity jolted between us, and he pulled his fingers away as if stung. His eyes flashed honey gold.

But his weren’t the only eyes watching me. The hair on my neck stood upright. There were other watchers in the darkness. Invisible. Waiting.

The seer cleared her throat.

“We draw three cards—one for each of the fates.” She slid them off the top of the deck one at a time, keeping them face down. As soon as she was done, the deck vanished.

She flipped the first card over with her long pink nails and paused, her hand hanging in the air above.

“The Moon. Very strange.” She glanced between us. “It was the first card I drew for him.”

I leaned forward. The card showed two wolves sitting on opposite sides of a river, howling up at a smiling moon. As I looked, the image began to waver and move, as if the wolves were alive and the stream was flowing.

I blinked. It was just a card.

She flipped the second. “The Lovers.”

Again, the seer looked between us and raised an inquiring eyebrow. I blushed. Hopefully, she hadn’t drawn that card for him as well.

After a pregnant pause, the seer hooked a nail under that final card and flipped it over. “The Wheel.”

Her magic swirled around me, and the distance between us seemed to fade. Soon, the only things left in the room were the cards and her brilliant eyes, which turned pure white. My heart clenched, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

The seer spoke in a voice that was not of this earth. It was hoarse, and infinitely old. “Your path ahead lies in peril, but the river of fortune draws you onward. You cannot run, and you cannot stop your fate. If you do not find those who are chasing you, they will find you. If you do not destroy them, they will destroy you. You must betray yourself to save yourself. You must betray us all to save us all. The end is inevitable. Darkness will fall.”

A deep and unrelenting dread coiled in my stomach, and I reached sideways for Jaxson’s hand but couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find him at all.

The seer’s eyes flickered and returned to brown. I brushed Jaxson’s hand and pulled my fingers away. It was like he hadn’t been there at all for a moment, and then was.

I clenched my shaking hands into fists. “What does it mean?”

The seer shook her head. “Your prophecy arises from the cards I laid, but I do not know it or hear it. It is spoken by fate.”

“Prophecy?” Jaxson asked, “I heard nothing.”

“You would not. The fates speak directly. She would not have heard yours, had she joined you here four days ago. Those words were for your ears only.”

I glanced at Jaxson, whose expression turned dark and brooding, and bit my lip. No one else had heard what I had been told, and I wished I’d written it down.

The seer adjusted her hands and placed her fingers gently on the Moon. “The prophecy is not all. I can still give you my reading of the cards.” Tapping the first, she said, “You are being chased. But this is not just one card, but two.”

She spread her fingers and slipped a second card from underneath where there had been none before. The Magician.

“You are being hunted by a wolf and a sorcerer. If you find the wolf, you will find the sorcerer. If you find the sorcerer, you will find the wolf.”

Frustration bit into me. We knew that—or suspected it, at least. “But why?”

She moved her hand to the lovers. “Because of who you are—because of your parents and your bloodline. You are everything your adversary needs.”

Panic rose in my throat. “But we don’t have any leads. How do I find them?”

She placed her hand on the Wheel and tensed. Her eyes flashed white, and her voice croaked. “You do not need to. They are already here. Hunting.”