I froze for a breath, then forced a laugh. “Well, therewasthat time I told my cousin the ice cream truck only played music when it was out of ice cream.”
Madame Aphrodite didn’t flinch. “This isn’t about your cousin. This is guilt’s shadow—fear. Fear is what’s anchoring you. Fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear that you’ll try and still fall short.” Her voice softened, but the words landed like thunder. “You tell yourself it’s only guilt. But that guilt leads to fear.”
My chest burned. She wasn’t wrong, and I hated how seen I felt.
As if he could sense it, Luke jumped in, his voice light and airy. “Fear? Anna? Nah. She faces down tourists at Muses without even blinking.”
Madame Aphrodite smiled faintly, letting the moment settle. “Shall we move on to the present?”
I turned over the next card, revealing a woman calmly holding a roaring lion at bay.
“Ah, the Strength card.” Madame’s tone was theatrical. “It tells me you have the courage to face adversity, but not in the way you think. It’s not brute force. It’s quiet strength, the kind that comes from trusting yourself.”
Luke leaned back, smirking. “Quiet strength? That’s a fancy way of saying stubborn, isn’t it?”
Madame’s painted eyebrows arched higher. “The strength is there, whether or not she chooses to use it.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes but said nothing, flipping the final card. It was a serene woman pouring water beside a shimmering pond beneath a glowing star.
“The Star,” Madame whispered reverently, her tone dipping into mystery. “Hope. Renewal. A guiding light toward brighter days.” Her voice dropped low with warning “But fear is stubborn. It will whisper doubts in your ear, telling you that you’re not enough, that you’ll fail. Only by confronting it can you step into the future you deserve.”
I stared at the card. Her words felt too close to home, like she’d reached into my chest and plucked out all my buried insecurities. Strength, renewal, and courage sounded so absurdly out of reach. But part of me—the part I tried to silence—longed for it to be true. What would it be like to believe in that kind of promise, to imagine a future brighter than my fears?
“Well,” I finally said, my voice shaky, “that’s a lot to unpack. Do I get a user manual for all that strength and renewal?”
Madame Aphrodite chuckled. “You don’t need a manual, my dear. You need to trust that the story you want to write is worth telling.”
I wasn’t so sure. But as I placed the cards back on the table, a tiny ember of hope flickered.
16
LUKE
It was my turn.
I settled into the chair across from the fortune teller while she waved what looked like a bundle of herbs over the cards.
“Cleansing the space,” she explained, her bracelets jangling with every motion. “Now, tell me, what do you wish to ask the cards?” Her tone invited me to whisper secrets I didn’t know I had.
I hesitated, masking my discomfort with a casual shrug. “Am I going to win a big award next year?”
Madame Aphrodite clicked her tongue in mock disapproval, shaking her head. “No, no, no. Dive deeper. Ask a question that will guide your soul.” Before I could think of a sarcastic comeback, she added, “We will ask the cards how you can rediscover joy in your life.”
My stomach twisted slightly, and I shifted in my seat. Joy? That felt like a tall order. But her gaze held me captive, so I nodded.
She placed three cards face down in front of me, her bangles chiming like tiny gongs. “These cards reveal your past, present, and future. Go on, flip the first one.”
I reached out, my fingers brushing the worn edge of the card before flipping it over. A regal woman seated on a throne stared back at me, her crown adorned with stars.
“Ah, the Empress,” Madame Aphrodite declared, her voice dropping into a hush. Then her gaze narrowed as she leaned in, tapping the card with a finger adorned in rings. “But… she is reversed. This suggests a void, an emptiness in your past. Perhaps someone you once relied on left a mark? An absence you’ve yet to reconcile.”
My throat constricted. My mom’s face flickered briefly in my mind, unbidden and uncomfortable. But no. This must be about Sienna. It had to be her. She’d been the one who left me spinning, hadn’t she?
Although if I were honest, Sienna hadn’t crossed my mind recently. And the thought of my mother clung to me like a burr, making me squirm.
“Come on now.” Madame Aphrodite’s voice broke through my unease, light and coaxing. “Don’t linger too long on the past, darling. Let’s see what the present holds.”
I turned over the second card, revealing a skeletal figure atop a horse carrying a sickle. The image sent a shiver down my spine. “This… doesn’t look good,” I said.
