“Is there ... any way to know how to ... fix my life? What am I supposed to do?”
Daisy’s heart thundered as she started trying to think of a spread. “Okay ... the problem, the action, the outcome.”
She laid out her first card, the Devil, then the Three of Cups, followed by the Star. “Your problem is that you’re being kept down by something. Someone.”
“My husband,” Angela whispered.
Daisy nodded. “The solution is to seek help.” She looked at the art on the card, at the women dancing together. “To seek friendship and a community.” Goose bumps broke out on her arms. “The Star is theoutcome. It’s hope. In the major arcana, the Star comes after the Tower. The Tower is a period of disruption and sometimes destruction. The Star is the clarity and the goals reached afterward.”
“I need help,” Angela said. “He’s ... It’s not safe for me to be with him, but I don’t have anywhere to go, and I can’t afford a lawyer.”
Daisy looked back where the woman in blue had sat, Nora’s lawyer. Nora was looking at her too. Then she stood and made her way to Daisy and Angela.
“I’m Elisa Patrick. I overheard. If you need my services, I’m happy to help you. Pro bono.”
“But ... no, you can’t do that.” Angela looked genuinely shocked. “It’s your job, you need to get paid.”
“I do get paid,” she said. “Enough that when there’s a situation like this, I can afford to help.”
“It’s so embarrassing.” Angela’s face crumpled.
Daisy put her hand on Angela’s. “There’s no shame in this, not for you. He’s the only one who should be ashamed.”
Elisa wrapped her arm around Angela. “Come over here, we can talk.”
This was basically Nora’s prophecy being fulfilled. That if they did this gathering, people who needed help would come. If they filled a room with women, there would be those who needed help, and the helpers who were ready to give it.
Daisy did more readings, heard more stories, and found more ways to meet needs. By the end of the night, people had found caregivers for ailing family members, jobs, tenants, and more.
As the evening was winding down, Madison looked at her phone and gasped. “Oh God. I have to go.”
“What happened?” Daisy asked.
“My mom had a brain aneurysm. They’re rushing her in for surgery to try to stop the bleeding.”
Daisy’s blood went cold, her heart thundering sickly in her chest.
“Ladies,” Aggie said, standing at the head of the table. “Tonight, we’ve made magic in this place, and now we need to make more. Because Alexandra needs us. She needs us all to use our magic.”
There was a rumble in the room, and Daisy could see some women shift in discomfort, doubt. Disbelief.
Aggie continued. “You all came here because you want this to be possible. Because you want to believe in your own magic. In your intuition. Because you want to tap into your power. Use it now. Use it now for Alexandra.”
Daisy stood up, grabbed a candle, and set it at the center of the table. She lit the flame, burning conviction guiding her. Intuition.
She closed her eyes. “May healing descend upon Alexandra Stone. May all the darkness that attempts to bind her be locked away. May it be bound. I call forth healing from all who have the power to will it to her. She must survive. She must wake up.”
Daisy felt pressure in her head, and she touched her forehead. Nora moved to her and took her hand. Then Soraya came to her other side and held on to her. All the other women around the table joined hands.
“The truth must be revealed,” Daisy said. “Only through healing will the truth be revealed.” She was going off book, deviating from the healing spell exactly as it had been written. But it was like truth was flowing through her. Vision. Insight and intuition. She hadn’t ever imagined such a thing was possible, but she couldn’t doubt it now.
She had been there the night they’d cast the revenge spell. She knew what it felt like when magic was in the room. It was like that now. “Everyone say this with me. We call for healing on Alexandra Stone.”
“We call for healing on Alexandra Stone,” the women repeated in a chorus, the sound of their voices unified leaving goose bumps on Daisy’s arms.
“Only if she wakes can the truth be revealed,” Daisy said.
“Only if she wakes can the truth be revealed.”
