“Ilike to call to the spirits,” Nora intoned.
“Yes, I know.” Soraya furrowed her brow.
“Bonus points if the spirit is Satan.” That earned Nora a steely glare from Soraya. “I’m kidding. I know Satan isn’t a spirit. Plus, I prefer Hecate, if I’m honest.”
“Past,” said Soraya, putting one of the cards down. “Present.” She took a deep breath. “Future.” She turned the cards over slowly, like they might be a snake about to bite her. “The Hierophant. Well, that’s what Aggie drew for me the first time we came in here. The Empress. The High Priestess.”
“Trusting man-made structures, creating your own path, trusting your own intuition.”
“Oh. I like that, I guess.”
Nora felt personally victimized that Soraya’s was so clear and unchallenging.
“Do you want to do one, Madison?”
Madison nodded, sat down at the table, and took the deck of cards. She shuffled them with ease and then fanned them out in front of her, repeating the same structure the rest of them had used.
“The Seven of Swords. The Tower. Justice.” They looked at the reading, and goose bumps rose on Nora’s arms.
Daisy frowned as she examined the cards. “Deception. Trying to get away with something. Then obviously ...”
“Yeah. My mom being in the hospital and nearly being dead. That would be a tower.”
“But there’s justice.” Soraya touched the card. “Justice for her.”
“I don’t even know what that could mean.”
“Maybe something needs to come out,” Daisy said.
“The cards don’t tell the future.” Madison stood up. “You all just said that.”
“Daisy and Soraya said that.” Nora pinched her brows together. “I don’t know that I believe that.” Of course, her past experiences with the metaphysical hadn’t necessarily filled her with a great level of confidenceabout it. Because the Ouija board had told her she would find love, and she had done a love spell to no avail. She stared down at the Five of Cups and ignored the strange, aching feeling inside her. “I want to believe that, for you, that’s a fortune.”
It was far more comfortable to focus on Madison’s reading than to marinate on her own.
“Thank you, guys,” Madison said. “This is the first time I’ve felt ... hope.”
Nora wished she could feel the same. She didn’t look at her reading and see a way forward. All she saw was more treading water. Three cups lying on the ground, poured out, and with two standing. That felt like her life right now. She had a lot of good in her life, but there was so much that was painful. She wanted to shut it off. She wanted to not deal with it. She wanted to embrace the anger that had driven her the night she had cast the karma spell. Because at least that had been clear. At least that had felt protected. Solid.
They said their goodbyes, and she reluctantly drove back to her house. She took a deep breath and decided that after dinner she was going to call Ben. Or text him. Something. But she was going to confront him.
While she ate, she pulled up that bitch’s Instagram again. She scrolled through the newest carousels and let herself gag on the photographic evidence that there was something going on between her and Ben. In every picture he was in, they were touching. In the final photo, she was kissing his cheek.
She tasted something sour in her mouth and stopped eating her dinner. She was going to text him.
Then the lights went out.
“Agh!”
She picked her phone up, and instead of texting Ben, she texted Sam.
Can you come fix my lights?
You are a trial.
I know. Please. Rescue me?
What’s in it for me?
