“Wh— why –howareyouhere?” Madame Fortuna asked, fear in her voice for the first time. She stared at Luna with wide eyes, before swallowing hard. “I didn’t – I didn’t mean any harm. I just wanted to – I just thought – I didn’t think you’d ever find out. I don’t even really know who you are, I just saw your photo online, and I –”
“Yeah, I figured that part out,” Luna said, her voice grim. “But you’re still not making any sense. So I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go over to that diner over there and sit down somewhere relatively private. And then you’ll explain everything, start to finish, not leaving anything out. Okay?”
For a moment, it looked as if Madame Fortuna might be about to disagree, or start crying again. But then she visibly deflated, nodding miserably.
“Okay. I’ll explain. Buthereally did break my heart. I have proof!”
“Well, we’ll sort that out later,” Luna said, glancing up at Henry.
Henry nodded. He didn’t think Luna had changed her mind about Madame Fortuna’s claims, but right now, the important thing was keeping the woman calm. If she’d only explain, then he could tell her, maybe, why she was mistaken.
Our mate is incredible,his hellhound piped up as, after he’d nodded to Kieran and Caleb where they were standing to signal everything was okay, they began walking over to Eula’s diner.She handled the situation superbly. You should take note and try to be more useful in future.
Henry ignored it, but he did have to admit Luna had been the one who’d done the lion’s share of the work here. But he really didn’t know how to rebut the accusation that he’d broken herheart – he’d never had the chance to break anyone’s heart. Most people had never let him get that close.
In any case, it didn’t matter – because heknewhe’d never seen Madame Fortuna, or whatever her real name might be, before in his life.
He held the door to Eula’s diner open to let Luna and Madame Fortuna enter, and then followed them to a table at the back wall. There was no one else inside, though – they’d asked Eula if they could have the place to themselves since the diner was closed for the festival, and she’d agreed, a twinkle in her eye, probably assuming they wanted it for some kind of clandestine purpose.
Which wastrue,but just not, sadly, in the way that Eula had thought.
As Henry made his way to a table at the back, he glanced out of the diner window – just as they’d discussed, Caleb was standing in the diner parking lot, ready to give them some backup if it was needed. Henry doubted they’d need it, but still, he nodded to Caleb, who nodded back – it felt good to know he was there, and that Kieran and Gale were close by too, even if they didn’t end up needing their help.
“Okay,” Luna said, once they were all seated. “First things first. I guess your parents didn’t name you Madame Fortuna?”
“No.” Madame Fortuna shook her head. “That’s just my business name. My real name’s Sally-Anne Loder.” She looked up a little sheepishly from behind her bangs – they were strawberry blonde, so not really like Luna’s auburn hair at all. But Henry supposed it could just be passed off as a trick of the light. “You can kind of see why I go by Madame Fortuna, right?”
“Well, that aside, what made you decide you could go bymyphoto?” Luna asked. “Didn’t you think people might notice you look different when you show up to tell fortunes?”
“I only did that recently,” Sally-Anne said, a little defensively. “And it was only because… and anyway, I usually have a shawl over my hair, and it’s dark in the tent. So people don’t really see me clearly.”
“I still don’t really understandwhy,” Henry said, shaking his head. “You could have just put your own photo on your website, surely?”
Sally-Anne shot him a venomous look. Clearly, she was still under the impression he’d broken her heart.
“No,Icouldn’t, because I’dtoldyou my business name, and I was worried if you looked me up, you’d see I wasn’t – well, that I –”
Sally-Anne swallowed, coming to a stumbling halt. Obviously, there was something more to say than she really wanted to admit.
“Whatdid you do, exactly?” Luna asked, leaning forward, her voice hard.
“I – that – that I…” Sally-Anne squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. “Okay, I admit it. I used a fake photo… or a bunch of fake photos… on my dating profile on Witchr.Yourphotos, okay? I just… my life is soboring, and I never go anywhere. And I’m ugly! So I didn’t think anyone would be interested enough in me to click on my profile. But then I was just looking around at travel photos thinking about how I could spice things up, and I came across your articles, and just… everything looked so exciting! You’re always going places, eating things, and… you’re so pretty! I just wanted someone to give me a chance! Is that so wrong?”
Henry leaned back, a little overwhelmed by the sudden flow of words. He blinked, rewinding them in his mind.Wait… what the hell is Witchr?
“Hang on,Witchr?” Luna said, clearly having the same thought. “Is that like…”
“It’s a dating app,” Sally-Anne said sulkily. “For witches and wizards. But when I had my own photo up there, no one seemed to take any notice of me. But after I used yours… well, lots of people clicked on my profile. I even started chatting to people. Well, one guy, anyway.” Her eyes swung to Henry. “You. Until you ghosted me and broke my heart.”
Henry felt as if, perhaps, he had drifted into an alternate dimension. But no – this was real. Somehow. He just had to figure outwhy.
“Well, that’s impossible,” he said. “Since I’m not on Witchr, or any other dating app for that matter. I’m not even a wizard. I don’t really doonlinestuff. So whoever you were talking to, it wasn’t me.”
“That’simpossible,” Sally-Anne said angrily, slamming one fist down on the table. “It was definitely you. Iknowit was! Look at this!”
She jammed a hand into her fancy-looking beaded purse, rummaging around until she pulled out a cell phone.
“Look,” she said, as, with her head bowed, she poked her thumbs around on her phone screen. “I can show you the profile picture from where I was chatting to you. Don’t youdaretry to deny this is you!”
