“Trying to get us out of here. Wanna help?”
Something shiny catches the light near a dune. I dive for it. My fingers close around a card, sand spilling away to reveal the ornate gold edges of the Wheel of Fortune.
I brush it off and run my finger over the arcanesymbols stamped into the center of the wheel. If this isn’t a hallucination then that woman,Fortune, wasn’t a hallucination either.
Nope. Too much. My brain is already a jumbled tangle of panic and heatstroke. I am not unpacking that right now.
I shove the card into my bag.
“Looking for this?”
I turn to see Declan holding up my phone, shaking his head.
“You don’t have any service.”
I rush over and snatch it from him. “It’s incredibly rude to go through someone else’s phone.”
“I wasn’t going through it. You can see the bars from the lock screen.”
Ignoring him, I clutch my phone tighter, thumb already jabbing at the screen.
“Oh no no no no no. Please work. Please connect. Please do literally anything.” I hold it up and angle it toward the sky like that might do the trick. But he’s right. There are no bars. No hope.
“Do you have any service?” I ask, whirling around to face him. “Please tell me you have some sort of signal.”
He wrinkles his nose in a way that would be endearing if I weren’t on the edge of a full-blown panic attack. “I don’t have my phone.”
“What?”
“I left it in my office. At Ember.”
“What do you meanyou left it in your office?” My voice pitches so high I wouldn’t be surprised if a pack of wild dogs appeared. “Who just…doesn’t have their phone?”
He shrugs. “I thought it would be rude to check it while I was trying to give my date my full attention.”
“That should be the most charming thing anyone’s ever said to me, but right now it makes me want to strangle you.”
With shaking hands, I dig through my emergency ritual pouch, whip out the chunk of rose quartz, and press it to my chest.
“Okay, deep breaths. Deeeeeep breaths,” I coach myself. “I need grounding. Iamgrounded. I am so grounded I’m practically dirt.”
I nearly upend the vegan leather mini bag grabbing my affirmation deck. The matchbook sized cards stick to my sweaty fingers as I shuffle and draw one at random.
You are exactly where you’re meant to be.
With an outraged gasp, I shake the card at the sky. “Oh, that’s hilarious.”
Declan exhales sharply through his nose. “You done?”
“No, I’m notdone! We just got magickally thrown into a Burning Man meets Ren Faire hellscape.” I gesture wildly at the silk-draped tents and endless dunes. “And you’re standing there like it’s just another day.”
The sun beats down on us as Declan slides off his black jacket, hooks it on one finger, and slings it over his shoulder. “I’ve had worse first dates.”
“If you were one of my clients, I would tell you that this situation requires energetic recalibration,” I continue, voice rising with each word, “major chakra balancing, some sort of divine offering, not…dissociation.”
“I’m not going to start panicking, Amanda.”
“Well, good for you,Declan. I guess I’ll panic for both of us.”
