“I did nothing. There’s clearly something wrong with her.”
She knows damn well that the only thing wrong with me is this place. I’m not sure how she managed to make me feel the way I did, but this is all her.
“I’m closed and you need to leave before I call the police,” she says, with an edge of irritation.
“Corinne, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Lanie says, finally joining the conversation. “We’re friends and this is how you’re treating my people?”
Corinne huffs a laugh. “We aren’t friends. I don’t have friends. Get them out and don’t bother coming back.”
With that, Corinne turns on her heels and stalks out of the room toward the front of the shop, leaving the three of us to exchange glances.
“What the f—”
I raise my hands. “Doesn’t matter. She wants us out and I’m more than happy to follow directions. This room is swimming with bad vibes.”
Nina nods, holding her hand out to me. “Let’s get you out of here.”
That’s something she does not have to say twice.
Seven of Wands
A GUST OFwind tosses my hair into my face, but I don’t have the energy to bat it away. I take a swig straight from the wine bottle I have a tight grip on, and I can practically feel Nina’s intense stare drilling into the side of my head.
After replaying what happened tonight, I need the wine. Even if this particular bottle has notes of licorice and something akin to wet gravel, two flavors I would be perfectly content to never taste again. My lips curl after swallowing the less-than-delicious cabernet, and I have to stop myself from scraping my tongue to remove the foul aftertaste.
“Come on,” Nina drawls. “It’s not that bad.”
If not for the mostly full moon overhead, I wouldn’t be able to see her lips tilted up into a playful grin.
“It’s no riesling.”
Lanie snorts from the next step up. Her hand lands on my shoulder. “Hate to break it to you, girlfriend, but riesling is shit wine.”
Mock gasping, my hand flies to my heart. “How dare you.”
The three of us laugh, breaking the tense air that’s been surrounding us since we began discussing the night. All of us are on edge from whatever that spectacle was at Cori’s Nail Spa.
I may not have connected with Garrett, but something happened, and I don’t know what to make of it. None of us do.
We’ve been going over the night’s events for the past hour and a half on the steps of my front porch. I needed the fresh air to discuss the subject.
“What do you think it could mean?” Nina asks, grabbing the bottle from my hands and placing it between her legs like a mother hen protecting her egg.
“The electrical sensations?” I ask, thinking back to the currents that ran through my body at Corinne’s touch.
Nina shakes her head. “No. I mean the visions you saw when you touched her,” she clarifies.
I chew on my bottom lip, considering her question for a moment. “I’m not sure what it means. They weren’t my memories. I was seeing it through someone else’s eyes.”
Multiple someones.
A strident noise grates through Lanie’s clenched lips. “This is spooky. I’m not trying to sound like a baby, but I can’t shake the chills I’ve had since you told us what happened.”
“Same,” Nina says, rubbing her arms.
A gust of wind picks up, rattling the trees that line the side of my property. In the dark, the branches look like ghostly arms reaching out toward us. Mix the creep factor of the darkness with the conversation we’ve just had and chills start rushing over me too. The sensation brings me back to the moment my palm touched the medium’s.
“I can’t believe that neither of you felt the peculiar sensations I felt whenever I touched Corinne.” I turn my head away from the swaying branches and focus on the street ahead.
