“That’s why we’re here,” Isadora said. “We were hoping you’d maybe heard something? Knew if a local witch was working with a vampire? And hopefully track that magic back to the source. Find him or whoever helped him do this.”
Selene nodded again, though her eyes never left the Tower card.
She flipped another.
It showed a cloaked figure, skeletal hands emerging from black sleeves. A scythe rested across its body. The background was gray and foggy, as though the figure was leaching life from his surroundings. The only color was a red flower clutched in one bony hand.
Selene sighed. “Death.”
I frowned. “I’m assuming the literal kind.” Considering we wanted to kill Trystan, this boded well for us, no?
“It depends on who you ask,” she said, stroking the scythe. “Death brings endings. Or beginnings. Sometimes both. But it never leaves things unchanged.”
She reached for a fourth card. This one she paused on, her brow furrowed ever so slightly. She flipped it over.
Two figures stood intertwined, their bodies close, but their hands didn’t touch. Between them hovered a golden light, like something sacred—or dangerous—bound them together.
But then the card started to tremble. Not violently, just a soft wobble. It began to slowly spin, as though it didn’t know which way it belonged.
Selene’s gaze sharpened. “The Lovers.”
She didn’t elaborate. She simply watched the card tilt and spin—never fully upright, never fully reversed.
She reached out, pressed one finger to the center, and gently stilled it.
Then she looked up at us. “Your destinies are unfolding. There’s a great deal of conflict and turbulence surrounding the two of you. I feel danger lurks around the corner. But what I can’t tell is whether all this ends in love…or in death.”
I gritted my teeth.
Selene leaned back in her chair and studied Isadora as intently as she had her cards. Then, as if brushing the moment aside, she nodded and said, “Let’s find this monster of yours, shall we?”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
ISADORA
Selene rose from her chair in a fluid motion, her gossamer robe brushing against the black stone floor as it unfurled around her ankles. She touched her fingers briefly to the tarot cards, almost like she was showing them affection, before stepping away from the table toward me.
Lucien shifted his weight beside me as Selene’s orbit began to close in around me. His fingers twitched at his sides, like he was fighting off the urge to wrench me out of reach.
So, he trusted her when it came to exorcising toilet demons, but not when it came to me.
“It’s all right,” I whispered as Selene came to a stop directly in front of me. Her silver eyes fixed on mine, unblinking. Then they dipped, traveling over the entire length of my body, even as I sat in the chair—like she was searching for something invisible.
She raised her hand.
Lucien stepped forward, his voice quiet but firm. “What are you doing?”
Selene didn’t so much as spare him a glance. “You came here for answers. I’m trying to find them.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” he said.
“Lucien, please,” I said softly, touching his hand. “Let her do what she needs to do.”
With a small smile, she closed her eyes and brought her hands together, fingers poised delicately in front of her like she was holding an unseen thread. Then she slowly exhaled, and with the release of that breath, a shimmer passed through the room.
After a moment, she opened her eyes, and they shone with pure, undiluted magic. I stared into her glowing silver orbs and saw a universe staring back.
