“Now, slow down the next inhale—” I start to fill my lungs when she throws me a curve ball. “And picture Lark.”
My breath stutters as a shock wave detonates inside me.
I gasp. “What the hell?” I open my eyes to find Pen raising her palm, eyes still closed.
“Just go with it, Stella. Eyes closed.”
I want to argue. I want to question, but I know Pen won’t answer me. I close my eyes, and I can still feel an echo of sensation in me.
“What did you sense?” she asks softly.
“I-I-I’m not sure. A feeling.”
“Where did it come from?”
I concentrate. The sensation is still there. I imagine that if someone looked at me with an infrared camera, they’d see a brighter spot glowing somewhere behind my breastbone.
“Like… my sternum. Only deeper in… and maybe lower?” I grasp for the place, but it’s as ephemeral as it is powerful. “I-I can’t pinpoint it.”
“Shh.” Pen soothes. “No, you won’t be able to. Don’t struggle. Just feel it.”
“Feeling it.”
The cards shuffle and flap and shuffle and flap.
“Okay.”
I open my eyes as Pen turns over the first card. My stomach muscles ease a little. It’s not a grim reaper or a hangman or something sinister.
The upside down card is actually kind of pretty.
Kneeling, a naked woman pours two pitchers into a pool. A ring of stars surround the sky behind her, one golden star at its center.
I grin in relief. “That doesn’t look too bad.”
Pen’s not grinning, but she also doesn’t look surprised. “The first card is meant to signify your romantic past,” she says.
I look at the pretty card and frown. “Oh.” My romantic past definitely isn’t decorated with stars and water nymphs. “That can’t be right.”
“This is the Inverse Star,” Pen says with confidence. “And if you’re asking me, it’s spot on.”
“The Inverse Star?”
Pen blinks at me like a disappointed teacher who has caught her student napping. “I’ve explained this to you half a dozen times. Every card has two aspects, like a positive charge and a negative charge. A yin and yang. Two sides of the same coin,” she huffs. “An upside down card is the inverse meaning.”
“The bad one?”
Her brow creases. “Notbadexactly. An inverse card might signal a need for a change or the end of an era for a person.” She shrugs. “Or a personal trait that needs balancing.”
“Like what?” I ask, confused.
“Like…” Pen searches her prism-dazzled ceiling for an example. “Like tolerance. Tolerance is a good thing, right? It helps you get along with people. It makes you open to new ideas and experiences.”
“Right—”
“But when someone istootolerant, it might get them into trouble. Other people might take advantage of them or disrespect their boundaries. Get it?”
I nod. “Got it.” I look down at the star card—or theinversestar card—Pen has dealt me. “So what does this mean?”
