“But what does it mean?”
“That’s for you to discern, Stevie. Melissa didn’t offer many more details. She just insisted I memorize it, and pass it along to you verbally after you’d enrolled at the Academy, whenever I sensed the time was right.” She takes a sip of her margarita. “When I heard about Phaines’s attack, I knew the time had come.”
“But that makes no sense. I thought she broke ties with everyone at the Academy after she and my father left?”
“She did. I never heard from her again, despite my best efforts at trying to reach out. But this message… She told me before she even knew she was pregnant with you, Stevie.” Her eyes drift to the Tarot cards still scattered on the table. “She just… knew.”
“I’ve heard she was the best seer the Academy has ever known.”
“It’s true.”
The bartender arrives with our food—two massive plates overloaded with fries and burgers the size of tires. When she leaves again, I pop a fry into my mouth and say, “So do you know why Mom left the Academy? What happened to make my parents completely renounce their magick?”
“I wish I did. Your mother became very secretive in the end. She spent most of her time in the archives, and as much as we cared for each other, our lives were just moving in different directions. Eventually, I stopped seeing her around campus—your father told me she’d even been sleeping in the library, working day and night on her visions and prophecies. Most people thought she’d gone crazy and paranoid—that all the time she spent divining wisdom from behind the veil had finally ruined her mind.”
“Is that what you thought?”
Kelly shakes her head emphatically. “Your mother was more lucid than anyone else on campus, including the headmistress.”
“Why didn’t anyone else seem to see it that way?”
“Understand, Stevie. Sometimes, when we don’t speak someone’s language, when we don’t understand their way of communicating, it’s a lot easier to just call them crazy and turn our backs than it is to work toward common ground.”
“A lot easier, and a lot deadlier. That’s how wars start.”
“You’re right. And how friendships end and marriages implode and families become estranged. We don’t understand each other, we hurt each other, and then we turn our backs. Magick is wonderful, but it can’t fix our basic human failings. That’s on us.” She grabs a knife and cuts her monster burger in half. “You know, there are still so many things about that time that don’t add up. But I’ve never been able to figure out why the headmistress forced her out. I’m afraid most of those secrets—just like your mother’s visions—died with your parents.”
I want to tell her that they didn’t—that the very reason I’m here is to decipher Mom’s prophecies. That even Trello finally came around to the fact that my mother had something important to say—something that might just save all of our lives.
But like my Arcana nature, my work on the prophecies must remain secret. Not just for my own sake, but for Kelly’s as well.
She digs into her food, but my head is spinning with too many questions to eat anything more than a few bites.
Reciting Mom’s message again in my head, I ask, “Do you think she’s talking about affinities? People I’m already in contact with here?”
“It’s quite likely. There are several students and professors blessed with Queen energies. Queens are very powerful affinities, but not uncommon.” She waves her hand over her drink glass, and a thin pink stream of margarita rises up, twirling like a streamer between us before diving back into her glass. “Queen of Cups is my affinity.”
“Really?”
Kelly nods. “Though I’m not suggesting that verse is about me.”
“It could be, though.”
“Yes, it could be.” She reaches across the table and squeezes my hand, her smile as warm and genuine as her energy, and I can’t help but think itisabout her. The part about keeping watch with my mind but opening my heart makes sense, too. Phaines has left me guarded and on edge, and I know I need to be even more vigilant than ever. But I also don’t want to be closed off to new friends. To love.
“I’m sorry I don’t have any answers,” Kelly says kindly. “Not the ones you seek, anyway. But I want you to know you have a friend at the Academy, Stevie. Whenever you need one.”
“Thank you,” I say. Then, with a big grin, “Can my friend hook her girl up when it comes to passing class?”
Kelly laughs. “You have nothing to worry about there. You’re a natural with the Tarot, and it's only a matter of time before you master your magick as well. Your essay was actually quite enlightening. I’d love to hear more about your experience with the Fool card meditation sometime, if you’re open to sharing? Maybe over some of your infamous tea?” She gives me a wink. “Yes, your mother saw that in your future, too.”
“I’d love to.” A lump of gratitude lodges in my throat. Seconds later, the four Queens finally vanish from the table.
“That’s normal,” I say. “No idea where they come from or where they go, but they always disappear once I figure out their message.”
“Now there’s an answer Icangive you.” Kelly drains the last of her drink, then lowers her voice. “The cards are from the dream realm.”
“The… what?”
