Page 93 of Forbidden Fate

Death.

For a moment, no one moves.

Robin stares at the Ace of Spades as if it might rise off the table and slit her throat.

I go cold, but not because of the card.

Because of Robin’s face.

I stand so abruptly that my chair scrapes against the floor. “Enough.”

All four women look at me.

Mercedes’s eyes widen. “Cruz⁠—”

“No.” I point at the card. “Stop freaking us out.”

Robin blinks.

“It’s only a reading,” Esmeralda says.

“Exactly.” I reach for the card, flip it face down, and slide it back toward the deck. “It’s only a reading. A game.”

Mercedes straightens. “Cartomancy is not a game.”

I grit my teeth. “It is absolutely a game.”

“It’s an ancient art.”

“It’s a deck of cards you bought at Éxito.”

Mercedes gasps. “These cards have been with me for twelve years.”

“Then they are old grocery-store cards.”

Robin looks from the deck to me and then back to Mercedes and Esmeralda. “Have any of your predictions come true?”

Mercedes hesitates.

Esmeralda doesn’t. “In a way.”

Robin raises an eyebrow. “In a way?”

“As far as we know,” Mercedes adds, “all of them have come true.”

Robin goes very still.

I give Mercedes a fuck-you look.

She lifts both hands. “What? She asked.”

“In a way,” I repeat.

Esmeralda nods, as if this distinction matters. “Yes. Sometimes the cards draw a very clear path.”

“And sometimes?” Robin asks.

Mercedes clears her throat. “Sometimes the cards require very creative interpretations to match the outcome.”