Page 61 of The Hood and his Thief

“Do you know anything about tarot cards?” Ansel countered.

Rhosyn shook her head.

“In my years of hiding Talented in the circus, I’ve learned that it’s best to stick to what people know. That way their ruse isn’t completely a lie. Besides, I’m pretty sure you already know a few card tricks that could convince people you can read their minds.” Ansel’s look was pointed.

Rhosyn grabbed the deck from his outstretched hand with narrowed eyes. “Alright then.”

She pulled them from their paper packaging and began shuffling. They were clearly new cards, snapping energetically as they jumped in her hands. She bent them in a rippling bridge, using the motion as a distraction as she palmed one card, surreptitiously glancing at it.

Keeping the one card in her hand, she restacked the deck and held it out to Ansel to cut. He did, and as she restacked it, the card in her palm found its way to the top of the deck.

“Draw your card,” Rhosyn instructed, adding a dramatic timbre to her voice.

He did, the ghost of a smile playing over his lips before he schooled his features again.

“Now, think hard on your card, and I will tell you what it is and what it means.” Rhosyn closed her eyes, breathing in deeply with a look of upmost focus on her face.

“You are holding…the three of spades.”

Ansel huffed in amusement, and Rhosyn smiled slightly, although she kept her eyes closed.

“This card carries great weight. You have an important trial before you, and the fates of many others lie in your hands,” Rhosyn intoned with as mystic of a tone as she could manage.

“That’s hardly hard to figure out,” Ansel snorted.

Rhosyn opened her eyes to glare at him. “Isn’t that the trick of this sort of thing anyways? Be just vague enough and base your predictions off what you already know of somebody? Unless you have somebody with a Talent to actually predict the future…”

“That I do not. I’d think that would be much too powerful a Talent,” Ansel admitted.

“I have a friend who can predict danger but nothing specific.”

“Even if all those who tell fortunes at Archer’s Circus are using tricks, you definitely used some slight of hand to make me pick the three of spades,” he pointed out.

“It’s not like you didn’t know I knew my way around a deck of cards.” Rhosyn shrugged one shoulder, smiling crookedly.

Ansel reached out and snatched the deck from her fingers. “Well, since you used that to swindle me out of a bet, I think I should have a chance to even the playing field.”

“What did you have in mind?” Rhosyn’s curiosity piqued. She watched his deft fingers manipulate the cards, and although his shuffling wasn’t as elaborate as hers, the nimbleness of his fingers still held her attention. Realizing she was staring, she snapped her gaze back up to his.

“You draw a card,” Ansel purposed. “If I guess the correct card, you have to answer a question.”

“What kind of question?”

“Any question I want. And you have to answer honestly.”

Rhosyn swallowed, her eyes drifting back the deck, which he now held out to her. It was a dangerous proposition.

And Rhosyn loved danger.

She reached out and slid the top card off the deck. Flipping it towards her, the perfect face of the Queen of Hearts stared back. Rhosyn glanced up to find Ansel smirking at her knowingly, and she grimaced. She wasn’t the only one with tricks up her sleeve.

“You’re holding the Queen of Hearts,” he said.

“Yes,” Rhosyn admitted, “But you already knew that.”

“Now to figure out what to ask.” Ansel leaned back in his seat and folded his arms.

Rhosyn wrinkled her nose. “You don’t just want to know my favorite color? Or maybe my favorite food?”