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The woman gestured toward the two chairs across from her. “Please, have a seat. I am Adele Ariadne. I have been expecting you.”

Bradley and Devra shared a look before sitting down.

“You appear troubled, miss.” Adele spoke directly to Devra. Flickering candles cast eerie shadows under her face. The hairs on Bradley’s neck stood straight. “What brings you to see me this evening, my girl?”

Before Devra could reply, the fortune teller waved a dismissive hand. “Or perhaps we should let the cards explain?” Adele dropped a stack of cards, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, onto the table. She carefully separated them into two piles with long fingers made longer by her crimson acrylic nails. The cards were larger than playing cards, and thicker still, the material like worn fabric, spiderwebbed cracks visible on the backs. “First, I must tell you…” She paused, and Bradley leaned forward, caught in her gravitational pull. “It’s double the usual price if two people sit at my table.”

Bradley and Devra exchanged another look. This time she rolled her eyes at him.

“Would you like him to remain, miss?”

“Yes, of course,” Devra said. “That’s fine.”

“Wonderful.” The woman sat back, and Bradley felt the psychic’s hold on him relax as he too slumped back. “Let’s begin.”

In one smooth motion, Adele flipped over the top card of each stack. Both images were of women oozing power; one held a sceptre and was surrounded by nature, the other sat between two pillars with a pointed crown atop her head.

“Choose whichever card speaks to you.”

Devra cleared her throat. “Neither of them seem to be talking.”

“No?” Adele arched a pencil-thin eyebrow, her eyes rimmed with thick black eyeliner. “Neither one calls to you?”

“Nope. Neither is calling to me. Perhaps because they’re cards and they lack the requisite vocal cords?”

“A skeptic, I see. Sitting next to a believer. And yet the mysterious energies in the room emanate from you, girl.” She focused on Devra until her intensity softened into a smirk. “I’ll ask you again to choose. One of these piles is speaking to you. If you will only drop your stubborn ways, open your ears, and listen.”

Devra shifted in her seat before jabbing a finger at the stack on the left.

“Ah, the High Priestess. The card of mystery. Of riddles. You have come here seeking answers to a question you cannot solve on your own.”

“I imagine that’s why most people are here,” Devra muttered.

“True.” Adele smiled, unaffected. “But most people come here asking for an answer they already feel in their heart. They are seeking confirmation, whether they are aware of it or not. While some people, a rarer type, have a question that is more”—the woman swirled a wrist—“complex, in nature. Yours may be as intricate as a poem, rather than a mere riddle.” She raised a pointed eyebrow. Then she swept a hand over the unchosen stack, and the cards vanished from sight. With the same fluidity of movement, she rolled her palm over the other stack, and the cards spread out before her in a straight line. “Choose six.” She leaned closer. “And do your best to listen closely this time, my dear. That is if you want your mystery solved.”

Bradley’s knees bounced under the table in anticipation. He couldn’t understand the indifferent look on Devra’s face as she selected six cards seemingly at random.

“These first two will tell me of your past.” Adele flipped over the first card. “Ah, the Six of Cups, the card of childhood memories. I see an interplay of adoration and struggles. Love and unrest battling for control. A child’s heart caught in tension.”

Devra let out the teeniest groan.

Adele Ariadne flipped over the second card. The surprise on her face was convincing enough that Bradley’s eyes flared with an equal amount of shock.

“Well now, this is interesting.” She tapped the image of a blindfolded figure surrounded by swords. “This card signifies powerlessness, a trap, often in the metaphorical sense. Combined with this first card, however, the reading may become more literal. I hear…” The woman closed her eyes, her sudden inhale as loud as a vacuum. “I hear scratching. Hunger. A snap!” She shouted the word, and Bradley jumped. “Snap, snap, snap. And a shriek.” Adele let out a shriek of her own, and Bradley flinched. “Something taken that wasn’t yours to take. An anger let loose.”

“How do we stop it?” Bradley was practically vibrating. “What do we need to do to stop it?”

The woman opened her eyes. “That would be in the future, wouldn’t it? We have only just cracked open a door to the past.”

Devra sighed, sounding impatient, but he could also feel her leg juddering alongside his beneath the table.

“Now, to the present.” The fortune teller flipped over the next two cards. “I see a man in your life.”

“So do I. He’s literally sitting beside me.”

“Tall and handsome. Kind. And yet…something troubles him. A wound from his past puts him on shaky legs. An addiction, perhaps?”

Bradley gasped. Devra grabbed his knee under the table, drawing attention to his quite literal shaky legs.