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I swing the door open and stop short when I step over the threshold.
Evan collides with my back, his hands capturing my hips so I don’t fly forward. “What’s wrong?”
“Carmen?” I whisper.
“MadamCarmen to you.” She folds her arms over her full chest. Carmen is an older woman in her sixties, wearing full, mystical reader garb of a silky, flowing muumuu, crystals, and charmed jewelry.
Weirdly enough, when I was a teen, she also seemed to be in her sixties. She hasn’t aged a day in a decade, and her soft, silver hair flows around her round, beautiful, warm-toned face.
She opens her arms to greet me.
“Youknoweach other?” Evan asks in shock.
“I taught little Miss Thang how to read cards—not that she liked them much.”
“Why are youhere?” I ask. “I thought you moved to Europe.”
Instead of answering me, she looks at Evan in disbelief. “She asks whyI’mhere.” She gazes at me, reading me like a damned open book. “What areyoudoing here, Miss Karma Agent?”
“You know about that?”
She nods, and her eyes gloss over, going into her reading mode. “Evan is worried about you.”
He confirms her statement. “She had powersbeforeshe signed the contract.”
“Oh, I know she did.” Carmen huffs and waves him off like it’s old news. She narrows her eyes on me. “If only you developed them all these years instead of pulling half-assed scams with your psychic abilities.”
“Then what is it? How do we control it?” Evan asks desperately. He isn’t just afraid for me, he’s also worried for himself and probably for Dante and Kurtis.
Carmen turns her powerful gaze on Evan. “Your energy is disrupting me. Leave.”
He clenches his fists but storms out.
“That man is wound too tight for his own good.” Carmen shakes her head. “He will break one day. Either the fracture will be his salvation or his destruction.”
I glance out the cluttered windows to see him pacing the sidewalk in front of the shop. “I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.”
Carmen straightens up and scoffs at me. “You have done what you always do—get yourself into trouble. This time, I’m not sure if you are going to make it out.”
My head rolls like a petulant child so my eyes don’t have to do all the work. I can’t help it. Carmen was my one safe haven my entire life. She’s like what I imagine having a loving grandmother might be like—not that I was lucky enough to have a living grandparent. “Dammit, you’re right. I keep digging deeper into the shit pile of life.”
“Follow me.” Carmen leads me back to her official reading room. The walls are painted black. The smell of sage and incense almost choke me, but, it feels like an embrace when I step into the small room. Her wards snap into place around me, protecting me.
“Do you remember how to set up a proper ward?” she asks.
With a shameful pout, I shake my head. “I recall the gist, but I haven’t done it in a long time.”
“Yeah, and look where that got you.” With her sufficiently chastising expression, Carmen says, “I’ll give you a set of instructions before you leave.”
I sit down at the reading table and study her as she shuffles her tarot cards. “You are more powerful than you ever let on, aren’t you?”
“As you would say…Duh.” She chuckles. “Did you expect me to go around bragging and getting myself into messes like you do? Besides, it wouldn’t have done any good to reveal my power to a teenage runaway. However, I taught you what I could for as long as I could.”
I look away so I don’t have to see her disappointment and confess, “I didn’t always use your teachings with the best intentions.”
“Honestly, little one, I didn’t expect that you would. I know you did what you did to survive, and I knew that when I trained you.” Her voice softens. “Did you ever use it for good?”
“Sometimes.” My eyes tear up. I let my mentor down—the one person on this planet who believed in me. “Probably not enough.”
