AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They split up,” Emma says with an annoying level of cheerfulness.
“Shouldn’t you know that already?” I tease Helena.
“I haven’t laid the cards out yet,” she says with great dignity. “Give the spirits time to do their work.”
She passes me her deck of cards, beautifully decorated on their backs with silver stars and moons.
“While you shuffle, try to hold your problem in your mind…”
I do as she bids, clumsily cutting the cards and shuffling them several times, while trying to decide which single problem I’d like to fix.
Unfortunately, there’s about a dozen different issues jostling around in my head…
How to get Jude to go to college…
How to finish this renovation on time and on budget…
How to avoid getting arrested by our gestapo sheriff…
How to stop thinking about Dane every minute of the day…
How to learn to trust myself so I know who else I can trust…
“Ready?” Helena asks.
“I guess so…”
She deals out seven cards.
“The first three represent your current state,” she says, as she flips them over.
The names of the cards are written across the bottom in silver script:
The Fool.
The Queen of Cups.
The Devil.
I stare at the last card, a winged beast with horns and hooves.
“Interesting…” Helena tilts her head, scanning the images.
“That doesn’t look good.” I’m already regretting participating in this.
“No, no, it’s not bad…” Helena says in a completely unconvincing way. “The Fool represents a potential misstep, a tumble into the unknown…”
Sure enough, the Fool is perched right on the edge of a cliff, looking like he’ll step off any moment as he gazes into nothingness.
“That’s my current state?”
“Well, let’s keep going,” she says hastily. “The Queen of Cups offers unconditional love. She’s extremely empathetic—sometimes to a fault.”
Emma raises an orange eyebrow and mouthsDaneat me, like I need the reminder.
“And what does this mean?” I tap the goat-headed Devil.
“The Devil is the shadow side of all of us,” Helena says gravely. “The darkness we carry in our core.”
