Page 10 of Smoke and Mirrors
The words tumbled out as if someone else controlled my mouth. I never voiced any of my questions to anyone, except when telling Connor about my dreams. He wrote them off as just that, dreams, but their vividness plagued my waking thoughts and sensations too. The more I tried to explain them away, the more vividly they came.
“Oh yes I do, girl,” the woman’s grin widened. “Never thought I’d see another one of ya in my lifetime but here ya are.”
Hearing that was enough to take one step toward her and then another.
“Mel!” Hunter hissed, pulling my arm back. “Are you sure?”
I looked back at him. “You and Razvan both said I smell human but different. I’ve had… dreams and stuff involving you that I haven’t told you because I don’t know what any of it means.” He said nothing as I wrapped my hands around his arm, just continued to eye the snake-shifter woman suspiciously. “Stay close to me just in case, but I really think she knows things about me that I don’t.”
His face hardened into a scowl but he followed me to the woman’s tent. She promptly flipped her fortune teller sign over to say CLOSED before pulling aside the black mesh curtain to let us in.
A spicy, smoky aroma filled my senses immediately. It wasn’t bad, just incredibly strong. The dark tent was lit by dozens of small tea light candles, flickering with the slightest movement as we assembled inside.
Hunter immediately ducked to avoid hitting the various dried herbs, wind chimes and talismans hanging from the ceiling. A low, wooden coffee table sat in the middle of the tent with an assortment of crystals, incense, candles, and herbs strewn across its surface.
“Sit,” the woman instructed, pointing to a pair of cushions across from the coffee table.
Hunter and I did so, his legs so long, he had to cross them at the ankles with his knees pointing straight up.
“Um, do I call you Madame Thembi?” I asked as the woman settled across the table from us.
“Thembi is fine,” she said, blowing out the incense and waving her hand to dispel the smoke.
“How do you know what I am?” I asked, not caring to dance around the subject. “And what exactly is that?”
She let out a small, bubbly laugh. “Just like a shifter can sense another nearby shifter, a shaman can sense a shaman.”
“A…what?”
“I couldn’t sense you,” Hunter growled. “But,” he took a deep inhale, “you smell like Melody. Human with something else.”
“Good boy!” Thembi praised with a small clap of her hands.”You’re understanding now.” If he’d been within reach, I’d have no doubt she would have patted his head.
Hunter’s eyes narrowed and I could practically see his wolf form with bared teeth and ears pinned back.
“Fortunately for us,” Thembi gestured between me and her, “we can sense shifters as well as our own kind.”
“Our… own kind?” I repeated. “Are you saying I’mnothuman?”
“No, girl,” Thembi huffed in annoyance. “Of course you’re human. He told ya himself ya smell like it. But,” she leaned across the table, lowering her voice, “ya can give the illusion you’re not.” Her snake tongue flitted out again, proving her point and making me jump back off my seat.
“Not only that,” she returned to sitting upright with a laugh, “ya can sense when shifters are near. If one is in need, ya can feel him pull to ya. Ya know what I’m talkin’ about, ah?”
I thought back to my first night working in Drowningville, when I only knew of Hunter as the fabled Wolf Man. In reality, he and his kids had been drugged and forced to partially shift in order to make them all look like werewolves— standing upright while covered in fur, not quite human or animal.
The ringmaster hyped it up for an entire week. Connor was convinced it was all a hoax, a scam to make people part with their money, but I still felt like I needed to see them. I couldn’t understand why but something in me pulled me to that stage like an invisible leash. And when most humans reacted with horror and fear, I saw him, caged and abused, and could only feel a heart splitting sorrow.
And again with Razvan. Despite finding him too arrogant for his own good and intimidating as hell with all those tattoos covering him, I felt an inexplicable pull to him. When we walked together alone in the woods, and when he showed me his dragon form, I was never afraid for a moment. Honestly, I couldn’t understand why other humans were so afraid of shifters.
“Yes,” I breathed, returning my focus back to the smoky, dimly lit tent. “I felt them pull to me and I’ve had… interesting dreams.”
“Ah-hah, I was just gettin’ to that!” Thembi slapped her knees with another cheerful laugh. With each minute that passed, I felt myself relaxing. She was no threat and I even began to like her. “What have ya seen, girl?”
I turned to Hunter, my heart threatening to leap out of my throat. For some reason, I felt like I was about to confess a shameful secret.
“I saw you, in human form,” I told him. “Before you approached me and Connor. That was how I knew you were the wolves we rescued. I recognized you from my dream.” My eyes darted up to Thembi, hesitant to say the next part.
“Go on, girl,” she encouraged, her whiskey-colored eyes sharp enough to see through my soul. “Tell the rest of it.”
