Page 37 of Alien Spare
But will he still want me?
Oh, Goddess, help me. Send me a sign everything will work out.
Karma pushed herself off the sofa and got her tarot cards. She shuffled and cut the deck and turned over the top card.
Eight of Cups showed a man walking away.
Chapter Sixteen
“I’m not in the mood to go out.” Karma shuffled alongside her sister, who’d threatened to bodily drag her from the palace if she didn’t agree to go out. “What if he comes home?”
“Then he deserves for you to not be there after treating you the way he has!” Kismet said.
Three days had passed without a word, her messages and pleas going unanswered. Via her sister via Jaryk, she’d heard he had communicated to the king and queen he’d be “away for a while.”
“You need a distraction. You can’t mope around all day, every day,” Kismet said.
“Yes, I can. I’m good at moping. I’m becoming an expert. A master moper.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.”
They arrived at a tall set of stairs leading to a sprawling edifice. A sign emblazoned below the rooftop spelled out the name, but she couldn’t read Kaldoran. She’d planned to learn, but there was no point now.I’ll probably end up going home.“What is this place?”
“The Museum of Alien Horticulture,” Kismet said.
“You’re kidding. Why would you think I would care about horticulture? This is the best diversion you could come up with?”
“Would you rather go to lunch at the café?”
“No! I’m never going there again!”
“Remember, I’m new here, too. Unless you want to visit a hospital, an orphanage, a school, or the Space Force Base—the places I’ve been with Jaryk—it’s MAH or nothing.”
If her sister considered horticulture fun, they defined fun differently. “The orphanage doesn’t sound bad.”
“The museum will cheer you up.” She frowned. “Unless it makes you sadder.”
“That’s a rousing endorsement.”
“I have to help you get out of your funk. I feel responsible,” Kismet said.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I didn’t help. When the queen asked if we enjoyed lunch at the café, I had no idea she was mining for information. I thought we were just chatting.”
Her sister had related the queen had remarked she’d heard the two of them had run into a friend. Kismet had responded that, yes, a friend of the prince’s had dropped by and asked to speak to Karma privately—but she hadn’t been privy to the conversation. “I should have told her he’d hit on you.”
“You were keeping a confidence. If I’d been able to tell you about his business, you would have been better prepared.”
“Well, I’m sorry for making things worse for you.”
At the museum door, they donned protective covers over their shoes and went inside.
“Hi, Midreg!” her sister greeted the elderly docent by name.
“Welcome back, Kismet Kennedy!” the docent said. “This must be your twin sister I’ve heard so much about.”
“Yes, this is Karma.”
