Page 22 of Hell and Hexes
“Reading tea leaves now?” I joked. “Or coffee grounds?”
“Nope. Just getting you settled in and relaxed while I get my cards.” She slid the coffee across the table to me. “Drink. I’ll be back in a second.”
I leaned back in the chair, cradling my coffee in my hands. The firehouse kitchen was cheery, the walls painted a light blue, the cabinetry a glossy white. The appliances were stainless steel, and someone had purchased towels and dishes in blue jewel tones that tied everything together in a calming palette straight out of a decorating magazine. I breathed deep, exhaling through my mouth and taking the occasional sip of coffee. By the time Ophelia returned, I felt more centered than I had in weeks.
“That’s better.” She smiled and sat across from me, shuffling her deck of cards and handing them to me. I divided them into three piles. With a steady breath, I turned over the first card.
The Tower. I grimaced because this wasn’t my first rodeo when it came to Ophelia’s divinations. I knew this card and I knew what it meant. The only good thing was it was in the past position of my reading and not the present or the future.
“Past events that are still affecting you. These things could be holding you back or providing a foundation that your future will be built upon.”
“Destruction. Chaos. Massive unexpected change.” I reached out a finger to touch the image of a lightning-shattered building, two people falling headfirst from the heights. It wasn’t lost on me that the very force of nature destroying the tower on the card was what had killed me two weeks ago.
“That’s the obvious interpretation,” Ophelia told me. “That your electrocution has been a dramatic and chaotic change in your life and that it’s affecting both your present and your future. But there’s always more to a reading than what’s at face value. The tower falls not just because of the lightning strike, but because it’s built on an unstable ground of false truths and illusions. The lightning serves as a bolt of insight. It levels the tower and provides the space for a stronger and more stable growth. As traumatic as this change is, it creates an environment for equally dramatic development.”
I nodded, understanding what Ophelia was saying, but not sure how my death two weeks ago would lead to something positive. For Ophelia, maybe. My accident had brought Nash fully into her life in a way that he never would have been able to be before. But a clearing to prepare for growth? I just didn’t see that, especially since I was still feeling weak and my magic wasn’t working as it had been before I’d died microwaving hot fudge.
“You have to surrender to this, Sylvie,” she told me. “No matter how hard it is, no matter how impatient you are for things to return to the way they were before, you need to let it all be. You need to be prepared to accept a new reality and build your life on new foundations, not old ones.”
I sucked in a breath, not liking that one bit. I wanted things to go back to the way they were before the accident. I wanted to not feel like I needed two naps a day. I wanted to have my powers back, to win raffles, and always find a good parking spot at the mall and manage to arrive at the post office right before they closed. I didn’t want my world to change. I wanted it to stay the same. And from all the clients I’d counseled in my life, I knew how sometimes that just didn’t happen.
With barely concealed anxiety, I turned over the next card.
The Fool.
“Beginnings. New opportunities. You’re at a point where you need to follow your heart, to put aside anxious thoughts and both commit and walk forward in faith.”
Ophelia’s voice faded into the background as I stared at the card. I knew what the Fool signified but looking at the cheerful man with his little white dog and his knapsack over his shoulder, with his one foot poised to step over a cliff—looking at that card, all I saw was Eshu.
He was the embodiment of The Fool—a being that lived strictly by intuition, that enjoyed and relished every moment of life. He was someone who took life’s bumps and treated them as if they were a thrill-ride, a rollercoaster. My present card might have signified new beginnings as far as Ophelia’s interpretation was concerned, but I knew that this card meant that whatever my future held, Eshu in my present was instrumental in bringing that future to fruition.
My hand hovered over the third card—my future card—and I hesitated.
“This is the outcome of your present. It’s what the clearing of your past and the new beginning of your current state will bring about,” Ophelia told me.
Still I hesitated. “I’m hoping it’s not the Death card. I’ve had enough of that to last me for five or six decades.”
“The Death card doesn’t mean actual death,” Ophelia scolded. “It’s a card about transformation. It’s about shedding your past life for a new life. Given what happened, I think it would be logical for you to draw that card.”
Maybe in the past. Or in the present. I didn’t want death in my future, even if it was about transformation and new life. I was done with that shit. Right now, I wanted the calm comforting familiarity of my old life, my routines, and daily habits.
Exhaling, I turned over the card. And blinked.
“Oh, that’s an excellent omen, Sylvie! Your future is all about finding balance within yourself. You might be uncertain about a direction you might take but trust yourself to make the correct decision. Sometimes the difficult path is the right one, so choose with your heart and you’ll find your joy.”
I was only half listening to her reading because I was busy staring at the card and making my own interpretation of its meaning.
The Lovers. Kindred spirits. Soulmates. Romance, passion, an intense bond with deep connection. That all sounded awesome, especially to a woman whose romances to date had been best summed up by the word “meh.” I couldn’t seeallthat in my near future, but I could see some of it.
Passion. Lovers. The moment I’d turned the card over, my thoughts immediately went to Eshu. I was attracted to him and more than just physically. He was fun, exciting. Everything inside me came alive when I saw him. For two weeks, I’d been wondering if sex with him would be as electrifying and entertaining as just being near him. I knew he would be up for that sort of thing, but I’d held back, fearing I would end up far too attached while he remained The Fool, the fun and frivolous guy who never thought past the next day.
Maybe it was time for me to take a chance. Maybe I needed to go down the difficult but ultimately rewarding path and screw this demon’s brains out. I’ddied. Surely that meant I had full karmic permission for some amazing no-strings-attached sex.
And maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about Eshu and he wasn’t as frivolous as I’d assumed.
“You okay, Sylvie?”
I looked up to see my twin regarding me with a concerned frowny-face.
