She gathered the cards back into a stack and did one more quick shuffle for good measure.
Unmatchable.
No, she wasn’t without a match. There was one man in the universe just for her. She shut her eyes and tried to visualize him. “Where is my great big Viking of a man?”
The candle flickered, and a shiver crawled up her skin. Taking a deep breath, she gave a shake to her sangria- fogged head. It was only the candlelight, she told herself.
Still, Felicity grew somber. Alone with the cards in the darkness, it was impossible to avoid the sense that she was tapping into some great, unknown energy.
She slowly began to deal out six cards. It was an arrangement her aunt called The Great House. A simple spread, but powerful.
Taking a deep breath, she whispered, “Show me where you are.”
She put her fingers on the first card, what her aunt called the Querent. It was her card, the one that represented Felicity’s situation. She rubbed it between her fingers before turning it. “I need you,” she whispered again. “How do I find you?”
The crisp flip of the card resonated in the silence of her apartment.
She drew in her breath. The Chariot. “Cool,” she said quietly. She loved this card. A conquering hero, bearing a spear, in armor decorated with stars and moons, riding in a chariot drawn by sphinxes. In the dim light, he seemed to be riding straight for her.
A small smile touched her face. It was a Major Arcana card, representing success. Turmoil, conquest. Possibly an imminent voyage, or a life-changing event.
She’d be off on a new venture soon. “Are you saying I have to come to you?” she mused, her smile growing.
She turned the next card quickly.
The Lovers. “Yesss . . .” she hissed, grinning outright. It was a man and a woman. Some sort of glorious, celestial being watched over them, his hands outstretched in a beneficent gesture.
Lovers. Her optimism swelled. There was her Viking right there. “Doesn’t get much clearer than that.”
Felicity flipped the next one more quickly than the last, and her hand froze. “What’s with all the Major cards?” It was the Wheel of Fortune.
She tried to remember what that one meant. A profound realization taking place? But it also meant twists of fate. She studied the spinning wheel and gave a shrug. “Round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows . . .”
Felicity held her hand poised over the fourth card. “Come on. Give me something nice and easy.”
The Two of Cups.
“Oh yeah!” She patted the card triumphantly. “Yeah, baby.” She studied the image. Two people gazed at each other, both ready to share their oversized golden cup. Partnership, marriage, commitment.
Placing her fingers over the back of the next card, she rubbed it into the rug with the anticipation of a Vegas blackjack dealer. “Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a . . .” She flipped it.
The Five of Pentacles.
“Shit.”
Adversity and loss. This card pictured another man and woman, but this time they were trudging through snow, looking cold and hungry. The man’s leg was bandaged, and he struggled with his crutch in the snow. “What’s that about?”
Her excitement left her like air from a balloon. In a Tarot reading, each new card added meaning to the last, and she had no idea what this was all telling her.
She’d just wanted to find her true love. Just a quick, fun reading. But now she sensed she should’ve waited for Livia to do the reading for her.
Should now wait for her to finish it.
Felicity rubbed the edge of the last card with her fingertip. She had to know. She could ask her aunt what it all meant later. She needed to see what was hidden beneath this last card.
She turned it before she could chicken out.
“No . . .” Her voice was tiny. She looked at the hideous card in front of her and groaned. This last card, the one that defined the entire reading. And it represented a total breakdown in one’s life and world.