Let Me Find Your Omega - Ashe Moon Page 0,57

me swear a vow when I was younger than you to give up all prospects of love. I only now realize that the spectral realm is connected to our love. It comes from the same source. Draw from one and the other goes dry. Elise, come sit down with me.”

She joined me in the center of the divination chamber, and we sat on the floor furs across from each other.

“I always knew you had a talent for reading. But since becoming your teacher, I’ve gotten a much better understanding of your potential. And you’ve got a lot of potential.” I touched my glasses, and for a second, I thought about when Markos had fixed them for me and felt a pang of sadness. I quickly pushed it away. “Elise, do you want to become a world-class divination agent? One who could surpass any student at the Academy?”

“Could I?” she asked.

“I think you have that potential. But for that to happen, you need to swear the same vow that I did. To keep your special connection to the spectral realm, you need to vow to abstain from love.”

“Abstain from love?” she repeated. “I can’t ever be in love? Or be mated?”

I nodded slowly. “You’re going to have to choose what’s most important to you.”

She looked shocked, and I didn’t blame her. She’d learned what it was like to fall for someone and had just begun the very first romance of her life, and now I was asking her to give that up. She became very serious as she thought about it, her eyes fixed on the ground in front of her as her jaw tightened. She was about to say something when there was a knock on the front door.

“Today’s appointment,” I said.

“Appointment? I thought you canceled all your appointments?”

“This isn’t my appointment,” I replied, getting up to go open the door. “This is for you. Your first official reading.”

“W-what?!”

“Miss Brokenfang. We’ve talked about her before. I think she’ll be perfect for your first. There’s no pressure. Just engage her spectral constellation, it’s all you’ll need to do.”

“Because you’ve already seen she doesn’t have a fated mate,” Elise recalled. “I don’t know… I’ve only just started learning the new techniques!”

“We hardly ever think ourselves ready to face the challenges that most intimidate us,” I said, recalling something Professor Lightpaw had told me. “Sometimes, you just need to dive in. But anyway…” I winked at her. “You’ve already given readings before.”

She crossed her arms and jutted out her lip. “Uh-huh.”

“You’re ready. Now come on, Miss Brokenfang needs to see your confidence.”

Elise drew in a breath, nodded, and stood up tall. “Okay.”

I introduced Miss Brokenfang to Elise and explained to her that Elise would be assisting me, though I fully intended on her doing the entire reading herself. I knew that Miss Brokenfang would be more likely to doubt the results of the reading if she knew it was just Elise, given her stubbornness to accept my findings over all of our previous sessions together.

Elise finished setting up the divination chamber, and she went around and lit the candles and incense and took her seat next to me on the floor. We exchanged a glance, and I nodded at her. I knew that she’d practiced this by herself dozens and dozens of times and that she was ready.

She closed her eyes and began the session. I stayed to the side, not interfering other than to reach out with my senses and check her connection to the spectral realm, like fingers on a pulse. I wasn’t going to attempt to look at anything myself, just make sure she was properly focused. And she was focused. I could see that her mind wasn’t in this world anymore. I knew she’d have no problems doing the reading.

The clock ticked and the room became thick with incense smoke. Both of them were silent and still, and for the first time in days, I felt something other than a pit of sadness in my chest. I was unbelievably proud of Elise.

Her hand moved across the divination paper and made a single dot in the middle. My heart jumped. For a second, I thought maybe she’d broken her connection and had accidentally made the mark, but I could still feel she was deep in a trance. Then, her hand began to rapidly move around, and she made a constellation of marks across the page. It had to be some mistake. I’d looked deeply into Miss Brokenfang’s love fortunes and