The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,105
bold red nails. Others are fanned out in front of her, facedown. The cards’ backs are plain black except for the triple eternity circle etched in gold.
He has the sudden urge to turn back, but his pride won’t allow him to do that. It would look cowardly. He wonders why he finds the old woman so unsettling. Keep walking. Look straight ahead. Don’t make eye contact.
“My lady,” the old woman says, lowering her head when Shadow passes.
Shadow stops. “What are you playing?” she asks the old woman. Cal frowns. Why did she have to stop? Nothing good can come of this. Phony fortune-tellers just prey on vulnerabilities and draw out people’s fears, and that’s the last distraction Shadow needs with so much at stake. He’s seen plenty of these women; they target people who seem friendly, malleable. They take advantage of the fervent desire people have to reclaim magic, to control their own fate. Also, he has to admit he’s a bit superstitious, even if he doesn’t believe in it.
“It is no game, my lady,” the old woman says. “It is destiny.”
“No, thank you,” Cal says, trying to move them away. He hates hearing that; fate has had its way with him too much already. He’d rather avoid hearing anyone’s destiny, especially Shadow’s.
The old woman doesn’t acknowledge him. She stares at Shadow. “For others, I charge. For you, nothing. Your soul is calling to me. You have questions. Doubts. I have answers.”
“Come on, Shadow. Everyone has questions and doubts. We have business to attend to, remember?”
“My aunts could do this. Or something like it. They used rocks. With symbols.”
“Ah yes. The Seeing Stones. Come here, my lady,” says the crone.
Cal stands back, powerless to stop Shadow. He relents. What’s the harm? The crone will give her a vague reading and that will be the end of it. He’d wager a gold coin that as soon as it’s done, she will advise Shadow to meet with her elsewhere, except not for free.
She hands the deck to Shadow. While she shuffles it, the old woman says, “Let your energy mingle with the cards. The more you think, the more they know.”
Shadow hands them back to her. She cuts them in three piles. “Stack them,” the fortune-teller orders. Shadow does as she says. Then the woman pulls six cards, placing them facedown in a diamond pattern, with one in the middle. The last one, she lays across the bottom card.
“Are you ready to see your destiny?” the old woman says.
Shadow nods.
She flips over the first card. “Ah. The Empress. This represents you, the fertile young maiden. You find peace in nature, yes. Yet you also hold the crown and the scepter with grace and authority. Let’s see what hovers over you.” She turns the card at the top of the diamond. “The Queen of Wands. An older woman in your life. Your mother? Your aunt? She possesses great power, and believes in peace. And yet . . . the black cat sits at her feet. She holds a secret, a darker side. Something hidden. On either side of you . . .” She turns the cards to the left and right of the Empress. “The King of Pentacles and the Knight of Swords. One holds power and a large gold coin in offering, the other—strength. Protection. Loyalty. A choice. At your feet is the path you walk . . . which will you choose?” She turns the card below the Empress. She gasps.
“What is it?” Shadow cries out.
Cal rolls his eyes. Here’s the hook. Though he admits he’s ever so slightly worried about the cards—they seemed strangely . . . accurate. You’re falling for it too, he tells himself. He looks at the card the woman turned over.
“The Tower,” the old woman says. “A disaster. Crisis.”
“What does that mean?” Shadow says. “What will happen?”
“Let’s turn the last card, your destiny.” She turns it, then sits back and crosses her arms. Satisfied. “See? All is well. After the storm, the sun.”
Cal looks at the calligraphy at the bottom of the card: The Wheel of Fortune.