Page 36 of Avalon Tower
She places the next card below the first two. It sends another chill over my skin—a man sitting on a throne decorated with large ram’s horns, the general appearance of an evil god. The card reads “The Emperor.”
“Your parentage,” she mutters. “Something about it puts you in danger.”
That one is easy. “My mom. She has issues.” Mom has fallen asleep drunk on the sofa with a lit cigarette on many, many occasions. She once drove a car into a building when I was in the passenger seat. Nothing could be less surprising to me than the idea that she puts my life in danger on a regular basis.
“Well, that’s not your mother.” Tana jabs a finger at the card. I feel like the card reading isn’t going to her liking.
My stomach tightens. Mom raised me to believe Walter was my father, a boring, very human man with a large bank account. But obviously, he wasn’t. I had some questions to ask her. Specifically, what Fey did she bang?
“I don’t think I know who my dad is,” I say, “but I suppose being demi-Fey is what puts me in danger.”
She flips over more cards—The Moon, then Death, a skeleton riding on a horse beneath a stormy sky. Lightning cracks the clouds above him.
A shudder dances along my spine. “Sometimes death isn’t bad, right? In the tarot cards? It just means a change or something?” I ask hopefully.
But Tana seems like she can’t even hear me anymore. She flips more cards, almost in a frenzy. More swords and blood, a card with coins. The Wheel of Fortune. Then she pauses, puts the deck aside, and takes a long breath.
“Tana…” I swallow. “Am I going to die?”
She raises her eyes and meets mine. “Yes.”
I blanch. “What?”
“We all die someday, but demi-Fey live much longer than humans.”
“Right, but what did you see in the cards?”
She shakes her head. “Usually, the cards are much clearer. But with you, there are so many forces involved that the future fractures. There are almost endless possibilities. I see…duality. Struggles inside you and out in the world. Impossible decisions. And a lake. The lake.”
A silence settles in the room.
“You know,” Serana finally says, “normally, when you get a new roommate, you should invite her to a party, not scare her half to death.”
“Oh. Right.” Tana collects the cards miserably. She raises her eyes to me. “Um…do you want to go to a party?”
“Not today, thanks.”
“Good.” She looks relieved. “I haven’t been invited to any.”
“I was going to go next,” Darius said. “But with your current mood, you’ll probably see only death, destruction, and plague in my future.”
“No, let’s do your reading now,” Tana says brightly. “Your readings always make me feel better.”
I get up from Tana’s bed and lie down in mine. Even with Tana’s terrifying card reading, exhaustion settles over me, and I can already feel my eyes shutting. I lie on my side, watching Tana and Darius as he shuffles the cards.
“Why do my readings make you feel better?” he asks.
Tana flips cards onto her bedsheets. “It’s nice to see love in the cards instead of patrol ships and death.”
“So you see love in the cards?” Darius perks up.
“No, but it’s nice to think about it.”
Darius clears his throat. “And the man who works at the Seven Stars pub? We bonded over an adorable cat wearing a lace collar who kept sitting in his lap.”
“He’s not the man for you,” Tana says softly. “He’s a rake, and he snacks on anchovies all day.”
“Oh, well, that’s a dealbreaker.” Darius sighs. “The anchovies part, not the rake. I suppose that’s why the cat liked him so much.”