"Yeah, yeah, yeah, get to the point. What do you want in return for calling this whole thing off?"
He leaned close enough to peer down my cleavage. "A night spent in the arms of mon ange is not too much to ask, I think."
"Think again," I snapped, and turned back to the table.
He grabbed my hand and hauled me up to his chest.
"Raphael!" I turned to him with a meaningful glare.
"Dominic—" he warned with a flash of his amber eyes, starting toward Dominic.
"Mon ange" Dominic pleaded, one eye on Raphael as he approached.
"There they go again," Roxy said to Christian. "Kind of like watching an episode of The Waltons, isn't it?"
He raised his brows at her. She fawned at him.
"This has gone far enough," Raphael said, pulling my fingers free from Dominic's, massaging the top of my hand with his thumb as he walked me back to my chair. I would have allowed the tingles his touch generated to sweep through my body, but given the present company, I figured it was better to keep all my wits present and accounted for. "Why don't we stop wasting time? Whom do you want her to read for, Dominic?"
Dominic looked peeved at having his toy taken out of his grasp, but he rubbed his hands together and gave me a leer that all but stripped off my lovely garnet dress. "Myself, of course, Milos, and Tanya. I believe the three of us will offer ample opportunity for Joie to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Tanya's claims are false."
"No, no, and over my dead body. I don't give a hoot what Tanya claims," I muttered. "The bet was only that I do three readings."
"I cannot allow her to stain your honor in such a manner." he answered. "Alas, it is my unfortunate duty to remind you that the wager said you would successfully conduct three readings. Thus you not only do the readings, but they must be accurate."
"You can't get fine accuracy with rune stones," I protested.
"Within reasonable doubt," he added.
"Fine," I said, unhappy but without many choices. "But there's no reason I have to read for you three. Arielle is certainly above suspicion of complicity, Christian is neutral, and Raphael is your own employee, for heaven's sake! There can be no objection to my reading for them."
Evidently there could. Tanya spat a flurry of unintelligible comments to Dominic, who shrugged and turned back to me. "You must read for three fair employees to satisfy Tanya, mon ange," he said with a hint of immovability.
I debated continuing the argument until I wore him down, but figured I might as well give in and get the blasted thing over with.
"Fine. I'll read for Raphael, Arielle, and Milos. Happy now?"
"With one slight adjustment—you will change Milos for Tanya."
I looked between the cold-eyed Milos and the raging Tanya and gave a mental shrug. One was bound to be as bad as the other. "Fine, but she's last If my reading calls down any acts of God, I want to be able to leave quickly."
I ignored Dominic's hand and seated myself at the table, grimacing at the showy casting cloth set over the table. I yanked it off and yelled to Roxy, "Give me your red scarf, would you?" She brought it over and I smoothed it out until it lay flat on the table, then looked out at the people assembled. I was at the edge of one corner of the stage, sitting behind a small table, melting under the bright stage lights someone had turned on. Tanya and Milos dragged two chairs from the seating section to join the semicircle of people already sitting in front of me. The irony of the situation—having to prove something I didn't believe in—did not escape me. If this kept up, I'd be like Lewis Carroll's Alice, believing six impossible things before breakfast.
"Right. I'm ready. Let's have Arielle first."
Arielle, who had been sitting quietly next to Roxy, gave me a tentative look, shot a quick glance at her sister, and took the chair opposite me.
I smiled to reassure her. She was clearly ill at ease—that made two of us. "You know the routine, Arielle," I said in a voice that I hoped sounded confident. "I'd like you to think of a question and focus on it."
She wrung her hands and nodded.
"Good. In the Odin's Nine layout, the first rune stands for hidden influences on your past, the second for your present attitude on past events, the third for hidden influences on the present, the fourth for your attitude on the present, the fifth on delays or obstacles that may prevent the outcome you seek, the sixth is the outcome or result of your question, and the seventh through ninth stones indicate what you already have, or will need, to influence your past, present, and future respectively. Got all that?"
She nodded again.