The End of Magic (The Witches of Echo Park #3)(58)

She left him, her fingers brushing his arm as she circled past him and returned to her chair. She was giddy, her body thrumming with excitement-but she reined her happiness in and took her seat. She reached across the table, picking up the blue velvet drawstring bag that contained Eleanora's deck of tarot cards.

"I am a cartomancer."

She intoned the words to the cards as she removed them from their bag and set them out in front of her.

"I have the gift of divination and with your blessing, I will ply my trade."

She set her hand palm down on the topmost card, letting the cards get a sense of her. She knew she would be able to wield the deck if, and only if, the deck gave her its permission.

"Dev-"

She knew what Freddy was going to say-Why are you asking permission? They're just cards-but she silenced him with a wave of her hand. She needed silence and goodwill in the room. There could be no doubting. Freddy seemed to get what she was asking of him and he nodded, sitting back in his chair and waiting for her to continue.

"If I have your goodwill, show me a sign-"

Dev cried out, the palm of her hand on fire. The pain was so terrible that she almost drew her hand back, but something inside her told her this would be a fatal mistake. Instead, she gritted her teeth and let the fiery sensation burn her hand. Just as she almost couldn't take anymore, the pain eased and a cooling balm spread across the flesh of her palm. There was a heady scent of ambergris and myrrh, as if someone had turned the two scents to ash inside an incense burner.

"You once belonged to Eleanora Eames and before her to Svetlana Aoki and before her to Mary Westover and before her to your original maker Lady Frieda Harris . . ."

The cards seemed to warm at the mention of that last name, as if they missed their first mistress, the woman who had painted all the imagery for Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth tarot cards-for this had been one of Lady Harris's own decks. The warmth grew until the cards were toasty, but they never got as hot as they were during that first interaction.

"Thank you for offering us your services," Dev said to the cards-and then she lifted them in her hand and began to cut them, setting four separate piles down on the tabletop.

"We do not seek your help in divination but in reaching out to the spirit world . . . to the dreamlands."

She took the top card from each pile and placed them at the cardinal directions around the Dream Journal: North was The Star to guide them, West was The Moon to light their way, East was The Sun behind them, and South was The Chariot upon which they would attempt this journey.



       
         
       
        

She'd loved these cards from the first moment she'd seen them. Eleanora had shown them to her not long after she'd been initiated into the coven, and since that day she'd been obsessed with owning them for herself. The Book of Thoth tarot's Major and Minor Arcana were an art deco masterpiece, gloriously rendered in brassy gold, moss green, and lavender geometric patterns . . . and their provenance made them even more special.

Dev just hadn't imagined them coming into her possession so soon or in such a tragic way. With Eleanora's untimely death.

The ring of a telephone cracked through the air, jarring them both out of the calm Dev had created with her intonations to the cards.

"Is that the landline?" Freddy asked.

He didn't wait for an answer, just got up and reached for the corded phone hanging on the kitchen wall near the refrigerator. He held the receiver to his ear and frowned.

"Just dial tone."

Dev wasn't surprised, certain the ringing had come from the back. Where Freddy's cell phone lay on the side table in Eleanora's bedroom.

"It's yours."

The ring came again, louder and more insistent. Wailing like a baby to be picked up.

"Go get it?" Dev asked-and Freddy took off like a shot.

She looked down at the cards and was shocked to find that two of the cards had rearranged themselves: The Moon had swapped places with The Sun.

Guided by the sun, the moon at our backs, Dev thought.

"This is crazy. I heard ringing, but I pick up the phone and it's not ringing," Freddy said, as he jogged back into the room, his phone held out in front of him like it was possessed-and maybe it was. "Here."

He handed Dev the cold, dark hunk of plastic and metal-but as soon as the phone touched her skin, it roared to life, vibrating in her hand.

"Damn," she said, almost dropping it.

"Should we answer?" Freddy asked, and Dev nodded, staring at the screen, which read Unknown Caller.

"Yeah, I think so," she said-and pressed the accept button.