Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 28

With the woman still looming ominously behind us, we duck around a tent where a few children are tossing brightly colored rings onto glass bottles. A cold blast from a nearby open freezer billows over us and I shiver as Tessa keeps walking, her shoulders straight and her pace quick enough that I almost have to jog. I dodge around a man unloading a rack of bread, nearly crashing into him as I bolt around him.

"What was that all about?" I wonder aloud and Astrid shakes her head at me.

"Just your average, wannabe tarot card reader," she elaborates and sighs, "I could do a better job."

I think about her words for a moment before I speak.

"Can you...could you do a reading on me?"

Astrid glances over at me, her lips parting before she reaches up to wipe at a smudge of mascara around her eye. She inspects something on her nail before she nods, curling her hand into a fist before she uncurls it as her hand trembles faintly.

"I could try, I need to buy a pack, though."

We glance around then, Tessa and Luke stopping to join in with looking around the bustling fairgrounds as people sidestep and walk around us. A man toting dozens of bags of cotton candy shouts out his prices as he walks by, his gaze lingering. My skin prickles suddenly and the urge to leave rises in my chest.

I still didn't have any idea who 'he' could be.

"There!" Tessa exclaims, snapping me out of my thoughts as she points toward the expo building.

Sure enough there's a stand that has a sign mounted above it, which reads 'Magic! Crystals! Wands!' all in bold letters across the front of a sign that is painted red.

Astrid shrugs and starts in the direction of the stand as we follow behind her. A man in a cliché magician's outfit is standing behind a plastic table that has a black cloth draped across it. He smiles in a way not unlike a smug fox trapping a chicken as Astrid approaches. Spread across the table are racks of crystals and several, plastic black wands with white tips.

I resist the urge to curl my lip at the sight of fake crystals, as a single glance is enough to tell me most of it is dyed agate or synthetically grown gems. I sense no resonance from them, their energy dull and muted. I touch the silk pouch hanging off my hip where my wand is stowed as it hums under my touch like a string on an instrument being plucked. Astrid keeps walking as we hang back and she promptly strides up to the man.

"Got any tarot card decks?" Astrid asks and the man grins, his teeth glittering in the light that is being cast off of the side of the expo building.

"Good evening, young lady. Yes, I've also got Ouija boards-."

"No, thanks, I'm really only looking for a tarot deck," Astrid assures him and the man nods and places a small, black crate on the table.

"Take a look, I have Rider-Waite decks, Zerner-Farber, New Mythic-."

"I'll take this one," Astrid interrupts as she pulls out one of the decks and holds it aloft, "how much?"

"Twenty bucks."

"Sold," Astrid mutters as she grabs her wallet out of her pocket and drops the bill on the table before she turns away.

"Did you want a receipt?" the man asks as he can only look on after Astrid, who shakes her head.

"No thanks, you keep it," she says as she nods to us, "come on."

We trail after her as she heads for a picnic table that is sat near a popcorn truck, the popping sound of the popcorn faint from within it. The pungent odor of butter washes over us when we get seated on the rickety, wood benches. Tessa sits on one side while Luke takes my other as Astrid gets settled across from us. She sets the matte black box on the tabletop before she opens it to reveal that it has matching black cards set inside. She hastily pulls back her tousled hair and secures it with a blue hairband before she takes a soft breath.

With tentative hands, she places two fingers against the top of the deck, like she's checking for a pulse. In my household, we never really messed with cards, my mom opting to have us explore such things when we reach the proper age for our powers to come in. It makes it easier for us to protect ourselves against any ill energy since by then we could sense it and steer clear.

Like the energy I feel now, a tangled web of clotted confusion, like watching a dust bunny roll across the table.

"Cover me," Astrid murmurs.

Next to me, Tessa and Luke turn outwards, their hands low. They begin to weave a light illusion, one that scarcely changes what's around us as Astrid makes a few hand motions and the cards begin to glow a soft, white light. I can feel the energy shift, like tuning between radio stations and finally hitting the in-between so that it comes through clear. Soft in volume, but clear.

The glow fades and Tessa and Luke lower their illusion, their eyes turning to Astrid.

There's an instruction page that she promptly sets aside as she grabs the deck and shuffles them before she sets the deck down.

"What do you want to know?" Astrid asks softly.

"Whatever the spirits think I need to know," I reply, my heart beginning to pound in my chest.

She nods at this as Tessa sets one of her bracelets on the table in front of me. A talisman for protection. I touch the wooden beads before I draw my hands back. Across from me, Astrid dutifully shuffles the deck again.

She flips over the first card, which reveals a picture of a white tower that is crumbling.

"The Tower, this represents you, the Tower represents collapse of structures and new insight, a realization is coming your way, don't fear it, embrace it, you need to hear the message that is to come," she says as she taps the card with a black fingernail before she reaches for the other deck.

A prickling sensation runs up the back of my neck. It would be a brutal reformation, whatever it may be. Astrid doesn't appear to be fazed as she splits the deck and hands it to me.

"Shuffle it eight times," she instructs me. "With your intention in mind."

The cards are slightly warm as I obey and shuffle them before I pass the deck back to her. She divides the deck into three piles before she flips over the first card. A knight on a black rearing horse is revealed, a stick of some sort held in his hand as he holds the reins and stares out at me from the card.

"The Knight of Wands, the adventurous risk-taker who is following their passion, but they are the catalyst, the one who will trigger disaster, there is a betrayer on the horizon." she murmurs as she bites on the corner of her lip and I feel a hint of unease.

So I am going to be betrayed.

Astrid flips the next card over to reveal a blindfolded woman in a long, white dress with swords stuck tip down in the ground around her. It reminds me too much of Cecilia in that moment as my unease is swallowed up and replaced with a heavy dread.

"The Eight of Swords, you will feel powerless and stuck, this card represents your mental state in all of this," Astrid drones, her voice having taken on a strange, almost possessed tone. "You will doubt your own perception in the betrayal that will come, unable to break free until you learn to trust yourself again."

She flips over the last card and I shiver, not needing to be told what the card means. It's a heart that has three swords stuck through it in an X pattern. Silence has settled around us, the sounds of the rides and everything else around me fading. I can only focus on the card sitting in front of me.

Astrid's eyes hesitantly flick up to me, her light eyes aglow from the string lights hanging above us.

"The Three of Swords, this is a warning...," she trails off, caught up in the words that she wants to say, "the warning is that you will be betrayed by someone very close to you."