Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 28

With the woman still shouting behind us, we duck around a ring-toss stand where a few children are tossing brightly colored rings onto glass bottles as the woman's voice fades. The freezing air 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.

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

"Just your average, wannabe tarot card reader," she elaborates as she 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?"

She glances over at me and reaches up to wipe at a smudge of mascara around her eye as she nods, "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.

"There," Tessa says at last 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 and he smiles 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 magic as I touch the silk pouch hanging off my hip where my real wand is stowed. Astrid keeps walking as we hang back and she promptly strides up to the man.

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

"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 as 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 black box, which is no bigger than a textbook on the tabletop before she opens it to reveal that it has black cards set in stacks inside.

There's an instruction page that she promptly sets aside as she grabs one of the two decks and shuffles them before she sets the deck down. 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," 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, the fact that a crumbling tower represents me doesn't make me feel reassured. Astrid doesn't appear to be fazed as she passes me the other deck of cards.

"Shuffle it eight times," she instructs me.

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 red, 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, this represents you in the physical realm," she murmurs as she bites on the corner of her lip and I feel a hint of relief.

She 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 relief is swallowed up and replaced with dread.

"The Eight of Swords, you feel powerless and stuck, this card represents your mental state," Astrid drones, her voice having taken on a strange, almost possessed tone.

She flips over another 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.

"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 may be betrayed soon."