Savannah shuddered. “And I still say mine saved my life. That’s why I kept the broken pieces in my room.”
Saraphina refocused on the ground. “Okay, I want one too. How do we find one? Just look?”
“That’s the theory.” Savannah shrugged and dropped a whole handful of stones and shells into a pile in the sand. “My pawpaw told me that you have to use your other senses to find them, that our eyes were a hindrance – and maybe he’s right ‘cause the only one I’ve ever found I found by accident when I was a kid.”
“Okay, let’s divide and conquer because it is still freaking freezing out here.” Gigi rubbed her hands together and sand fell off her gloves. “Savannah, since you’re the crazy one, you get to look down by the water—”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out, revealing a metal rod sticking through the middle of it. She bounced toward the water and yelled over her shoulder, “I’ll go swim with the fishies.”
“Savannah, do not go in that water. You promised lunch was after this!”
While the two teased each other, Saraphina got right to work. She turned away from them and headed to the other side of the small beach toward a large grouping of stones and shells. I followed behind her, but when she dropped to her knees in the sand I kept walking. These waters were infested with demons, and though they dared not surface in the sunlight, I would not put my faith in that when it came to Saraphina. I walked along the tops of the rocks, eyeing the ocean for their tentacles and red eyes. When I made it to the small white lighthouse, I stopped and turned back to her.
She had her eyes closed and her bare hands resting atop the stones. Her shoulders rose and fell and then her gold glittery magic billowed out from her palms. My pulse skipped a beat. For in this moment, I could almost convince myself she was back to normal. It surprised me just how deeply I yearned for that…to see her shining like the diamond she was.
Then she licked her lips and heat flooded my veins faster than a tsunami.
Focus thyself, Riah.
For those thoughts are an empty well of misery.
Her magic rushed out of her, spreading over the sand and stones and sparkling under the sunlight. It tingled across my feet and sent electricity shooting up my legs. My pulse quickened. The feel of her magic was invigorating and she didn’t even know she was doing it.
A small sand-colored crab popped up from between the rocks and I smiled. It heard her call and it was answering. I smiled and leaned against the lighthouse. Animals adored her as much as I did. Where she went they followed, like they were honored to simply be in her presence. I knew the feeling well.
Sure enough, the crab hurried over and crawled onto the back of her hand.
She gasped and those big lavender eyes flew open. Then she smiled and lifted her hand up to her face so her and the crab were eye-to-eye. “Well, hello there.”
I grinned. It was nice to see the loss of her memory had not changed her.
The crab tapped his little claw on her skin. She gently lowered her hand until her palm was flat on the sand. He jumped right off and crawled a few inches away, then he stopped. Saraphina had a way with the living, especially those that weren’t human. Animals and nature hung on her very breath. So I was not surprised when the crab spun around and crawled over a bunch of stones – then stopped to make sure she was watching. Once he was sure she was, he dove under the stones.
The look on her face was worth a thousand stardust. Her confusion and delight warred across her eyes yet she immediately began moving stones aside. But that was Saraphina. If a human approached her she was cautious and skeptical…but an animal she trusted without a second thought. It was one of the things I loved most about her.
One of the many things.
It was an extensively long list.
Saraphina leaned back with her jaw dropped and her eyes sparkling like the sunlight atop the ocean waves. Sitting in the sand before her was a handful of stones and I knew by the bewildered look in her eyes that these were the hag stones. She gasped and plucked one off the sand, then lifted it up. It was a pale, ivory sort of color, almost like bone, with a triangle shape and with soft, round edges. The hole was slightly off center and not a perfect circle.
She looked down at her new crab friend and grinned. “Thank you for your help.”
I grinned and shook my head.
But then she bit her lip and stared at the stone and I knew what she was thinking. She wanted to know if it was true, if it worked, if she could look through it to see the Fae Folk. It would work but only if she sang the right song, read the right rhyme. The Fae were particular like that. I would know, I was one of them.
She lifted the stone up to her face, closed one eye, and looked through the hole — then dropped it like it burned her. I frowned as she stared down at the stone in the sand. With shaking fingers, she reached to pick up the same stone…then held it up to her eye once more.
I watched as the wind rustled her bright red hair, blowing it all around her. My fingers itched with the need to run through the soft fiery strands. After three centuries of seeing her in the same dress, it was odd to see her in a thick black trench-coat – but that hair was a happy constant.
Saraphina slowly lowered the stone but her lavender gaze was locked on the lighthouse, at the very spot I stood. I narrowed my eyes and watched her more carefully. Surely she could not see me, there had to be something else catching her attention. I was not in Seelie nor had she spoken the spell, so the stone would not work. She lifted the stone and looked back – and shivered.
She cannot be looking at me. Yet I felt her gaze sharper than the sun’s rays.
No, not possible. I held my right hand up to check that I had not dropped my cloaking ring, but it was in place. Though, so was her gaze. No, something else is spooking her. I ran my thumb over my bottom lip and her lavender eyes narrowed on me. My pulse quickened.
Cannot be. I narrowed mine right back and cocked my head to the side.
“I. See. You,” she whispered but it came out like a growl.
I cursed and my eyes widened. She could not see me like this, that was imperative. My cloaking ring should have prevented it, yet it did not. It made no sense. I did not dare trust the magic of mine own kind at this point, but I knew of an arcana spell that was written inside The Coven’s Book of Shadows. I called upon the words from deep in my memory, then whispered them in in a rush, low enough that she could not dare to hear.
“I call upon the power of Air, Conceal me here with your magic so rare.”
She gasped. Her eyes bounced around, passing right over me like I was not there.
“Oh my God,” Savannah shouted.
I sucked in a deep breath as Savannah rushed to Saraphina’s side. But when she dropped down to the pile of stones in the sand I exhaled in a rush. For a moment, I actually feared she’d seen me too. She shouldn’t have been able to, but my confidence was rocked.
My cloaking ring had not failed me yet with Saraphina and I did not see a reason it had now. I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands. Prince Thorne would have an explanation for this occurrence, though I dared not ask. I did not want to draw his attention until I was delivering her to his throne. No, Prince Thorne could never hear of this.
Chapter Eighteen
Saffie
“Okay, it’s gonna be an hour wait—”
“An hour?” Savannah screeched.
The girl at the counter sighed. “Sorry.”
Gigi whistled under her breath and shook her head.
Savannah cursed.
As they turned and faced me, I frowned. “We have to wait an hour to get a table?”
They both nodded.
“Damn. I was hoping my amnesia was confusing me on that one.”
Savannah threw her head back and laughed. “I love you. C’mon, let’s go play.”
“That’s rarely a good sign.” Gigi chuckled and hooked her arm around mine, dragging me toward the door with them. “She’
s dangerous in these situations.”
I smiled and hugged my coat closer as we walked back outside into the tundra the night had become. “So what do we do now?”
Savannah spun in a circle and the neon lights of the restaurant sign flashed in her eyes. “I was thinking – and there’s no pressure whatsoever—”
“But she really wants you to do it—”
“That you could get a reading from a medium.”
Gigi gasped. Then looked to me. “That’s actually a great idea, Saffie.”
I glanced back and forth between them. “What is a medium? More tarot cards?”
Savannah shook her head. “Yes and no. They will use some tarot cards but that’s just a guidance tool. A medium is someone who can speak with souls at rest.”
My eyes widened. “You mean the dead?”
“Yes, the deceased.”
My stomach turned. “Why would I want to do that?”
“Because you have amnesia,” Gigi said softly as she led us away from the front door of the restaurant. “And although you may not remember yourself or anyone else, maybe there’s a spirit who does remember. Someone who could potentially shine some light on you for you.”
I opened my mouth to say no then shut it. She had a point. Talking with a dead person seemed a little unsettling, but then again I had been talking to a crab earlier in the day. At least a spirit could talk back. My two tarot readings had been positive. Creepy, but positive. And they both told me to be brave and do whatever I have to. Even Dr. Troy encouraged me to try new things. I had no idea what a medium would tell me, I just hoped I wouldn’t regret what I was about to say.
“Um…okay. Yeah, let’s do that.”
Savannah and Gigi high-fived then grabbed my arms and practically dragged me skipping away from the restaurant. It wasn’t until we were crossing the street that I was hit with a sense of deja-vu. I glanced around and then I recognized it. This was the street I ran down the night I woke up on the wharf. This was the street I thought I’d seen Riah chasing me.
But as I scanned every inch, every shadow, every corner…I didn’t see him now.
I reached up to the strip of leather tied around my neck and pulled out my hag stone, the one I’d found on the beach earlier. The one I’d seen Riah through. Savannah and Gigi were in front of me, talking about something…so I held my stone up to my eye and looked through the hole.
Nothing.
I rescanned everything around me.
No Riah.
I sighed with relief and let my stone go, dropping it to hang from its new spot on my necklace. See, he isn’t here. You must have imagined him earlier. Yes, that’s it. It was a hallucination. When I talk to Dr. Troy on Monday, I’ll tell her about it. She’ll understand. She’ll explain why this is happening. Probably something to do with my trauma.
“Saffie?”
I jumped – then realized I’d been standing still on the sidewalk, staring into the alley. I blinked and shook myself. “Yes?”
“We’re here.”
“Oh. Right. Coming.”
Together, we went inside a store called Enchantment. The first thing I noticed were all the plants hanging from the ceiling. There was a thick scent in the air but it wasn’t nearly as pungent as the candles in Landreia’s store. I glanced around the shop and saw only a couple people inside, standing in front of a wall of books. Behind them were rows of crystals of every shape and color. To my left, wrapped around the register and side wall, were glass cases filled with jewelry and even some hanging from racks that sat on top.
Someone gasped. “Savannah! Gigi!”
She spun and grinned. “Yay! You’re here!”
A tall man with unusual design carved into his facial hair wagged his eyebrows. “Honey, I’m always here. You know that. Except Mondays, because screw them.”
“Brian, we need your assistance.” Savannah grabbed my hand and dragged me over to where Brian was leaning against a wooden bookshelf. “This is my new friend Saraphina…she needs to get a reading with a medium.”
“Oh, how fun.” He looked me up and down then smiled. “You’re a cute little thing. So you have someone you’d like to reach from the beyond?”
“Not quite…” Savannah glanced back at me for a moment. “She has amnesia—”
“Oh my Gods,” Brian half screamed, half gasped. He pushed off the bookshelf and started walking backwards while waving for us to follow. “You poor soul. Come, come. Mark is available right now—”
“I am?” A man with a deeper voice said from behind him. He stepped out so we could see him, and he pushed his glasses up his slim nose. “My shift just ended…?”
Brian waved his hands and I noticed his fingernails were painted bright purple. “Mark, doll, this sweet little thing has amnesia. She needs to talk —”
“Amnesia?” Mark’s voice rose and his cheeks flushed. “Goddess, almighty. That’s terrible. Come on, let’s see who can talk to us.”
I started to follow him around a corner when I realized my friends weren’t. “Aren’t you coming?”
Brian shook his head. “Sorry, baby girl. Mediumship is tricky, he needs to be able to connect to only your spirit guides. You’re in good hands though.”
Savannah held two thumbs up. “This takes half an hour. We’ll be here when you get out.”
I nodded then slipped around the corner after Mark then followed him all the way to the back then behind a fancy, beaded curtain. He stepped to the side to let me in, then slid it closed behind me. In this little nook sat only a small wooden table with two chairs. On the table were two decks of tarot cards, each with several crystals on top, and a long sliver of wood – incense, as Savannah had called it.
“All right, have a seat right here for me…” Mark pointed to the first chair, then moved to sit in the other. He sat down and used a match to light the incense. As I slid onto the chair, he picked up a deck of cards and began shuffling. “So I’m just going to do an open reading and see if there are any spirits that want to come and talk to us, okay?”
I nodded again because my mouth seemed to forget how to work. I was both excited and terrified for this.
Mark closed his eyes and shuffled. He took a few breaths but I held mine. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes then spread his cards across the table in a single horizontal line, face-down. The backs of the cards had some kind of green and purple swirling design but I couldn’t focus on that.
“Hold your hands open over the cards, palms down and just hold them there.”
I licked my lips then did as he said. If he noticed the way my fingers trembled a little he didn’t say anything. Then he held his hands next to mine the same way, except his were calm and steady.
He gasped and his dark eyes widened. “Oh wow. Okay, we have company already.”
The trembling in my hands grew stronger. The air seemed to grow colder but only on my left side…and it almost pulsed with electricity. “W-wh-who?”
“Welcome, thank you for joining us tonight. Can you please tell us who you are?”
I sucked in a breath and held it. I found myself staring at the empty air beside the table, as if whoever this spirit was, they were standing there.
“She says…” Mark frowned and shook his head. “She says she died centuries ago but that can’t be right.”
My eyes widened. Centuries ago?
“You can put your hands down now, I’m going to pull some guidance cards,” he whispered to me. Then he closed his eyes, dropped one hand and waved the other over the row of cards – then stopped. “You want this one? Just this one – o-okay. Thank you for your guidance.”
He flipped the card over. It was upside down for me, so I couldn’t make out the picture because the cards shimmered like gold. But I did see one big V.
Mark pursed his lips and tapped on it. “Interesting, this has never happened. It’s like this woman was a psychic who maybe used to read tarot cards? She’s pointing out the Hierophant Card, which is about traditi
on and religion and faith…or maybe she was a religious leader for you, like a pastor or something?”
I sighed. I wished I knew.
“Oh, this—” he shivered violently. “Wow, I have chills – I have never felt a spirit this strong before. She says that you’re blocking her and to stop. Let her in. Let them in. They’re here to help you.”
My pulse quickened and my hands shook so hard the ring on my thumb was vibrating. “W-w-who?”
His eyes widened and goosebumps spread over his forearms and hands. “She’s telling me she is Elizabeth Bishop but that she can’t stay long. She’s saying, Saraphina, you know me. Your mother and uncle are waiting. Tegan is already working on helping you. Your memory will come back, I promise you. Just be patient. Things are happening as they’re supposed to. As they must.”
A cold chill slid down my spine then settled into my bones. I felt them rattling inside me like they’d come unhinged. I was cold deep down into my core. Who is this Tegan? And what is she doing? “That’s not comforting.”
Mark picked up all his cards and shuffled them. “She wants me to flip cards – okay, I am doing it,” he whispered in a panicked rush, like he was afraid of her.
Then he looked to the side, to his right, to the same side of the table I’d been staring at. His eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat.
“I can feel her, right here with us. She’s right there. Okay, ma’am, I will flip the cards, what are we looking for?” But he wasn’t looking at me. He frowned. “She says they are coming.”
“Who?” My voice came out high-pitched and squeaky.
“Help. Okay, I’m flipping.”
He flipped the first card off his deck – Death.
I gasped.
He flipped another - The Star.
I started to ask what they meant when he flipped a third and this time it was The Empress. He shook his head and licked his lips nervously. He started to sit the deck down then froze and flipped another card. The Emperor came out but the High Priestess jumped out with it, like they were attached.
“Another?” He blinked rapidly and pulled one more – King of Swords.
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