Major Detours

by Zachary Sergi

  Scanning my surroundings, I spot a stream nearby, slim but coursing. Instantly, I know how to make this work.

  Banking left, I sprint toward the stream. Once I make it there, I stop and turn to find Rosa and Supriya running right at me in plain sight—though Supriya already trails way behind, seemingly running out of steam. Perfect.

  I then toss the King of Pentacles into the stream without thinking twice, letting the current pull the card along.

  “No!” Rosa shrieks, watching what I’ve done.

  But I just keep running after Chase and Cleo, knowing in my gut that this Queen of Pentacles would never leave her King behind.

  Click here

  As my decision locks into place, I know it’s the right thing to do. Anwar and Rosa never had any legitimate claim to this deck, and they never will. Besides, if Rosa and her coven really are devastated over the money they’ll lose, they’re welcome to track Anwar down to get it back. This feels quite a bit like the right karma to me.

  So I don’t think twice.

  I don’t look back.

  I don’t look down.

  I just keep running forward. As I do, I feel more than ever that I was the one chosen to protect these special, coveted, powerful cards. I might not know exactly why this responsibility has fallen to me, but it has.

  This one thought carries me forward, moving faster than I ever thought I could. Fast enough to outrun every demon chasing me—including Rosa and her bewitching ways.

  Click here

  I break out of the woods and my entire body feels spent, stars twinkling in the corners of my vision. What I see next, however, seems to glow even brighter. Reaching the street, I find one final wildcard waiting for us, as unexpected as he is welcome…

  Logan, in the flesh, standing beside Charvan.

  I have no idea why he has come back or how he knew where to find us, but I am just so thankful he is here. Because Logan is the best getaway driver we could possibly ask for.

  “Cleo, I got your—wait, what’s up?” Logan asks.

  “We’ll explain later,” Cleo says, reaching Charvan first. “Are you good to drive?”

  Logan just nods, spinning toward the driver’s door. Chase unlocks Charvan as he approaches, and I wish I could see the look on his face right now. I’m sure that, as overwhelmed and frightened as he must be, he also must feel the same way I do:

  Completely alive.

  Once I reach Charvan and climb into the back seat, Logan hits the gas. As we speed away from these dark pentacle woods, I don’t know if Rosa or her coven will be able to follow, but I do know this much…

  I can finally exhale, now that everything is right where it belongs.

  PART FOUR

  SWORN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHASE

  SITTING BESIDE LOGAN again doesn’t feel real. Maybe it’s the surge of adrenaline from being chased through the woods, but everything feels hyper-saturated. Could Logan just be an apparition I’ve conjured? I want to reach over and touch him to make sure he’s really here, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to anymore. I turn myself toward him instead. The act causes a rush of comfort so overwhelming, I almost cry out with relief.

  Logan is back.

  Suddenly Charvan, still hurtling through the sunset, feels a little bit more like home. There aren’t any cars behind us so far, so hopefully Rosa wasn’t fast enough to follow. Which means we can focus on this unexpected return.

  “Logan, what are you doing here?” Amelia blurts out, still heaving breaths from our sprint. “I mean, how did you find us?”

  I know I should be the one asking these questions, but words have been failing me lately.

  “I’ve been texting with Cleo all day,” Logan answers. “So much for my phone box rule.”

  I turn back to Cleo, wondering how I missed this—until I remind myself how preoccupied I’ve been. Besides, I quickly see that Cleo appears… Actually, it’s hard to place my finger on their exact expression. Cleo and Amelia seemed to be having a pretty heavy conversation before we entered the Repentant shack, so maybe it has something to do with that? Not to mention, none of us have had a spare second yet to mend the wounds collected from Rosa’s reads.

  “Obviously, she told me where to find you all, at least until an hour ago,” Logan continues.

  “Actually, I’m using they now instead of she,” Cleo replies. “I’ll fill you in later, but I’m stepping into using nonbinary pronouns.”

  “Oh, that’s awesome,” Logan answers, turning for a second to flash Cleo that devastating smile of his. “Well, I bused and ride-shared to the pin Cleo dropped, and when I saw Charvan, I figured you’d all be back soon. From the way you were running, I assume things didn’t go well with this Rosa woman?”

  Well, Cleo really has been keeping Logan in the loop. I don’t know if I should feel betrayed by this, but really it just makes me feel like Logan never really left us. Could this maybe mean the same for our relationship? I hope so, but right now it feels dangerous to hope.

  “Why are you back?”

  It takes me a few seconds to register that I’m the one who asked this question. It’s like my lips speak the words on my behalf.

  “A few reasons, actually,” Logan answers, his eyes still on the road. “I realized that, no matter what, I needed to see this trip through. It was good I took a little break, but I could never let you all end this chapter without me.”

  I turn my head to look out the passenger window, even though there’s nothing there but blurs of twilight and trees. Hearing Logan’s words, a gust of emotion hits so hard, I’m afraid it’ll flatten me.

  “Also, something happened I needed to tell you about in person,” Logan continues. “It’s about the hidden cards from before.”

  I turn back, and from the look on Logan’s face, I can tell where this is going.

  Back in Joshua Tree, I decided to give the Prince of Wands to Cain.

  Click here

  Back in Joshua Tree, I decided to take the Prince of Wands with us.

  Click here

  “When I got home I felt super restless,” Logan continues. “I needed to go somewhere, to do something. So I found Cain’s address and drove back out to the desert.”

  Logan doesn’t say anything for the next few seconds. Instead, with his eyes still on the road, he reaches one hand into his pocket. Then he pulls out a plastic baggie, one folded over to protect…

  The Prince of Wands.

  “Cain said he was going to get it back to us soon, so he was happy to return it when I showed up at his door.”

  “Logan, that’s—” Amelia begins, finding herself speechless.

  I feel the same way.

  “I guess we’ll never know if Cain would’ve returned the card if I hadn’t found him first,” Logan says. “But I think he would have. See, what you put out into the world comes right back to you.”

  Logan holds the card out to me and I take it, this precious artifact I once gave away. Without hesitation, I then turn and hold the card back out for Amelia, returning it where it belongs.

  Amelia’s eyes raise from the Prince, and I can see it written all over her face. She doesn’t believe in karma, not the way Logan does—or the way, on some level, I suppose I do. Still, she accepts the card with a meaningful nod. In this moment, all that matters is that our resident Magician found our missing Wands card.

  “Did Cain say if the card helped him?” Amelia asks, choosing her first words quite well.

  “He didn’t. And I didn’t ask,” Logan says. “But it must have helped him one way or another, if he was willing to part with it.”

  Amelia stares down at the Prince of Wands then, as if still wondering about its truest power.

  That’s when I notice Amelia does not hold the King of Pentacles.

  Click here

  “I guess we can add the Prince back to the deck, along with the King of Pentacles,” I say, seeing that Amelia grips the new card a little too tightly.
r />   Click here

  “When I got back home, I couldn’t sit still,” Logan begins. “So I started looking to find anything useful about Perilli or the cards online. I figured there must be some kind of renewed chatter after the ‘final deck’ surfaced in their community. But, of course, I couldn’t find anything. The Corners really don’t seem to communicate publicly, as far as I could find. However, there was one report.”

  Logan pauses. We all lean in, full of anticipation.

  “It was from an auction house based in Santa Barbara, reported by a local paper. Apparently an anonymous Summerland resident donated the proceeds from the sale of a large Californian art collection to a homeless shelter. The resident included only one accompanying quote: ‘From a nearby cup, to water our local lilies.’”

  Silence falls over Charvan, because we all must be thinking of the Family Baxter.

  “There’s no way to know if it was Lady Azure or one of the kids. Or none of them, I guess,” Logan adds. “But I had to tell you all about this in person.”

  Immediately, I turn to face Amelia. “Do you think Lady Azure sold some of her Perillian collection after our visit?”

  Amelia doesn’t answer, though. I suppose I’m in the most unique position to have that question answered, but no one would dare ask me to reach out to Seidon after all that has happened.

  Shoving that thought aside, it seems that our Princess of Cups visit might have been a pivotal moment for the Baxters, one way or another. Then I wonder—if Perillian objects were indeed the artworks sold, who exactly were they sold to?

  This new question prompts me to look down at Amelia’s hands, where our reacquired deck rests.

  That’s when I notice Amelia does not hold the King of Pentacles.

  Click here

  I see that Amelia also clutches the King of Pentacles, a little too tightly.

  Click here

  “I decided to leave the King of Pentacles behind for Rosa, to slow her down,” Amelia explains. “I left it floating away in a stream in front of her.”

  My jaw drops open, considering the grief Amelia gave me after giving Cain the Prince of Wands. I resist the urge to react, however, because I see the look in Amelia’s eyes, lit by the soft string lights hanging above. She appears as overwhelmed by this choice as I once was.

  “I didn’t just do it to throw Rosa off our trail, though,” Amelia continues. “I did it because it felt like she deserved some part of this deck for all her trouble. I understand now why you gave the Prince card to Cain, Chase. So thank you for taking the heat on that one.”

  I nod at Amelia, not sure what else to do. Especially because she doesn’t ask for my opinion on leaving the King of Pentacles behind. She doesn’t seem to need it, for so many reasons.

  I don’t know if that’s a good sign or an ominous one, but either way it feels like the winds of change kicking up, pushing us irrevocably forward.

  Click here

  “I decided to leave the King of Pentacles behind, to throw Rosa off our trail,” Amelia explains. “I didn’t want to tempt fate again, after getting burned by Cain.”

  Amelia’s words hang in the air, her implied judgment of my own decision made clear. I’m tempted to react, but she continues before I can.

  “It’s not that I think you made the wrong decision, Chase. I just tried to learn from it. Besides, after what happened with Anwar, it felt right to leave the King of Pentacles behind. It would only feel like a reminder of him, of what he did. And now hearing about this potential Lady Azure sale, I think I made the right call leaving the King for Rosa. Maybe it will bring her some peace, like the other missing cards might have.”

  Listening to Amelia, I still feel the urge defend myself. However, I give myself a second to think it all through first. After everything we’ve experienced since that very first day of the trip, who’s to say I would have made that same decision today? Besides, if Amelia feels right about the decision, I’m in no position to judge.

  I nod at her, not sure what else to do. Especially because Amelia doesn’t ask for my opinion on leaving the King of Pentacles behind. She doesn’t seem to need it, for so many reasons.

  I don’t know if that’s a good sign or an ominous one, but either way it feels like the winds of change kicking up, pushing us irrevocably forward.

  Click here

  “Hey, Amelia, are you okay?” I ask.

  “Yes,” she answers quickly. “I’m trying to process what just happened.”

  “Well, I don’t think what just happened is over quite yet,” Cleo says, their head turned to look out the back window. “We have company.”

  We’ve been so distracted by Logan’s return, we haven’t been focused on our route. Rosa and her coven didn’t seem to follow us at first, but we’ve been driving straight on a relatively remote road. This is the coven’s turf, so of course they’d know how to catch up to us. Looking out the back window now, I see two headlights behind us…

  Growing closer every second.

  “Are we sure that’s Rosa?” I ask, squinting.

  “I can’t see through the windshield over the headlights,” Cleo answers. “But that’s definitely the same Honda the stepsisters drove from Chills Coven.”

  “Crap,” Amelia curses under her breath, looking like she thinks this is her fault. She still clutches the King of Pentacles so tightly, she almost creases it.

  “Amelia, whatever happened back there doesn’t matter,” I say. “All that matters is losing them, now.”

  Hearing this, Amelia immediately snaps out of it.

  “Where are we supposed to go next?” she asks.

  “We don’t want to lead them to the next card,” I answer.

  “Should we stop and try to talk to them?” Cleo asks. “Because we definitely should not add a high-speed car chase to the list of events on this trip.”

  “We won’t have to,” Logan says, pointing. “There’s the freeway on-ramp.”

  “Their car is going to be way faster than Charvan,” Amelia says. “No way we outrun them, even with other cars around. We’re going to stick out like a sore thumb.”

  “Trust me,” Logan says, impossibly calm and collected.

  Up ahead, a right-hand exit leads to the northbound freeway. Then farther, after the underpass, a left-hand turn leads to the southbound side. Logan gets into the right lane, puts on his right blinker and… slows down?

  “Shouldn’t we be speeding up?” Cleo asks. “They’re right behind us now.”

  Logan doesn’t answer, though, his full focus on driving. He stays the course, beginning to exit onto the freeway. Until, at the last possible second, he turns the wheel left. We suddenly go sailing over the median grass. For a moment it feels like we might tip over, but Logan reserved a burst of speed for this maneuver. Once Charvan has straightened out, he lays on the gas pedal and we blast forward safely over the divide.

  Turning around, I see Rosa’s car charge forward onto the freeway on-ramp, moving too fast to follow our unexpected change of course. Even if she has the wherewithal to stop and reverse down the empty ramp, we already begin to sail through the underpass. Logan then turns us left onto the southbound freeway, driving like a quiet storm. I realize quickly that if Rosa does find some way to follow us, by the time she does we’ll be long gone.

  Logan proceeds to drive two exits down the freeway before pulling off. He then turns to get onto the northbound side, another brilliantly unexpected course correction. I hold my breath for what feels like ten whole minutes, but when I finally do exhale, it’s because we seem to be in the clear. There’s no sign of Rosa’s Honda anywhere.

  “Logan. That was deeply impressive,” Cleo says, exhaling audibly as well. “Thank the stars you came back.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  Click here

  We soon find ourselves at a gas station, refueling in several ways. Logan offered to drive through the night to the final set of coordinates, since he has the energy for it and we don’t wa
nt to risk being followed again. In preparation, Amelia and Cleo went into the convenience store to compile a makeshift dinner of chips and candy. Though obviously they just wanted to leave Logan and me alone as we refill the tank.

  “You know the real reason I came back, right?” Logan says the first moment it’s just the two of us. “I needed to see you. To talk to you before it’s too late.”

  Too late for what? I want to ask, but I also know something has shifted in me after today.

  “I’m happy you came back. Really,” I say. “It’s been hard without you. But I need to ask something of you. Something that might not be fair?”

  I pause for Logan’s approval, but he just waits for me to name my terms.

  “A lot happened today that I need to process. So before we talk about what comes next for us, I think I need to decide how I feel first. I need to figure out what I want, on my own.”

  As I speak, I can’t stop Rosa’s words from ringing in my mind. Have I really put myself on the sidelines when I belong in the center of the ring?

  “That sounds fair enough to me,” Logan answers.

  “That’s not the unfair part. I was hoping that until we decide what to do…”

  The words feel mixed up, like I’m plucking them one by one from a cyclone.

  “If we could just be us, until then?” I finally finish. “The way we were? Even if it’s just pretend. Just for a little while, before things change again?”

  Emotion strains Logan’s face, and a sudden snap of disbelief seizes me. Things used to be so easy between us, for so long. How did we end up here? Is it even possible for us to do what I’ve asked, or was I just being stupid and selfish? Then again, I remind myself Logan said he wanted this for us once, back on the Isle of Baxter before everything changed.