by Hazel Hunter
Though men across the country had used her act as an excuse to get far too friendly, some part of her was a little disappointed that he was being so restrained. She swallowed that odd emotion, and set the cards in front of him.
“Cut them three times, please. It is important that the cards get an idea of who you are and what you need.”
A slight smile on his face, he did as she asked. When she went to take the cards back from him, her hand brushed his lightly. There was a shiver of electricity between them so strong that she nearly drew back. But just as quickly the thought of separating from him stopped her. She cleared her throat.
“Let's see what we find for you tonight,” she said, her voice a little husky.
She drew the moment out like sticky taffy, and felt his bright eyes on her, watching. Again, he let her look, but his gaze had changed. Though the faint trace of a smile still curved his lips, his eyes seemed lit from within. As surely as he’d said it, his face spoke desire. There was power in watching him watching her. She let it wash over them, something both undefinable but real. Finally she laid the first card down.
It was a young man, eyes cast upwards, and dog at his heels. He would have been the very picture of a man about to have an adventure if he weren't getting ready to step off of a cliff.
“The Fool,” murmured Nicolette. “A new beginning. Something unforeseen is approaching you and coming on fast.”
“Should I feel offended?” the man asked.
She smiled. “Not at all. The Fool is a card that opens doors. Anything can happen when you draw him. And that’s a fine place to be.”
She drew the second card, and frowned. It was a tall tower being struck by lightning. There were two people falling from it, their painted faces twisted with terror.
“The Tower. You came from a place of chaos and crisis.”
“Doesn't everyone?”
The man's voice was light, but there was a strain underneath it. His eyes seemed fixated on the two figures falling from the height of the tower.
“No, not everyone comes from a place of pain,” Nicolette said gently.
The presence of the Tower disturbed her. There were no negative cards in the Tarot deck, but the Tower was heavy, immovable. It was disillusionment and ruin, terror and pain.
“It is in your past, but it will inform your future,” she said. “The presence of the Tower is something that cannot, and should not be ignored. If you do, you risk returning to it. You carry that pain with you to this day, and you will until you let go of it or resolve it.”
The man fidgeted slightly, and she wondered if he was going to refuse to allow her to continue. Some of her clients, when she touched a nerve, simply left. Nicolette felt a slight pang at this man leaving however. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when he nodded to allow her to continue.
She turned over the next card to reveal a chariot drawn by two fierce lions. The man driving the chariot looked both exultant and terrified, and it was a fair bet either way on whether he was controlling the lions or letting them run wild.
“That looks unpleasant.”
“It's not,” Nicolette promised. “This is an interesting reading in many ways. So many Major Arcana in this reading mean that it is a powerful one. There are many forces at work, and not all of them are friendly, but not all of them are negative, either. The future is what we make of it, regardless of what the cards tell us. What this reading is telling us…” She sighed. “The Chariot is a card of conflicting forces, barely held under control. It's not easy to tell
whether the man is going to rein in his lions or whether they are going to run away with him. Right now, you are facing a time when things are going to feel out of control. You will strive for control, but even if you are reaching for it, there is a chance that you are not going to get it.”
Now the man was frowning lightly, touching the tip of one finger to the card. She shivered to see how finely made his hands were. The monstrous man’s hands had been like wide spades. This man had a delicate touch, and though his hands were strong, they were graceful as well.
“Is there any indication on whether this struggle will turn out well for me and my friends?”
Nicolette shrugged.
“These are difficult things to tell, I'm afraid. Some things will end well, and other things will be lost.”
“That sounds like something you could say to just about any situation.”
Nicolette raised her eyebrow.
“You are welcome to have your cash back if you feel cheated,” she said, a little irritation creeping into her voice.
He laughed. “I would never. Just because I don't like what's to come doesn't mean that I'm going to shoot the messenger. Especially not when the messenger is as lovely as you. Please continue.”
As the word “lovely” registered, she nearly dropped the card and made sure to keep her eyes on the table. Slowly, she drew the next card. Both of them raised their eyebrows. There was a leering demon on this card, and at his feet were chained a man and a woman.
“That definitely does not look good,” he said.
“Usually it isn't,” she admitted. “This card tells you why things are happening. If you need a root cause, here it is.”
“The devil is making my life conflicted?”
“No, not at all. Instead, it is bondage and chains that are holding you back. Things that you once used are using you. The chains of the past are reaching forward to your future, and if you want to progress, you must let them go.”
He shook his head. Whether he found truth in her words or not, she could not tell.
“Is that all?”
“There's one more card to draw.”
“All right, let's see if it’s fire or flood.”
She laughed, but even as she did, she knew he was right to be a little uncomfortable. The drawing that he had received was a powerful one. Even if she only half-believed the cards herself, they could be right more often than they were wrong. The fact that all of the cards thus far were from the Major Arcana mystified her.
The final card was not from the Major Arcana. Instead it was a young man with a beautiful face holding a small cup in his hand.
“It's the Knight of Cups,” she said, her voice hushed. “This card represents the potential of what is to come. All of this strife, and all of this pain can give birth to something entirely different. The Knight of Cups tells me that from this pain can come love. Pain can have a way of releasing us from things that we were once carrying. Perhaps what you will find at the end of all of this is love.”
The man's laugh was short, an edge of bitterness to it.
“That's very kind of you to say. But finding love…”
“A pity,” Nicolette found herself saying. “Love has so many beautiful faces.”
He glanced at her.
“My name is Sebastian Corcoran,” he said abruptly, offering his hand. “It would seem I have a tough time in front of me, but at the end I might have my…” He seemed to be searching for the words. “My very own fairy tale,” he finished
Nicolette shook his hand, a part of her enjoying how strong it was even as she wondered about his past. She thought about breaking out the Madame Nicole speech, but impulsively, she decided against it.
“My name's Nicolette Erling, and I guess I believe in fairy tales.”
For a brief moment, she wanted to check his aura, to see what colors were stirring there. But in particular she wanted to know what their touch had done to it. It was a night of firsts, however, and she pushed her power away. She had been using it regularly throughout the night, and the final encounter with the man before Sebastian had left her feeling nervous and worn. If she used it too much and too often, she would give herself a splitting headache. That was the last thing that she wanted at the moment.
Obviously feeling that he had been left on his own for too long, Karas coughed and hopped down on the table. He looked up at Sebastian fearlessly, making the man laugh.
&nbs
p; “Gorgeous little beastie. Not very afraid at all, are you?”
“He hasn't had much cause to be. I try to make sure he gets what he needs.”
“What a good crow mother you are.”
Sebastian's smile was genuine, and she returned it automatically. She tried to think of something else to say, but then Karas was pecking at the deck. Before she could reach for him to make him quit, he deliberately pulled out a card, holding it in his beak.
“How long did it take for you to teach him to do that?” Sebastian asked, and she shook her head in bemusement.
“I never have. That's the first time he pulled a card out of the deck like that.”
She took the card from her pet, and her eyes widened. It featured two people wrapped in each other’s embrace, looks of bliss and adoration on their faces. A banner declaring them the Lovers scrolled across the bottom of the card, and hastily, she pushed it back into the deck.
“Birds can't read fortunes,” she said decisively, and Sebastian laughed.
“What did he pull for you? Death? Disaster?”
“Not far off,” she agreed.
For a wild moment she considered sharing it, and realized that she didn't want her encounter with Sebastian to end. There were a dozen reasons to stay right where she was and to earn some more money for the night, but there was at least one good reason to play hooky. She eyed him up and down one more time and came to her conclusion.
“I'm going to tell your future,” she said. “Give me your hand.”
Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at her, but willingly, he offered her his left hand. She took it, but instead of looking at the lines on it, she looked straight into his eyes.
“You're going to get an offer to take a fortuneteller out for the evening. She will show you the ins and outs of the circus, and she may be open to dinner if you play your cards right. My suggestion is that you do everything that you can to play your cards right.”
Sebastian's smile was as slow as honey, and he tilted his head.
“What a good fortune to hear,” he murmured, and his fingers tightened gently around hers. “Do you want to change or will you go and hiss curses and ill-wishes at the other people on the thoroughfare?”
“That gets old in a very short amount of time. Just drop the tent flap and secure it for me.”
When he was busy securing the tent, she turned and stripped the heavy brocade robe over her head. It gave her a certain mystical presence, but it was the last thing that she wanted to wear when she was roaming among people. Underneath, she was wearing a pair of cutoff shorts and her tank top, which rode up with the robe. Though she lifted the robe away as quickly as she could, she knew her black bra had peeked out for a moment—and that Sebastian had seen.
She smiled in the dimness as she pulled the tank top down, and offered Karas a perch on her shoulder. Then she gestured to Sebastian.
“Come on this way,” she said. “We can get out without being seen at the back.”
The fortuneteller's tent backed right up to the larger structure that held the Zoo of Extraordinary Wonders, and to the casual observer, there was no way out. However, thanks to a cunningly-sewn flap, she could exit whenever she liked with no one the wiser, and that was the way she led Sebastian.
When they were out in the open air, she paused to run her fingers through her waist-length black hair and to throw it into a quick braid. Disturbed by her abrupt motions, Karas croaked in irritation and took wing, making Sebastian start.
“Is he going to come back?”
“He always does. He's a smart boy, and he's free. For the evening, so am I, so let's have some fun.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The circus was a strange place to find a witch, but the intelligence that Sebastian had received had been decisive. There was a witch operating within the bounds of the Carson & Chaplin Circus, and by all accounts, she was powerful. Stephan, the Magus Corps major who had briefed him, had been very clear on this fact.
“You're not dealing with a scared girl who can't keep body and soul together. From what we can tell, the Carson & Chaplin Circus has a real rogue traveling with them. Whoever she is, she's been strong enough and smart enough to stay away from both us and the Templars so far. Truth of the matter is that if we didn't think things were boiling to a head, we'd be inclined to just let her run where she likes.”
Sebastian had nodded grimly.
“But when it sounds like Templar activity is boiling up,” Stephan said, “and the things we've heard all tell us that they want to start another crusade...”
“... then the Commandant wants all of the stray chicks home to roost.”
“Exactly,” Stephan said nodding. “Just remember, soft touch, make contact, make sure that she trusts you. The charm I gave you will light up when she's around, but if she goes to ground, things are going to get a lot harder for you.”
Nicolette Erling might have been hiding from Magus Corps and Templars alike, but the last thing that she looked like she wanted to do was go to ground. Once she got clear of the tent where she had been plying her trade, she looked like nothing but a young woman who wanted to get away from her cares for a little while.
She was his job, he knew that, but for just a moment, Sebastian thought that there was nothing wrong with doing exactly what she was doing, which was playing just a little bit of hooky. There was nothing wrong with having some fun, or at least that's what he told himself.
The sway of her braid against her back was hypnotic, and Sebastian had to admit that was part of her charm. Out from under her brocade dress, she was tall and lean, narrow-hipped and with an athletic swagger to her step that told him he would have taken notice of her no matter who she was or what his mission was.
There were Templars out there. He had spent his entire long life aware of them and what they stood for. In fact, he knew that every moment he spent playing hooky with this beautiful woman was one that he was spending away from his duty.
Yet...and yet.
She turned to glance at him, mischief in her bright blue eyes, and he couldn't resist. Somehow, her small hand was in his, and they were walking down the thoroughfare, taking in the games, dodging the crowds, and seeing what there was to see.
“So what made you run away?”
The question popped out of his mouth before he could stop it, and her back stiffened.
“That's a funny thing to ask me,” she said.
Before she could pull away, he shook his head.
“I'm sorry. I think I'm funny, and as it turns out, I'm not. I figured since you joined the circus, well…”
Her frown eased a little, and she shook her head.
“People join the circus for a lot of reasons, but for me, it's just a job. I've done a lot of things here and there, and right now, being Madame Nicole suits me, you know? Does your job suit you?”
Sebastian opened his mouth to answer, and he found that he couldn't. When he hesitated, Nicolette smiled, and he was again struck by her beauty. He thought of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships. He thought of Dante's Beatrice, who could soothe men in hell. This was a woman who could lead men into dark places, and the thought chilled him.
“Maybe you need to run away a little too,” she offered. “Why don't we make a deal?”
“And what kind of deal would that be?”
She hesitated, gnawing on her lower lip. She glanced around, at the balloon seller, the cotton candy vendor, the ring toss game, and finally she looked back at him. Her eyes were the same blue as the North Sea, stormy and tinged with gray, and there was a softness to her voice when she answered him.
“I want to be nothing but us today. No past, no future. Until, let's say, dawn tomorrow, let's just be ourselves.”
“Nothing more and nothing less?”
“Exactly. What do you think?”
Sebastian hesitated. He was a man whose duty lay heavily on his shoulders, and there was no more getting away from it than there was cutting off his shadow. He s
oothed his conscience by saying that she was his duty, that being close to her was his job.
Bullshit, your job is to bring her in, his conscience snapped, but for once Sebastian pushed it aside. It was there, worrying at him, nipping and biting like a dog at his heels, but it was simply less than she was, less than those stormy blue eyes and less than the soft touch of her hand in his.
“I think that sounds amazing. Very well. No past, no future, only us.”
“Only us,” she repeated, and with a smile as sweet as sunlight, she led him into the crowd.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nicolette wove her way through the crowd, and if any of the other artists and carnies noticed that she was playing hooky from her booth, they gave no sign. The only exception was Mathilda, who ran the shooting booth.
“Well howdy and welcome stranger,” the big woman drawled. “Care to get your man to try his luck with the booths? Maybe he'll win you something fine.”
Nicolette would have demurred, but Sebastian brightened and turned to her.
“Would you like that?” he asked, and she raised her eyebrow.
“Are you some kind of William Tell or something?”
“We said no pasts and no futures today. I just want to know if you want a prize.”
“I do, I think.”
Nicolette turned to the display. She knew that some of the targets were harder to hit than others, and a part of her was feeling contrary and bold. It was a new feeling, and she glanced through the prizes. They were mostly cheap little things, toys and pop guns. There were a few high ticket items, but she knew that the game was set up so that it would take an incredible marksman to get them.
“What about that little locket?”
One of the prizes was a small gold-colored locket, and in the middle of all the junk, it gleamed. It was perhaps the prettiest item on the attraction, and she was already shaking her head.
“No, maybe…”
“Nah, why not let the gent try?” winked Mathilda. “We can see how he does. Step up, sir, and let's see if you can win your gal a prize.”
