The Empress
A Cards of Love Story
Rochelle Paige
Copyright © 2019 by Rochelle Paige
Cover designed by Lori Jackson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
CARDS OF LOVE
The Empress
The Empress Tarot Card
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Crying Wolf
About the Author
CARDS OF LOVE
Pick your card.
Choose your fate.
Fall in Love.
Pick another card.
Fall in love all over again.
Which card will you choose?
Cards of Love series, featuring tarot-based stand alone stories written by over two dozen authors.
The Empress
A Cards of Love Story
Being an unmatched warlock serving as the head of a coven wasn't easy. The desire for a feminine touch to help preserve harmony among his witches made Warren Ainsley long for his fated consort more than usual.
Then she finally showed up in the local diner. Only Opal Smith had no idea magic existed and didn't know what a consort was.
Can Warren convince Opal that the magic between them is real?
The Empress Tarot Card
There are many explanations that can be given when this card turns up in a reading, all of which are quite similar. My favorite comes from the Biddy Tarot website…probably because it has to do with babies.
The Empress can suggest pregnancy or birth. This may be an actual pregnancy or childbirth, or a metaphorical ‘birth’ of a new idea or project. Bring your creative ideas into being by nurturing them and supporting their growth. Allow those designs and their manifestation to flow through you, acting with compassion and love.
Chapter One
Warren
I was an anomaly in the world of magic—an unmatched warlock serving as the head of a coven. A high priestess almost always held that role instead of a priest. And the few warlocks throughout the years who’d been tasked with guiding their coven had done so with their consorts standing by their side. It had long been thought that a feminine touch was needed to preserve harmony amongst witches.
An unmatched warlock was more likely to fall prey to the lure of the darker side of magic than a witch. As such, they were rarely trusted with the wellbeing of an entire coven. But I had become the exception to the long-standing rule when I inherited the position from my mother a year ago. A witch from the Ainsley line had led our coven since it was formed more than a century ago. The high priestess role had been passed down from mother to daughter throughout all those years. Until me.
My mom didn’t have a daughter to pass the high priestess mantle down to. I was the first son born to an Ainsley witch in seven generations, and I was also her only child.
When faced with the choice between being led by an Ainsley warlock or a non-Ainsley witch, my coven picked me. It came as a shock to outsiders, but not to anyone who lived in Ashburn. My ancestors were some of the first to settle here, and it had always been ours in much the same way the coven had been. Officially—with the head of the coven serving on the town council. And unofficially—with us protecting anyone who chose to live within our territory.
Crime wasn’t allowed within our borders. Everyone in Ashburn knew and abided by that rule. On the rare occasions when an outsider encroached on our terrain and broke the law, they were dealt with swiftly and harshly. And if someone hurt a member of our community when they were traveling outside of our territory, our reaction was equally as brutal. Justice was always served, and I’d been the one dishing it out on behalf of our coven for the past eight years.
My powers exceeded everyone else’s in my coven—including my mother’s—when I turned eighteen. That didn’t mean she stopped interfering in my life, though. Not even when she stepped down from her role as high priestess to serve on the Council of Four, and I took over for her with our coven. If anything, the extra time on her hands had only made her more interested in what was going on with me. And that led to her showing up at my house whenever she had what she thought was a bright idea involving her only son. Like her current one; devising a spell to pull my consort to Ashburn so I could give my mom “lots of grandbabies”.
“Mom, you can’t just wish my consort into existence, no matter how strong your magic is.” If such a thing were possible, I would’ve done it already since my yearning to find her had grown impossibly strong after I’d taken on the high priest position. Although every witch and warlock had a match out there somewhere, the one person in the world the Goddess intended to stand by their side, they didn’t always find them. We all lived with the fear that we might be unlucky enough to never cross paths with our consort. And, I was no exception.
“You’re probably right,” she sighed, dropping onto the leather chair directly across from me. “It’s just that I had a tarot card reading this morning, and it got my hopes up.”
I leaned back in my seat, crossing my arms as I waited for her to continue. Knowing my mom as well as I did, I knew the story didn’t end there. So it wasn’t a surprise to me when it didn’t take long before she shared more details.
“It was a simple, three-card spread. I asked about your past, present, and future.”
Most people wanted guidance for their own future when they consulted tarot cards. But not my mom. Not when she could ask about me instead. “Which cards were dealt?”
“Justice, Nine of Cups, and The Empress.” She clapped her hands together and practically bounced in her seat. “You know what that means.” She didn’t wait for me to agree before she continued, “You’ve spent years meting out punishment for our coven, now it’s time for the fulfillment of your wishes...and babies for me sooner rather than later!”
“Or the Nine of Cups could have nothing to do with the fulfillment of my wishes and just mean that I’m serving as the coven’s High Priest when I never thought it would happen before I found my consort.”
She quirked a brow at me. “And what about The Empress?”
I jerked my chin in her direction. “It’s not like I don’t already have a strong female presence in my life. It could’ve been referring to you.”
“It’s not me!” she huffed.
“How sure can you be of that? You’ve been mothering me more than usual lately. Maybe it was a warning that you’re going to turn into a smother soon,” I teased.
“Me? A smother?” She tried to look innocent, but we both knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Yes, Mom. You.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my thighs. “If you weren’t ready to step down as the high priestess, then you should’ve waited.”
“We both know that the timing wasn’t up to me. It’s not like I did it to retire. It isn’t every day that a witch is given the opportunity to serve on the Council of Four. If I’d turned it down, there’s no guarantee I would’ve ever gotten the same chance again,” she huffed, crossing her arms.
I couldn’t argue with her logic. The counc
il positions were held by four of the most powerful witches and warlocks in the world, one representing each power—air, earth, water, and fire. It wasn’t uncommon for them to keep their positions for a long time. The air witch who’d served on the council before my mom held on to her position for ten years. And the one before her had lasted fifteen.
“Yeah, I understand why you made the decision.” I scrubbed my hands over my face and leaned back in my chair again. “I just figured you’d be so busy with council work that you wouldn’t have time on your hands to pester me about babies.”
“That certainly was true for the first nine months or so,” she laughed. “But now that things have settled down a bit between witches and shifters, my council duties don’t use up quite as much time.”
“Settled down a bit” was a major understatement. Up until about eighteen months ago, witches and shifters usually stayed far away from each other. The only exception was the dragon shifters, who kept a foot in both worlds because of their fire magic abilities. Then a witch found her consort in a bear shifter and fulfilled a prophecy which changed how the members of the magic and shifter worlds viewed each other forever. It was tough going at first since both communities had a long history of distrust. But perspectives changed with time as witches and shifters had more contact with each other.
When several more witches found their consorts among the shifters, it helped move the process along more quickly on both sides since shifters valued their mates as much as we did our consorts. As our communities became more intertwined—like when the witch who’d fulfilled the prophecy gave birth to her bear shifter’s baby—it was harder to feel biased towards each other.
“Can I take that to mean you’re going to pester me even more than usual about finding my consort?”
“No!” She managed to keep a straight face for about one second before laughing and changing her answer. “Okay. Maybe yes.”
“Mom,” I groaned.
“What? It’s just that I’m not getting any younger, and I want some grandchildren already.
I shook my head, well accustomed to this lecture from her. “Well, you’re just going to have to wait until I find my consort. It’s not like I’m going to go out there and knock up the next woman I meet.”
“If only I would be that lucky,” she sighed.
Her and me both.
Chapter Two
Opal
When I hit the road a week ago, I didn’t have a specific destination in mind. I just knew I needed to hightail it out of town. Things had gone from weird to scary, and I’d been forced to leave my home and job behind. The studio apartment and waitressing gig weren’t that great, but they were mine. I’d earned them on my own, and it’d killed me to walk away from the life I’d built.
When the feeling I’d had for a couple of weeks that someone was watching me had been confirmed, it wasn’t like I’d had any choice but to leave. Not when the police hadn’t believed me about the break-in at my apartment. The intruders had left no signs behind, but I knew they’d been there just the same. When the cops asked me why I was so certain, I’d been forced to back off. Telling them about how all of the candles I kept scattered throughout my home had spontaneously lit when I walked through the door wouldn’t have proven anything to them. The only thing it would have accomplished was to convince them that I belonged in the looney bin. But I instinctively knew what it was—a warning. One I didn’t hesitate in heeding since I’d had an odd affinity for fire as far back as I could remember.
After the cops left, I only gave myself five minutes to pack up as much as I could before I loaded up my car and headed out of town. I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving, but I figured the only people who’d even notice I was gone were my boss and coworkers. And I didn’t think they’d be worried about my well-being. It was more likely they’d be irritated that I hadn’t shown up for my shifts because it would leave them short-handed. Most of the other waitresses at the diner acted like work was the bad kind of four-letter word. I was always happy to pick up more than my fair share of tables because it meant more tips for me. Without me there, they wouldn’t have anyone to take care of their customers and they’d have to do it themselves.
But that wasn’t my concern. Not anymore. What I needed to focus on were my own issues—like my dwindling funds and the rattling noise that started when I turned on the fan to clear the condensation from the windshield this morning. If worse came to worse, I figured I could avoid using the fan, but if it was the first sign of a bigger problem, then I was screwed. I didn’t want to end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, so I headed towards the closest, decently sized town.
My plan was to find a mechanic and figure out what was wrong with the fan. Ashburn was bound to be big enough to offer at least a few housing and employment options if the car repairs were more than I could afford. Unless it was something simple like a loose screw, I was going to have to stay in town long enough to earn what I’d need to pay the mechanic. If my luck held, I could even save some extra cash in case I needed to take off in a rush again.
A light breeze swirled around me as I stepped out of my car in front of the auto repair shop on the outskirts of town. I found it a little strange since the flag on top of the building hung limp on the pole without any sign of wind. But I was used to the way Mother Nature could be strange sometimes. Like how every once in a while, there would be rain in the front of my old apartment building, but it would be bone dry out back.
Feeling a little cold, I hurried across the parking lot and through the front door of the shop. The wind pushed against my back, almost seeming to help me along. When I made it inside, the guy behind the counter looked up. His eyes widened when the door slammed shut behind me.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. “It’s like I got caught in a wind tunnel or something out there.”
“A wind tunnel?” he echoed.
“Yeah, it was the strangest thing. I could’ve sworn it was a calm day until the wind started swirling around me.”
I wasn’t sure why that made him nervous, but his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat when he gulped before asking, “What can I help you with today?”
I told him about the rattle and wasn’t surprised when he explained that it’d be at least an hour or two before they’d be able to take a look at my car. Deciding to put the time to good use, I walked farther into town and checked out the lay of the land. It was smaller than what I used to, with a downtown that could’ve been used to film a movie with a story based in small-town USA. Brick storefronts, display windows, hand-painted signs. It was all so welcoming and made me want to stay awhile, even if the repairs to my car were simple and cheap.
When I spotted the Help Wanted sign in the window of a diner, I started to think the noisy fan might’ve been the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. A bell over the door chimed when I opened it, and the woman pouring a cup of coffee behind the counter called out, “We’re informal around here. Seat yourself wherever you’d like, hon.”
I snagged a booth at the far end away from the door. She dropped the mug off at a table in the middle of the room before making her way over to me with a menu. She handed it to me with a smile and asked, “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Just a water, please.” As much as I’d love the kick of caffeine from a coffee, I needed to be careful about how much money I spent.
“I’ll be right back with it,” she promised.
While she was gone, I looked over the menu and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw how cheap a bowl of soup was. When she came back and set my water in front of me, I ordered a bowl of chicken noodle. It didn’t take long before she was back with it, along with a basket of rolls and butter. My mouth was watering, but I forced myself to wait and ask, “I saw the sign in the window. Any chance you’re looking for a waitress?”
“We sure are! One of the girls had a baby last week, and we could really use the help.” She wave
d her hand around the room. “It isn’t busy right now, but that’s because of what time it is. We get breakfast, lunch, and dinner rushes like clockwork. Our girls earn good tips, and we’ll be working our butts off until we hire someone else. You wouldn’t happen to be interested in a job, would you?”
I nodded and smiled at her. “I’m brand-spanking new in town. I have waitressing experience. And I’m definitely looking for a job.”
“I already guessed you weren’t from around here since I’ve lived in Ashburn all my life and know everyone in town.” She patted my hand. “But I couldn’t be happier to hear the other two bits of information. I’ll go grab you an application right now.”
She waited until I finished my soup before she came back with the paperwork for me to fill out. It didn’t take me long before I was handing it back to her, skipping over any mention of my last employer since I couldn’t risk her calling them for a reference. She pulled a pair of reading glasses out of her apron, put them on, and read over my application. When she was done, she flashed a big smile at me. “Welcome to Ashburn, Opal Smith. You’ve got yourself a job.”
While I was working out the details with her for when I’d start, the bell over the door chimed. I glanced over her shoulder to see who’d just walked into the diner, and it felt like everything stood still—like time had been frozen in place by the impact the guy had on me. He was an imposing figure, dressed in a suit that seemed out of place in a small town since it probably cost more than my car. But it wasn’t just his clothes that made him stand out. Not when he over six feet of masculine perfection with lean muscles, bright green eyes, and thick, brown hair.
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