by Cara Wylde
“Maybe you’re in it.”
The soft voice coming from behind her startled her. She covered her mouth with her hands and turned around slowly. Oh, she knew this guy! But from where?
“Maybe he’s dreaming about you while you’re dreaming about him. And me.” He smirked.
“Who are you?”
The man shook his head, as if he was tired of that question. As if he’d told her before, and she was just being rude by asking him again and again. Like when you went on a date and you forgot your date’s name before the evening even ended. He was drop dead gorgeous, though. Deep green eyes, sharp, manly features, brown hair tied loosely at the back of his neck, messy strands framing his face, full lips...
“Why do you keep coming into my dreams?” Yes, she remembered him now. The last time she’d seen him was at Mount Shasta. The first time... still a blur... “What do you want from me?”
“Me? From you? Nothing. But you’ll soon want something form me, something very important, and I’m just trying to make it easier for you to find me.”
He stepped closer, and Valentina found herself staring into his eyes, unable to look away. It was as if he was hypnotizing her. He was tall, with wide shoulders, and a strong, lean body. He smelled of freshly cut grass in spring, and summer poppies. When his arm wrapped around her waist possessively, she couldn’t help it. She melted into his embrace and placed a trembling hand on his muscled chest.
“Valentina De Rossi,” he whispered so close to her lips that they could almost drink each other’s breath. “I’m waiting for you. Find me.”
“Why?”
He tilted his chin toward the sleeping dragon. “Because I’ll help you find him.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off his lips, now. She knew it was just a dream. She was mildly lucid and half able to control it. What would happen if she simply lifted herself on her tiptoes and caught this handsome stranger’s mouth in a kiss? He was so fascinating, so mesmerizing and awe-inspiring that she didn’t mind kissing him without knowing his name.
He stepped away, his arm released her shivering body, and Valentina felt colder than before. And wet. She was so wet between her legs that she suddenly felt embarrassed and vulnerable. The playful smirk dancing on the man’s sinful lips told her he knew very well what his presence did to her poor, young, untouched body.
“He’s waking up,” he told her.
Valentina gasped and turned to look at the dragon. Indeed, the beast was opening his eyes. They were of an otherworldly electric blue, and when they fixed on hers, she knew the dragon could see deep into her soul. She didn’t have to say a word. He already knew everything about her. And, oh my! He wasn’t a beast at all. Instinctively, she knew a man was hiding inside that humongous body. He probably wasn’t human, but he wasn’t one hundred percent dragon either. She wondered if she could convince him to show himself to her.
“Do you think...” She turned to her handsome stranger, but he wasn’t there anymore. She was alone in the cave. Alone with the dragon. Something bubbled up in her chest, and she couldn’t tell whether it was fear or excitement. The strange feeling turned into a vibrating sensation, her heart started beating faster, and she realized there was someone... someone, somewhere, was trying to wake her up. She threw the dragon one last glance. She didn’t want to leave him...
“Val! Val, come on. We’re about to land.”
Piper helped her sit up, shoved a glass of water into her hand, and readjusted her seat.
“So soon?”
“Soon?” Piper laughed. “A 10-hour flight is anything but soon in my book. I’m happy you managed to sleep through it. I was too busy trying to figure out how we can make it to Castelluccio from Rome.”
They had taken a flight from Sacramento to Rome, with a 2-hour layover in Washington. Valentina had slept most of the trip, for one because she was dead tired, and two, because she really didn’t want to deal with reality. But Rome was just beneath them, so it was time for her to pull up her big girl panties and act like the Keeper and the De Rossi witch that she was. Piper filled her in on their next steps. They were going to rent a car at the airport, and from Rome to Castelluccio, Umbria, there was roughly a 3-hour drive.
“Since you slept so well, it’s your turn behind the wheel.”
Valentina grumbled something under her breath, then closed her eyes and tried to relax as the plane landed. What would she find in Castelluccio? Even though her family was Italian, she’d never been to Italy. Her dad traveled a lot, especially to Europe, but she and her mom had always had to stay at home. Adelina De Rossi had a much too important role within the coven to just up and leave as she pleased, and Valentina had dedicated all her childhood and adolescence to studying the craft, the tarot, and preparing herself for the Test that would make her a Keeper. She passed it at 18, the same day as Dante, but that only meant more study and more stress. Now, here she was, in Rome, and she would have given anything to go back to Leavenworth, Washington.
Piper had intended to sleep all the way to the small, picturesque village in the Apennine Mountains, but instead she found herself nose-squished against the window, eyes fixed on the amazing landscapes whooshing past them.
“You know,” she said, “I’m glad you’re not that type of witch, the one who flies on a broom, or can zap herself miles away at a rub of her magic shoes.”
Valentina laughed out loud. Bringing Piper with her had been the best decision of her life. If not for the emotional support, she needed a good laugh from time to time.
“The best I can do is float about three inches above the ground. It takes a lot of focus, but it still beats running.”
Time passed faster than Valentina would have liked. Castelluccio was a lovely village atop a steep hill, at about 5,000 feet above sea level. Surrounded by both snow-capped mountains and lush plains of green, red, and yellow, it looked like a tiny corner of pure paradise. At this time of year, in early June, it was filled with tourists trying to find a quiet place away from the rat-race of the big cities. It would be even more crowded in July and August. Piper found a cute Bed & Breakfast with a pool and an incredible view of the mountains, but Valentina was too restless to even go inside and check out the room. She insisted she had to find La Congrega de Trionfi Chiari first, and this time she told Piper to stay put. There was something in the pit of her stomach. A feeling she couldn’t describe. She didn’t feel safe here, and it wasn’t just the fact that she was in a strange country she’d never been to before. She spoke Italian, so that helped, but she still felt on edge.
Valentina took the rental car and put the coordinates Psyche had given her into the GPS. The place she was looking for was at the edge of the village, away from civilization. Not that there was much civilization so far into the Apennine Mountains. Castelluccio was quite isolated, which made it a great hiding place, just like Leavenworth had been for La Congrega di Spade.
“And look how great that worked out.”
Valentina ignored the voice in her head and focused on the road. The streets were narrow and winding, and she thanked the Goddess Piper had picked out a small car. Seeing how her friend was used to her dad’s humongous truck, it had come as a surprise. Once she was out of the village, it was easy to find the temple. Much like the temple in Leavenworth, this one was secluded, too, rising proudly at the foot of the mountain, separated from the highway by a wide field of blood red poppies. A country road led to its iron gates, and Valentina held her breath as she parked out front and stepped out of the car. The silence was all-encompassing. It reminded her of the stillness of the house in Sacramento, and she almost regretted she hadn’t taken Piper with her. She drew out her tarot deck and looked for the King of Swords and the Knight of Swords. She had to remember: even when she seemed to be alone, she wasn’t alone. As long as she had the original Suit of Swords with her, she could summon the cards at any time.
The King and the Knight stepped out of their cards at her request. The
y were both dazzlingly handsome and comfortingly strong. These two guys, Valentina knew very well. She could count on them. The King was Alexander the Great himself, and the Knight was his trusted friend and general Hephaestion. The Queen was Roxana of Bactria, Alexander’s favorite wife, and the Page was Ada of Caria, one of Alexander’s most loyal allies. Their identities had been revealed to Valentina when she’d passed the Test, three years before. The cards from Ace to Ten were not embodiments of historical figures, but of collective archetypes. Val used to constantly make fun of her own stupid luck. No, she couldn’t have been born into a family of witches who were tied to the fiery Suit of Wands, or the emotional Suit of Cups! The De Rossis had to serve the deeply depressing Swords.
As she stepped through the iron gate and then through the tall wooden door, the King and the Knight walked beside her, swords at the ready, although they couldn’t actually do anything with them if they ran into something, or someone, made of solid matter. Their weapons were energy, just like their bodies. They were merely holograms, although they did have some tricks up their fancy sleeves.
It was late afternoon, and the main hall was bathed in reddish light. She crossed it and reached the altar room, whispered a little Good Luck Chant in Italian, and pushed the doors open. The room was empty. No signs of struggle either, but if she paid close attention, Valentina could sense there was something not quite right there. All the chairs and the books, all the candles standing up straight in their holders... The altar table looked impeccable, too. Much too perfect. It was as if no one had been there in a while, which didn’t make any sense. The Trionfi Scuri had been in Sacramento for reasons unknown, and now the temple of the Trionfi Chiari looked unused and uninhabited?
“What do you want to do, Keeper?” the Knight asked her.
Instead of answering him, she walked briskly toward the altar table, her blue eyes fixed on the wall behind it. The cards should have been there, displayed like invaluable paintings in a museum. If they weren’t there, then maybe the High Sorcerer had hidden them inside his own deck like she had done with the Suit of Swords? She could only hope.
“Valentina…”
The King’s deep, low voice startled her. She turned to him, followed his gaze, and covered her mouth when she saw what he was looking at. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, and she let them flow. Half hidden under the altar, there was the skeleton of a man dressed in the crimson robe of La Congrega de Trionfi Chiari. His flesh had turned to dust, and Valentina knew in an instant who the man was, or had been: Athan Serac, the High Sorcerer and protector of the masculine cards of the Major Arcana. Dead. Which meant his cards...
“No. No, no, no.”
There was a second pile of ashes, and Valentina knelt beside it and started rummaging through it with trembling hands. She found the corner of something made of cardboard, put it aside, then dug some more. Another piece of cardboard, and she could see the faded colors and wrinkled shape of a horse. A white horse.
“Death,” she whispered. “He couldn’t save the cards. He couldn’t save the cards, and now they’re gone. Burned.”
She found a piece of what could have been the Sun, but there was no way she could identify the rest. Too little of the Trionfi Chiari was left. And it was useless. The masculine part of the Major Arcana was gone. She was starting to understand now. The High Sorceress and the High Sorcerer were immortal as long as the cards were intact. The power and energy of the Major Arcana sustained them. With half of it completely gone and the other half trapped in a deep, unnatural sleep, everything seemed lost. No. It was lost. What was happening now had no precedent. And what about the other three suits? Valentina had no idea where in the world La Congrega di Denari, La Congrega di Coppe, and La Congrega di Bastoni could have been hiding. And what if they had been hit, too?
She stood up, wiped her tears off, and grabbed the first herb jar she could find. She dumped the dried herbs on the floor and started gathering the ashes of the burned Major Arcana cards. She didn’t know why she was doing it, or whether it meant anything, but she couldn’t just leave the last remains of the cards there.
“I don’t know what to do next,” she said. “Alexander, please tell me there’s a Plan B.”
The King was pacing the floor, his green, keen eyes studying every nook and cranny of the temple.
“I find it odd,” he said. “There was obviously a struggle here. A battle. So, why is everything so clean and perfect?”
“King, focus! What do we do? What do I do?” Valentina shot to her feet, the jar of ashes and burned pieces of cardboard clutched to her chest. “Plan B? Do we have anything like that? As a small-fry Keeper, all I was supposed to do was use my Lovers to find the Trionfi Scuri. Okay, that didn’t go as planned, so I used the original Lovers to find the Trionfi Chiari. Bringing the Major Arcana back together should have fixed everything. Everything! Now, now...” She started hyperventilating. “Oh my Goddess, I can’t even find the other three suits.”
The Knight stepped forward and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.”
His touch felt eerie. Hephaestion was immaterial, but his strong, overwhelming energy was real enough to help clear Valentina’s mind.
“I need to think,” she said. “I need to think... You. You’re still here. What does that mean? The Major Arcana is, well... gone. But you’re still here.” She turned to the Knight and looked up into his dark blue eyes. Hephaestion was tall, as big and strong as a mountain, with short blond hair, a square jaw, and a straight, proud nose that was just a tad too big for his face. He looked like a proper Macedonian nobleman and general. “There’s still a chance, right? There’s a way out of this mess, I just have to think... and find it. I have to find it.”
Hephaestion’s eyes softened. He squeezed her shoulder encouragingly, half of his hand going through her. “Keeper, you’re spiraling.”
“N-no... I have to...” She pushed him away, which looked awkward since her whole hand went right through his chest, and started toward the door. “My Lovers are still awake. But no, they can only find the original Lovers, they’re not connected to the other copies. There’s a loophole here. There has to be. A way to find the other suits. Maybe they’re still alive. Maybe their Keepers saved them. Maybe they’re trying to track down Eros and Psyche right now and they have no clue why it’s not working.”
“Keeper!”
That was the King’s voice, but she ignored him. She needed to get out of there. She needed fresh air.
“Watch out!”
In a split second, the King and the Knight jumped in front of her, swords slashing at a cloud of black smoke that seemed to be materializing out of thin air. Valentina fell backwards and landed on her side. She cried out in pain, scrambled to grab the jar that had fallen from her hands and rolled on the floor away from her, then tried to get back on her feet. What she saw when she looked up made her freeze in place, unable to move a muscle.
Alexander and Hephaestion were face to face with a tall, wide being made of black smoke, and they were doing their best to slash at the tentacles that were trying to sneak past them to reach Valentina. But the tentacles just kept regenerating, and soon, the monster was throwing so many at them and advancing so quickly, that the King and the Knight could barely keep up. Valentina had the distinct impression that their swords didn’t hurt the thing in the least. And the thing knew. It was just playing with them, teasing them into believing that they were doing something to help, when in fact the monster was the cat and the two warriors were the mice. Speaking of cats... If one paid attention to it, one could see the thing had two heads, and one of them resembled a lion’s head, with its mane made of smoke, while its claws were, oddly enough, tentacles. The second head was less willing to reveal itself, but it was clear that the tentacles belonged to it. So, could it be something that came from the depths of the ocean?
Val gathered her strength and jumped to her feet. She shoved the jar of ashes into
the pocket of her leather jacket and focused on the green energy bubbling inside her. The smoke being was getting bored with the King and the Knight, so it pushed past them, going through their holographic forms like they were nothing. It stopped in front of Valentina, towering over her, making itself even bigger, until its two heads touched the tall ceiling.
“You don’t intimidate me,” whispered Val.
She didn’t sound too convinced, though, and she could almost feel the smoke being mocking her. If her resolve wasn’t strong enough, then she would lose this battle, and her life with it. What would happen to the Suit of Swords, then? To the Trionfi Scuri? What would happen to Piper? The image of a worried, scared Piper when Valentina wouldn’t make it back to the Bed & Breakfast was all she needed to find her center. She brought her hands together and let the green energy pour into a big, crackling sphere. She looked up at her enemy and smirked.
“You think I’m alone, but I’m not. So no, you don’t scare me.”
She spread her legs to better center herself, pulled her right arm back, and threw the green energy at the monster as hard as she could. Before the sphere hit it in the middle, she was already producing the next one. She started drawing sigils quickly, chanting under her breath, and hitting the smoke being with everything that she had. She lost track of time. The King and the Knight were trying to help, but to no avail. The most they could manage was to annoy the enemy enough to draw its attention away from Val for a second or two, and give her just enough time to think of the next spell. She was getting tired. The pain sigil she drew in the air and pushed into the smoke being’s body failed. She must have drawn it wrong, but she couldn’t stop to think about it. She had never been great with pain sigils; had never practiced them much. The blocking sigil worked, and she threw three at the enemy, for good measure. But no matter how hard she fought, she still found herself being pushed back against the wall, inch by inch. Soon, she would be trapped.
