“The devil, temptation. You haven’t fed theardeur yet, have you?”
It used to creep me out that she could do this, but I’d gotten used to it. It was just something Marianne could do. She didn’t hold it against me that I raised zombies, and I didn’t hold it against her that she could tell what was happening hundreds of miles away. In fact, sometimes, like now, it came in handy.
“Not yet.”
“The Priestess, you have a question for me.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not doing something silly like trying to choose between Micah and Nathaniel, are you?”
“Thanks a lot.”
“You can’t blame me, Anita, you do tend to complicate your life.”
I sighed. “Fine, true, but sort of, and not exactly.”
“Fine, be cryptic.”
“Not in the way you might mean,” I said finally.
“So not dumping one for the other,” she said.
“No.”
“Well, that’s good.” She was quiet for longer this time. “I’ll stop guessing. I’ve laid a reading.” She preferred to do a reading without knowing anything about the problem. Marianne felt that if you talked to much you influenced the person doing the reading.
“I put you in the center, Queen of Swords. The past is the five of pentagrams, being left out in the cold, not getting your needs met.
Deity is the six of cups, which can be someone from your past coming back into your life, someone you felt a strong connection with. Future is the Knight of Cups, Nathaniel’s card. The mundane is the four of pentacles, the Miser, holding on to things that no longer help your life run smoothly. Now we’ll do the connecting cards.” She was quiet for a second or two, while she thought, or prayed, or whatever she did to make the cards talk to her. I understood everything but the six of cups so far. “Connecting the mundane to the past is the Lover’s card.
Something happened in your love life that made you be afraid of being hurt, or giving up something, or someone. Connecting the past to deity is the King of Wands, usually Micah’s card, but it could be energy, a male presence in your life. Connecting deity to the future is the two of swords; you have a choice to make, and you think it’s difficult, but if you take off the blindfold, you can see, and you have what you need to do it. Connecting the future to the mundane is the Knight of Wands, another man in your life. You do draw a lot of male energy to you.”
“Not on purpose,” I said.
“Hush, I’m not finished.”
“Overlaying the Miser is the six of swords, help unseen, or help from a spiritual source. Overlaying the Lovers is the four of rods, the marriage card. Overlaying the out in the cold is the ten of pentacles, happy prosperous home. Hmm. The King of Rods and the six of cups stand on their own, but the two of swords has crossed with the Queen of Wands. Nathaniel’s card is crossed with the ten of cups, a happy home, true love. The Knight of Wands is crossed by the Devil, temptation.”
“Okay, I get most of it, but who is the Knight of Wands, and why is he covered by temptation? And who is the Queen of Wands?”
“I think the Queen of Wands is you.”
“I’m always the Queen of Swords.”
“Maybe that’s changing. Maybe you’re coming into your power, into yourself.”
“I’m already myself,” I said.
“Have it your way.”
“I’m trying to.”
“I’d say the Lovers and the four of rods are your old fiancé in college that dumped you. That experience led you to be the Miser with your emotions. You need to let that go. Your home was the five of pentacles, cold, but now it’s a happy prosperous home. You’re going to be offered up some difficult choices soon; that has something to do with someone from your past. I think Micah’s card is the message that he’s helped you heal some of those old wounds, because he bridges the past with deity.”
“He’s a gift from deity?”
“Don’t be cheeky. When the universe, or God, or Goddess, or whatever you choose to say, gives you someone in your life that comes in and makes so much right, so quickly, be grateful. Be grateful instead of picking at it.” Marianne knew me too well.
“And the Knight of Wands?”
“Someone new, or someone old, but you’ll be seeing them in a new light. It will be a temptation, but the wands represent power, so it could be a temptation to use power or gain power, rather than anything relationshipwise.”
“I don’t need more temptation in my life, Marianne.”
“Did you start a case tonight?”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I felt compelled to draw another card. It’s the eight of swords, a woman bound and blindfolded, surrounded by swords. A woman died tonight.”
I try to avoid calling Marianne in the middle of a murder case, for a lot of reasons, this was one of them. It creeped me out, and gave her nightmares.
“Five of rods, there will be a lot of conflict on this one, and more to die. But the Justice card says the guilty will be punished, and it will work out, but not without loss. The eight of pentacles?
That’s odd. Someone will be involved that was once your teacher.
Someone older. Do you know who that would be?”
I thought about it being Dolph, but that didn’t sound right. “I don’t know, maybe.”
“They haven’t come into the situation, yet, but they will. They will help you.”
“How sure are you that there will be more killings?”
“Aren’t you sure of it?” she asked, and she had that tone in her voice that said she was listening to voices I couldn’t hear.
“Yeah, I got that feeling.”
“Trust your feelings, Anita.”
“I’ll try,” I said.
“You must be almost home by now.”
I didn’t ask how she knew we were turning into the driveway. She wouldn’t really have been able to tell me. Psychic stuff wasn’t big on A, B, C logic. It was more like A to G, leaps of logic, with no road map as to how we got to G.
“Yeah, we’re home.”
Micah blew me a kiss and got out of the Jeep. I heard Nathaniel get out of the back. They both closed the doors and left me in the suddenly dark car, alone with the phone.
Marianne spoke into the sudden silence. “Oh, one more thing, the message I just got was, ’You know what you need to do. Why are you asking me?’ That’s not my message to you, you know I never mind you asking my advice. I actually kind of like it. Who else have you been asking advice from?”
I opened my mouth, and closed it. “I prayed.”
“What I’m getting is that you usually only pray when you’re out of other options that you like. It might be nice if you prayed as something other than a last resort.” She said it so matter-of-factly.
Nothing big, you prayed, God can’t talk to you, so he left a message on your machine. Great.
I licked my suddenly dry lips, and said, “It doesn’t bother you that you just took a message from God for me?”
“Well, it wasn’t from him directly. He just sent it.” Again, utterly matter-of-fact, no big deal.
“Marianne.”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes you creep me out.”
She laughed. “You raise the dead and slay the undead, and I frighten you.”
Put that way, it sounded silly, but it was still true. “Let’s just say that I’m glad you have your psychic powers, and I have mine. I feel guilty enough without knowing the future.”
“Don’t feel guilty, Anita, follow your heart. No, it was the Queen of Rods, not of Cups. So follow your power, let it take you where you need to go. Trust yourself, and trust those around you.”
“You know I don’t trust anybody.”
“You trust me.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Stop poking at it, Anita. Your heart is not a wound to be poked at to see if the scab is ready to come off. You can be healed of that very old pain, if you’ll just let it happen.”
“So everybody keeps telling me.”
“If all your friends are saying one thing, and your heart is saying the same thing, and only your fear is arguing, then stop fighting.”
“I’m not good at giving up.”
“No, I’d say that is the thing you are worst at. Giving up something that no longer serves a purpose, or protects you, or helps you, isn’t giving up at all, it’s growing up.”