by Brenda Drake
Leah jumped up, her chair crashing back against the floor. “What was that?”
“Shit,” Aster cried, holding her throbbing wrist. “You should be careful with your pyrotechnic tricks. Someone could get hurt. Case in point, me. I got burned.” She held up her hand, showing the reader her burnt wrist.
Daisy inspected Aster’s skin. “That’s crazy. It did burn your wrist. Is that an infinity symbol?”
Aster ran her finger lightly over the injury. The angry red mark did resemble an infinity symbol.
“Let me see.” Leah held Aster’s hand to study it.
Heat rushed from Aster’s wrist and spread throughout her body. She felt nauseous.
The reader glanced at the burn, and her face paled. She spoke something in a language Aster couldn’t understand before she whispered, “The lemniscate. Fate changer.”
Leah tossed two twenties on the table. “Let’s go. Thanks for the reading, but seriously, that magic show is too dangerous.”
Lights flickered across Aster’s vision, and she felt separate from her body.
Daisy worried her lip. “Are you okay?”
“I need to get ice on this,” Aster said, focusing on the door and willing her legs to move.
“What you need is first aid,” Leah said as the girls single-filed out the door, leaving the reader sitting, stunned, in her chair.
Chapter Four
Reese
The night shadows snaked over the boardwalk, and the air turned cold. Deserting his mates at the bar might be poor form, but Reese had a quest. Every stop on the journey with his mates held possibilities for him—the chance of finding the right tarot reader. Jan kept to Reese’s side, as if he needed protection. Jan wasn’t fat per se, only soft here and there. Tall and, perhaps, clumsy, Jan had a good heart.
“That Henry is an annoying sort, I must say.” Jan licked his finger and rubbed at a stain on his shirt. “Did he behave at Le Rosey as he has on this holiday?”
“He’s a regular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lately,” Reese said. “He never acted this way at school. If he had, I wouldn’t have asked him along.”
“If he hits the back of my head once again, I can’t be responsible for what I’ll do to him.”
“Noted,” Reese said, and for Henry’s sake, he hoped he’d keep his hands to himself. Once something set Jan off, there was no stopping him.
Jan tapped Reese’s arm. “There’s one. And it seems in demand—there’s a queue.”
“The American girls are at the front,” Reese said, pleased to see them, then quickly wondered why he felt that way. He’d been sure their paths wouldn’t cross again, not with the crowd and the fact that Henry only wanted to see the inside of pubs. Aster looked nervous, turning in all directions, studying the pathways. He really liked her form, a darker, somewhat shorter contrast to the taller and fairer Leah. He’d had his fill of the Leahs in the world. If Aster weren’t so annoying, and if he were staying more than a day in Ocean City, he might have liked to get to know her better.
“The blonde looks about as delicious as a perfectly ripened peach,” Jan said, getting in the back of the line.
Reese joined him. “I wouldn’t bother. Henry’s already marked his territory with that one.”
“What trick was it this time?” Jan asked. “The smoldering eyes? The cheesy come-on lines? Did he happen to show her the warning label on his left buttock that said, ‘caution, use of this individual will break your heart and cause unexplainable rashes’?”
Reese laughed. He couldn’t see Aster and the other girls any longer. They must have made it inside. “Hold our spot. I want to take a peek in the window.”
“There’s a name for that, you know,” Jan said as Reese walked off.
He glanced back. “It’s only a Peeping Tom if there’s nudity involved.”
“I was going to go with stalker.”
Reese stared into the red-framed window. Aster and Daisy stood beside Leah, who sat across from the reader. Aster peered out the window. Reese stepped back into the shadows. Did she spot me? She leaned over, her eyes searching outside. The table tilted and the cards slid toward Leah. Before one fell off, Aster stopped it. Light zapped from her fingertips, the card shot up in the air, and the images separated before the card fell back onto the table.
Reese stumbled back a step, hardly believing his eyes. It can’t be. She’s a fate changer? For decades, his family had searched for one among the Romani people, but to no avail. Fearing their gifts, fate changers had gone into hiding in different parts of the world.
“They’re on their way out,” Jan warned, obviously giving up their position in the queue.
Reese motioned for Jan to follow him, squatting behind a large tent sign advertising ear piercings and jewelry priced at 70 percent off. It could have been a trick. Something the reader does to attract customers. But the reader and the girls all seemed confused and afraid.
“We need to contact your parents,” Jan whispered when Reese told him what he’d seen. “You might not die yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be very disappointed to lose your inheritance.”
“She doesn’t understand her capabilities. Did you see her expression?” Reese peered around the sign. “We need to have a chat with that reader.”
The girls headed for the boardwalk, Aster rubbing at her wrist. He wasn’t sure about her holding his fate. If she was a fate changer and didn’t know her ability, it seemed a risk to put his hope in her. His eyes never left Aster until she disappeared around the corner. It surprised him that he felt disappointed to see her go.
Jan offered everyone waiting in line for the tarot reader five dollars to let Reese cut the queue. The reader ushered Reese to a table in front of the window. The woman reminded him of the Romani readers he had visited with his mother many times in Europe. The instant he sat down, every candle snuffed out. Gray smoke swirled up from the wicks and dissipated in the air.
The reader’s eyes widened. “You’re cursed.”
Reese swallowed back the lump in his throat. She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. But hearing one was cursed wasn’t something one grew accustomed to. His mother had kept the readers from revealing his fate. But ever since he took up the quest to find a changer on his own, he’d heard it many times. Cursed.
“You’re a traveler,” he said.
“I’m American. My grandmother was one. And you are Dutch.” The reader lit the candles one by one. “Royal, even. Van Buren, perhaps?”
He quirked a brow. “You know of my family?”
“My relatives speak of them. My mother. Grandmother. All know of the legend.” She sat, placing her hands on the deck of tarot cards before her. “You’re not here for a reading. It’s always the same. The curse never changes. So what do you want from me? I’m not what you seek.”
Reese slipped from his chair and inspected the underside of the table. He heard a light thump against the carpet and looked around for whatever had fallen. He didn’t see anything. “I saw the magic from outside. The three girls who were just here. One of them touched a card and there was a reaction. Possibly a trick from you, but there is nothing here.” He straightened and leaned back in the chair.
“I’m not a fate changer.” She turned her hand over and slipped her bangles up her arm. “See. No mark.”
Reese inspected her skin. There were a few age spots, but no sign of the fate-changer mark that was left on the wrist when a person changed a fate for the first time. A mark resembling an infinity symbol. “Then it was her. The girl.”
“She isn’t able to change your fate, if that’s what you want. The girl doesn’t know what she is capable of doing. She’s untrained.” The reader’s stern expression softened. “I’m truly sorry. I wish to help you, but I can’t.”
You only wish to help if the price is right. Reese was confident he could change her mind. He squared his shoulders. “You can. Train her for me. I will pay you well. Extremely well. Ten thousand American dollars?”
The woman grinned. “I can try, but I make no promises. You can pay me half first, and should I fail, you keep the other half. Fair?”
“Yes.” Quite fair. Suspiciously fair, in fact. But he was desperate.
“My name is Miri.”
“Then we have a contract, Miri?”
“We do.”
Reese stood. “All I need to do now is get her back here.”
“You need not worry. I’ll do a calling to bring her to me.”
“A calling?”
“Yes,” she said. “She touched my tarot deck, which now belongs to her.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” he asked.
“When a changer touches cards for the first time, she claims them. They are forever bonded together. Connected. The cards will call to her. Give her clarity. She’ll notice things, question what happened here, and come to me seeking answers.”
Reese pulled out his wallet. “Very well. Do you take credit cards?”
…
On the boardwalk, Reese and Jan searched for Aster and the other girls. The crowd was thinning. Jan held an oversize bucket of caramel corn, shoving handfuls into his mouth. “You have a plan?” he yelled over the noise of the crowd, spraying bits of popcorn out as he did.
“I’ll remain here in Ocean City on the off chance that reader can train Aster.”
Jan brushed crumbs from his mouth. “I’m staying with you. Lars and Henry can continue to Florida without us. Besides, I’m not sure I can take any more of Henry’s ego.”
Reese smiled at Jan. Always his protector. They’d grown up together. Because his parents were much older than Reese’s parents were and too tired to deal with a rambunctious boy, he and Reese had spent all their holidays together.
“You have to do more than just stay here and wait,” Jan said. “She has to fall in love with you, so that she’ll change the curse no matter the consequences. We’ll have the reader keep her in the dark about possible outcomes of using her power, but it’s best we have a backup. Remember what happened in the past.” Reese knew Jan was thinking of the chronicles they had found locked in a cabinet in the Van Burens’ wine cellar.
They’d been hoping to find his father’s gin stash, but instead, they found stacks of old leather-bound books, all referencing the fates of firstborn sons. The stories within told of the fate changers who had saved many of them. The burden of the curse had fallen onto the fate changers’ families and soon, they all went into hiding. At eight, Jan was too young to help his brother before he died on his eighteenth birthday, so he was determined to save Reese.
He followed Jan into the ride park.
“It seems a rather shady thing to do.” Reese sighed. “I’m not keen on deceiving someone like that.”
Jan sighed this time. “Keen or not, this is about life or death, and I prefer having you around to pay for things.”
“Since you put it that way, by all means, let’s crush the girl’s heart.”
“What happened to your pin?” Jan pointed at Reese’s shirt.
He looked down at where his family crest should have been. “Bollocks. It could have fallen anywhere.” Reese crouched down, inspecting the ground. “Some assistance would be grand.”
Jan clapped his back. “No sense crying over it. You can get another.”
“I can’t just get another,” Reese snapped. “It was my grandfather’s pin.”
After nearly thirty minutes searching the boardwalk, Reese straightened and adjusted his pant legs. “Shite, it’s lost—” Reese spotted Aster, Leah, and Daisy at a balloon popping game. Aster stood at the counter concentrating on the balloons, holding up the queue. He walked up to her side, ignoring the protests of those waiting for their turn. “Perhaps they should charge an hourly rate for you,” he said, startling her.
Jan sidled up to Leah and introduced himself.
“What…what are you doing? The line’s back there.” Aster nodded in the direction of the angry mob. She had a bandage wrapped around her wrist, so he couldn’t see if she had the mark.
“I thought you might need assistance,” Reese said. “You seem confused.”
Leah broke out in laughter. Jan was in full performance mode. He even had Daisy giggling.
“I don’t need assistance,” Aster said, clearly annoyed. “I’ve already figured this game out. I must consider several variables before attempting a shot. I’m just trying to decide which balloon I want to pop.”
“Variables?” He chuckled. “Just throw it hard. There isn’t a science to it.”
“Yes, there is,” she argued. “It depends on the weight of the dart, the sharpness of the tip, and the inflation of the balloon. They’re underinflated, so I’m trying to determine which ones have more air.”
“And then what?”
“And then…um…I’m going to throw it as hard as I can.” She glanced at him. “Now, will you please go?”
When he didn’t move, she added, “Do you mind? I’m trying to concentrate.”
“Right then, I’ll just stand over there. When you’ve finished, perhaps we can schlep along with you ladies?” Reese backed up several paces.
“I’m not going to schlep anything with you.”
“He means hang out with us,” Leah clarified. “And we’d love it if you joined us, right, Aster?”
“No, but my bet is I don’t have a choice.” She readied a dart and paused.
Her determination impressed Reese. He couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his mouth while watching the way she bit her lip in concentration. Spending time with her might be fun, if not challenging. He chuckled again.
She tossed a glare over her shoulder at him before throwing the dart with all her might and popping a red balloon.
Chapter Five
Aster
Aster had Reese’s bumper car in her line of attack. She stomped down on the pedal and leaned forward, the safety belt holding her back. The rod connecting to the ceiling sparked. Her car slammed into his with a loud thump, sending him across the rink and crashing into the safety bumper against the wall.
“Yeah!” she whooped.
“You’re ruthless,” he yelled at her with a sparkle in his eyes. A crooked smile played on his lips.
And you’re ruthlessly sexy. She could get used to looking at him. Quit it, Aster. He’s only out for a good time. You promised. Next guy, against type. No bad boys. She drove off, looking for her next victim.
Leah was stuck between two cars. Daisy was in one of them. Her inexperience showed as she kept moving forward instead of backing up to get out of the pileup. The guy in the other one wouldn’t move. Instead, he gawked at Leah like a lovesick sixth grader. Jan T-boned him, knocking his car off and sending Leah and Daisy in the opposite direction. Conservation of momentum, Aster mused.
“What the hell, dude?” the guy barked as he spun away.
“Forgive me,” Jan said. “Where are my manners? I thought the object of the game was to bump your opponent. Perhaps you should try the kiddie rides next time.”
Just as the guy swung his bumper car around and aimed it in Jan’s direction, the power went out and he coasted to a stop. The ride was over. Aster had to admit, the rides were a lot more fun with Reese and Jan joining them. She pushed herself out of her car and jogged over to Leah and Daisy.
“We won,” she said, holding up her fist.
Daisy fist-bumped her. “You won it. I sucked.”
“You were supposed to bulldoze them,” Reese said, strolling over Jan. “Not go to their rescue.”
Jan held open the gate and motioned for Leah to pass. “What can I say? I’m a pushover for a damsel in distress.” He waited for Aster and Daisy to exit before letting the gate close on Reese.
“Next run, Aster is on my team.” Reese shoved through the gate.
From the other side of the walkway, Henry and a tall guy with a burned nose weaved around ride-dazed passersby to get to them.
“I thought it a bit dodgy you two going off alone.�
� Henry smelled of beer. “You chatting up my girl?”
“Your girl?” Jan gave Leah a curious look.
Lars swayed on his feet. “We should get some rest if we’re going to leave for Florida early in the morning.”
“I thought we were riding the Ferris wheel now,” Daisy whined.
“That we are,” Reese said, then turned to Henry and Lars. “It would be rude to break a promise. We’ll return to the hotel in a bit.”
“Then we’ll join you.” Henry offered his arm to Leah. “Shall we?”
Leah brightened, but when she saw the disappointment on Jan’s face, she sobered. “I’m sorry, I’ve already made plans.” She went over to Jan and stuck her elbow out to him. “Shall we?”
Jan directed a grin at Henry before taking her arm. “For a moment there, I thought you would fall victim to his charms,” he whispered to Leah as they passed Aster.
“I can’t lie,” she whispered back. “His attention is flattering, but he’s a fool and only wants one thing.”
A fool? That was one of the tarot cards in her reading. No, it couldn’t be. Could it? She studied Leah and Jan. The farther they moved from the group, the closer their bodies got. A light from a streetlamp in the distance shone above them like a star. The sight of it reminded her of the star card the tarot reader had drawn. The picture on the card was upside down when it was dealt. The reader had called it a reversed card and said that Leah was blind to which romantic interest was the best for her. Then the crazy magic show happened and the card flew up and landed back on the table with the image facing up.
The reader’s confused and frightened face haunted Aster. “Fate changer,” she had said.
Could I be?
Aster wondered what the facing up card meant. Her guess was the opposite of the reverse card, which would mean that Leah was seeing things clearer in the matter of love. And by choosing Jan over Henry, Leah was making better choices. Had she really changed Leah’s fate?
No. That’s just plain crazy. It’s all just a coincidence.
“Right, then.” Henry’s voice startled her away from her thoughts. “We’ll see you back at the hotel.” His jaw stiffened as he glanced at Jan and Leah, laughing and walking close together. Aster wondered if anyone had ever rejected Henry before.