I’m coming back to a series I started a while ago. It felt like there was more to the story then, and it still feels that way. If you’re interested in reading the other parts, you can find them here.
raven’s stupid friend
“Wait. Fucking Tarot?” Heather asked. “We made a 500-mile detour for a goddamn Tarot reading?!”
Raven held her tongue, instead looking to the woman across the table from them.
“I don’t read Tarot,” the woman said. She produced a worn deck of cards. Playing cards. “I read these.”
“Great. I mean, we’re headed for Texas. Why not get in a little Hold ‘Em on the way? Raven, this is stupid. We need to get to the shadowglade.”
At least the gravity of the situation had finally settled on Heather.
“She’s a seer,” Raven said. “And it’s not a detour. We won’t make it to the shadowglade if we don’t move carefully. She can help.”
“Fine,” Heather huffed.
They were in a bar on a Tuesday afternoon in downtown Cleveland. It wasn’t a nice bar, and the patrons weren’t particularly welcoming. The seer least of all.
“Is this the right move?” Raven asked. “Going to Texas, I mean? Will we be safe there?”
The seer closed her eyes and drew a card from the middle of the deck. She looked at it without showing it to Raven or Heather.
“No,” she said. “You should not go to Texas. The guardians of Parsons Crossing are not easily fooled.”
“So, no shadowglade, then,” Heather said. “Got it.”
“I didn’t say that, girl.”
Raven raised an eyebrow.
“Is there another?” she asked.
“There are many shadowglades,” the seer said flatly.
Raven sighed.
“Is there another we should go to?”
The seer drew again.
“Yes,” she said. “Grants Pass, Oregon.”
“What’s the deal with these towns with two names? They both sound like they were named after rich, white guys.” Heather said.
Ignoring her, Raven continued. “Are we safe to go there directly?”
“You asked your three questions,” the seer said. “Now leave and let me drink in peace.”
“Please,” Raven begged.
The seer ignored her. Heather narrowed her eyes.
“We’re on the run. We’re in danger. You can’t answer just one more question?”
The seer slid her deck of cards into a tattered box, which she dropped into the gaping maw of her massive purse. Then she sipped her drink as though she were alone at the table.
“Fuck you,” Heather said.
“Heather, don’t,” Raven warned.
“Don’t what? Don’t tell this bitch how shitty it is that she’s refusing to help us?”
“Don’t offend her,” Raven said. “She answered our questions because she’s oath-bound. She doesn’t have to be kind beyond that.”
“Oh no,” Heather said with mock fear. “She might curse me. News flash, Raven. We’re already in a shit ton of trouble. I’m not especially worried about what a washed-out oracle nursing cheap booze in Cleveland’s least appealing bar is going to do to me.”
“You should be,” the seer said. She retrieved a small talisman from her purse, placing it on the table. She closed her eyes once more, her face twisting in concentration.
And then, without further warning, she cursed Heather.