ATwistedMagick by Shara Lanel Read Free Book Online Page B

on some ex-love or neighbor. She wanted to enact the Three-Fold Law on these visitors. Instead, she just turned them away.
    So far, her murderess reputation had not spread to Charlottesville. Usually cities were big enough to maintain a sort of anonymity in them. But she was making friends here, acquaintance friends, not forever friends, as she patronized the vegetarian restaurant and the pizza place almost every day. She’d not had a chance to visit the University of Virginia, which had a cute shop area she’d heard, but she thought she’d do that soon so she could post flyers on dorm bulletin boards, etc.
    She wondered if she should buy some sign supplies at a nearby store, but she usually closed up her stall at four p.m., so she’d have to wait. The store speakers emitted gentle New Age music, so one part of her brain was trancing out while the other part was producing more sign ideas.
    “I’d like my fortune read, please.”
    Shylah startled, both from the sound of a voice where there hadn’t been one for several minutes, and also at the familiarity. The deep, velvety voice flipped a switch in her body, from off to on. But what was Gabe doing here? How had he even found out about her new business? She slowly looked up, mentally squaring her shoulders. What new tact would he try today?
    He gazed at her herbs and candles. “Got any pot in there?”
    She sighed. “Why are you here? I thought we were done talking.”
    “Like I said, I want my fortune told.”
    “How did you even find me?”
    He grinned as he pulled out the chair opposite her. “My hotel had the Richmond and Charlottesville papers, so I saw your ad.”
    “My name’s not in my ad.”
    “I have my ways.”
    That worried her, since she didn’t want other Smith Creek residents finding out about her side business.
    She looked up again and found him staring at her intensely. Disconcerted, she gestured for him to sit and slid her drawings off the table and into the bag underneath. “What sort of divination are you interested in?”
    “What do you usually do?”
    “Well, I have a crystal ball if you want the total ambience. I have the tarot or runes, which are the most popular, or I can scry into a mirror. Do you have a specific question in mind?”
    He turned the chair around backward and sat down. Why did men do that? “Yes, it concerns the truth about guilt or innocence.”
    Shylah grimaced. “I think we’ll use the cards, which will give you something tangible to look at.” She slipped the deck out of the silk bag again and handed the oversized cards to him. “Shuffle them slowly while concentrating on your question. But you can’t expect me to give you a reading admitting to my supposed guilt. That would be counterproductive on my part, don’t you think?”
    “I didn’t say it was your guilt or innocence I was thinking about.”
    “No?” She lit an incense cone in a tiny brass censer. “Pull the curtain closed a bit, okay?”
    “Not all the way?”
    “I like potential customers to know I’m in here, even if I’m giving a reading.” She took the cards from him, grazing his fingers and wondering at the tingle she felt. It was a schoolgirl tingle, the kind you get when you’re working with the boy you have a crush on. She hadn’t felt that tingle since high school.
    The table was covered with a black shawl with Chinese calligraphy on it. She spread the cards out in the classic Celtic Cross formation, and the first thing she noticed was the death card in the future position. The death card usually meant extreme change, not literal death, but as Shylah peered at the cards and took in their vibrations, she realized that this card might mean literal death. Her face froze. Who? Was Gabe going to die? She looked up into his strong face, masculine jaw and cheekbones, kissable mouth, mahogany eyes. Once she got past her immediate attraction—again—she thought she saw an unnatural shadow across his face. She let her eyes un-focus so