Page 114 of Clinically Bewitched
Another card.
The Five of Pentacles.
Loss. Hardship. Being left out in the cold.
No no no!
Another.
The Three of Swords.
A heart pierced by three swords.
Heartbreak. Betrayal. Painful truth.
Stop. Stop pulling cards.
You’re spiraling.
I set the deck down with shaking hands and looked at the spread in front of me.
The Lovers. The Sun. And then... chaos. Upheaval. Everything falling apart.
But why? What’s coming? What could possibly—
My phone buzzed.
A text from Julien:Meeting finally over. Heading into surgery. Love you.
I stared at the message.
At the casual “love you” that would have been impossible a week ago.
At the man who’d finally let himself be happy.
At the person I loved more than I’d ever loved anyone.
Something’s coming for him. Something that will test everything we’ve built.
I looked back at the cards.
The Tower. The Devil. The Eight of Swords. The Five of Pentacles. The Three of Swords.
What are you trying to tell me, universe? What’s coming?
I closed my eyes, centered myself, and asked the question differently. “What does Julien need to know? What does he need to be prepared for?”
I pulled one more card.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Flipped it face-up.
The Ten of Swords. A figure lying face-down, ten swords in their back. The dark night. Rock bottom. The end of a cycle. But I looked closer at the sun rising on the horizon. The promise of a new day. The understanding that sometimes things had to completely fall apart before they could be rebuilt stronger.
Change.
