Page 40 of Death Card

“Nope.” Her eyes sparkle with amusement. “I intend to make this city my home.”

We head toCity Park after lunch and follow the signs to the botanical garden. Despite not getting any clarity at lunch, I’m not going to let such a beautiful day go to waste. And the selfish, unreasonable side of me doesn’t want to let Joelle go just yet. If I forget about the vision, I can almost pretend we’re two girls on a date.

After paying for our tickets, we walk through the glass double doors into the lush greenery of the garden. A giant live oak is the first to greet us. Dragging Joelle away is a massive struggle.

“Come on.” I shake the map in her face. “This is one of my favorite places in the city. There’s so much more to see.”

Despite the sweat dripping down my back, I’m utterly enchanted by the beauty of nature around me. Even in a busy city like New Orleans, it’s possible to find a tiny slice of peace.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Joelle whispers as we sit down on a bench to study a statue of a woman riding atop agiant fish perched at the end of a reflecting pool. “It’s beautiful. I can actually hear myself think for the first time in a while.”

I glance over. “Things haven’t been calm since you got here?”

“It’s not that,” she murmurs. She meets my eye for a moment before returning her gaze to the statue. “My mom is sick. Even though my aunt is there to help her, I can’t seem to stop worrying about her.”

“Oh, I’m sorry” is all I manage to say.

“It’s why I took the job,” Joelle blurts out. “I, um, needed something to do to take my mind off home until classes start.” She peeks up at me through thick lashes. “Getting to spend time with you was a bonus.”

“Oh.” Words escape me again as my pulse races. My palms grow sweaty and not from the heat.

Her hand brushes against mine as she turns, and it sends sparks quivering through me. Not the sparks of a fellow witch but those of a girl who’s capable of making me lose all sense.

She smiles and rotates her bracelet on her wrist. “Is it pathetic to admit that I’ve always wanted to stumble across some magic potion or crystal that’ll heal her?”

Sadness overtakes me, pulling the corners of my lips into a frown. Magic can only do so much. Maybe Joelle’s mom has a condition that could be healed, but at the end of the day, they’re mortals. They can never know of magic’s existence.

“I wish that for you.”

And I do. Despite the gruesomeness of my vision, Joelle hasn’t been anything but kind to me. If only things could be different.

Joelle sniffs and looks away, glancing down at the map. She’s distracted enough that I take the opportunity to break into hermind. A slimy sensation of guilt leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but I swallow it down and push forward.

I need to know what her intentions are. She’s left me with no other choice.

Like every other mortal, her defenses are nonexistent. Her thoughts are completely open for the taking. I’m able to flip through them like Polaroid pictures. There’s a flash of Joelle and her mom, a brown-skinned woman with the sweetest eyes and a massive halo of thick, kinky hair.

Joelle’s voice echoes inside my skull.“I’ll do anything to save her.”

What exactly doesanythingentail? I’m about to search deeper to find the answer when another mental image appears. It’s my own face staring back at me, a memory from the first day we met.“I wonder how she’d feel wrapped in my arms. I hope I’ll get to find out someday.”

I inhale sharply, breaking my link to Joelle’s innermost thoughts. Everything happened in the span of a few seconds, so Joelle hasn’t noticed a thing.

She folds up the map and stands. “Come on, we’ve got a lot more to see,” she says.

I’m completely thrown off-balance. Joelle…likes me, too? There was nothing in her head to suggest even the hint of nefarious intentions. Instead of uncovering the key to this mystery, I’m left with a racing heart and even more questions.

As she walks away from me, I commit this image to memory. Her once perfectly pressed hair has grown slightly frizzy from the humidity, and her skin has taken on a reddish hue from the sun. She’s perfectly imperfect, and I wish once more that she could be mine.

17

Monday morning, Orionand I end up sitting in the car across the street from Crescent Moon Books.

Orion adjusts the brim of his baseball cap. “Don’t you think this was a bit overkill?” he asks.

I peek over the rim of my oversize sunglasses. “It works in the movies.”

He rolls his eyes. “Are we going to sit here all day, or are we going in?”