In Her Rival's Arms

‘Hey...I answered your question.’ There was an unguarded tone in his voice. A peep at a small boy having a playground conversation perhaps. It gave her a soft buzz of something warm.

‘I’m twenty-eight,’ she relented. ‘Oh, yes...This is definitely you.’ She picked up the card. ‘The King of Pentacles.’

‘Why?’

‘He represents a strong, successful individual with a gift of manifesting creative ideas in the world. He also represents status and worldly achievement and has the Midas touch.’

He looked taken aback. Did he think that wearing well-worn leather and jeans would disguise his obvious lack of any serious financial hardship? That jacket had been expertly tailored to fit so well and the nails on the ends of those artistic fingers were beautifully manicured. His casual appreciation of the special wine she had chosen had been another giveaway. She placed the chosen card on the centre of the black cloth. Then she scooped up the rest of the pack and began shuffling the cards.

‘That’s a lot of cards.’

‘Seventy-eight.’ Zanna nodded. ‘The major Arcana that is the depiction of the journey and then the minor Arcana. Four suits of Cups, Wands, Swords and Pentacles. They represent elements and experiences.’ She spread the cards in a fan shape in front of Nic, facing down this time. ‘Formulate your question or think about a problem you want clarified,’ she invited. ‘You don’t have to tell me what it is. Then choose ten cards and hand them to me in the order selected.’

She placed the cards in set positions in the form of a Celtic cross. ‘This card over yours is the first one we look at. It’s the covering card. Where you are at the moment and the influences affecting you.’ She turned it over. ‘Hmm...interesting.’

He was sitting very still. He might think this was a load of rubbish but he was unable to stop himself buying into it.

‘Why?’

‘Page of Wands. It suggests that it’s time to discover a new potential. Also suggests restlessness at work. Something’s not going the way you want it to.’ She touched the card at right angles to the one she’d just read. ‘This is the crossing card. It describes what is generating conflict and obstruction at the moment.’ She turned the card face up.

The oath Nic muttered was in French but needed no translation.

‘You’re taking the pictures too literally,’ she told him. ‘The Hanged Man is a symbol. It suggests that a sacrifice of some sort might be needed. Maybe there’s something that would be difficult to give up but it needs to go because it’s blocking progress.’

He was giving her that odd look again. As though he was including her in whatever thought processes were going on.

‘This is the crowning card,’ she continued. ‘It represents an aim or ideal that is not yet actual.’

‘The future?’

‘Potentially.’

‘What’s the Queen of Wands?’

Should she tell Nic that the Queen of Wands was the card that had always been picked as the significator for her own readings?

‘She’s industrious, versatile, strong-willed and talented.’ Zanna kept her eyes firmly on the card. ‘She’s also self-contained and stable. She holds her great strength and energy within, devoting them to the few things to which she chooses to give her heart.’

The moment’s silence was enough to make her realise that she didn’t need to tell Nic about her own relationship to this particular card. He was joining the dots all by himself.

‘It may not mean a person, as such,’ she added. ‘It could mean that it’s time to start developing her qualities yourself. Things like warmth and loyalty and being able to sustain a creative vision.’

He wasn’t buying that. He’d made his mind up, hadn’t he, and she could sense his immovability when that happened.

The card depicting the immediate future suggested a dilemma to be faced with either choice leading to trouble and the card representing the kind of response that Nic could expect from others was one of her favourites—the Lovers.

Nic clearly approved of it, too. ‘Now, why didn’t that one show up for my immediate future?’ he murmured. ‘That would have been something to look forward to.’

The tone of his voice held a seductive note that rippled through every cell in Zanna’s body like a powerful drug. She hadn’t felt this alive for so long.

Maybe she never had.

Had this man come into her life to teach her to feel things she didn’t know she was capable of feeling?

What would she do if he touched her with the kind of intent that tone promised?

Could she resist? Would she even try?

Maybe not. Zanna did her best to quell the curl of sensation deep in her belly. The anticipation. ‘You’re being too literal again. This card is the view of others. It could be that you’re doing something to make them think as they do.’

She could sense his discomfort and it was disturbing.

He may not be who he seems to be. Take care...

She knew he might be dangerous. It was reckless to be taking pleasure from his company. From this anticipation of what might be going to happen, but maybe that was what was making this such a thrill. Adding something wild and even more exciting to this chemical attraction.

It was an effort to keep her voice even. ‘This particular card might mean that you have to make a choice and it probably concerns love. It might be choosing between love and a career or creative activity. Or it could be that you’re involved in a triangle of some sort. Or that someone’s trying to get you to marry in a hurry.’

He was shaking his head now. ‘I never have to choose between love and my career. I’ve never even thought about marriage and I avoid triangles at all costs.’

He walked alone, then? He was unattached?

The thought should have made him seem more attractive but something didn’t feel right.

Zanna read a few more of the cards before she realised what was nagging at the back of her mind. It was too much of a coincidence that she felt so involved with every interpretation he was making. For whatever reason, Nic had included her in the question or problem he had brought to this reading.

Why?

‘This card represents your hopes and fears.’

‘The Fool? Who isn’t afraid of making a fool of themselves?’

‘The fear might apply to the fact that a risk of some kind is required. It suggests that a new chapter of your life might be about to begin but it needs a willingness to take a leap into the unknown. It fits with a lot of other cards here.’

‘What’s the last one?’

‘That position is the final outcome. It should give you some clues to answer the question you brought into the reading.’ Her own heart picked up speed as she turned it over. ‘Oh...’

The tension was palpable. Nic didn’t have to say anything to demand an explanation.

‘The Ace of Swords means a new beginning,’ she told him quietly. ‘But one that comes out of a struggle or conflict.’

He drained his glass of wine. It was all rubbish. So why did it feel so personal? It was obvious that Zanna was part of his immediate future. That it was going to be a struggle to get what he wanted. But did she really need to be sacrificed?

The thought was disturbing. She was part of this place and it felt like a home. A kind of portal to those memories buried so far back in his own story. Nic looked away from the table, his gaze downcast. It was the first time he’d noticed the floor of this space. A background of grey tiling that resembled flagstones had been inset with mosaic details. Starburst designs made up of tiny fragments of colour that dotted the floor at pleasingly irregular intervals.

‘It’s not original, is it?’ he queried. ‘The floor?’