Page 39 of Hot Zone

“No problem,” I lied.

Ziva looked up at me from the sink and shook her head before saying, “You go ahead and do that. I’ll finish up here.”

Reminding me once again that I couldn’t do this without her.

“Thanks. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I took Holly through the shop to the tea table. “We’ll just do it here tonight since we’re not doing a full reading. Have a seat.”

One of these days, I’d learn to say no—and mean it.

I took a minute to breathe and clear my mind so I could pick an appropriate deck for her, and immediately, I knew which one it should be. I pulled out my Raven’s Dream Tarot and set it on the table in front of us.

“Okay, Holly. What’s this reading about?”

“This guy that I work with asked me out, and I said yes without even thinking, but now I’m feeling weird about it. I don’t know if I should cancel or not.”

“Well, Holly, we’ll do the reading and see what the cards say, but I really believe we should trust our gut when it’s talking to us.”

I took the cards out of the box, closed my eyes, and took in a deep breath. “Working in light and in the interest of everyone’s highest good,” I said as I breathed out and began to shuffle the cards.

Once I felt like the cards were good, I spread them out in an arc and ran my hands over them, feeling for that intuitive pull that a card belonged in her reading. I pulled out three cards and flipped them over.

She had the High Priestess card, the Moon card, and Two of Swords.

“Wow, Holly, this is a pretty powerful reading.”

“Really?” she asked, looking down at the cards.

“Yeah, we start here with the High Priestess. This card says that you should trust your inner voice and not listen to what others are telling you because you already know what needs to be done.”

She nodded in agreement and leaned forward in her chair.

“Then we have the Moon card, which encourages you to rely on instinct and your inner knowing.”

“My inner knowing?” she asked.

“Yeah, pretty much the same as saying trust your gut because you already know what the answer is.”

“If only,” she mumbled.

“And last, you have the Two of Swords. This card tends to show up when we’re stuck and struggling to make a decision.”

“Well, that makes sense.” She looked up at me and sighed. “I do feel stuck.”

“But you have two cards out of the three telling you to trust your gut. So when you’re feeling stuck”—I tapped the Two of Swords card—“you fall back on these other two, and you use this inner knowing to make the hard decisions.”

“So I should cancel the date then.”

“I’m not saying you should cancel. I’m saying you should trust yourself to know if you should cancel or not. Everything you need to make the best choice is already available to you. You only have to listen.”

“Okay, thank you, Mars. You’re the best, even when the message isn’t what I wanted to hear.”

“It’s a good message, Holly. It means you have the power to make your own decisions. You just have to trust yourself.”

Chapter 13

Samuel

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