Page 56 of Cathmoir's Sons

“It looks well-fed at any rate,” Kellan remarks. With a shiver, she turns her back on the tank as she opens the box of cards and fans them across the table. She toes off her ankle boots and pulls her legs up on the chaise to sit in lotus-position, with her hands loosely resting on her thighs. She’s wearing soft pants in midnight blue, a lacy, tunic-length top, and a boxy, brown leather blazer with sleeves that tighten around her wrists and flare to points over the backs of her hands. I sense Larissa and my mother’s influence.

I wore black, skinny jeans, a plaid kilt, a gauze sweater, and a dark purple trench coat to Doctor Prince’s memorial. I push off my Docs, tug the kilt up around my hips, and mirror her.

Kellan lifts her hands and the cards rise from the table. They shuffle, fan through the air between us, and shuffle again.

“There are many different ways to conceptualize the planes,” she tells me. “Everyone has their own method. Professor Nowak, who you met today, thinks of the planes like the branches of a tree.”

I nod, remembering the articles I read. “The World-Tree. Yggdrasil. Professor Nowak talks about Plane-Walking as finding the right branch of the World-Tree.”

Kellan nods. “A lot of Plane-Walkers think of it that way. But Carrie Prince helped me figure out a different construct when I struggled with the World-Tree.” She flexes her fingers and the cards rise in a narrow stack between us. A card near the top of the deck glows and slides out to face me. Four of Hearts. “Instead of the World-Tree, I visualize the planes as an ever-shuffling deck of cards.” The card slips back into the deck which shuffles and spreads into a fan. “To get to the plane I want, I just have to draw the right card. Spend a minute watching the cards, let them rearrange themselves in your mind. Then close your eyes and draw the Ace of Spades. That’s our plane.”

“I get it.”

It’s a powerful technique. Easier than trying to imagine the World-Tree with its thousands of branches, I think. The cards draw up into a stack and I watch until their movement plays behind my eyes even when I close them. I follow the shuffle in my mind for several minutes, hearing the soft slide of the cards, seeing the glimpses of their faces as they flick through the air. Finally, I catch a glimpse of that single spade, follow it through the deck, and when it reaches the top, tug it free.

When I open my eyes, the card is hanging in front of me.

I take it and turn it around to show Kellan. She grins. “Fast learner. Now put it back in the deck.”

I keep my eyes open and use my Element to push the card back into the deck.

The card slips like it’s greased and pops out the other side. Kellan grabs it with two fingers before it goes careening off into the crowd. She reaches around the stack to hand me the card.

“Try again. Push it with your mind instead of your Element this time. It’s all about conceptualization.”

Gritting my teeth, I nod. I hold up the card in front of me and close my eyes.

When I let go, the card slides effortlessly into the stack, drawn almost magnetically into place.

I open my eyes and blink at the cards which have begun a dramatic shuffle, arcing high into the air over the table.

“Show off,” I say.

Kellan’s mouth twitches. “It’s the cards. When I do this with cards at home, they don’t do showy shuffles.”

“Uh-huh, likely story.”

She snorts. “I want you to think about associations for the cards. I have strong associations between the suites and the planes, but you may have different associations, so mull it over while you focus on your breathing. I want you to count, breathing in and then breathing out for five. Fifty inhales and I’m going to release the cards. You take them and shuffle them. You don’t have to do anything fancy.”

Of course I do, because I want to impress her.

“Do you have any association with the number of the card and the planes?” I ask as I start the breathing exercise.

“Yes, but I don’t want to taint your associations.”

I nod and close my eyes to focus. By the time I’ve counted to twenty, my magickal senses have expanded. I can feel the flutter in the aether as Kellan manipulates the cards. I can hear her matching my breathing. I can even feel the shark circling a few feet away.

I reach out slowly with my mind, the same way I’d push my consciousness toward Law if I was trying to get his attention when we’re both in our fur. It’s always been impossible when we’re in our skin. But the breathing technique helps me focus. I run my mental fingers through the aether and when the cards come down from one of their arcing shuffles, I cupmy consciousness under them and pull them wide instead of throwing them upward again.

Kellan grunts softly but releases her hold on the cards.

I spread the cards over the surface of the table in two fans, then pull them back into a single stack. Fanning and stacking over and over helps me get a fine feel for the cards. I pull the Ace of Spades again and tumble it to the top of the stack and then to the bottom, flipping it around the deck.

The card slips out of my grasp and lands face-up on the table when Law’s mind connects with mine.

I lift my head without opening my eyes when his scent fills my nose.

Chapter 16

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