Page 55 of Road To Runes

"Don't you dare touch my cards!" Penny launched herself across her makeshift altar and tackled me to the ground, pressing a knee into my back that smushed my left cheek against the floorboards.

"Ow! Penny get off me!" I tried to bat at her with my hand, but both my shoulders were pressed too hard against the floor under her weight.

"Before I do that, you listen here and you listen closely." Penny waggled a finger deliberately close to my nose. "If anyone else but me touches my cards, they lose their power. So hands off!"

Gods, for all her timidness she was a real badass when it came to her tarot cards. Even if I had bought them for her.

"Fine!" I had momentarily forgotten that in my haste. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Butalso." Penny booped my nose with her finger. I tried to bite it, but she whipped her hand away too quickly. "The truth isn't supposed to be easy, and I can only help you with my readings if you stop letting it get the best of you. Can you trust me, please?"

I would have sighed, but it was impossible to accomplish with so little air in my lungs already. "Yes, but please get off me. I'm dying."

Penny snorted as she clambered off my back. "Dramatic is what you are."

"You don't want me to show yourealdrama," I grumbled, shuffling back into a sitting position. This time I leaned against the bed, as far away from Penny and her dastardly cards as I could manage.

"Bring it, I dare you." Penny opened her arms as she returned to her place on the velvet throw, scrunching her mouth up at me.

I smiled out of the corner of my mouth. She had grown some serious balls ever since she had left home. Maybe Edward had been a better influence on her than I thought.

Penny cleared her throat and set a finger down at the base of the second card. I grimaced and looked toward the window where a spider was making its home in the corner. I would have to get Hecate on that as soon as she woke up from her self-induced coma.

"The Lovers in reverse," Penny said. "Means a loss of balance. A disharmony."

Well, that was an understatement.

"Yup, I guess that sums up the present," I said. At least it didn't have anything to do with Asher. "What's next? Death?"

Penny turned over the final card, and her eyes widened. "Actually… yeah."

Chapter 28

Ijerked my gaze away from the window and leaned forward to look at the third card. Sure enough, the Death card stared up at us, but this time it faced in Penny's direction.

"Oh, crap," I muttered. Had I doomed myself to die because of what I'd done? Who would I drag down with me? Suddenly, the thought of taking off had never felt more appealing. At least that way nobody else would have to suffer because of my choices.

"Relax, it doesn't meandeathdeath," Penny said.

"Just your regular death, then? Death lite? What is that, like a coma?"

"No. It's the death of something, not a person. Usually, anyway. The end of a cycle and the prospect of new beginnings after a period of metamorphosis," Penny said.

I blinked at her. She spoke so fast and used such large words that I wasn't sure it had all sunk in.

"I mean." Penny took another calming breath before continuing. "The cards are suggesting that you need to go through some sort of transformation."

"And if I do, will everything work out?"

"They're neverthatspecific. The cards never guarantee a good or a bad outcome, just the mechanics by which they happen."

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers. The things I wanted to say would hurt Penny's feelings. There was no two ways about that. So I took a moment to rephrase my first thoughts.

"So, this could end badly but hey, so long as I learned something along the way?" I asked.

The scowl Penny gave me told me I hadn't done as good a job rewording as I thought I had.

"There's a greater chance of a good outcome if you allow the journey to change you," she said. "That's all I can say."

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