Page 144 of Mates: Posy

"She can re-consecrate them later," I said with a shrug and continued to look through the deck.

The cards were in various stages of being finished. The illustrations were sketched in on some, but not colored. Others didn't have gilded edges. A few were completely blank. It looked as if the artist hadn't finished the deck before selling it.

Why would a witch want an unfinished deck of tarot cards?I asked myself.

Because she making them,Sid answered in aduhtone.

What?

She making own cards and not finished yet.

Dang, buddy. You're a smart cookie!

I get cookies?Sid bounced around happily.

Sure, buddy.

"What did you find?" Cole hovered at my elbow and looked at the cards.

"Just that she's in the process of making a set of tarot cards, and she's a great artist."

"See if she signed them," said Wyatt, who was a great artist in his own right.

On the hunt now, I shuffled through the deck slower this time. The backs were solid navy blue, so I didn't bother to look there. I focused on finding cards that were definitely finished and found three I thought were: The Tower, the Ace of Cups, and the Moon. I knew a little about witches, but I didn't know jack about reading tarot cards. I picked the Moon card simply because it had a wolf on it.

"Her pockets are empty," Jay said. "Did you find a signature, Ash?"

"Maybe." I held the card closer to my face, angled it to catch the light, and spotted a tiny line of text in the bottom right corner. "Oh, yeah! I'm the GOAT!"

The boys crowded around me. Wyatt reached for the card I was holding, and Cole slapped his hand down. Before Wyatt could retaliate, Cole explained that the witch would already need to re-consecrate the cards from my touch. She didn't need to do it twice simply because he was curious. Wyatt huffed, but nodded.

"Let me check one of the other ones," I said, "to make sure they match."

They nodded and stepped back, and I grabbed the Ace of Cups. My eyes went to the bottom right corner and saw the same lettering.

"Man, she must have used a brush that had one little strand of camel hair to write this small." I shook my head in amazement, then gathered up all the cards and put them back into the black pouch.

"What are you doing?" Jay asked.

"Going to tell Tristan his mate's name."

"How do you know she's the one creating the cards?" Wyatt demanded.

"Why else would she have them?" I shrugged. "Besides, it feels right."

"Well, just tell Tristan what you found. You don't need to claim that it's her name. See ifhethinks it 'feels right'," Cole suggested.

We put the rest of her stuff back in the plastic bag and returned to our betas. I did what Cole said and explained what I found.

"What's the name?" Tristan asked with hope in his eyes.

"Ariel Del Vecchio."

A sharp inhale came from the girl lying on the bed, audible even through the oxygen mask and over the beeping machines she was hooked up to. She hadn't moved, didn't even look to be breathing, and her eyes were still closed.

Tristan raced over, picked up her hand without an IV in it, and leaned over her.

"Ariel?" he whispered. "Is your name Ariel?"

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