Page 44 of Soul of Shadow
“Any card?” he asked with a grin.
She rolled her eyes.
He selected one from the middle and held it so that she couldn’t see which card it was.
“Do you have a pen?” she asked.
“I think so.” He dug around in his back pocket, emerging with a damp black pen that he spun between his fingers.
“Nice trick,” said Charlie, teasing. “Now, sign your name on the front of the card.”
Elias raised his eyebrows but did as she said.
While he was signing, she shifted the cards into what was called the “mechanic’s grip” and slipped her pinky under the top card. By the time Elias looked back up, she was already in position for the Marlo Tilt—the angle that would deceive him into thinking the cards were merely resting in her hand.
“Now,” she said, holding out a hand. “Pass me the signed card, but don’t show it to me.”
He did, and as he watched closely, she slid the card into the gap between the top card and the rest of the deck—but from Elias’s perspective, it looked as if she were sticking the card right into the center.
“I love this trick,” she said, starting to shuffle the deck but always keeping the top two cards together. “It’s a classic, invented by Ed Marlo in the mid-twentieth century. I’ve spentagesstudying Marlo’s work. Books, YouTube videos, old cassette tapes…”
As she spoke, she watched Elias’s face. His eyes were glued to her hands, but she didn’t even need to look down. She had done this trick thousands of times; performing it was as easy as asking a seasoned piano player not to look at the keys.
After the first two shuffles, however, Elias glanced up at Charlie’s face. He seemed genuinely startled to find her watching him back. She didn’t drop her gaze. She spoke directly to him. Elias looked back down at the cards, no doubt not wanting to miss a moment of the trick, to try and figure out exactly how she would pull it off. But every couple of seconds, his eyes glanced back up at her. Perhaps he was impressed that she was workingwithout looking at her hands. Perhaps he was listening closely to her words, searching for some clue, some deception. Regardless, after a few feeble attempts to watch the cards, he gave up entirely, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. He watched her with an unreadable expression. She kept going, chattering ceaselessly about what she was doing with the cards. His eyes slid down her face, coming to rest on her fast-moving lips. He seemed completely transfixed by them, as if she truly were a witch and these were her words of enchantment.
At the end of the trick, she used a two-card lift to raise both the top and second-to-top cards, making sure it appeared as if she were only lifting one. She knew he would find himself staring at his own signature.
“Is this your card?” she asked.
Elias stared at her for several long, quiet seconds. Behind her, the vätte stirred in his bundled hand towel. Across the room, the fire crackled softly. Then, without even looking down at the card she flipped over, he muttered, “Incredible.”
Charlie felt a flush creeping up her neck.
Elias leaned forward. He ducked his head slightly, bringing his gaze level to hers. Breath hitched high in her throat. What the hell was he doing? He was close. Too close. Was he about to kiss her? If he was, she should move away… right? But she found she couldn’t. She was trapped by the glittering emerald of his eyes. Something smoldered deep in her belly, like the crackle of the dying logs in the fire. His lips were barely an inch away. She knew she should look away. Should shut down whatever was happening between them.
“I—” she said, mouth dry. “I don’t—”
“How interesting,” he whispered.
“W—” She swallowed. “What’s that?”
“You’re afraid now,” he said. His eyes slowly perused her face. They lingered on her lips before moving up to her eyes. He tilted his head. “The only question is—of what?”
“I’m not—”
Elias straightened, suddenly serious as he gazed down at her. His mouth opened and closed. He gave her a strange, searching look, as if he were trying to slip inside her head.
“It’s time for you to go,” he said at last.
Then he stood from the couch and walked away.
21
Charlie arrived home damp and shaking. Her clothes were still cold and wet; they’d left a watery imprint on the seat of her car. She told herself that the damp was the reason she shook the whole drive home. That it had nothing to do with the adrenaline coursing through her body, the chaotic swoop in her stomach that was like a band of älvor beating their wings.
The kiss that had not quite happened.
Down at her side, the vätte waddled up to the front door, shivering a little. She had kept him wrapped in the little towel as long as possible, but she had to remove it before they got out of the car. She wasn’t entirely sure how eyaerberries worked, but she didn’t want her mom to see a tiny towel floating along the floor when she walked inside.
