Page 51 of Stalked

I was unsure if it was some parlor trick, butfuck,I was freaked out. “Can I, uh, just please buy that book? I’ll pay double just so that I don’t have to do a reading.”

Yeah, coming here was a mistake,I told myself.

Patricia’s old eyes fluttered and turned back to brown, and she looked up. “Didn’t you come here for answers?”

I nodded. “I don’t know if I believe in psychics. Sorry.”

“Ah, you used to not believe in witches either.” She rubbed the top of the book before opening it up, then flipped through several pages before pausing. When she spoke again, she had my undivided attention. “You’re an old soul. This spell will help you remember.”

My heart raced.How could she know that?

“You’re not a psychic, are you? You’re a witch.”

“I’m a witch who can see one’s future and their past. So yes, I’m also psychic. I know nothing about your life before this. Your soul now is only bound to this body and this life. Last night, my dream showed you arriving at my shop and that you’re seeking to understand your purpose. That I can help with. Let me do a reading.”

She lightly tapped her fingers on the open page, drawing my gaze to the book.

Should I trust her?

There were so many things I needed to learn and having another way to tap into my past life would help me understand myself and Caleb better.

“What do I need to do? Are you going to read my palm or something?” I asked, only half joking.

Patricia stood and walked toward a shelf in the corner of the room. After grabbing a stack of cards and placing them on the table, she retook her seat.

“I’m going to draw tarot cards.”

“Oh, okay.” I was expecting her to use her powers to glow and read out my future, not calmly sit there and read cards.

Patricia shuffled the stack of cards a few times and then closed her eyes again. Then, I felt the slight hum of magic in the cards and watched in fascination.

How had I not seen this earlier? Or felt her magic?

“Mind and body, life once well,” Patricia started. “Memories taken, hear this spell. Take her mind and make it whole. Return the life that death hath stole.” She pulled the top card over and displayed a blade. “Your journey never ended; it’s only just begun. You were once a warrior in another life. Your purpose in coming back was to train again and learn to defeat the darkness that—” She stopped, and her freckled hands trembled slightly. “I … I’m sorry.”

“What is it?” I asked, but after seeing the fear in her eyes, I knew she had a vision.

“You’re afraid,” Patricia said, her eyes fixed on mine.

That was obvious.

Whatever she saw terrified her.

Nothing is that easy.

The more I learned about the supernatural, the more frightening it was. I had been falling down a rabbit hole, scrambling to grab at any form of reality. Strangers have come into my life, telling me stories I don’t remember, and worse, my friends are now being targeted.

Her voice pulled me from my own troubled thoughts.

“A man has come into your life,” she said. I assumed she was referring to Caleb, as he was the only new person I had seen. “Despite your reluctance, you must follow and trust him to guide you down this path.”

Easier said than done. Caleb is dangerous and unpredictable.

Was she really telling me to trust him? Caleb, who had a silver tongue and had no qualms about tricking me into doing whatever he wanted me to do?

I looked at the card more steadily, focusing on the blade. It wasn’t shiny gray like a kitchen knife. It was possibly carved from a tree. It looked exactly like the one from my vision that Caleb had been sharpening.

She flipped the next card. It was a red heart outlined in black. “You loved someone once but were taken from them tragically.”

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