Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

She closed her eyes and let the hot water perform magic on her aching muscles, taking the tension from them. The fragrance took the troubles from her mind, allowing them to drift away from her. She would talk to Sandu when he got back. Tell him the truth about why he had been so restless. Confess her own need to leave the city as well. The answers hadn’t been there, but her enemies had been. Their enemies. She would also ask him to give her more of an explanation of what his world was like and why he was doing things without her consent.

She sat up, her lashes lifting suddenly. Sandu? Why were the Castellos waiting for you to come before they made their move on me? How did they know you were coming?

She couldn’t hide her alarm. The older Castello had come into her shop and asked for a reading. From the moment he’d stepped inside, she’d felt the sinister energy swamping her. She’d calmly seated him, but made certain she could easily get to any of her weapons and had plenty of room to slide away from the table and fight should it be necessary. She had excellent skills. She’d been training since she was very, very young.

The cards had reacted to his touch when he shuffled them. She’d watched very carefully. The subtle retreat from him, as if their magic sank deep inside, where he couldn’t feel it. It hadn’t been the same reaction as when Sandu had gone to touch the deck. The cards recognized him immediately. She feared him and they were her deck. They knew and reacted to protect her, but they recognized him and accepted him. The cards tried to reassure her he was part of their circle. Castello had been judged harshly—an enemy. The cards were not going to aid him in any way. They hid what they were, and most likely, when her mother had been murdered, they had hidden from her murderer. Adalasia had found the deck on her mother’s body, where she always kept them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t hide their presence when they didn’t want to be seen.

The moment Castello left the shop, she cleansed her deck. She felt as if he was unclean in some way. She didn’t practice dark arts. She knew others who did—or tried to. She stayed far away from them. This man, Castello, he was human, but he was also something more than human, and if that were so, he had something to do with the dark arts. She wanted no part of that.

“Why do you believe the Castellos were waiting for me, ewal emninumam?” Sandu emerged out of thin air, leaning casually against the bathroom door, dressed immaculately in a charcoal gray suit. His long blond hair was once again pulled back neatly with cords, securing it at the nape of his neck and down his back.

She rather liked his hair when it was disheveled and wild after a battle, although he was as gorgeous as sin draped on the wall in that suit.

“I’m in the bathtub.”

“I do have excellent vision, Adalasia,” he assured, amusement lighting his eyes. “Better than most, I’m certain.”

She drew up her knees to cover her breasts and wrapped her arms around her legs. She gave him her best glare. “That means I’m naked.”

“I’m well aware. You are my lifemate. I have no intention of taking advantage until you’re certain you’re ready. Just looking, which you don’t actually mind.”

Now she gave him the eyebrow. “Why would you think that?” His smile melted her heart and did incredible things to her sex. Maybe she did want him to take advantage.

“Sivamet. I’m in your mind. You like me to look.”

She did. She liked knowing he found her attractive. She pressed her lips together and then moistened them with her tongue. There wasn’t much point in denying the truth when he could read her mind.

“Castello came into my shop for a reading. I told you that. I thought he would try to steal the cards, or if he was after me, try to kidnap or kill me, but he did neither. His people had their spot set up straight across from the shop so they could watch everything that went on. Any time a single man came into the shop for a reading or just to look around, they became very alert. Inevitably, one would visit the shop if the stranger was just looking around. If he was there for a reading, they would come in after and look around. I noticed they’d take pictures of him with their cell phones.”

“It wasn’t me specifically. It was a male. They didn’t know who they were looking for,” Sandu clarified.

He had a little frown on his face. She moved through his mind just so far. Each time she came near the dark well of his memories, she shied away from them. She didn’t want to see those endless centuries of loneliness and battles with demons. Not yet. Not until she had processed her new life. She was going to go to him whole. As unafraid as possible. That little frown of his intrigued her. His hard features were usually so expressionless. She had the ridiculous urge to rub it off with her fingers.