The Emperor (The Tarot Club 2)

“Do these lines actually work for you or are you just such hot shit in the Bratva that no one says no to you?” Brenna was a seething mess as her gaze settled on Ravi, filled with disdain. A lesser man may have shrunk under her gaze, but Ravi simply shrugged, laughing it off.

Zoey stood just off center, a pained expression on her face that I didn’t think had anything to do with Ravi’s bad pick-up lines.

“Zoey?” I pushed away from Dimitri. “You okay?”

As she swung her gaze towards mine, I was met with such sorrow - such pain.

“There’s a memory loop in this room.”

Suddenly, Zoey had the Club’s combined attention.

“A bad one?” Brenna asked, cutting straight to the point.

This time, Zoey’s gaze pivoted towards Dimitri as she croaked, “Yeah.”

“What’s a memory loop?” Ravi asked, seemingly oblivious to the tension that seemed to settle among the Witches.

“It’s when a memory is imprinted on a place. It’s a scene from the past that normally involves a spike in emotion - sometimes death, that kind of thing. That scene is put onto a loop, playing over and over again, embedded into the very earth itself.” Brenna answered, delivering the information in that lecture-esque tone of hers, but this time, no one seemed to take exception with her tone.

“But only Zoey can see that memory?” Ravi spoke the words that I knew Dimitri couldn’t, and my heart ached for him. And while he had never truly discussed what had happened to his parents, I knew that he witnessed their deaths.

Once again, Brenna answered deftly, delivering the information in a matter-of-fact tone that brooked no argument. “We each have different gifts. Zoey is a medium, which means that she can communicate with the deceased, but it means that she can also see memory loops.”

Zoey’s phone lit up in her hands and I watched her blink a few times, clearing away the vision before her before she slipped out of the kitchen to answer the call.

But before any of us could address the unasked questions that seemed to be mounting upon the air itself, Stepen stepped through the front door, a goofy grin plastered on his face as he took in the room over the towering boxes of pizza that he deftly balanced in his arms.

Brenna was a whirlwind of motion as she stepped towards Stepen, unburdening him of the pizza boxes, and I allowed her and Marie to take care of the setup, turning towards Dimitri instead. I pressed my body against him, hoping that the feel of my heartbeat alone was enough to chase away the Demons that plagued him. I snaked my arms around his neck as I brought him close towards me, hugging him with a ferocity that astounded even me.

By the time Zoey returned, she was far less shaken.

“Gams had a message for you.” Zoey grinned in the direction of Dimitri and I, and this time, I turned in his arms to once more face the room.

“Oh?”

“She said, ‘tell Corinne that she should only ever curse in kindness.’” Zoey threw in a deep Louisiana accent as she mimicked her grandmother’s words of wisdom, and I couldn’t stop the smile from cracking my lips.