The Emperor (The Tarot Club 2)

"Come on." My exhale was one filled with relief and anticipation. I knew I couldn't keep Dimitri here forever, but it didn't stop me from wanting to keep him safe.

Brenna's sharp eyes took in everything, and for the first time, I was suddenly self-conscious about my home. This wasn't Emily Rand's house, and if this was going to be both mine and Dimitri's home, I needed to steep the house in my very essence.

My steps halted as I brought us to one of the already prepared guest rooms just next to the landing. How long ago had this house seen this amount of life - this amount of movement? I knew that it must have been when Dimitri's parents were alive, the house now serving more as a museum than a home. I liked to think that that had changed over the past few weeks, but nothing in life was definite.

"You shouldn't work." Brenna's tone brought me back to the present. She spoke as if she were offering me some great insight into my relationship - highlighting nuances that I hadn't seen.

I suppressed my sigh, stilling my hands that wanted to throttle her.

"But the two of you work. He is your Emperor."

I stiffened at her words. Did she know? Had she seen the same thing I had when she looked at the cards? There wasn't a doubt in my mind that each member of the Club would have consulted their cards upon my news - looking for insight into who Dimitri was and how he would impact the Club.

"I need to check out one of the warehouses later, do you want to come with me?"

If Brenna noticed my abrupt change of tone, she didn't say anything. Instead, she simply nodded, and I left her to unpack her bag and settle herself as I returned to our room.

The scent of honeysuckle lingered in the air and I couldn't stop my gaze from sweeping over the interleading bathroom. I allowed my eyes to halt on the flame flickering off the vanity. Only a small mound of wax sat beneath the inferno, but that didn’t make the flame burn any less bright. In fact, it seemed that in the final moments of the candle spell, it had only ignited further, my will sizzling into fruition.

Let the cards fall where they would. I knew that the Voodoo Clan would not take my curse sitting down - knew that they’d likely retaliate, and that this retaliation might ultimately end in my death, but I refused to cower at the consequences because Lauren’s transgression could not go unpunished. Hopefully, by the time they retaliated, the entire Club would be here for my wedding.

“Hey.” Brenna’s voice shook me from my thoughts as she stuck her auburn head through the doorway. “Do you still have some of that leave-in conditioner stuff you use, the kind you use is absolutely magical and I was hoping -”

Her stream of conversation didn’t simply peter out, it came to a complete stop, and I knew what she saw the minute she stepped into my room.

“Holy fuck.” She exhaled loudly. It was the least restrained I had ever heard Brenna - she always seemed so unshakable, but then I supposed the Three Nights In Hell curse could do that to a person - even if they were simply looking at it.

“That’s some dark shit, Corinne.”

I nodded, knowing full well that many of the Witches in the Club shied away from Dark Magick. She stepped closer, bridging the threshold of the door into the en-suite itself, and I heard the breath catch in her throat.

“That’s not just a standard Three Nights In Hell spell.”

“No, it’s not.” I confirmed. My throat seemed to close in on itself, choking me with emotion.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Her voice was soft, and for the first time, Brenna didn’t seem as if she was about to lecture me.

“They tried to kill Dimitri. Retaliation was necessary.” I shrugged away the panic I felt rising from my belly. It was one thing to condemn someone to death in the confines of my bathroom with no one watching, but it was another thing entirely to stand tall within the consequences of my spell when a Witch from my Club stood there scrutinizing me.

“Sure.” She nodded as if she agreed with me - as if she could truly see my point of view. “But what about the Law of Three?”

I knew that Brenna followed that belief, which meant that while she didn’t solely practice light Magick, she was far more liberal when it came to cursing people. Normally I was too, but my concerns and soft measures were shattered in a heartbeat the minute I saw the raised flesh against Dimitri’s wrist.

“I don’t follow that path.” I shrugged, feigning a nonchalance I no longer felt.

A lot of the Witches believed that whatever spell you cast would come back to you threefold, which made it easy to cast the good spells that were ultimately derived from light Magick. But it also meant that they could never read cards for someone like Dimitri, making me one of the handful of Witches that wasn’t limited by the clients I could take. Brenna came from a long line of Witches whose beliefs were steeped in that tradition - some even arguing that the Salem Witches brought the trials upon themselves through the amount of curses they doused on those righteous white men. But I didn’t follow the same path or hold the same beliefs, I only believed in the manipulation of energy and power to ensure a certain outcome, and right now that outcome would be Lauren’s death. Would there be consequences? Sure, but it would come in the form of the Voodoo Clan, not the Law of Threefold.

“Okay.” She swallowed, and I could tell that she didn’t really believe me. “Will they retaliate?”

My gaze met hers as I took three long strides, resting beside her as we watched the flame sizzle out in a giant hiss. The spell was complete, the curse binding. It was tied to me as much as I was tied to it, because I hadn’t just done a normal curse, I had conducted a blood curse, and as long as I was alive there was a chance of snuffing it out - by killing me. But once Lauren died, I was in the all clear.

“Does Dimitri know about this?” And Brenna was back, her tone filled with righteous indignation as if I had somehow wronged my husband-to-be.

A grin cracked my lips. “I doubt he’ll mind.”

“Come on.” I handed her the tub of conditioner that she had initially come here to ask for, and as she left my room, so did I, needing the comfort of Dimitri’s presence as I told him what I had done.

He would be fine with this - expect it, even, wouldn’t he?