“She’s better at survival than you,” I said to Mordecai, feeling the gravity of the situation in my gut. “I don’t know what he’s after, but I doubt he’ll leave until he gets it.”
“He’s toying with you.” Mordecai’s voice was still just above a whisper, but it had taken on a vicious tone I’d never heard from him before.
Daisy frowned at him, then patted his arm. “The ring is taking hold of you, huh?” She turned to me. “Hurry. I don’t like this any more than you guys do, but what choice is there?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I don’t know why he keeps turning up. But I might as well talk to him. Maybe he’ll realize I’m largely an untalented hack and finally leave me be.”
“Don’t hit-and-run yourself,” Daisy chided. “That lady next to us, with all the arm waving and moaning—she’s the untalented hack. You can actually do the magic stuff; you’re just an ass about it.” She picked up a smashed TV tray. “This one is trash. Do you need it right now?”
“Be nice to that guy,” Mordecai said, nearly aggressive in his unease. “Don’t give him any reason to take offense.”
“Mordie is starting to make me nervous,” Daisy said under her breath.
“That’s the shifter coming out in him. We’ll probably need to talk that through, but first…” I hoisted up the only TV tray that had mostly made it through the Great Mustache Collision. “Just have a seat. We’ll leave after this.”
I placed the TV tray and rug in front of the guy’s chair, then stared down at the tarot cards strewn across the ground. The crystal ball was nowhere to be found, and most likely it had rolled to freedom. If only I could have glanced through it and predicted that turn of events.
Heaving a tired sigh, I collected the cards and placed them on the TV tray, then sat on my chair, the only thing that had survived the animal handlers’ tirade.
“Right. Okay.” I clasped my fingers in my lap and finally met the stormy eyes of the most devilishly handsome man I’d ever seen. The wind worried his midnight hair, sending strands across his smooth forehead. His sharp cheekbones and straight nose threw shadows in such a way that he looked both noble and incredibly severe. Stubble adorned his strong features, and his high, arching eyebrows might have pushed his striking looks toward harsh instead of beautiful if not for those lush, shapely lips. Those babies pulled the whole look together, bending his ruggedness into something angels would weep over. He had been made by a divine hand.
He waited patiently for me, his gaze intense, his focus absolute.
I looked away, embarrassed and not sure why.
“Start by saying thank you for saving your face,” Daisy coached, still playing the unasked-for role of my business manager.
Though she did have a point.
“Thank you.” I inched my eyes up, finding his again. They pulled at me, sucking me into a place that lacked gravity. I hovered there, lost in those eyes. In his intensity.
“And now ask what he wants,” Daisy said slowly, as though talking to a child.
And she might as well have been.
“Right. Sorry.” I tore my gaze away. “I’ve had a lot of visitors tonight. I’m a bit out of it. Um…” The throng of onlookers continued to watch our unimpressive show. “This is when stage presence would really come in handy.”
“Yes, it would. Just work with what you got,” Daisy said.
A tiny smile played on the stranger’s full lips, but he continued to wait patiently.
“What’s your nam—”
“No,” Mordecai said, his eyes rooted to the stranger just as surely as the stranger’s eyes were rooted to me. “Do it the same way you usually go about this.”
Daisy rolled her eyes.
Far be it from me not to trust the guy just because he was developing shifter tendencies.
“Sure. Fine. Just back off, you two. Sorry,” I said to the stranger, wanting his name. Wanting to be on more intimate terms with him.
Except he was a stalker, obviously dangerous, and it was annoying that a couple of kids had way better sense than I did.
“Okay. Let’s get to it.” I snapped and half considered borrowing a chime from whoever kept ringing the thing a few stalls down. I needed to jog myself out of this daze. “What is it you’re after?”
“What is it you offer?” he countered.
“I thought you knew all that. I can see spirits. Or…maybe just ghosts, if spirits and ghosts are different.”
“She definitely needs to learn more about her craft before we make a thing of this,” Daisy whispered.
“Agreed,” Mordecai responded.
With effort, I unclenched my jaw. “That’s it. So if you have a ghost plaguing you, or if you want to try and contact a ghost, I’m your girl. The exception is if the ghost is on the other side of the Line, and is content to stay there. Then you’re out of luck, because it’s not right to disrupt a soul because of your selfish desires.”
He didn’t comment.
“Sorry.” I shrugged. “That’s all I got.”
His stare beat into my head, and I tried desperately to tear my eyes away. His acute focus had unearthed all of my old insecurities. No one had ever noticed me this much, or for such an extended period of time. It was like he had shrugged off the rest of the world, could only hear and see me, and was enraptured by what he was witnessing.
“We won’t speak of my desires at the moment, Alexis,” he said, making shivers coat my body. “What we will speak of is how you have been grossly mislabeled. Mislabeled and mishandled. Regardless, take me through your skills. Guide me.”
What was he saying? I’d been me for twenty-five years. Whatever power he thought I had, my magic didn’t do a lot more than the gamut I’d taken it through tonight, and the only people willing to fork over real money for my abilities were career criminals. Besides, I’d been magically assessed like everyone else. Yes, I might have fudged my power level, but magic type was magic type. That couldn’t be changed.
I frowned at him, knocked out of the moment. “Well…”
“Show him the cards,” Daisy prompted.
“It’s like a never-ending car wreck,” I muttered, grabbing the tarot because my brain had completely stopped working. “The thing is, I don’t guide people unless I can see people lurking around them.”
“People, meaning spirits?” he asked.
“Ghosts…?” I lifted the end of the drawn-out word, making it a question. He was making me question everything now.
“They are the same thing.” His lips tweaked upward, as though he were trying to ward off a smile.
“Laugh it up, chuckles,” I muttered. “Fine. Whatever. But you don’t have spirits lurking around you. So unless you have a question for someone specific and can call them here, I’m not much good to you.”
His gaze finally flicked away, hitting the kids. A moment later, it bounced back, tensing me up again. “I am confident you will be, in time.” His words dripped with innuendo, and a flurry of butterflies exploded through my stomach. “As for now, how do you handle someone who’s in my position asking for your services?”
“I haven’t had many clearly important stalkers blow through, but tarot is a good place to start.” The cards snapped as I shuffled. A glance revealed people were still gathered around us, taking it in. “What is it you do aside from following innocent, unassuming women around and making your demands known?”
He didn’t shift, flinch, move, or answer me, all things a normal person might’ve done if that question was randomly lobbed at them. The only change was a subtle gleam lighting his eyes.
“All right, then.” I reached the deck forward.
He looked at the offering, but didn’t bend forward in the chair to collect it.
“Really?” I lifted my eyebrows. He still didn’t bend for it. “Do you want them on a silver platter?” I stood and reached the cards across the TV tray, getting them closer to him.
Finally, he extended his hand and took them.