Freeks(85)

I’d gotten out her book of demonology and sat on the bench across the table from her, hoping to see if I could figure out what exactly this monster was. Mom hadn’t been able to find anything useful, so she’d resorted to her old deck of tarot cards for answers.

She flipped over a few cards, staring down at them furtively, and without looking up, she asked, “What is his secret?”

“What?” I tried to look at her cards, but she’d already begun scooping them up and shuffling them again.

“Gabriel. He’s hiding something. You know what it is?”

I closed the book and set it down on the table, buying myself some time before I decided to answer truthfully. “Yes. He’s a werewolf.”

Mom inhaled through her nose, then tossed her head from side to side, thinking. “Werewolves can be good people, but they make dangerous suitors. Their passion isn’t always easily controlled.”

“You’ve known werewolves before?” I asked.

She nodded. “Your grandma dated one briefly. He was prone to fits of violence, but he was also a drunk, so…”

I leaned back, resting my head on the back of the couch. Through the front windshield, I could see that the sun had already set behind the woods. The sky had begun to darken, shifting from pale purples to navy.

Night would be here soon, and then the creature would come, and we still had no idea how to stop it.

“Here, qamari, let me do a reading for you,” Mom said suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Do you think we really have time for that?” I asked. “I mean, we only have a couple hours to figure out how to stop the creature.”

“That is why I’m doing the reading,” Mom corrected me, and handed me the deck of cards. “Shuffle the deck while you think of your question.”

As I shuffled the deck, I realized I had too many questions to ask. How do we stop the monster? What is Gabe’s mom hiding? Should I stay with Gabe?

“Cut the deck,” Mom commanded, so I did as I was told. She had me cut the deck three times, taking a card each time I did, and I laid them out in a three-card spread. My mom set the deck of cards aside and began flipping my cards over.

The first card she turned showed a nude couple in a passionate embrace underneath a large shining sun—the Lovers.

The next card revealed a woman sitting on a throne, draped in fabric of red and gold. The background blazed behind her, as if it was on fire, and she held an ornate scepter in her hand. The card was upside down to me, so it was the Queen of Wands in reverse.

The final card flipped showed a woman wearing a gown that looked as if it was made of the night sky. She was blindfolded, and in one hand she held the scales, and in the other she held a sword—Justice.

“What are the cards telling you?” Mom asked.

“You want me to read them for myself?”

She nodded. “I would like you to try, qamari.”

I took a deep breath and began, “The Lovers in my past shows the struggle between two choices, the pull between one path and the other. The Queen of Wands in my present shows something cruel and malicious is standing in my way. And Justice in my future means it will all be resolved soon.”

“Do you have any sense of how it will be resolved?” Mom asked.

Then, as clear as a bell, I heard Basima in my ear, saying, Your aim must be true!

My eyes immediately went to the crossbow, still sitting on the counter in the kitchen where I had left it. Its dark wood seemed to glimmer in the dim light of our trailer, and I went over to pick it up, wanting to feel the weight of it in my hands.

“Where did you say that came from?” I asked. “My great-grandma made it, right?”

“I don’t know all the details, only what Basima told me, but yes, your great-grandma Elissar made that sixty-five years ago,” Mom explained. “Her first husband was a soothsayer with great power to read the future, and before they were even married, he told her to begin making that weapon.

“Then, one night, a demon attacked her village,” Mom went on. “Her husband and her family were killed, but thanks to that crossbow, your grandma managed to save herself.”

I had left the bolts in their satchel and hung them off the bench, and my mom reached over and picked them up. She pulled out the bolt, twisting its cold metal in her hands.

“Basima claimed that these were forged from the sword of Henricus Institor, who prolifically hunted demons and witches in the fifteenth century, and then they were dipped into the venom of the black mamba that had been cursed by Elissar herself,” Mom expounded.

“So Elissar was very powerful?” I asked.

“Basima thought she was,” Mom clarified.

“So…” I held up the crossbow. “If this has killed demons before, do you think it could kill one tonight?”

My mom’s eyes were hopeful, but her lips were pursed in an uncertain line. There really would be only one way to find out.

A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts, and I set the crossbow down to answer it, though I already knew who it was.

Gabe stood outside, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His fitted New Order T-shirt pulled taut over his broad shoulders, and his chestnut hair was slicked back.

“I know you told me that you have to be here tonight, with your family and friends,” Gabe said. “I understand that, but I want to be here with you. If you’re fighting tonight, I want to fight beside you.”