Written in the Stars(32)

“Okay, so we’ve got a code to crack.” Darcy set her hands on her hips, a furrow forming between her brows as her gaze darted between the hieroglyphs and the timer.

Cherry stuck her hand in her purse and pulled out her phone. “Can’t we google it?”

“No!” Darcy and Brendon shouted in tandem.

Darcy glared. “That’s cheating. We’re going to win this and we’re going to do it fair and square.”

Brendon nodded. “There’s got to be a codex somewhere. Do you see any of these symbols on those cards?”

A codex. Elle covered her mouth, concealing her smile. Brendon and Darcy took this shit seriously and Elle loved that they did. An image of Darcy with a wide-brimmed, high-crowned fedora, a leather jacket, and a whip flitted through Elle’s head.

“Elle?” Brendon stared at her expectantly.

What? Oh. Right. Elle shuffled through the deck. No dice. “Nope.”

Darcy cracked her knuckles. “Check every surface. We’re down to forty-five minutes.”

Twenty minutes later, every chair had been overturned, the tablecloth examined, and the rug lifted and flipped. Darcy ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at the roots. “God. This is bullshit.”

Claiming her feet hurt, Cherry had taken a seat on the floor, checking out of the game and engrossing herself in her phone.

Brendon shot his date a look full of exasperation and scraped a palm over his jaw. “There’s got to be something we’re missing. Something obvious.”

He was right. The clue had to be staring them dead in the face. Mocking them for missing it. Twenty-four minutes remained. Elle refused to lose hope.

“Come on, guys, we can do this. Let’s take a closer look at these glyphs.” Elle dropped to her knees, wincing as the stone floor bit into her bare skin. Sighing, Darcy stood beside her, the soft, lived-in denim of her jeans brushing against Elle’s arm, making Elle shiver. Elle swallowed hard and stared down at the floor.

The first symbol was a five-pointed star. Then there was a pharaoh? Lying on its side. Dead? A mummy? Elle bit back a sigh. Next was a crescent. The moon? And after that was—

“Oh. Oh!” Scrambling to stand, Elle rushed over to the table and swiped the tarot cards, quickly flipping through the deck.

Hot on her heels, Darcy asked, “What is it? Did you find something?”

It was so obvious it hurt. “The cards are the codex, after all. The symbols themselves aren’t on the cards, but they represent some of the Major Arcana.”

Darcy blinked. “What does that mean?”

Elle splayed the cards out on the table so that Darcy, and Brendon who’d joined them, could look over her shoulder. “That first symbol on the floor is a star.” Elle pushed the cards around until she found the Star card, separating it from the rest. “Next is a mummy.” She rifled around until she found Death. “There’s a moon. And a set of scales.” Scales . . . scales . . . “Temperance!” She frowned at the last symbol. “I have no freaking idea what that wheelie thing’s supposed to be.”

Brendon’s eyes narrowed before he shuffled the cards out, clearly looking for something. “A cart of some sort?”

Brendon was brilliant. Elle crowed and slapped a card down on the table. “The Chariot.”

Darcy’s face lit up. “This is . . . great job, Elle.”

Elle bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling stupidly.

Across the room, Cherry coughed. “Hey, guys? There’s something happening.”

Something was right. Smoky fog, the kind from dry ice, drifted into the room from beneath the doors. Uh-oh.

“Heads in the game, guys.” Darcy snapped her fingers. “What are we supposed to do with the cards?”

She was right. There had to be something about the cards, something Elle was— Wait. “These numbers are wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Darcy crowded closer to Elle, so close the delicate scent of her shampoo tickled Elle’s nose. Rosemary and lavender, earthy and sweet. Elle wanted to bury her face in Darcy’s hair and breathe deep.

Elle bit down on the inside of her cheek. The air down here was getting to her. “The Major Arcana all have a numerological association. The Star is seventeen.” She flicked the top of the card. “This has a five written on it.”

Brendon read off the other numbers in the sequence corresponding to the glyphs on the ground. “Eight, thirteen . . . hey, Darce, you’re good with numbers maybe you should—”

“Gimme.” Darcy snagged the cards from Brendon. Several seconds later, Darcy laughed. “Twenty-one, thirty-four.” She tossed the cards back on the table and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s the Fibonacci sequence. Next comes fifty-five.”

Elle could’ve totally kissed her, aside from the obvious reasons why that was a bad idea. Though they were supposed to be selling it . . . no. Bad, Elle. “You’re brilliant.”

Darcy smirked and shit. Elle changed her mind. Being bad sounded like the best idea she’d ever had.

Brendon held up the brass skeleton key etched with the number fifty-five. “Can I just pause and say teamwork makes the dream work?”

Darcy hiked a thumb over her shoulder at the door marked fifty-five. “You want to get this show on the road and win this thing?”