“You’re right on the money, honey. Jamie-Lee, was it?” Rosa finally responds. “Symbols are about giving shape to the unknowable. This idea is baked into the tarot, too. After all, the word Arcana itself means ‘mysteries,’ or ‘secrets.’ Major mysteries, minor secrets—both coming from the Latin word Arcanum, with roots in the term Arcere.”

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Rosa places emphasis on this last word, scanning her eyes over Chase, Cleo, and me as she speaks it. None of us flinch at its mention, thank goddess, even though we all know Arcere is the name Perilli gave his supposed successor, his “chosen one.” Clearly, Rosa was using this word was a test.

“My Latin is kind of rusty,” Chase says first. “Doesn’t Arcere mean to conceal? Or to protect?”

“Or to prevent,” Rosa answers. “To ward off.”

Her voice is all charm and warmth, but we all detect the meaning buried underneath. I can feel us teetering on the edge of dangerous territory. Rosa must be more suspicious of us than her coven “children.”

But suddenly in the midst of this, an idea sprouts in my mind, fertile and ripe.

I am walking the path to honor Grandma’s legacy.

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I am walking the path to potential personal power.

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Grandma clearly had sayings she always repeated, but a very specific one unfurls in my head now: If life is what happens when you’re busy making plans, then mysteries are what happen when you’re busy missing the details. It makes me think that we all glossed over that pentacle platform, but what if there are details there we missed, especially inside that hidden compartment?

“Well, if we’re taking votes on how to solve this case,” I begin, “I say we return to the scene of the crime. From everything we’ve been exploring, I bet there are more clues hidden there. Especially since we don’t seem to have all the pieces to this particular puzzle yet.”

Rosa looks at me, holding a penetrating stare. I can’t tell if she is buying my little ruse or if she just sees right through me.

“Besides, my grandma always used to say: If you find yourself stuck, change your perspective,” I continue, trying not to let Rosa fluster me. “Even if there ends up being nothing where the card was hidden, a change of scenery might help us see things differently, anyway.”

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Though it’s not an idea, really, so much as an image: the platform compartment in the Repentant shack. Suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I remember seeing writing inside its shadowed walls.