“While I have divined my own unique deck, The Azure Tarot, I’m marvelously desperate to try reading you with your deck, if you’ll allow it. I believe your deep history with the cards will help my own cosmic clairvoyance come through. Though I admit, I’m also quite eager to glimpse Perilli’s final masterpiece. You must know, I was his most loyal benefactress before his untimely passing.”

“I think that’d be all right,” Amelia says in a voice that lights up my instincts.

“I needn’t even lay hands on the cards,” Lady Azure offers. “You can deal for me and I can read from afar.”

Astute, I think. Unlike Maggie, Lady Azure might actually be charming enough to play on our emotions here. Amelia can clearly sense it, too.

“Would you mind if I got the reading instead?” I ask, putting my hand on Amelia’s shoulder. “I have some questions I need answered.”

My favorite part of having one best friend my whole life? Amelia and I don’t always need words to understand each other. She nods at me with relieved eyes, knowing I’m probably better equipped to get what we need from Lady Azure, given my detached and rational approach to the cards.

Taking note of this exchange, Lady Azure then nods herself.

“Marvelous! Let our reading resound into the great beyond!”

Once we’re set up at the cozy reading booth, I try to tune out the audience at our side and focus only on Lady Azure. Despite her grand and breezy facade, I have a feeling this reading is going to be not unlike a game of poker. Lady Azure agrees to let me deal the cards in the Celtic Cross Spread, a configuration I know well. However, she counters by insisting I only use the Minor Arcana Cups cards. All the better to orient ourselves appropriately, she claims. Or all the better to conveniently orient her “gift,” I think now, as I deal out the five face-down cards.

“Normally I’d ask you to set an intention for this reading,” Lady Azure begins, “but I sense your intention is already clear. Where is your missing Princess of Cups, and why have you been brought here today?”

I nod at Lady Azure and flip the first card, trying to keep the pace fast enough that she won’t have much time to think. Usually in a Cross configuration, this first card stands for the current situation or the potential obstacles faced.

“Ah, the Ten of Cups,” Lady Azure says, her eyes focused on the upturned card. “As always, exquisitely drawn by my darling Carson! Oh, how his art and his intuition evolved near the end of his days! But enough about us.”

Lady Azure then closes her eyes and sways, as if accessing some sixth sense.