Tess didn’t say anything at first. She wanted to say that she knew someone like that, too, not like his mom, like Adele. But Max gave Tess an intense dirty look as if he was begging her telepathically not to say anything, at all.

But then Tess couldn’t help herself entirely. “I want to talk to her,” she said excitedly. “Colin do you think your mother would mind if I asked for a reading, too?”

“Not at all,” said Colin. “I’m sure she’d approve of it.”

Max just rolled his eyes.

~ CHAPTER TWELVE ~

reading the cards

Do you want me to tell you something you already know?” Adele asked. Tess was now seated opposite her, the mahogany side table between them.

It was such a strange question. “Why would I want you to tell me something I already know?” asked Tess, confused by Adele already.

Adele laughed. “Sometimes people like reassurance,” she answered. “And sometimes I tell people things they already know. It’s not me really. I ask the question, or you do, but it’s the cards that tell me the answer. I’m not much more than a conduit,” she said modestly.

Tess looked at Max for an explanation. “A conduit is something that conveys things,” Max explained, understanding what Tess was asking without her even posing the question. “Sort of like a pipe is a conduit for conveying water.”

“You did want a reading of the cards, didn’t you?” asked Adele.

Tess wasn’t sure what she wanted.

She knew she didn’t want her palm read—that felt too definitive. She knew she didn’t want to throw coins or that other thing that they called runes, bamboo sticks, that their mom’s friend Franny liked to throw. That felt like taking too much of a chance.

But suddenly Adele had a deck of cards in her hand. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. The back of the cards had stars and a moon and a planet that looked like Saturn with a ring around it and in the top right, a picture of a profile of a woman who looked a bit like Adele herself. The back of the cards was navy-colored and the stars, moon, and Saturn were painted in white, as was the picture of the face of the lady, which had a circle around it, so that her face was framed like a cameo.

Tess figured if Adele had a deck of cards with her own face painted on them that maybe she was legit, but she wasn’t sure she could back up that logic. That could be part of the show, too. She was sure though that it wasn’t a coincidence that the face on the cards resembled Adele.

“Cards it is then,” said Adele without waiting for an answer and expertly flipped three cards up and placed them next to each other in a straight line.