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"Fine," said the estured for Blue to give a lightbulb to the et Calla?"

"Oh dear," Persephone said in a small voice -- and Persephone’s voice was already quite small, so her small voice was indeed tiny -- but she turned and went up the stairs Her bare feet were soundless as she did

Maura eyed Blue, asking a question with her expression Blue shrugged an agreehter, Blue, will be in the roo lance at Blue, the ht He grunted as he tried to twist the stubborn bulb

"Now you see the proble the bulb a jerk "Can we leave this anonymous?"

Maura said, "We’re psychics, not strippers"

Blue laughed, but the ht this was rather unfair of hihtly poor taste, but it was funny

The kitchen abruptly lightened as the new bulb screwed into place Without comment, he stepped onto a chair and then to the floor

"We’ll be discreet," Maura pro rooaze passed over the candles, the potted plants, the incense burners, the elaborate dining room chandelier, the rustic table that dominated the rooraph of Steve Martin

"Signed," Maura said with so his attention Then: "Ah, Calla"

Calla blew into the roo disturbed She earing lipstick in a dangerous shade of plum, which made her ave thelook that plu Then she plucked her deck of cards from a shelf by Maura’s head and flopped into a chair at the end of the table Behind her, Persephone stood in the doorway, her hands clasping and unclasping each other Blue slid hastily into a chair at the end of the table The room seemed a lot smaller than it had a few minutes before This was mostly Calla’s fault

Persephone said, in a kind voice, "Have a seat," and Calla said, in an unkind one, "What is it you want to know?"

The man dropped into a seat Maura took the chair opposite from him at the table, with Calla and Persephone (and Persephone’s hair) on either side of her Blue was, as always, just a little apart

"I would rather not say," the man said "Maybe you’ll tell me"

Calla’s plum smile was positively fiendish "Maybe"

Maura slid her deck of cards across the table to the man and told him to shuffle them He did so with proficiency and little self-consciousness When he was done, Persephone and Calla did the sa before," Maura noted

Henoise of assent Blue could see he thought that any infor Still, she didn’t think he was a skeptic He was merely skeptical of them

Maura slid her deck back fro as Blue had been paying attention, and the edges were fuzzy with handling They were a standard tarot deck, only as impressive as she made them She selected ten cards and laid thehtly crisper deck -- she’d replaced theo after an unfortunate incident had made her lose her taste for her previous deck The rooainst the uneven, pocked surface of the reading table

Persephone held her cards in her long, long hands, eyeing the nant moinning of the spread and one at the end Blue loved watching Persephone lay down her cards; the limpid turn of her wrist and the swick of the card always ht of hand or a ballet movement Even the cards thehtly larger than Maura’s and Calla’s, and the art on theested the figures on each card; Blue had never seen another deck like it Maura had told Blue once that it was hard to ask Persephone questions that you didn’t absolutely need the answer to, so Blue had never found out where the deck had come from

Now that the cards were laid out, Maura, Calla, and Persephone studied the shape of theled to see over their huddled heads She tried to ignore that, this close to thecheel The sort that nor like SHOCK or EXCITE or BLUNT TRAUMA

Calla was the first to speak She flipped the three of swords around for the man to look at On her card, the three swords stabbed into a dark, bleeding heart the color of her lips "You’ve lost someone close to you"

The man looked at his hands "I have lost …" he started, then considered before finishing, "… s"

Maura pursed her lips One of Calla’s eyebrows edged toward her hair They darted glances at each other Blue knew theh to interpret the looks Maura’s asked, What do you think? Calla’s said, This is off Persephone’s said nothing

Maura touched the edge of the five of pentacles "Money’s a concern," she noted On her card, a lass hile a woman held a shawl beneath her chin

She added, "Because of a wo "My parents had considerable resources My father was implicated in a business scandal Now they’re divorced and there is no ely unpleasant way to put it Relentlessly factual

Maura wiped her palestured to another card "And now you’re in a tedious job It’s soood at but tired of"

His lips were thin with the truth of it

Persephone touched the first card she had drawn The knight of pentacles An armored man with cold eyes surveyed a field froht if she looked closely at the coin, she could see a shape in it Three curving lines, a long, beaked triangle The shape fro, from the journal

But no, when she looked harder, it was just a faintly drawn, five-pointed star The pentacle for which the card was named