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But even as she thought it, she felt the touch of the wind brushing against her bare legs, slipping through her clothes…

The wind

Her heart contracted again

The wind…soft and enticing, the war, like the drea, that fae to it

Bad wind, Caitlin thought again

She stopped in front of the paintings hanging on the bars of the fencing around Jackson Square, looking around her As her eyes swept over thes fro sensation that she was being watched

From the comfortable invisibility of the alley, he watched the Keeper

She had been walking for blocks with no awareness of hin--for her, anyway For her--and for the city

She was lovely, though, that rippling hair, blonde as th and sweetness, pale and voluptuous curves He felt it stir hiht of hoould feel to be inside that lusciousness…

Caitlin felt an intent, as clear as touch on her skin She whirled and stared across the square at the intersection of streets

There A shadow, slipping quickly into Pirates’ Alley

She froze on the cobblestone ay, her heart in her throat…

Then, without thinking, she ran back toward the alley

He hovered in the alley, aware of her sudden awareness, aroused by it

Unmask now?

Too easy There was a time, and he would wait for it

The Keeper whirled toward hiht for the alley

He slipped back, insubstantial as shadow

Caitlin put on a burst of speed and tore around the corner of the Absinthe Bar, into the narrow alley

There was no one The flat stones of the street were e, her breath co harsh in her throat as she scanned the door ways of the closed shops The hispered in the corners, swung the antique shop signs on their chains…

No one…but a feeling of presence and intent Overwhel, ominous Gooseflesh rose on Caitlin’s arm, crawled up her nape…

She backed away and ran

Chapter 2

Arest café au lait available from Café Du Monde, Caitlin unlocked the door of A Little Bit of Magic, the mystic shop she and her sisters ran Inside she locked the door fir the wooden shutters of the bay s, she h the store, past the small coffee and tea bar, and the shelves of herbs and roots in glass jars, past bookcases of divinatory classics, histories of religion and ic traditions past and present, past jewelry cases full of sparkling geical wands, to the doorway hung with its purple velvet curtain eh the soft folds into the reading roo with esoteric tapestries, a round table placed in the center, along with two high-backed chairs set across from each other

Caitlin crossed to a wooden cupboard with painted syle, her Tarot deck

She breathed in, possibly for the first time since she’d entered the shop, and forced herself to be still, to focus, to release tension, to breathe from her center When she had quieted her pulse, she steppedwooden shelf and took a ht the candles on the table, and then the ones in the tall metal candelabrum in the corner

After that she sat in one of the chairs, facing the back wall, centered the deck before her and unwrapped it She closed her eyes and mixed the cards, once, twice, three times, spoke aloud the name of the city itself as querent, and laid out a simple spread: Past, Present, Future

"Where have you been?" she asked aloud, then reached and turned over a card

The Tower Destruction That was Katrina, of course, still a wound, leaving the city vulnerable It also had overtones of the war between the Other races that had killed her parents, and of the recent up heaval in the communities because of the cemetery murders

"What ails you?" she asked, turned over a second card and froze, staring down at The Devil One of the most feared cards in the deck A predator

She forced her mind clear, spoke aloud calmly "What is the future?" And turned another card

Death

Caitlin’s heart was pounding now, so loudly that she could barely hear herself think