What the Heart Knows (10 page)

Juni’s eyes lit up as she squeezed his hand.  They followed her through a door on the right.  The room they entered
contained
a large, teak wood table that held a crystal ball in the center, and a couple of velvet satchels that held what he could only assume were
T
arot cards.

“Please have a seat, and tell me what I can do for you today.”

“I’d like you to give us a reading. It was always my dream to have my future read by a true mystic.”

Madeline paused to study them before she spoke again.

“You’ve both experienced major tragedies in your life. Things most people wouldn’t understand.”

He shifted his weight in his chair. Madeline seemed to look through them as if she knew everything there was to know about them.

“Yes,” Juni said.

“You
,
my dear
,
have a very special heart,” Madeline said.  The words made his jaw drop. How could she know that?

“That’s one way to put it,” Juni said.

“Hmm, it has a mind of its own some days
,
I think. You must take ownership of it soon.”

Juni cast him a confused look and he shook his head.  He had no clue what she meant.

“What do you mean?” Juni asked.

“All will be revealed in time.  But right now, things are still hazy. There is a negative spirit that wishes you ill
.
I
t is expending a lot of energy to keep me in the dark.  It’s been waiting silent and angry for some time.” 

  Madeline paused.  Her eyes took on a faraway glaze.  She seemed to listen to a voice they couldn’t hear. His stomach churned at the thought of Juni being in harm
’
s way. Why would she of all people be a target for something evil?
Because the darkness is attracted to the light, just look at you.
Within minutes of meeting her he’d acted completely
out
of character just to sample her goodness firsthand.

“What can I do to protect myself?” Juni asked.

“When this force reveals itself you must make it your business to find out everything about
it
you can.  I believe the motto is ‘know your enemy
’
?” Madeline said.

“I don’t understand
.
W
hy me? What could I have possibly done?”

“Your first mistake is thinking it’s something you can reason with. These entities aren’t human. They don’t think like you and I. Even human spirits become twisted versions of who they once were after a fashion. We aren’t meant to linger on this plane.”

Oliver’s protective instincts went into hyper drive. If some force wanted to harm Juniper, it’d have to come through him first. He linked their hands and leaned forward in his chair. She was his anchor. Without h
er,
he’d be adrift again.

“What can I do?” he asked.

Madeline turned her attention to him and he swore he’d been hit by a ton of bricks
.
“Oliver, you are a man haunted by his past. For a long time you clung to it as a lifeline to keep you
rself
from fading away. However, now I see you are ready to let go and move forward.” 

Madeline nodded before she grabbed the black velvet pouch that s
a
t beside her.

“I will consult the runes now to help guide you both in the right direction. I need you to be silent and contemplate the things I’ve told you.”

They both nodded their agreement and watched as Madeline pulled a black piece of fabric from the bag and placed it on the table in front of her. She smoothed out the points of the fabric one by one until they faced North, South, East, and West.  He held his breath as she placed the white squares she referred to as runes onto the cloth one by one.  He wasn’t sold one
hundred percent on the psychic spiel. Yet, with Juniper, anything seemed possible, and Madeline was compelling without trying. That was the clincher.

  When you knew something was true you didn’t go out of your way to prove yourself. She’d read the two of them like an open book from the moment they’d walked in, and if he
were
honest
,
h
e’d felt something was amiss for a
while now. He watched as she mixed the squares with her right hand. After a minute or so she raised her right palm about two inches above the squares
,
sweeping across them back and forth. She paused, hovering above one before she shook her head and moved back to her sweeping motion. Eventually she picked one, repeating the process until there were five runes laid out in a horizontal line. She flipped the first stone over.  

“This negative force is one you’ve come into contact with before,
”
Madeline said.

She turned the next stone.

“It waits for the time you
’
r
e
most vulnerable to strike.” She repeated the process
,
revealing new information with each turned piece.

“There will be a struggle, a battle for control. I can’t see the outcome yet, but I believe you can prevail if you stick together. The first thing you must do is rid yourselves of the secrets that remain between you in order to present a united front.” 

His stomach twisted into a knot as her words hit home. He had to tell her the truth about Hannah’s death.

“Do not underestimate this evil.”

Her words trailed off as Madeline glanced around the room. A strange tension had begun to fill the room and the temperature dropped.

“Oliver,” Juni said. “I want to stop now.”

“What?” he asked
,
c
ertain he must’ve heard her wrong. This whole thing had been her idea, and now she wanted to leave just as Madeline was getting to the heart of their reading. It wasn’t like her.

“Juni
—
”

“The entity is here now!” Madeline said.

Oliver jumped as the pictures on the wall shook and the overhead lights began to flicker.

“Oli!”

“I’m here
,
Juniper.” He wrapped an arm around her waist as he pulled her close to his side.

  She stood from her chair and hurried to the glass cabinet on the opposite side of the room.  She opened the door and pulled out what appeared to be a bundle of dried herbs. Madeline struck a match and lit the bundle as she began to chant. She fanned the smoke that rolled out from the end of the bundle as she moved around the room. 

“You’re not welcome in this place, this is my sanctuary, and I demand you be gone!” 

The smell of flowers filled the air
,
and Oliver tensed as he waited to see what else the entity had in store for them. It would explain the Murphy’s Law theory he’d come up with lately, as everything in the universe seemed to line up against him taking steps to move forward with his life. When he thought of how depressed he’d been after Hannah left, it was easy to imagine something nasty and malevolent attaching itself. Shame filled him; he’d brought this trouble to Juni’s door. He came to her as half a man, prone to mood swings, slow to trust, and rusty at being happy. Perhaps he should let her go. The thought of losing her combined with the charged atmosphere made him feel like he was suffocating. All movement in the room settled as swiftly as it had begun and he waited to take his cue from Madeline.

“You must prepare yourselves
.
I fear this is merely the beginning.”

He turned to look at Juniper, and felt his heart melt at the dazed expression she wore. She deserved so much better than this, than him.  Oliver leaned down to whisper into her ear.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I–I think so
.
I
t
’
s just a lot to take in. I can’t imagine why anything would take an interest in me.”  She shook her head and he kissed her forehead.

“Can you tell us anything more?” he asked.

“There’s a connection between Juniper and this entity you must uncover,” Madeline said. “It’s clever, cunning and powerful enough to block me from seeing anything more.”  She crossed the room once more to gather fresh bundles of herbs.

     
“This is sage. Any time you sense you are not alone you can burn these to help cleanse the space. Move from room to room reclaiming your home as your own, and demand any negative forces
leave.”

     
They both nodded as he accepted her gifts.

      “
When you learn more, come back and I will help you further. There’s a purity in your love that most never experience,
and
it’s worth fighting for. Remember this when the spirit makes you feel all is lost.”

    
Oliver knew her words were aimed toward him, but she had no idea of the destruction he’d caused. This was his penance. Tonight he’d come clean and deal with the wreckage.

Silence filled the car as they drove back to her apartment.  What had started off as a fun experience
turned into something horrific in the blink of an
eye.
She wanted to write the reading off, but neither of them could deny the paranormal activity that had occurred, or the knowledge Madeline had possessed about their personal lives. She traced the outline of the transplant scar over her clothes. Madeline said her heart was special and had a mind of its own. Was she talking about the instantaneous attraction she’d had with Oliver? Was it a part of what was happening?  Had the whole relationship been based on a lie or some outside influence neither of them had recognized?

“You’re quiet,” he said.

“I don’t really know what to say.”

“I know the feeling.”

“You seemed to understand what she meant about secrets.”

“I did.”

“When were you going to share this?”

“I was working my way up to it. I’ve been open with you
,
Juni.”

“Have you?” she asked.

“Yes. You knew there were things in my past I wasn’t ready to discuss.”

“What I want to know is why? Did you know this thing was following you around?”
             “No
!
You know
I
’d
never put you in danger that way.”

“Do I?”  She gasped, and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that
,
Oliver. I’m just upset.”

“No, you’re right. I said from the beginning I was too old and jaded for you. This is just another addition to the list of reasons why we shouldn’t be together.”

“NO!”

“Juniper, if me leaving you will make all of this stop, it’s what’s going to have to happen.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head no. All her anger and doubt went out the window as she leaned over the console to clutch his arm.

“Madeline said we needed to stick together.”

“She also said, she was being blocked by this, whatever it is. Maybe it’s leading us straight into a trap.”

“You don’t even believe in this stuff.”

“Weird things have been happening to the both of us for a while now. Even you can’t deny that
.
”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re sudden interest in punk music, the different clothing style, and what occasionally seems like a personality transplant.”

“Are you trying to be funny?” she asked
, n
ot amused by the use of the word
transplant
.

“No. You can’t see it, but I do.”

“Are you so dead set against moving on you’d grasp at straws to get rid of me?” She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him
,
disgusted.

“I understood that this was new for you when we first got together.  It was your first attempt at getting back on the horse, the same as me. In my mind it put us on an even playing field. Now, I refuse to be the only one fighting to keep this relationship going. You’re so quick to find the negative in everything and let your doubts over power the progress we’ve made. For every step forward, we have two back.” 

She was torn when it came to Oliver. He could be the sweetest man she’d ever known one minute, and a brooding enigma the next. The hot and cold was slowly driving a wedge between them, and hearing that he had secrets felt like a sledgehammer to the chest. 

“I know I’m not perfect, but I do love you, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe,” he said. His voice was low and husky, and it took a few moments for the words he’d spoken to set in.

She turned to face him so fast she risked whiplash.