The moment Billy shut my door the magic began. He leaned against it as though believing his weight would keep those three ladies of the night from interrupting us, and I played along with his fantasy. I knew, of course, that if Perfidia, Pandora, and Pink wanted in, no mere panel of painted wood would keep them out. The snick of the lock sent my pulse racing into a higher gear, but it was the expression on Billy Tripplehorn's face that made my hopes climb higher.
Suddenly, being loved-for myself, as a woman-seemed within the realms of possibility.
For me, this was a miracle. Oh, I knew his carnal intents were carried over from playing those parlor games downstairs, as he looked at the breasts and belly and bush revealed by my opened robe. But up here, with me, he wasn't tied in place. He wasn't being mesmerized by passionate pleas that waxed eternally dark, nor was he caught in the thrall of immortal eyes.
It was just Billy, gazing at Andrea. Looking at her as though she were the most glorious woman in his world. Indeed, I thought he might be imagining Lucy or Pink-or certainly Pandora, the way he'd reveled in her sumptuous breasts-for I was decidedly plain by comparison.
"Moore didn't hint you'd be this…pretty. Or brazen enough to interrupt three others, to claim me!" he added with his cocky grin. "You must want it pretty bad. The way you're staring at my rod, I'd think you'd never seen one before."
If he knew the truth about mousy, reclusive, Miss Andrea, he'd laugh in her face and walk out. Right now he was painting me as a temptress who knew what she wanted and took it. For the way that idea made me feel, I could overlook his arrogance. He was twenty, after all. And there was no denying Billy Tripplehorn was a prime example of male perfection any woman would welcome to her bed.
So I backed toward mine, letting my robe fall completely open as I turned down the plain white coverlet and sheets. The candle on the night stand cast a romantic glow that filled my little room with the possibility-no, the certainty!-that I would be ravished tonight. No more settling for my own fingers, or Cerise's playful games, or watching the three Sisters sate their sexual appetites before feeding on the poor victim whose pulse they'd set to racing.
It was my time. Fate had placed Billy Tripplehorn, that notorious rebel of Redemption, in my hands, and I'd be a fool to turn him loose!
"All the world's a stage, Billy," I began in what I hoped was a mysteriously erotic voice, "and all the men and women merely players. The trick-around here, anyway-is to guess which part each one plays at any given moment, and to be ready for…whatever comes up."
Although my parody on Shakespeare went right over his head, his cock certainly caught the meaning of those last words. He let go of his pants and then removed his boots, displaying a pair of sturdy legs that flexed with each deliberate move. When he straightened up again, I swore his cock stood taller, prouder; inviting my inspection-and of course, my admiration.
"Your friend seems eager," I teased. I raised one knee to the edge of my mattress, opening a slit already wet with wanting him. "I hope he likes cats. My pussy's purring so loudly he can probably hear it, but maybe you'd better come closer, to be sure."
Bless him, Billy chuckled as though he'd never heard such a contrived line. As he approached, he shucked his shirt and became one with the candle's light and the shadows it cast: a source of searing heat and energy, with a hint of wickedness that curved at the corners of his devilish grin. God, but he thought he was something!
And so did I.
He smelled vaguely of spunk and sweat, with a hint of Perfidia's French perfume clinging to his skin. Yet when he stopped only inches in front of me, I could forget about that woman and her insidious intent. My hand retraced the path Pink's fingers had taken through his hair: it was thick and damply warm, and unbelievably silky. My breath escaped me, and he accepted its invitation.
"Andrea," he whispered, and then slowly, oh so slowly, he lowered those lips toward mine. His eyes were molten chocolate, promising a rich sweetness I had to sample to believe- And then I melted against him in surrender. I had stolen a few kisses in my day, and wished for many more, imagining how a man might feel as he enfolded me in his arms and claimed my mouth with his. I'd had every intention of stringing Tripplehorn along-playing the experienced bitch in heat who kept a young pup panting for it-but my desperation betrayed me. I'd been caught, hook, line, and sinker the first time Billy cast his glance my way, and his kiss only sealed my fate.
My moan inspired him, and his hands slipped beneath my dressing gown to explore my skin. He let his palms float along the curves at my waist, inciting little riots of static electricity that raised goosebumps all over my body. Wanting more, I greedily pressed into him, rubbing his chest with my peaked breasts, reveling in the secretive rustle of the wiry hair that whispered its provocative song.
Billy pulled me close, his tongue deepening the kiss, his low moans answering mine. Despite the heat that scorched my belly and that nether region below, which rubbed suggestively against his erection, my young lover lingered over my lips, drinking from them like a man long denied water-sipping and licking and then drawing up from the well of my desire to satisfy his curiosity while driving us both to want far more.
Lord, what a luxury, to have a man hold me as though he couldn't let me go, until he knew everything about me…as though he wanted to take a lifetime to do that.
Foolish thoughts, for a woman old enough to know the ways of men-especially after I'd seen this one pumping Lucy Legg, and then playing along with the wild desires the Sisters had whispered in his ear. He lived for the chase! He wanted nothing beyond the next cunt that came along-a legacy passed down from every male in his family, as evidenced by the facial features of many children now residing in the orphanage.
Yet I set that reality aside and let him woo me. Gratifying, the way he ignored skin less supple than Lucy's and breasts put to shame by Pandora's. He caressed me with hands that roamed at raucous will now, over my back and beneath the cushion of my ass, to pull me closer to him.
"Andrea," he whispered again, brushing my ear with feathery, teasing kisses. "God, I've got to have you, woman! Let's give this pussy something to purr about."
I sucked air at the first touch of his fingertips. While he held me spellbound with his bottomless brown eyes and a commanding browline framed in unruly curls, his hand cupped my mound. Then he slowly spread my wetness around the fevered, slick skin until my slit was weeping with want. Never had I become so inflamed at a touch, and I opened farther to invite him inside-to beg for more of this divine torture, which was only a foretaste of the glories to come.
Or so I hoped. What if I shrank away in fear, or shame? What if I cried out in pain and gave away my innocent state-me, a woman who should've had her share of lovers by now? What if I laughed at the wrong time? Or made a stupid move to break the mood, and lost him forever?
He slipped a finger inside me. And then another.
"Oh, Billy…Billy, please…"
My plea floated around us like a phantom, and my back arched of its own accord. With exquisite, deliberate strokes he was setting my insides on fire, fanning the flames with each wet caress-and watching the sensations play upon my face with the smug certainty of bigger and better things to come. His thumb found that button high up in front and I cried out with the startling need it inspired.
"Tell me how bad you want it, Andrea," he crooned, a magician about to entrance me with his wand. "Clench your cunt for 'yes'…open your hole for 'no.'"
My muscles locked around his fingers and the inner spirals began. I recognized them from my own probings-and from those times Cerise and the twins had played their naughty games-but now, with Billy holding me, taking total control with the arm he wrapped around me and the fingers thrust inside, I was a woman lost. My body convulsed in a series of heated seizures, spurred on by his thrusts and the rubbing of his thumb. Before I realized how far gone I was, my cries were echoing around us. I became a mindless machine fueled by need, pumping against the butt of his hand and the fingers that formed a piston inside me.
I collapsed against him, panting with relief: I'd feared that I might go insane before I could stop.
Billy, his face shadowed with that masculine stubble, chuckled low in his throat. He eased me down to the mattress. "You're even randier than I thought!" he said with a suggestive flicker of his brows. "Now I know for sure what a candy-ass Alex must be, or he'd have hinted at how luscious you are…would've stuck around to fuck you himself. Mighty generous of him, to bring me here and then send you to fetch me!"
I reveled in those words! And since refuting them would've been foolish, I played along with this young wizard's next tricks. He was brushing my white robe aside, gazing hungrily at my bared breasts-teasing the nipples to attention as he slowly drew his hands down over my midsection… toward that place between my legs that felt sopping wet, where his thigh now kept the sensations alive, bubbling just beneath the surface.
"Perhaps Alex and the others don't really know me," I replied, wondering where that thought came from. Good God, everyone here could predict my emotions and actions before I knew them myself! But how nice, to have a handsome man marvel over my reaction to him! "Or perhaps they just never held the key to that horny little hole you've found. Every lover's different-and each partner creates another response, another little world, where only the two of them can belong, you know."
His indulgent smile told me he was beyond my middle-aged philosophizing. "Your cat's got so much cream on her lips, my cock might drown in it before he even enters. I'd better lap it up, don't you think?"
The way he stuck out his tongue and wiggled it, forming it into a stiff tip, had me giggling as much from nervous anticipation as from delight in the way he saw things. I made not even a token resistance to his advances, for I was a woman who wanted it all-right this moment, while the moment was mine. My legs parted shamelessly and I watched him from where I lay, Tripplehorn the tiger sniffing out his prey, teasing at the tight, wet coils of hair that framed my slit. When he knelt beside the bed and then pulled me toward his extended tongue, I was almost coming again just from the sight of it.
Again my cries rang around us; again my body writhed in a state of uncontrolled lust as his tongue traveled the trail his hand had blazed. Billy held me open with his fingers, drawing his warm, rough tongue from the bottom of my slit to its center-where he teased me mercilessly by circling the sensitive rim of my hole-and then continuing to flick my clit with it.
He was a master-I didn't have to experience anyone else to know this-and his sense of timing, of driving me slowly insane, had me quivering all over. My legs flailed on either side of his head as deeper he dove, lapping and sucking and licking my lower lips.
"Billy, I can't stand-you're making me crazy with-"
He was suddenly upon me, poised between my legs, as though his own needs were beyond being ignored. What a darkly erotic spell he cast, gazing upon me with an expression that spelled trouble and heartache sure to come! Yet I was his willing victim, flushing beneath his magnificent form, wanting him so badly.
"I'm yours, Andrea," he murmured, slipping his hands beneath my hips. "Take me now. Take every fucking inch of me, and don't you dare expect me to stop!"
It was as much a threat as a promise of fulfillment like I would never know again. Billy plunged inside me, both of us groaning with that first cataclysmic embrace of my cunt around his magnificent cock. He closed his eyes and his head fell back with the ecstasy of it; his hands closed around the halves of my ass until I thought I'd bear permanent prints where his fingers gripped me. The bed creaked and rocked in a telltale rhythm I feared might bring the Sisters upstairs to watch- But dammit, they were already here!
In the flickering of the candlelight, I saw Perfidia's face, angled in that sly animal way, rising as a weightless phantasm to hover above us. Her laughter was silent and derisive: from where I lay sprawled beneath Billy, I could see her swirling slowly in the moonlight from the dormer window, mocking me with her beauty and confidence.
"You're a fool to believe Billy loves you," she mouthed, although I heard her only inside my head. "It's me he wants! And mark my word, I'll take him away from you!"
I shuddered, as much from fear as from the ecstasy of my lover's thrusts. He was buried to the hilt now and rubbing me hard against the clit, knowing the effect it would have. I let out a languid moan-which signaled Pink to appear.
With a giggle, her transparent spirit popped up behind Billy's shoulder, playing peekaboo with me. What an odd sensation, to feel the air around us move and to watch that girlish figment of my imagination straddle Tripplehorn's neck. She appeared to be pulling his head back by his thick, tousled hair-and he obeyed by angling backward, although he had no way of knowing what sort of imp toyed with him. Miss Pink imitated my gyrations, bucking like a wanton, mouthing the obscenities I muttered to relieve the ache that burgeoned within me.
"Go after it, Billy!" she said-but it was my voice he heard. "My cunt wants to gobble you up! You can't fuck me long enough or hard enough to make me stop!"
This spurred him on, of course, and with a toss of his handsome head-which sent Pink spinning ass-over-teakettle toward the ceiling-he rutted with even more vigor. "You asked for it!" he rasped. ''Now give it back to me, dammit! Tit for tat! Thrust for thrust!"
The word "tit" must've piqued Pandora, for out of the little waves of heat rising above the candle's flame, she appeared in a transparent haze, her ripe breasts bobbing loose above her ebony gown. She floated between us like a wisp of fog, first settling on my chest to press those fleshy globes against either side of my face…I swore I felt the cool satin of her skin against mine…and then scooting forward. Shamelessly she raised her gossamer gown-still invisible to Billy-and then lowered her slit to my face.
Even though I knew she was a phantom, I felt her eager dampness wetting my lips and tasted the salty tang of cream that couldn't be real. Indeed, when I dared open my eyes, I could see through her to where Billy's face contorted, announcing his imminent climax. I gasped, almost overcome by the pungency of that ethereal cunt as it rubbed me, forcing me to swallow as I felt Pandora's spasms begin.
"Harder," she commanded-and again it was I who vocalized. "Eat me alive! Swallow me whole and don't stop pumping until I pass out!"
Billy fell upon me like a ram in rut, chasing away the wily spirit to replace Pandora's nether lips with his own wild mouth. Laughter in three different harmonies wafted around us, and I swore the bed would break with the speed and energy of my young lover's efforts. He was kissing me like a man possessed, as though the Sisters had somehow slipped inside him and were driving him toward that mindless pleasure that only came after an intense inner explosion.
His hips quivered up and down and his cock drove relentlessly into the deepest parts of me, until I screamed like a shameless hussy. A strangling sound escaped him when he shot me full of his hot semen…I welcomed more of it with each thrust of my cunt…felt myself surrendering to an extreme ecstasy that took me to the outer edge of the universe and tossed me off.
As Pandora had predicted-had commanded-I went blank and drifted in a sea of sweet oblivion.
It was the weight of a stare that woke me. Lewd caresses brought me all the way back-for in my mind, I hoped it was Billy fumbling for more, and my God how I wanted it! How I loved him with every breath I would ever take! My mind told me it was too soon for such strong, dangerous emotions-yearnings for a young man who was a disaster waiting to happen! But my heart wouldn't listen.
"Wipe that lovesick grin off your face, Andrea. Tripplehorn's gone."
Ever the woman to hit bone with her first bite-because she loved making me suffer-Perfidia stood beside my bed. Tonight she wore her gown of green brocade and an emerald choker she'd stolen from a married victim's widow. I was realizing that her change of clothes must mean- "Yes, you slept an entire day away," she continued, her imperious gaze taking in the wrecked bedclothes and my nakedness. "So it's time for you to-"
"Gone?" I cried, sitting upright so fast my head took a dizzy swoop. "What do you mean, gone? If you and Pandora-"
Her laughter rang around the little room and then stopped abruptly when she sipped through her slender cigarette holder. "How can such a smart girl be so stupid?" she mocked, spitting little puffs of smoke. "Why would we destroy such a choice morsel, when he has so many talents to taste and enjoy? Far better sport to keep stringing him along. Which is why you're going back to town to fetch him."
So Billy had escaped. For a few moments, my heart thudded in relief while I glared at her. Perfidia had no right to order me around this way! As though it were my fault Billy Tripplehorn stole away like a thief in the night. Or like a lover almost caught by the promise in a vampire's eyes.
"Forget it," I said, wrapping my rumpled robe around my nakedness. "I caught him screwing Lucy Legg in town-and she was trying to make him a daddy-so I doubt he'll come see us again. It's not like he's desperate for-"
"No, but you are," came her snide reply. "And your three benefactors-we three who have loved you all your life-have decided it's time you saw to your own happiness, dear Andrea."
She didn't mean that, of course. Perfidia, with her exotic face and pulled-back blonde hair, would always meet her own needs and then toss me her crumbs. She pressed the pointed end of her cigarette holder against the pale underside of my forearm…where the veins ran like little blue rivers. My pulse was pumping so hard, she could make quick work of me if she chose to.
"No one is indispensable," she reminded me, letting that last word hiss like a snake in my dimly-lit room. "And even your highest-minded ideals are no match for the powers Pandora, Pink, and I possess. Win him back, Andrea. Playing the martyr to your unrequited love won't save Billy Tripplehorn."
As I jerked my throbbing arm away from that damn cigarette holder, Perfidia vanished. Like a waking dreamer's nightmare, her presence-and the echo of her nasty laugh-hung about me in an invisible shroud. But I refused to be intimidated by her veiled threats! I reminded myself that I still served a purpose here with the Sisters of Samaria, preserving their sainted reputations to the folk in Redemption while providing for their privacy…and an occasional fresh morsel for their discriminating palates.
I dressed in a natty suit of navy blue with a pinstripe, donned the wig and theatrical cosmetics that made Alex Moore the man he was, and went downstairs. While I had no intention of fetching Billy, I saw no use in spending the rest of my night in the company of women who would come at me from all sides with their mental proddings and illicit wishes. If they wanted Billy so badly, they could go fetch him! I could put my time to better use in my office, clearing away the papers from some recent legal cases.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, however, I saw Pandora seated at her library table in the conservatory. By the light of a candle and a bright winter's moon, she meditated over the deck of tarot cards she held between her hands-awaiting an intuitive signal. As I watched, thinking how dreamlike and lovely she looked with the moonbeams illuminating the pale skin of her bare shoulders, she placed ten cards face-down in a pattern I recognized as a Celtic cross.
"Come in and help me read," she beckoned without looking up. "I've asked the cards what we should expect, now that we've met Billy Tripplehorn. It seemed a fresh voice was in order for this fascinating turn of events, so I'm using my pretty new deck! The colors are so fresh, it's obvious a woman painted them."
I couldn't recall the last time this house had seen anything new or fresh, save the occasional maid, so my curiosity was piqued. Pandora could manipulate the cards by sheer power of will-or she'd probably stacked the deck, knowing I was on my way-yet her readings resonated with truth too real to be ignored. Unlike the Gypsies who told fortunes in their tents, this pale goddess had unique connections to a past that spanned more than three hundred years, so it couldn't hurt to listen. I already knew she'd coax me to fetch Billy back for her, and I had my refusal ready.
"The center card represents you, Andrea," she said as she turned it over, "for you're at the heart of this affair with Billy Tripplehorn-and what an auspicious card it is! The Queen of Wands! She represents new insights and growth in a positive direction, dressed in her gown of regal yellow like the sun as she faces us with her bold determination. And it's no coincidence she has a pussy seated at her feet!"
I smiled wryly. All my life, Pandora had played the most motherly role in my upbringing; it was she who could win me with her playful magic when I balked at the others. "And our next card is-the Queen of Cups," I announced, not at all surprised. "She favors you, gazing into that royal cup of her creativity and imagination, wearing a gown of tranquil blue."
"Truly the queen of love and matters of the heart-in a position of positive influence," the raven-haired mystic agreed. "And next, The Lovers! A card of the Major Arcana indicating that the attraction between you and Billy is beyond our control-destined by a higher power! No wonder you fell for him so fast! He was a magnificent first lover, dear."
Feeling my cheeks flush, I reached over her shoulder to turn the next card. "The Empress, symbol of fertility and abundance. With long blonde hair…perhaps pregnant." The picture brought Lucy Legg to mind, and she was looking right at me, as though challenging me with her scepter.
Pandora shrugged after a moment. "If she represents someone we know, she's in a position indicating things that have passed away-things that concern you no more. And next, indicating potential conditions in the present, the Queen of Swords, reversed. A woman of sharp mind and keen intellect, but a bitch when you turn her upside down! Bears watching, that one. She can use her powers and strength of will to plunge her sword through your heart!"
My suspicions about Pandora arranging her cards ahead of time were tingling like raised hairs at my nape: using a deck with damn few women in it, she had surrounded me with three very influential ladies-her way of convincing me to heed whatever advice culminated in the cards. So why wasn't I surprised when the next card she turned was our current topic of conversation, the Knight of Wands?
"And here's Billy-our man of action, brandishing that powerful wand!" she exclaimed. Then a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Seems to be entering an…interesting arena ruled by women. And card seven represents your fears, Andrea-oh, the Two of Cups, reversed. Are you afraid your new love for Billy will go awry, dear?"
Seeing my skeptical scowl-for these cards appeared even more manipulated than other spreads she'd read for me-Pandora turned them at a quicker pace. "The eighth card-where we see others' thoughts on this situation-shows three ladies celebrating with their Three Cups upraised! We're so happy for you! And in the ninth position, representing the hoops you'll jump through to reach your conclusion, we have-oh, my. This Eight of Swords is the deck's Fear card, showing a young lady bound and blindfolded, surrounded by those eight tall swords stuck in the ground."
An intimidating image, that card, and well I knew its feeling of isolation and abandonment. My emotions churned within me, for while I suspected this final card's placement was as contrived as the others, I still wanted to see how it all turned out. When I saw the Five of Cups, a woman in a black cloak of mourning, I snatched the rest of the deck from the table and began to shuffle.
"Seems to me this spread begs to be clarified-with cards chosen by the person they concern," I added pointedly. "While I understand your wanting me to bring Billy back, I can't accept that I'll be mourning him once the three of you-so aptly depicted by these prearranged queens and merrymakers-have had your way with him! This is my future we're talking about!"
Pandora's dark eyes widened, yet she sat with a calm resignation-as though she had anticipated my reaction and would accept whatever the cards had to say. I couldn't believe she wanted my romance with Billy Tripplehorn to end in tragedy…but I'd never known her to lie to me, either. She and Perfidia and Pink could only play the roles their twisted fates had assigned them, no matter how badly they wanted a happy ending for me.
As was our ritual, I held the shuffled deck between my hands and closed my eyes, breathing deeply to clear my mind and soul…focusing on the positive powers the Tarot could reveal, if we truly believed our psychic energies passed through the cards. This ancient method called for placing my additional cards in the reverse order, starting with that dark card of mourning.
I flipped the top card and my breath caught. "Ten of Swords," I rasped, for the picture of a man in a pool of blood, with those swords piercing his prone body, looked even more intimidating than the woman in the cloak…illustrating Billy's fate and mine all too graphically.
Pandora squeezed my wrist. "Tens always signify the end of a cycle, dear," she reminded me. "Could be this card ends the girl's mourning, or the fears in the card before it. We can't really interpret until we have the whole story."
But the card I placed on that Fear card was the Ten of Wands-a man so overburdened by his armload of ten wooden poles that he appeared unable to walk another step. "Not a very uplifting companion for the girl held hostage by those swords on the Fear card. Are you telling me Billy will suffer as badly as I before you three are finished with us?"
Pandora nipped her lush lip, gesturing for me to place the next card. "The Devil," she whispered, but she forced a smile. "Well! We must remember that the couple chained to his perch have forged their own bonds from their fears and obsessions and bad habits. Since this position indicates what others think of our situation with with Billy, it doesn't matter so much, anyway. What's your next card?"
I wasn't fooled one bit by Pandora's brushing off that ominous card. The hairy, horned ruler from Hell joined those three dancing maidens, painting a clearer picture for me: while a Major Arcana card indicated forces beyond most folks' control, the Three P's were indeed in league with that Devil as they wielded their own dark powers. Even a novice could see those ladies were raising their cups to toast their own victory…and my damnation.
"Three of Swords," I muttered, my pulse now thundering in my head. "All of them plunged through that heart, to indicate heartache and disappointment for the two lovers we've already overturned. And next we have…The Magician, to cover that bold, charging Knight of Wands. But he's upside down."
"So his wand and the tools on his table have lost their power," Pandora interpreted, "which indicates a situation gone wrong-or one he doesn't want to follow through to its completion."
"That couldn't be why our Knight chose to leave us, now could it?" I asked bitterly. I was feeling more anxious by the moment, wishing I hadn't taken up the cards and wondering if somehow, Pandora still had power over how they came up. "And joining our overturned Bitch of Swords we have-The Emperor. We could certainly use his authority and leadership, but he's looking awfully outnumbered among the conniving females around him. And to clarify The Empress, we have-The Tower! My God, the Devil himself shuffled these cards!"
The image of a lightning bolt striking a tower, sending its dismayed inhabitants flying from their high places, drew a dark picture…another card of forces beyond my control, which only reinforced my feeling of doom. I was wishing I'd left Pandora's original spread alone, but it was too late for regrets. I had to deal the final three cards to complete the Tarot's message, no matter how bleak my picture seemed.
"Never forget that The Tower indicates a surprise-which can be a positive bolt from the blue as easily as a negative one. And again, this position represents the past-events and situations that have already passed away."
I just didn't like it…if that Empress did indeed represent Lucy Legg, then what sort of surprise had she pulled on us? Her pregnancy, which compelled her to trap Billy when the Judge could catch him? Or did that fair-haired girl represent someone else pulling the unseen strings of Fate? If Pandora really had manipulated the original ten- "Your next card is The Lovers, Andrea-your destiny, no matter what the other parts of the picture have to say." The raven-haired temptress studied the layout on the table with that unruffled sense of rightness mystics often possess, and then glanced up to prod me along. "She who hesitates is lost, Andrea. It's not like you to waver in the face of adversity-before we even have the whole picture Destiny has painted."
But the Seven of Swords, a sneaky thief indicating deception and trickery, did nothing to improve the overall imagery-nor did the reversed card featuring Justice in her red robe, which covered the Queen of Cups. For Justice overturned couldn't guarantee that Pandora's powers would help good prevail over evil…or that my love for Billy would bring about the happy ending I so desperately wanted. Indeed, I saw it slipping away as we brought this reading to an end.
"Reversals are merely lessons we still need to learn, sweetheart, for none of us has achieved mastery or complete control over any given situation," Pandora intoned like a doting mother. Impatient for the final card, she herself took it off the top of my deck and placed it over the Queen of Wands representing Alexandrea Moore-who seemed ineffectual indeed, surrounded by so many negative energies and images.
"The Fool," she pronounced, quietly perusing the entire story portrayed in symbols on her table. "So-you are embarking on a new journey, dear! You've found a man to love-a path we've all hoped you'd follow someday! You've fallen hard for Billy Tripplehorn-as well you should, for he's a bold, handsome young knight who-"
But I wanted none of the frosting she spread over this bitter, inedible cake. "But The Fool's reversed-like so many of the powerful cards here!-which indicates his innocence and joy are turned to ignorance or unwise choices as he steps down his path! I'm wondering why a person of any intelligence believes this claptrap anyway, dammit! After all, I earned my legal degree and have made a productive life for myself on the power of my own mind!"
Pandora stopped rhapsodizing to look me straight in the eye, like a mother warning her wayward child of punishment to come. "I've always known you wanted to break away, Alexandrea-to lead the life of most normal mortals, despite the privileges we Sisters have bestowed upon you. But wanting your freedom too fast, before you're ready for it, can only lead to frustration and danger. The Fool's ready to step off the edge of that cliff and doesn't even know how far he can fall! Not a pretty lesson to learn, is it, my dear?"
I wanted to bolt from the room, to turn my back on the mysteries this sorceress had set into motion with the wave of her invisible wand! Yet her gaze compelled me to stay for the final truth she would reveal. "What are you telling me, Pandora? That you can save me from the fate of that girl in the black cloak? That you can control Perfidia and Pink-and your own demons-if I convince Billy to come back, because I love him?"
Her alabaster face froze in time, beautiful but oh so cold as she regarded me. Plucking the rest of her deck from my hand, she replied in a brittle voice, "Maybe you'd better forget about Billy, Alexandrea. Maybe we all should."
Like hell I would! Why should I sacrifice the one sweet dream I'd stumbled upon for the pictures in a pack of cards-or the twisted women whose images defied me from the spread on the table? Perhaps I was indeed like that Fool, ready to step off the edge into the abyss, but I couldn't allow these conniving creatures of the night to beat me down with their Wands and then plunge their Swords through my hammering heart! There I sat on my throne, an admirable, powerful, forthright Queen of Wands-surrounded by vixens determined to drain my new love until it fell bloodless to the floor, like a corpse.
I turned on my heel and headed for the door. Pandora's challenge, cloaked in benevolence, left me no choice but to head for Redemption. Intuition was needling me like a burr caught in the collar of my coat, and I couldn't rest until I found better answers.
Had Tripplehorn escaped these wicked Sisters for his own protection? Or had he forsaken me to return to Lucy Legg?