Love Potion #9 Read Free

edge of the card. “You have the Gift. You can see beyond others. Your mother’s talent courses through your veins,” she hissed. “How dare you disregard the knowledge entrusted to you?”
    â€œI did not know…” Lilith blinked back her tears, still fighting to understand what had just happened.
    Sebastian was dead.
    Lost to her for all time.
    The world was devoid of promise. Of hope. The most magickal summer of her life was over, and there would never be another.
    Sebastian, her lover true, dangled at the end of a hangman’s noose. Lilith wanted only to hide away and weep for what she had lost, not answer Dritta’s questions.
    But Dritta spat in the grass. “You knew ; you had to know that the Fool brings change and choice, transformation and journey. I taught you as much.”
    Lilith took a shaking breath, knowing that no one would respect her showing the weakness of tears. “Sebastian drew the card,” she said. “And clearly, Sebastian will journey no longer.”
    â€œNo?” Dritta chuckled to herself, her response making Lilith look deeply into the older woman’s eyes. She found an unexpected conviction there, as well as a twinkle of mischief. “Maybe not in the way that you will.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œUse the Gift you have been granted, child.” Dritta’s tone was more gentle. “She arched a brow. “Have you never truly listened to the tales we share? Nor attended to the cards you read so well? You read for him. You answered his query about love with your own heart hanging as full as a pomegranate, ready to be plucked and peeled.”
    Lilith blushed.
    â€œI saw you watch him, child. I saw your eyes when he came to you for his future. I saw the look that passed between you two when he entered our camp. I knew what would happen – and you would have known, too, had you cared to look.” Dritta shook her head and Lilith knew she had no secrets from this woman’s perceptive gaze.
    Lilith looked away.
    Dritta turned the card between them, the painting upon it catching the moon’s silver light. Her tone turned thoughtful. “This card, this card of his love, is your card as well, is it not? Are you this Sebastian’s love?”
    Lilith’s tears welled. She bit her lip, unable to keep from looking back to the distant glow of the village. Her heart ached with the knowledge that she’d never hear Sebastian’s laugh again. “You know that I was,” she whispered.
    â€œAnd you think love is something that dies with the flesh?” Dritta snorted, not waiting for an answer. She gripped Lilith’s shoulder suddenly, her fingers digging into Lilith’s skin. The younger woman didn’t dare to move. “You are his love, for better or for worse.” He has sworn to return to you, and a pledge made on the gallows is not readily evaded.”
    Lilith frowned. “But…how?”
    Dritta chuckled. “How indeed?” She handed the card back to Lilith with the courtly air that earned her much silver from the gadje , a mysterious smile on her lips. Lilith looked down at the card, willing it to give her an answer.
    The Fool spoke of travels, of a journey beyond your current place, a new beginning, a shucking of an old skin.
    A beginning – like a new life.
    Lilith’s eyes widened in sudden understanding, and she looked to Dritta with astonishment. “Sebastian will return as a babe!”
    Dritta’s smile softened. “As do we all. Remember?” Lilith nodded, staring down at the card in wonder, and Dritta tapped her shoulder. “And you, you had best be ready, child.”
    Lilith frowned. But if Sebastian was reborn as a child, even this very day, she would be old by the time he grew to a man again. And if it was not this day…Lilith could not bear the thought.
    She could not die before Sebastian returned!
    Lilith’s hand rose to