The Necromancer's Seduction by Mimi Sebastian Page A

us.
    “She’s right.” I rubbed the back of my neck, fell against the back of the couch, and
     stared at the ceiling.
    “You still okay with this?” Kara asked.
    I nodded and focused on the task at hand, knowing any hesitation could jeopardize
     the raise. I had to do this, to resolve Cora’s death, to keep from dying inside. I
     sat up, hit with a high wattage thought. “I want a diagram for a spell he was good
     at. One other witches couldn’t do. I think it’ll make our bond stronger.”
    “I told you he was one of a handful of witches that could do mind reading and control
     spells, although Matilda will freak if we use one. Let’s see.” She flipped through
     the pages. “I think—yes, this one.” She pointed at a crudely sketched semicircle,
     a stem at its base with the Greek letter omega in the center, all contained within
     a square.
    I traced the diagram on a piece of paper. My hand trembled, and I shook it to loosen
     the muscles. This was really going to happen. Up until now, raising Adam seemed like
     some forgotten nightmare, but tracing the diagram brought it to life.
    A flapping sound stopped my hand. This time I didn’t cover my open mouth. A deck of
     tarot cards floated in the air next to Kara, with the Empress card tapping her shoulder.
    Kara wore an exasperated look, one I imagine she’d use if she had a daughter—and said
     daughter pestered her to play Barbies.
    “The cards,” Kara said. The cards shuffled in irritation, making the flipping sound
     a card dealer makes. “Elizabeth Taylor wants an introduction.”
    “You call the cards Elizabeth Taylor?”
    “She insisted.”
    I stifled my laughter when the Empress card puffed out at me. They flitted to Ewan
     and covered his body with only one card revealed to us, the Lovers.
    “She likes Ewan, but then she pretty much likes all hot men,” Kara said.
    “You mean I’m not a special hot man?” Ewan said, his eyes teasing me.
    “How did they come alive?” I asked, ignoring him and his admirers.
    “Matilda was performing a basic future sight spell, and the next thing we knew, the
     cards were flying all over the room. We don’t know what happened or what made the
     cards sentient, but they definitely have an ornery mind of their own.”
    One card zipped over to Kara. It pictured a man lying face down on the ground with
     ten swords stuck in his back.
    Kara laughed. “Too bad the card doesn’t really mean that, Elizabeth Taylor.”
    “What does it mean?”
    “It means the end of something—could be anything, a relationship, a situation. But
     see the sunrise in the background? That signifies a new birth. So there.” She huffed
     at the cards.
    The cards abandoned Ewan to spin around my head until two Major Arcana and one Minor
     Arcana cards floated in front of me. The two major cards swatted at the minor card,
     but the minor card held its place until the two gave up.
    “The major cards, like the Empress, the Moon, the Sun, think they’re better than the
     minor cards.” Her voice took on a lecturing tone. “The majors fail to acknowledge
     the important role played by the minor cards in readings.”
    I bit the inside of my lip at the three cards facing me. I knew not to take tarot
     cards literally, but I couldn’t stop my small shiver at the card depicting a bound
     woman with eight swords surrounding her, and another one with the big daddy of ’em
     all—Death.
    “The reading isn’t as bad as it looks, and the High Priestess card is intriguing,”
     Kara said. She spoke of the card bearing a woman in blue robes seated in front of
     a pomegranate tree and bordered by two pillars. “She symbolizes magic that can be
     used for good or evil,” she said.
    “You call that intriguing when I’m about to use my power to raise a man from the dead?”
    “It also represents unseen talent and potential. Secrets not yet revealed.”
    “Not yet revealed? Really?” My tone’s incredulous. The revelations from the