Devil’s Kiss Read Online Free

cards she had laid, shuffled them again, then laid them out once more in the cross formation.
    Her breath lodged in her throat.
    The cards came out the same. Exactly the same. The five of swords. The inverted knight of wands. Culminating in the fifteenth card of the Major Arcana: the Devil. Zora stared at his horned, goatish face contorted in a sinister grin, batlike wings outstretched, as he presided over two figures chained at his feet. A pentacle marked the ground where the chained figures knelt.
    Coincidence. That was all it could be. She would prove it.
    She scooped up the cards and shuffled them a third time. And for the third time, she set them out. By the time she turned over and placed the final card, her hands shook.
    The same. Each and every card. Their meaning clear: A great evil is coming, unleashed by the five.
    Her heart pounded, her palms went damp, and her mouth dried. She never believed it possible, and yet ... it was. The tarot predicted the future, a terrible future. Which meant—
    Zora jumped to her feet. She ran to her family and the other families who made up their band. At her approach, the men stopped playing their fiddles and took their pipes from their mouths, and the women left off their gossiping. They all stared at her, and she knew that her face must be ashen, her eyes wide. She likely looked like a phantom.
    “We have to stop them,” she announced without preamble.
    “Who?” asked Litti, her mother.
    “The gorgios who went to the ruin.” Her hands curled into fists by her sides as she fought to keep her voice level. “I have seen it. The cards have shown me. If we do not stop them, those five men are going to let loose a terrible evil.”
    No one laughed. Everyone knew that Zora put no faith in dukkering or magic. Yet it was for that very reason that they all took her seriously now. In fact, looks of pure terror filled their faces and the firelight shining in their rounded eyes turned them glassy and blank. Zora stared at them, at the men, and they stared back.
    Not a single man moved.
    Impatience gnawed at her. She took a step closer. “Why are you all sitting there like frightened goats? Get up! You must ride after the gorgios and stop them!”
    The men exchanged glances until, finally, Zora’s cousin Oseri stood up. Zora exhaled in relief, but her relief was short-lived. From the terrified expression on his face, it was clear Oseri had plans only to hide in his tent.
    “The wafodu is too great,” he stammered. “The evil will hurt us.”
    “So you are going to do nothing?” Zora demanded.
    The men all shrugged, palms open. “What can we do against such powerful, bad magic?” someone bleated.
    “Anything!” she shot back. But every last one of the men refused to move, while the women crossed themselves and muttered prayers.
    There was no hope for it. With a growled curse, Zora turned on her heel and walked into the horse enclosure, but not before grabbing a crust of bread from the cooking area and slipping it into her pocket. It was said that bread held the Devil at bay, and she needed every bit of assistance she could scrounge. She also had her knife, tucked into the sash at her waist.
    “Where are you going?” Zora’s mother cried.
    Zora did not stop until she slipped a bridle onto one of the horses and then swung up onto its bare back. Once mounted, she trotted forward until she stared down at the trembling men and women of her Romani band.
    “I’m doing what needs to be done,” Zora said. “I’m going to stop those lunatic men before they do something we shall all regret.”
    Despite her fear, she kicked her horse into a gallop. She had never faced anything like this in her life, and had no knowledge of what awaited her. How might she prevent the evil from being set free? All she knew was that she must.
     
     
    Atop a rounded hill, the ruin formed a dark, jagged silhouette against the night sky, like a creature rising from the earth. As the riders neared the