Alex paid for the hotel room—a single bed for Jaylin, while the rest of them holed up on the hotel's extra duvets and bundles upon bundles of luxurious pillows, splayed out around the carpet floor.

The place was nice, but they could only afford one night in a single room. Despite the Sigvard's best efforts, their financial situation hadn't improved. It was just a little less bleak with hope of Lisa's new job on the horizon.

Sadie fanned out her tarot cards across the duvet, a single candle between Alex and herself. Everyone else was long asleep, soft snores buzzing from every corner of the room. "You're stressed, aren't you?" Sadie asked, sorting each card so they were all exposed, face-down on the blanket.

"Emphatically," Alex said. "How'd you guess?"

"I feel it." Sadie watched as Alex floated a hand over the cards. It wasn't so much that he was seeking the right one, but rather, he was waiting for the card of his fate to call to him. The little flame on the candle tipped towards Sadie. "I always feel it when we do these readings," Sadie said. "Like how last time I felt like crying."

"Because last time we talked about Anna," Alex said, unsurprised. He reached for a card and Sadie held up a palm.

"Wait," she said. "Close your eyes."

Alex did.

"Think about all those worries, Alex."

Alex's nose wrinkled. "Why?"

"Because I think it's more important that we find a way to solve your anxieties. We can do a day reading tomorrow."

"Sadie, I—"

Sadie snapped her fingers. "Shut up and relax. Now think about those problems."

"How can I relax and think about those problems?"

"Alex," she grumbled.

"Alright. Sorry." He took a deep breath and let it out through his nose. And then after a quiet moment of evaluation, Alex plucked a card from the line and placed it in the middle. The Wheel of Fortune.

"What's it mean?" Alex asked.

"Change," Sadie said. "You're anxious because of change, aren't you?"

Alex anchored his gaze to the card he'd chosen—the little orange wheel in the sky. "Yes. Everything's changing," Alex confessed. "The house, the garden, every memory I have of Anna is on the line. I applied to be a pizza boy yesterday, Sadie. A pizza boy."

"You know, it kind of defeats the purpose when you straight up tell me everything. The point of a reading is for me to tell you what the cards say."

"Did they say anything about what the hell I'm supposed to do? Because even if I had a minimum wage job, mom and I can't pay the bills alone. The heat is off, the mortgage is due—Quentin's been sending checks but they don't come fast enough. We're living paycheck to paycheck all because dad made some shitty investments. I don't care that he bailed, you know. We were never that close, he worked all the time. But it's like he dropped his debt on us and ran."

"You and Jay have a lot in common," Sadie noted.

Alex bit his inner cheek. "I guess so."

Sadie sorted the cards to fill the gap Alex had left behind and leaned back with a sigh. "I don't get it. It's not like it's your debt to pay, right?"

"It is now. Debt collectors have been sending us threats since December. In mom's name, not dad's. They don't care who pays, as long as someone settles. I'm worried they'll start coming for assets."

"You'll be okay," Sadie told him. "You're protected, Alex."

"By who?" he asked with a snort, fingers drifting over the cards to draw another.

"By the universe," Sadie said. "And by me."

It wasn't the money Alex was worried about and Sadie knew it. She'd come to find he wasn't really much of a materialistic guy—despite the silver spoon and all. Maybe those things mattered before his sister died and his dad left, but Alex was perfectly happy sleeping over on the floor of her tiny dorm so he didn't have to bear the loneliness of an empty home. Lisa's event planning had been such a success, she was rarely in town anymore. The maids had all been let go, save for Lillabeth who had nowhere else to call home. It was just him in that massive place, and that was what Alex had started to fear. Not the idea of being dirt broke, but the thought of being alone. Of having the last shard of his family ripped apart by financial struggle. Sadie knew what it was like to watch a family fall apart.

"I know you don't like to think of it like a gift," Sadie said, gathering the deck and shuffling the cards between her fingers. "But you have an ability, Alex. I dunno... maybe it could be the key to fixing your entire situation."

"How do you figure?" Alex asked. "And don't say poker, because I've already thought of that and decided I'm way too much of a pussy to use this thing for gambling."

"No," Sadie said. "Honest work. I think you were put here to do great things, Alex."

"You're mooshy tonight."

"I mean it. I think that gift that's not such a gift, actually is a really big gift. You just gotta figure out how to use it right."

Sadie woke the next morning to a shuffle. Tisper stirred a moment after, and popped up from her sleep when she noticed Jaylin, digging through her pink rose-textiled backpack.

"What are you doing?" Tisper scrambled to her feet. "There's no booze in there."

Jaylin gave her a glance and went back to his rummaging. "I'm not looking for booze. I'm looking for painkillers."

"Hungover?" Matt sat up with sleep-lines on his face, straightening his back until it cracked in his palms.

Jaylin shot him a look but he didn't reply. He held out his hand while Tisper fetched the pills from the side-pocket of her backpack. They were especially made for Jaylin; aspirin from willowbark, cayanne, peppermint and tumeric. The only fast-acting natural combination for were-discomforts. Tisper dropped some into his hand and he swallowed them down dry.

Not a moment after, Alex sprung from his sheets like a zombie, bags under his eyes from staying up so late with Sadie while the others slept. Alex always looked like such a soft thing, waking up with glossy eyes and pillow-hair. Sadie repressed the urge to squeeze him.

Alex yawned, then crawled over to Felix and gave him a shake. "Wake up. We should get going," he said. "We could probably shave off a couple of hours if we leave before morning traffic."

Felix shoved him away and threw his blankets over his head. It took twenty more minutes to drag him out from under them, then they were all gathering their things and packing up their bags. Sadie joined Tisper, folding up each blanket and setting them on the bed to save room-service the trouble.

It was when they were making their way down to the lobby that Sadie lagged behind the others, dragging Alex to her own pace. "Can you read him?" she asked, nodding to the front where Jaylin led the group, hands stuffed in the front-pockets of his gray sweater. He never took it off. Tisper had to beg him one time to let her wash it.

Alex gave a deep sigh. "You know I don't like to do that, Sadie." She knew, sure. Alex hated to use his ability when it wasn't thrust upon him by his own meddlesome brain—and whatever kind of magical spell had turned his mind to a personal police scanner. But she was worried about Jaylin.

"I just want to help him," she said, locking arms with Alex to keep him tied to her hip. "Miss his ridiculous smile."

"I know you do. But I....It's an invasion of privacy, Sadie. That's all."

Sadie sighed and gave his bicep a pat. "You're a good boy. But are we going to talk about the second card you pulled? Lovers. You know what that card means, don't you?"

Alex turned a bit pink and avoided her gaze. "I know what it means," he said. "I think it was just a bad pull."

Sadie grinned and let go of her arm for a moment to reach into her messenger bag. She drew from it a little metal charm, a sharp cut of rose quarts centered in the chain. It was a struggle to tie it around Alex's wrist as they walked, but she managed. 

Alex knew just what rose quartz symbolized. "I don't need it." He frowned.

"Alex, if you are going to fall in love, you will do it without cards or bracelets." She snapped the bracelet into place and shrugged her bag back onto her shoulder. "I just want to make sure you don't miss a beat."

"A beat?"

"An opportunity," Sadie said. "If a breeze is coming anyway, we might as well open a window, you know?"

"That was a really bad analogy," Alex said. "Wouldn't you close a window if it was breezy?"

"Alex." Sadie sighed and gazed sullenly forward. "Sometimes you make me tired."