Palm of Destiny (2 page)

Chapter Two

The moment Elijah saw Rosalie step into Morgan’s Magic Shop, he knew that she had changed since the last time he had seen her. There was just something about her that set a myriad of alarm bells off in his head. As a man who trusted his own instincts, he didn’t disregard the ache that started in his chest as she stepped closer to his small booth. Licking his lips, he had to force himself to smile in a greeting.

As Rosalie regarded him with a small frown, she couldn’t help but remember the spattering of times she had come across him. In a truth she had never openly stated to her best friend, she had always thought Elijah was something of a spineless child. He had rarely ever met her eyes with his own—as was the case now—and constantly stumbled over his words.

“This is Rosalie, the friend I was telling you about, Elijah. You remember her, right?” said Angelique as she stepped up beside the Spanish woman.

“Yeah, I remember.” He gave Angelique a bit of a smile, then looked to Rosalie. “Please, sit down, Rosalie.” He gestured to the small chair that sat in front of the booth.

Rosalie sat down slowly, giving her friend a narrow-eyed look. Angelique hunched up her shoulders and smiled, then quickly whisked herself away. With a shake of her head, Rosalie set her brown eyes on the man across from her. Her lips pursed before parting. But before any words could pass from her mouth, she let out a sigh and lowered her eyes to the table.

“So I hear you tell people’s fortunes,” finally made it out of her mouth. She sounded unconvinced, not trying to hide the snarky nature of her tone. Immediately she regretted it, and fresh tears threatened.
Control yourself
, she thought.
Don’t blame the kid because you’re upset that your father is dead
.

“Yes…but only to those who are willing,” was Elijah’s soft-spoken reply. His throat was tight, and suddenly he wished he hadn’t forgotten to bring his water to work this morning. Somehow, though, he knew that being thirsty had nothing to do with how he was feeling right now.

“I don’t believe in any of this. Angelique just brought me down her to…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

An awkward silence grew between them. Elijah couldn’t tell if he should take Rosalie’s attitude seriously or not. She seemed different from the other times he had seen her. More defensive maybe. Even aggressive.

“Well?”

Elijah tried not to cringe, then looked at her. “Well, what?”

“What’s my fortune? Isn’t that what you do here? Tell people their fortunes?”

The awkwardness threatened to stretch on for even longer, so Elijah scrambled for something to say. “No…that isn’t really what I do. I…um.” Now he rubbed the back of his neck, struggling. “I guide people in the direction that’s best for them. I…I show them parts of themselves they didn’t know were there.”

“You’re really arrogant enough to think you know what’s best for people?”

“No, it’s not…it’s not like that at all.”

“Then what is it like?”

“I don’t really know…” He was drowning in frustration. The tension was building, and all he wanted to do was to tell this woman to leave. The words weren’t coming out, though. All he could see in his mind was blankness, like he was a deer paralyzed by brilliant lights. Her beauty was paralyzing, and her attitude…he knew that it was a façade. He could tell that she was hiding something, perhaps a pain deep down in her soul. There was danger there, a type of intensity that he didn’t want anything to do with. To some of his friends, she was the perfect woman: beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

“This is ridiculous.” With a shake of her head, Rosalie stood, her brown eyes searching the store for her friend.

“Wait.” Without thinking, Elijah reached across the narrow desk. His fingers touched her hand instead of grabbing it like he had intended. He withdrew quickly as she turned a glare on him. “Wait,” he said again. “Just…give me a chance. Anyway, won’t Angelique just keep bringing you back here until you do this?”

“You know Angelique well, huh?” Suddenly interested, Rosalie sunk down into the chair again. She boldly met his eyes, one of her eyebrows lifting.

“Um…yeah. She’s never told you how we met?” When Rosalie shook her head, Elijah continued. “A few years ago, I…we met at a soup kitchen. She was serving meals there, and we…I don’t know, we clicked. When she found out what I did, she asked me to read her palm. After that, we…” He smiled shyly. “Anyway…she’s the reason why I got a job here in the first place. She had known Morgan longer than she knew me at the time, and...well, she’s kinda charming. I guess you know how it is.” He shrugged when Rosalie remained silent before looking away from her.

“Yeah, I can see that. She’s always believed in this sort of stuff.” She smirked. It faded away with her next words: A question. “What do you mean, you ‘read her palm’?”

He opened his mouth to explain, then reached up to shift some dark brown hair back behind one ear. “It’s a lot easier to explain if I show you at the same time. I mean, if you want me to. Otherwise I guess you could just look it up online. Or ask Angelique.” Looking away from her, he reached over to rub the pad of a finger against the hard wood of the desk.

With slightly pursed lips, Rosalie tilted her head. Then she nodded and stretched out her left hand, her palm facing upward. “Very well, oh great prophet…what’s my destiny?”

Elijah swallowed, ignoring the sarcasm. As he started to reach for her palm, that same feeling as before slammed into him. Every instinct that he had was telling him
not
to take her hand. But Angelique had brought her here, maybe to find some sort of answers. He couldn’t just ignore his friend like that. His touch was gentle as he wrapped his fingers around her hand and guided her palm closer to him, making Rosalie scoot closer to the booth in her chair.

“This is your heart line.” Elijah ran one of his fingers along it, showing her which one it was. “It tells me about your mental health…and love.” Ignoring the woman as she rolled her eyes, he continued speaking. “There are a lot of lines crossing through the heart line. You’ve suffered from severe emotional trauma. Your…” He drifted off as a wave of dizziness overcame him. He blinked it away and was about to continue speaking when an image flashed through his mind. This image was followed by many others, all moving so quickly that he could barely follow them. His eyes grew wider and wider the more that he saw, and with a sharp gasp he jerked his hand away from hers.

“I have to go,” he said in sharp, quick tones.

“Why? Can’t do it?” Rosalie offered a knowing smile.

Elijah didn’t answer her as he grabbed his wallet and checked to make sure he had everything. He stuffed it into the back pocket of his jeans and snatched one of the tarot card decks from the booth. Then he strode quickly down the broad aisle and toward the door. He paused briefly to speak to the shop keeper before he rushed out the door.

With a snort and a quiet laugh, she picked herself up and walked slowly into a section of the store that sold antiques. Angelique was there, browsing through some old pottery and necklaces. She turned as Rosalie was walking in, a big smile on her face. Around her neck was a thick rope full of massive turquoise and amber beads.

“So…what did he say?” Angelique wriggled her eyebrows.

“Nothing…he just got up and left. He said he had to go.”

“Rosie, what the hell did I tell you about
trying
to be nice for once in your life?” With a scoff, Angelique pretended to smack her friend upside the head. “Now I’m going to have to explain to him that my best friend is just socially awkward and belongs in an asylum. Thanks.”

Rosalie laughed, but there was no humor in it. “As if he didn’t think that already. I swear, all I did was to give him my palm so he could ‘read’ it. Then he freaked out and took off!”

“Oooh, maybe he saw something that scared him. We need to come back tomorrow and grill him on it. What do you say?” She paused for a few seconds, grinning. Then she nodded without giving her friend a chance to answer and pulled the necklace off. “This is going to be awesome. I wonder what he saw. Maybe you and he in love? That’d be enough to chase anyone off I think.”

“Shut up.”

Chapter Three

“So he just… took off?” Rosalie had her hands on her hips as she stared across the counter at Morgan. He was the shopkeeper at the metaphysical store, better known to the public as Morgan’s Magic Shop.

“That’s what I said.” Morgan shrugged. “Came in early this morning, packed all his stuff up and booked it.”

“Did he say why? Did he say anything at all?”

“Nope. Wouldn’t even look at me, barely said goodbye. Why do you care so much about it anyway?”

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because I… Angelique she…she said she’d seen Elijah do the same thing with someone else before. About a month ago she said. But he didn’t pack up and leave, he just ran from the store. She told me that it was something really serious. Something he had ‘seen’ in the lines of this person’s hand. And I want to know what he saw in mine. Ang suggested I come talk to you about it.”

Morgan leveled his hazel eyes on Rosalie. There was intensity to them, a seriousness that caused the normally confident woman to shift uncomfortably. After a few seconds she couldn’t hold his gaze anymore and glanced toward the door.

“Man came in here, about a month ago like you said,” Morgan started. “He was a small guy, maybe 5’6” at the most. Chunky, had a limp. Didn’t look like much. You know the type. Anyway, he sat down in that chair across from Elijah’s desk and had Elijah read his palm. After about 5 seconds, Elijah let out this shout like he’d been slapped or punched, leapt from his chair, and took off out the door.

“Naturally I rounded on the little guy, but he said he didn’t do anything. After talking to Elijah about it afterward, I had to believe his story. Something in that guy’s palm scared Elijah enough to make him bolt the hell out of here. But
your
palm…” Morgan spread his hands a little. “Yours made him take nearly everything and leave.”

Rosalie struggled for words. With the death of her father weighing heavily on her mind, and the adjustments that had been forced on her because of it, she didn’t know if she could handle running after some guy she didn’t even know. But what if Elijah had seen something in regards to her father’s death? “Okay, thank you.” She shook her head, her tone distracted.

“For what?” Morgan gave her an odd look. “For telling you that your palm is apparently scarier than any god’s wrath?”

“Yes…no. I don’t know. I…” Gods, when was the last time she had stumbled over her words so badly? “Do you know where Elijah lives?” She surprised herself with the question, blinking a few times.

Even Morgan looked surprised at her question. Rather than speak, he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote Elijah’s address down on it. Then he slid it across the counter to her, but slowly. “If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. And if what he saw was bad enough to make him run, my guess is that he’s likely to skip town. Just be prepared that he may not be at home.”

Without another spoken word, she grabbed the paper and hurried out of the store. She had barely glanced at the paper, but she already knew where the apartment was: in the worst part of town. She was going to have to consider calling Angelique in to help her…
if
she even went.

* * * *

The apartment building was small, only 3 stories high. Its parking lot was overgrown with weeds and grass, and it stunk of marijuana. Several windows were taped up and the pathway to get to the front entrance was covered in dirt and debris. Nothing had been cleaned in a very long time. Maybe not in years.

“Thanks…” Rosalie said to the taxi driver after paying him. She then slid out of the pale green vehicle and onto the sidewalk. Looking down, she saw a myriad of cracks and fractures. When she looked down both ends of the street, it was all much the same. Even the road needed to be graded, the potholes bad enough to make ancient gravel roads look smooth. “I must be crazy,” she muttered to herself. As she played with a piece of gently curled hair, she slowly made her way to the front entrance. Any minute she expected some crazy drug addict to jump out and grab her. She should have just waited for Angelique to get home from her day spa.

Paper crinkled as she pulled it from her small purse. It was the same piece of paper that Morgan had written Elijah’s information on. Nervously chewing on her lower lip, she punched in his apartment number after reading it and waited. The insistent buzzing of the machine grated on her nerves to the point where she was just about ready to leave. And then:

“Hello?”

The voice made her eyes widen slightly, and for a moment she didn’t know what to say. After gathering herself - taking in a few deep breaths—she said, “It’s Rosalie, Ang’s friend. Could I—”

“Leave me alone.”

“No, wait. Elijah! Don’t hang up.”

Click
.

“Damnit.” She ran one of her hands through her thick black hair and glanced upward toward the sky. Maybe he was right. Maybe she should just leave him alone so they could both get back to their own lives. Him with his…fortune telling. And her with her healing. Besides, she barely even knew the guy. As she stood there trying to justify why she should or shouldn’t pursue this—her father’s death aside—a young woman in her mid-teens came trotting down the steps to the front entrance. She flashed Rosalie a big smile as she pulled out a set of apartment keys.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know Elijah would you?” She wanted to smack herself for even asking.

“Only enough to know that he lives on my floor.” The teenager lost most of the smile. “Why?”

“I can’t get a hold of him and…”
Think, Rosalie, think
! “He said he would read my palm today and I couldn’t find him at the place he normally works.”

“Read your palm?” She let out a bemused snort. “And you can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“No, not really. Today is the best chance I have for the reading. I’m a really busy woman with a lot on my plate. You see, I—”

The teenager held up both of her hands. “I don’t wanna know, lady. Just don’t tell anyone who let you in.” She opened the door and looked at Rosalie. “I mean it. I ain’t playing.”

Rosalie shrugged with a smile. “I don’t know a thing.”

She exhaled with relief as the teenager headed quickly down the hall, then looked down. The carpet, or what was left of it, had been trampled to the point where it was barely there at all. It had a musty smell to it, and the walls were chipped and broken. She even spotted a few holes and cracks in the ceiling. With a small shudder, Rosalie walked further inside. After spending several minutes of searching for an elevator, and failing, she opted to just use the stairwell.

The stairwell was even worse than the hallway and smelled not only like mold, but like urine and feces. She placed a hand over her mouth and nose and hurried up the three flights of stairs. How could anyone live here? How had this place not been
condemned
?

Poor
guy, she thought with a frown. Shuddering once again, Rosalie opened the door that led into the third floor hallway. It wasn’t as horrible up here as it was down on the first floor, but it was still nothing to celebrate.

“Apartment 304…” she murmured under her breath, recalling the note. Rosalie took a few steps to get to the first door on her left. It was 309. With a small nod, she followed the hall until she came to the door that she wanted: 304. After some hesitation, she lifted her right hand and rapped her knuckles on the door. She noticed the absence of a ‘peep hole’. Elijah wouldn’t know who she was until he either heard her voice or opened the door.

“What do you want?” was all that she heard after she knocked. Elijah’s voice was faint, like he was in another room.

“Shit…” As her lips parted, her phone started to ring. “Hello?” she answered. There was no response. “Hello? Is anyone there?” There was nothing but silence. And then, after several seconds, an automated voice came on asking her if she wanted to buy some sort of security system. With a roll of her eyes, Rosalie hung up and looked at the door again. “Elijah, it’s Rosalie. I want to ask you a few questions.”

“No, go away.”

“Come on… just open the door before I call Angelique and tell her what an asshole you’re being.”

Only silence greeted her. As she clenched and unclenched her fingers in frustration, her mind reeled. No, she didn’t believe in this stuff. But after the death of her father, she wanted…needed…answers. As farfetched as it seemed to her, that same part of Rosalie that had wondered if Elijah had seen her father’s death returned. That nagging question was the only thing that was stopping her from leaving the building and never coming back. Tears stung the corners of her eyes as she chewed on her lower lip. One of her hands lifted to rest against the door, her brown eyes made brighter by the tears that threatened.

“Did you try the door?”

Startled, Rosalie half turned around. There was the teenager, her arms folded across her chest. She had a slight smirk on her lips, and her blue eyes sparkled with amusement. Her scraggly dark blonde hair framed a face that had the potential to be pretty…if some of that dirt was washed off.

“I…no.” Rosalie stared at the girl for a few seconds, then looked at the doorknob. She had no idea why she should feel embarrassed, but she did. Holding her breath, she gave the doorknob a try, turning it. To add to her shock, it turned in her hand and the door shifted open.