Wake Unto Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

scene solidified again, and Caitlyn found her mother staring at her, a fresh wariness in her eyes. She held the deck of cards out to Caitlyn. “Lay your hand atop it.”
    Caitlyn obeyed, and after a moment her mother took the deck back and started to lay out cards, facedown. When she was finished, she set the deck aside and closed her eyes for a long moment, breathing deeply. She opened her eyes, glanced up at Caitlyn, and then turned over the first card. “This card represents you, and the primary force working upon you.”
    It was the Nine of Swords. A woman sat up in bed, her face in her hands as if she’d been woken from sleep by an unutterable grief. On the black wall behind her were nine immense swords. “That doesn’t look good,” Caitlyn said doubtfully.
    “Mm. Not good. Not necessarily bad. The cards have no set meaning; it changes based on what I feel in here,” her mother said, holding her hand over her heart, “and what you feel in there .” She reached out, her fingertips hovering an inch above Caitlyn’s own heart. “You tell me: What do you think the card means?”
    “The Screechers,” Caitlyn said, the word coming out of its own volition.
    Her mother raised a brow in question.
    Caitlyn grimaced, embarrassed, obscurely afraid that her mother would think less of her. “It’s what I call the nightmares I have.”
    “Those nightmares are important. Pay attention to them,” her mother said pointedly.
    Caitlyn frowned and bit her lip. Thinking about the Screechers made her tense and fearful. She’d rather forget them as soon as she woke and pretend they didn’t exist.
    “These next two cards are the people coming into your life.” She turned the first one over: the Queen of Swords. A stern-looking woman with a crown of butterflies sat on a throne, holding a sword. “This is a woman of cold, efficient intelligence. She can help you, but if you cross her, she will cut you down without a second thought.” Her eyes narrowed. “Be careful around her. She is seeking something. A heart that she does not have.”
    “Great,” Caitlyn muttered.
    Her mother flipped over the next card. “Maybe this is more to your liking?”
    It was the Knight of Cups. An armored knight sitting astride a horse held up a golden goblet, a smile touching his lips. There were wings atop his helmet and on the heels of his feet, and his surcoat was patterned with water and fish. “A guy?” Caitlyn asked hopefully.
    Her mother gave her a mischievous, knowing look. “A guy. A young man of imagination and emotion, who offers love.”
    Caitlyn grinned. “Yes!”
    Her mother smiled, then pointed to the next three cards. “The upcoming situation, the near future.” She turned them all over: the Three of Swords showed a red heart pierced by three swords, with storming rain in the background; the Fool depicted a young man with his eyes on the sky, about to step off the edge of a cliff and into an abyss; and finally, a skeleton in black armor rode a white horse, with the body of a king beneath the horse’s hooves: Death.
    Caitlyn squeaked in dismay.
    “It’s not quite as bad as it looks.”
    “What do you mean that’s not as bad as it looks?” Caitlyn cried. “How could it be any worse? It ends in death !”
    “It’s not always literal. There are figurative deaths as well. But we have to look at the three cards together.” Caitlyn’s mother laid her hands over the cards and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her pupils had dilated, giving her a look of blindness. Her face had gone slack. It was as if no one was inside her body. Or as if something else had entered it. Caitlyn shivered.
    Her mother pointed to the heart struck through by three swords. “They seek to destroy the heart,” she intoned, “but you must not let them.” She pointed to the Fool, the young man about to step into the abyss. “The abyss waits for you. You stand upon its edge. To survive its depths, you must fully awaken to what is