“You’re miraculous,” he said. He smiled, nose-to-nose with her, and she smiled back. “Do you know how many fancy PhDs and profilers have studied the Jacksonville case and never got that? I’ve got to call Bayne.” He strode out of the room. Full of warmth from his praise, Alice looked down at the full card spread for the first time. Her smile slipped away and she went numb. All seven of the Death cards were laid out. It was a pure spread. She had never seen a pure spread before, just as she had never seen a royal flush in poker. Today seemed to be a day of rare firsts. Normally she would have contemplated the spread and let her mind roam free to let the whisper of Power in the cards tell her what they would. While she had told Gideon the truth and she didn’t have much Power, the cards sometimes had a mind of their own. But she couldn’t handle the implications of this kind of reading tonight.
