Free What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons Page A

try to figure it out ourselves?” He asked.
    “I know that I was previously owned by Olivia Hamilton,” Cass told him. “Maybe we should go see her.”
    “Go right to the source?” he asked.
    “Why not?” Cass wondered. He drew her to a halt outside an old wooden door that had been painted black. Time and weather had peeled the paint away in various spots giving the door an antique look. The glass window in the door was detailed in golden paint that displayed the hours of operation and that this was, in fact, Madame Auguries Psychic Parlor.
    “Madame Augury?” Cass asked. The eyes she turned on Brandon wasn’t amused.
    He snorted. “This is going to be epic.”
    He pulled open the door to the sound of a bell jingling to let workers inside know there was a customer. A petite girl in a black dress with a pentacle necklace pushed her way through a beaded curtain from the backroom and into the main shop. She slipped behind the glass counter opposite the door.
    The Door swung shut behind Cass. The shop was rather small. A display of jewelry and one of incense stood on the scuffed wooden floor. Along one wall were jars of herbs. Along another wall were posters and tapestries.
    “Can I help you?” the girl asked. Her hair was red and tipped with blue dye.
    “We are here to see Madame Augury,” Brandon said. “We would like a reading.”
    “Both of you?” the girl asked.
    “Yes,” Brandon said.
    “A full reading, a mini reading, or a half reading?” the girl went to the register and flipped open an appointment book.
    “What’s the difference?”
    “Length of the reading and price,” Fire Hair said.
    “Mini,” Brandon told her pulling out his wallet.
    While they made the appointment and cashed out, Cass perused the shelves. She wished she could smell the incense. It looked so wonderful. A small display of essential oils reminded her how much she wasn’t human. If she were, she would enjoy the smells of the shop. She wondered what lavender smelled like, or lemon grass. They both sounded pretty.
    A couple minutes later they were being led through the beaded curtain and into a dimly lit room. In the center of the room stood a table draped with purple and with a crystal ball perched on the top. A woman sat behind the table. Cass wasn’t sure what she expected, maybe a turban or a large robe? Instead, the woman was dressed in jeans and a flower print shirt.
    Candles flicked all around the room providing the only light.
    “Sit,” the woman spoke softly. She motioned for the chairs on the opposite side of her. “I’m Augury.”
    Her presence wasn’t anywhere near as outrageous as her name professed.
    “Cass,” Cass told her. “This is Brandon.”
    “Did you have any specific questions for me today?” Augury asked them as they sat in the puffy red chairs. “Or do you just want a reading; a glimpse into your future?”
    “A reading please,” Cass said, taking her seat before Brandon did. Now that she was here she couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the idea of it all. What if the psychic was able to feel something about her that could help her? At least it would be something, she said.
    Augury rubbed her hands together vigorously as if she were trying to warm them. She snapped the tips against her thumbs, and then reached out for Cass’s hands.
    “Normally I don’t read robots,” she said. “They don’t have a future like humans do, but you’re different. I feel something special about you.”
    Cass couldn’t break her gaze from the green eyes of the psychic. From this angle the candle light behind Augury created a kind of halo of light around her brown hair. Brandon shifted uncomfortably beside Cass.
    Cass nodded. “Special how?”
    “I sense a huge shift in your past. A big change that happened.”
    Brandon cleared his throat as if stifling a laugh. Cass couldn’t fault him for that. It did seem like a pretty vague comment.
    “There was a fire,” she said.
    That made Cass sit up