The woman turned over some cards from an ordinary deck, which she took from one of the piles, and looked at them for a few minutes. Then she spoke without looking at him.
"I've already been in front of another creature like you."
"Yes. Caricature is just like me."
"No. He's your kind, but he's not like you. No one as powerful as you has yet sat before me."
Adam stared at her coldly.
"Caricature didn't tell you what we are." Adam knew that he would never betray the werewolves' secret. It was forbidden.
She turned her eyes to Adam, and they were surprised.
"You don't have to tell me what you are. I always know."
"Do you get a lot of monsters here?"
"No. You're not a monster and I never take on those who really are monsters."
"Do you have anything else to tell me? Anything I don't know?"
She turned her eyes back to the deck.
"The woman you love, now... Forget about her. She'll never be yours again." She said and gathered up the cards, shuffled them again, then put them back on the table and stared at Adam, who was stunned.
"Isn't there a spell that will bring her back to me?"
"I don't know if there is such a thing. I don't work with spells, but even if you do it and it works, neither of you will be happy."
"She's mine!" He said angrily.
The woman looked indecisive before saying.
"She'll come back to you, but when she decides she wants you, she won't be what she is now."
"You said she would never be mine again. You're contradicting yourself!"
"She'll never be yours again. The woman she is now. That woman, you've lost."
"I'm not giving her up."
"I know that."
"Is she happy right now?"
The woman touched her index finger to the pile of cards again and Adam cut it off. She did the same as before.
"She's not happy. She's happy."
"Is she dating?"
"Not yet."
Adam fell silent, thoughtful with that little word resounding in his mind; "not yet".
The woman went back to her ritual with the cards and Adam cut the deck before she even asked with his index finger.
"You'll meet a young woman, and even if you don't love her the way you think love should be, you'll put her in your life, and she'll make you enjoy sex again. And that will bind you to her indefinitely."
"Will that take long?" He asked, now believing that she really was good. He knew about her problem. And knowing Caricatura, he was sure he hadn't told her anything about his personal problems.
"No. In fact, it will be before the end of the week."
"And the woman I love, will I see her again?"
"Yes."
"And when that happens... will I still love her?"
"Yes. People can love more than two people at the same time..."
"And I'm going to give up the young woman who's going to make me feel pleasure again, to be with the woman I love?"
"No. But I didn't say you'd just stay with her. You'll go back to acting as you always have. You won't be faithful to this young woman. You'll enjoy other women, too. And she'll be like a safe haven for you."
"That's good."
"Yes, but... You're no good. You're going to do horrible things, even to the woman to whom your heart belongs. Much worse than what you did to her in the hospital." The woman stared vacantly as she said those words, and Adam felt like running out of there. "You'll go back to loving that woman who abandoned you the way you love her, now, another young woman. Forbidden to you. As punishment for the lives you'll disrupt over the years to come."
"You're wrong. No woman is forbidden to me. I'll take whoever I want."
"You won't think that of this young woman."
"Why?"
"Because a love greater than the one you feel for this woman will prevent you from moving forward..."
"I find that difficult. I'm not a sentimentalist. I don't get hung up on such nonsense."
The woman looked at him, her eyes now shining, and went back to the same ritual with the cards.
"You have the right to one more question. Your time is up."
"I'll pay double."
"You can't buy everything. I... I don't know if the spirits will reveal much more to me..."
"Will I have children?" Adam asked, after he had cut the deck again.
"That's not a good question."
"Why?"
"The answer I got from the cards is an enigma."
"I want to know what they say anyway."
"Only two children, and one of them won't be yours."
"What do you mean? Am I going to adopt?" Adam began to think that woman was crazy. Or a fake.
"No. They're children of your blood."
"I would never abandon a child of mine, if that's what you're trying to say."
"I know that." She said and started to get up.
"Wait!" Adam asked and she sat down again. "I need to know one more thing. If the spirits don't want to answer, I'll understand, but please try."
The woman took a deep breath and shuffled the cards, leaving them on the table. Adam cut the deck, and she took a few from the pile and stared at them with a worried and fearful expression.
"I know what you want to know. The cards revealed it to me. And the answer is, yes. Keeping that woman you deceived with a false marriage is going to bring you trouble. And yes, to that other question too. The woman who prepared the spell for you will have a horrible end, and it will be inspired by you."
"Should I send them away?"
"That won't change their fate. But leaving your false wife, living with you, will save her life."
"What about the sorceress?"
"She'll still do horrible things, no matter where she is. And what she's done in the past, she'll pay for, in an inhuman way. But you have a problem in your werewolf family, right? A problem that makes you hostage to a witch."