This chapter, this wonderful, plot-furthering chapter, begins with the circus, for once, being closed due to some truly terrible rain. Not that I'd know much about that. Stupid drought.
Celia, umbrella in hand and over head, enters a cafe, choosing to sit with Isobel. Isobel mentions planning to meet someone (Marco, who is in fact, there, poor Isobel), and they talk for awhile before Celia inquires about tarot cards and Isobel offers a reading.
I won't be able to translate the more subtle cards, because I don't have service, but fortunately Isobel is giving the reading for me.
Celia notices that one card is missing, and Isobel waves it off (the Angel, if I'm not mistaken).
After laying the cards and trying to hide her surprise, Isobel explains. I'm just going to quote it.
"'You carry a great many burdens with you. A heavy heart. Things you've lost. But you are moving toward change and discovery. There are outside influences that are propelling you forward.'
....{some non-dialogue}
'You're...not fighting, that's not really the right word for it, but there's a conflict with something unseen, something shadowed that's hidden from you.'
...{more non-dialogue}
'But it will be revealed soon,' she says.
This catches Celia's attention.
'How soon?'
'The cards do not make for the clearest of timelines, but it is very close. Almost immediate, I would think.'
...
'There's emotion,' she says. 'Deep emotion but out are only on the shore of it, still near the surface, while it is waiting to pull you under.'
...
'It's nothing that I can clearly see as good or bad, but it is...intense.'
...
'It almost contradicts itself,' she says after a moment. 'It's as if there is love and loss at the same time, together in a kind of beautiful pain.'"
Ooooh. Sorry to quote all that, but it really is important. Also, there's a chapter I'm counting down to, though not the one in less than 100 pages, a very serious chapter for Celia and Marco, and it's called "Beautiful Pain". I'd forgotten that was brought up. Again, poor Isobel.
Isobel, once she is alone, again finds the Magician card, though Marco is no longer there. Not that she knew he was.
Outside, Celia is distracted enough that it takes her a few minutes to realize that her umbrelle is keeping her completely dry, that's it's not hers.
She turns to see Marco behind her, dripping wet.
"'I believe you have my umbrella,' he says, almost out of breath but wearing a grin that has too much wolf in it to be sheepish."
That's a bit creepy...anyway, standing there, Celia realizes, just as Isobel predicted, that Marco is her opponent, and she laughs.
She then shakes the surprise off and they exchange umbrellas.
He suggests they get a drink, and she almost accepts but for the fact that she is no longer holding a magic umbrella that will keep her dry.
She's still delighted with her epiphany, taking some humor at his expense.
"'Of course you would,' Celia says, returning Marco's grin with one of her own. 'Perhaps another time.'"
She then disappears, to no surprise from Marco.
This chapter ends with him, as is becoming habit for him, staring at the space from which she vanished.
Moving now to Shatter Me Chapter Fifteen.
Finished at 1:28 pm.
