Twisted Karma

by Lizzy Ford

  Restlessness and sorrow swirled within Karma. She understood Stephanie’s pain. They both mourned for Fate.

  “I’m going to get him out,” Karma said firmly. “I don’t care what I have to do. I promise you, Stephanie.”

  Stephanie smiled at her. “I’m working on figuring it out on my own,” she admitted. “Not getting very far, though.”

  “Don’t do anything hasty,” Gabriel cautioned. “There are a lot of moving parts to this scenario. Stay out of Hell, both of you.”

  “I have a few favors, and Wynn has been … exposing me to the politics of the Immortals and this new world,” Stephanie said. “I think I can help Fate without going to Hell. Eventually.”

  “Still … if you want to bounce ideas around, talk to me before you do anything,” Gabriel insisted.

  “Or me,” Deidre added. “That goes for both of you.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Karma said dismissively. “Besides, Stephanie, Wynn wants you to lead the Council. You’ll be too busy with that to get into trouble.”

  Stephanie’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am. He told me as much.”

  “When he tore our alliance apart, he said no Immortal would trust the daughter of Chaos and mate of Fate.” Stephanie twisted to look towards her guardians, neither of which appeared to hear the conversation.

  “He was fucking with you,” Karma said. “He’s really good at that.” She swirled her wine, troubled, and took a long drink.

  Stephanie and Deidre were gazing at one another, their eyes glowing in excitement.

  “Does he know about you?” Deidre asked quietly.

  “Yep,” Karma replied. “I tried to balance him and failed. But when I looked into his soul, I saw my name branded across it. And …” She trailed off. She’d seen other secrets as well, including one no one else could possibly know. They were Wynn’s secrets, not hers. “Anyway. Maybe I’ll be the first deity able to resist her mate.”

  “Everyone thinks that at first,” Death said.

  “He’s right,” Deidre agreed.

  “But I’m a goddess,” Karma said. “None of you were deities when you tried. It might work for me.”

  “I was,” Gabriel reminded her.

  “It didn’t work for your brother, either,” Stephanie stated.

  Karma tried hard to push their insistence out of her mind. She needed to be focused on her brother, not Wynn. If she were the reason Fate was vulnerable, Wynn was the reason he was in Hell. How could she even consider Wynn as a mate after all he’d done?

  Wynn’s reminder that Fate had killed him the first time around was hard for her to ignore, but she remained furious at him for mistreating her brother, no matter how convoluted their history was.

  “Just … be careful,” Stephanie said after a thoughtful moment of silence. “If anyone can find a way to resist his mate, I think it could be Wynn. He’s dangerous.”

  Karma knew as much – and hated that she had met someone she was forced to respect. He was a mere Immortal. He never should have been a match for her on any level.

  “Agreed,” Death said. “If you can stay away, stay away.”

  “I don’t know,” Deidre said. “I know what he did to me. I know how well he can manipulate. But there is a hidden part of him that’s more than the manipulator. Darkyn’s daughter went to Wynn when I was kidnapped, and Wynn helped her with nothing to gain.”

  “Good will from Darkyn is hard to come by,” Gabriel countered. “Wynn would’ve used the situation to further his interests.”

  “Then the fact she went to him first, out of everyone, says something positive about him.”

  “How can you defend him?” Stephanie asked, surprised. “Didn’t he try to murder you slowly over the course of several years, all the while pretending to be the doctor curing you? He was in on you being sent to Hell.”

  “I’m happy with my circumstances,” Deidre replied. “I don’t think anyone can understand Wynn or what he wants or what he’s doing. I’m just saying we can’t see inside his head. I’ve spent more time with him than anyone. It’s a gut feeling.”

  Karma listened intently, confused about how no one else had any idea what to think of Wynn, either.

  “I don’t trust him,” Stephanie said firmly. “He’s torn his family apart to keep them from voting him out, and he’s tortured –”

  Gabriel cleared his throat.

  Stephanie stopped with a glance at Karma.

  “It’s okay,” Karma whispered. “I know what he is.”

  An awkward quiet fell.

  Karma’s heartbeat was racing, and she gulped the wine, mind on how much worse her situation seemed now than before she spoke the truth to anyone. Stephanie refilled her glass.

  “Let’s talk about something different,” Deidre said. She reached over and squeezed Karma’s forearm warmly. “It’ll be okay, Karma.”

  Karma managed to smile in return. Deidre had always been kind to her.

  “Wonder Woman or Superman?” Gabriel asked.

  “Wonder Woman,” Deidre and Stephanie replied instantly.

  “No way,” Gabriel returned. “Superman has death ray eyes. He’d pierce her shield in a heartbeat.”

  The women began arguing with him. Karma watched and listened, entertained by the spirited discussion. She couldn’t relax, though, not even after finishing off the bottle of wine. The hypnotic sound of waves did nothing to ease the knots of tension forming between her shoulders, or the way she clenched her teeth whenever she considered how she was no closer to freeing her brother.

  She didn’t know how to help him. She’d stripped away his ability to defend himself, and she couldn’t reach him to fix it. With all her power, she couldn’t force any deity to listen to her let alone convince one to help her.

  Distressed, she nonetheless stayed with the others through the night, desperate for a respite from her tortured thoughts.

  Eight

  Stephanie returned to the castle after her second Humans Anonymous meeting feeling better, if not about her circumstances, then about being able to talk to people who seemed to relate to her. Gabriel had terrified her at first, and still did sometimes, but was genuinely a good person with a dry sense of humor that bordered on morbid, befitting of his role as Death. Deidre had become more and more comfortable with her position as the queen of Hell, to the point she no longer hid her fangs when she laughed. Her grounded view of the world of Immortals and deities, and their tangled relationships, aided Stephanie when she felt overwhelmed.

  If someone had survived becoming the Dark One’s mate, then Stephanie could bear Fate’s absence a little longer.

  As for Karma … Stephanie sensed the volatile sister of Fate was more of a mess than usual. Stephanie pitied Deidre but was flat out horrified that Karma and Wynn were mates. Karma was crazy, yes, but innocent and believed she was doing good when she balanced people. Stephanie would have pitied anyone stuck with Wynn, but Karma was naïve, whereas another Immortal woman or goddess would have been able to play his game.

  The portal fizzled behind Stephanie, reminding her Wynn was completely in control of her life. She sat on her bed, pensive, wondering if the discovery of Wynn’s mate was information she could somehow use against him.

  He’d find a way to manipulate someone with the information, but she drew a blank. Everyone had warned her against directly challenging Wynn. Even if she could figure out what to do with the secret, she didn’t know how to wield it against him.

  The sudden, loud beating at her door jarred her out of her thoughts.

  Trayern crossed to open it, spinning a dagger in one hand. He wrenched the door open, ready to murder anyone present who wasn’t supposed to be.

  The Immortal guard at the door stepped back, startled.

  Stephanie hurried to the door and pushed the demon out of her way. He hovered, though, ready to pounce.

  “What is it?” she asked the guard, whose gaze was on the demon.


  “Demon incursion reported in Eastern Europe,” he reported.

  “Okay. And?”

  “Lord Wynn is unavailable. You are the only Council member present outside the dungeon authorized to address the issue.”

  “What do you mean he’s unavailable?” she asked.

  The Immortal guard shrugged. “That was all we were told.”

  “What do you need from me?” she asked.

  “You must come to the war chamber.” The Immortal guard started away quickly.

  We have a war chamber? Stephanie followed. How could Wynn possibly be unavailable? For all her misgivings about him, she had to admit his duty was his life, and he never failed to do what he was supposed to.

  The Immortal guard led her to the second floor. The first floor was made up of public halls and chambers, and the second floor was made up of official halls, conference rooms, and offices, to include Wynn’s study. The guard led her to a wing she hadn’t explored and into a conference room where six officers stood over a table whose top consisted of large computer screens. She’d been learning the ranks of the guards. The men in front of her consisted of the Immortal equivalent of a colonel, three majors and two aide de camps, whose uniforms bore a blue stripe. Dozens of lower ranking men and women filled the room. It was crowded and stuffy.

  Everyone looked up when she entered, their focus shifting from her to the demon at her heels.

  No one mentioned Trayern’s presence. Stephanie went to the table, where the feeds of several cameras were playing alongside computer simulations and a series of other monitors filled with information she didn’t understand.

  One of the aides de camp swiped the screen in front of her and pointed.

  “The incursion occurred here twenty minutes ago. Fifty demons, moving north.”

  She studied the footage and map.

  “How do you want to handle it?” he asked.

  “Excuse me?” she replied.

  “Our forces have been depleted by the events of the past two years. We can pull in soldiers from the other continents to address the incursion.”

  “Okay. Then do that,” she said.

  The military leaders exchanged looks.

  “If you pull them from one continent to another, then the incursion moves to where there are no soldiers.” Trayern spoke when no one else did. “It’s a basic demon maneuver.”

  “We believe this to be a distraction, albeit a very bloody one,” one of the officers said. “It’s likely they want to be in one of the places we pull soldiers from.”

  “And you want me to figure that out?” she asked, baffled.

  “You are the only Council member available.”

  Fuck. That didn’t mean she had any idea what she was doing!

  “Show me again,” Stephanie said, mind racing as she tried to understand what to do and how.

  The aide de camp walked her through the incursion, direction of the attacks, body count, the guard’s numbers and locations, and a slew of other details that overwhelmed her.

  When he was done, he stepped back and waited. “Fourteen humans reported dead.”

  The others were silent as well.

  Stephanie stared at the scenes and information scrolling over the monitors. All she could think about was her best friend Olivia, who had been slaughtered in front of her by demons. There were fourteen Olivia’s lying dead or dying in the streets and alleys in Europe. With each minute that passed, the number increased. A hundred people would be dead within fifteen minutes.

  “Child’s play,” Trayern muttered from his position leaning against the wall.

  “Do you even know what’s happening?” she snapped.

  “I’m one of Darkyn’s strategists.”

  “Twenty-three dead,” the captain said soberly.

  Stephanie didn’t have time to ask Trayern anything else. She’d learned he was more than a sadistic killer driven by blood with no mind of his own, but she’d never bothered to ask him what exactly he did in Hell.

  “We need a decision,” the colonel said.

  “I don’t know,” she replied, unable to make sense of the pictures and information flashing across the screens. “Isn’t it your job to recommend a course of action?”

  “Forty dead,” the aide de camp said.

  Stephanie froze. How the fuck was she ever going to replace Wynn, if she couldn’t deal with the most basic reason that the Immortals existed in the human world? Had Karma misunderstood Wynn? Surely he wouldn’t leave the Immortals in the hands of someone who couldn’t perform their primary duty!

  “Enough,” Wynn’s calm voice said from the doorway.

  Stephanie faced him, relieved he was present.

  “We’ll do this again later this week,” he told the others. “Leave the information up.”

  The six officers filed out of the war chamber, followed by the other members of the

  Immortal guard.

  “I don’t understand,” Stephanie said, watching them leave.

  “Simulation,” Trayern supplied. “This attack occurred nine months ago.”

  “Correct,” Wynn said and joined her at the table.

  Trayern pushed Wynn aside to stand between them.

  “You wanted me to fail,” she said.

  “I wanted you to see what another part of our duties consists of and why it’s critical for us to maintain order and unity within the society,” Wynn said. “Rhyn handled this situation.”

  She shook her head. “This kind of thing is new to me,” she said. “I can’t even begin to understand what to do.”

  “It takes practice,” Wynn said. “Strategy can be learned.” He tapped one screen and brought up the map of the world, complete with red dots showing where the Immortals were located and blue ones for the demon incursion. “In the meantime, you have two choices. You either guess and hope you’re right, or you bring in an advisor. Kris and Rhyn are both proficient at repelling demon attacks, though their differences are great in this area as in most other areas.”

  “What was really going on here?” She motioned to the table.

  “Darkyn was after someone in the western hemisphere. Explain it, demon,” Wynn ordered Trayern.

  “Darkyn collects special souls for our Army of Souls. The most depraved of them,” the demon replied. “He was after a dictator who recently died in South America.”

  “The incursion was supposed to draw our people away from the dictator,” Wynn said, pointing.

  “How can all this be for one soul?” she demanded.

  “That one soul could be responsible for tens of thousands of deaths one day,” Wynn answered. “If his army doesn’t work out, Darkyn can still resurrect the soul and set it loose on the world. This dictator murdered a million of his own people. He’s not the kind of soul you want Darkyn to obtain.”

  “He wants you to lead his army,” Trayern said to Wynn.

  “I would hope he knows better by now.”

  No part of Stephanie doubted Wynn would become a terrifying and effective leader of an army set on murder. Had he been born without his sense of duty, he’d probably be running Hell.

  “I planned this one,” Trayern said. He indicated three points on the map. “We had incursions in these places to draw out the Immortals then sent two demons here to take the soul.”

  “Did it work?” Stephanie asked uneasily.

  “No,” Trayern growled. “We didn’t know Death was sending in his assassins to help the Immortals. We successfully drew out the Immortals, but the death dealers beat us to the soul.”

  Stephanie absorbed the information. “You expect me to understand how to wage war?” she asked Wynn.

  “In time, yes,” he replied. “It’s another of our duties.”

  “I failed this test miserably.”

  “You did,” he confirmed. “But I expected you to.”

  “Thanks for the leap of faith, daddy,” she shot back sarcastically. “How should I have known what to do?”

  “That wasn�
�t the purpose of this test. I’d expect you to rely on one of your brothers to guide you for the first century or two,” he answered. “The lesson here is twofold. First, we often must determine how many human lives are saved or lost at the hands of demons.”

  Stephanie felt ill. If this had been real, she would have hesitated, and dozens of humans would have paid the ultimate price. The memory of Olivia’s murder replayed in her thoughts. She was able to prevent anyone else from dying like her friend did – if she could function upon being told demons were terrorizing the world.

  “Second, sometimes human lives must be sacrificed for the sake of the greater cause,” Wynn said.

  “How can you say that?” she asked in a hushed voice.

  “You will have to choose who lives and dies. We don’t have the resources to save everyone.”

  Was this why Wynn was cold and detached? Or had he excelled at this duty because he was already a raging sociopath capable of viewing human lives as disposable?

  “How many humans died that night?” Wynn asked Trayern.

  “Ninety four,” the demon answered without hesitation.

  “We sacrificed ninety-four souls in order to position ourselves to protect the one that counted,” Wynn said.

  Stephanie searched his features. “You want me to be able to make a decision like that?”

  “I want you to be able to understand the greater good, unlike your brothers,” he replied. “Rhyn played it safe and called in a favor, which ensured fewer humans died and the soul didn’t make it to Darkyn. Kris would’ve abandoned the humans in Europe and gone after the dictator’s soul first. Rhyn’s decision cost ninety-four humans. Kris’ would’ve cost hundreds – but he, too, would’ve claimed the soul.”

  Stephanie absorbed the new information about her brothers. They were both competent, and they both would’ve chosen a different strategy to deal with the incursion. Rhyn’s decision, and Kris’ potential decision, fit into the profiles she’d created for both brothers.

  “Each method has a potential use down the road, though I’d advise you to assess who you listen to carefully. You can’t walk away from the consequences of your decisions.”

  She was already leaning towards asking Rhyn for help, but couldn’t help wondering if there would come a time when Kris’ scorched earth tactics would be warranted. Wynn wouldn’t teach her something she didn’t need to know, and he’d never advocate she take advice from one of her brothers, if he didn’t believe she’d absolutely need the help.