Twisted Karma

by Lizzy Ford

  Goddess.

  Mostly, she waited for the memories of her mate to vanish, and take with it the torture of having every sense recalling what it felt like to be in his presence.

  You’ve done enough, goddess.

  A flare of lightning and fire disrupted the coldness of death, tugging her back towards the edge of the abyss.

  “Karma.”

  Even now, her mind played tricks on her, telling her he was there when he wasn’t.

  Another flare of fire pierced her. It was followed by the warmth of his touch, his faint scent, the brush of his stubble roughened cheek against hers. At once, the storm within her began to wane, replaced by the grounded calm of Wynn’s presence and healing ability.

  She grew aware of her physical self and opened her eyes. The black fog around her had begun to dissipate.

  Wynn’s heat surrounded her. His chin rested against her temple and his chest was at her back. His heartbeat was quick, and he was warm. He gripped her wrists and had wrapped their arms around her body. He held her against him, thighs on either side of her hips as he knelt behind her.

  He was unyielding and solid in a world where she had no other foundation.

  Karma sucked in a breath and swallowed hard. Her cheeks were stiff with the tears that had stopped the moment she realized he was present.

  He didn’t speak again but simply held her. Slowly, her body relaxed against his, as calmed by his warmth as her mind was by his gentle healing power.

  “You’re not a god,” she whispered, sensing his Immortal soul.

  She blinked away tears. The black fog had ceased writhing and clung to the ground. It had begun to disappear completely in some places, revealing patches of grass dusted with starlight.

  “There’s something I want more,” was Wynn’s soft response. “I want to be your home.”

  Warmth bloomed within her. She rested her head back against his shoulder, and he nuzzled her gently.

  “You’re powerful and brave and beautiful,” Wynn continued in the same calm tone. “Nothing about you is weak, and I apologize for ever making you feel as if you are.”

  “Like in the movies,” she said hoarsely. “You choose me?”

  “Yes, Karma, I do. And I will every day from here on out.”

  Comfortable in his embrace, she exhaled a deep breath. The last of the fog disappeared, leaving several dazed deities and a dozen more dead in the field.

  “I’m so sorry I hurt you.” These words were hoarse.

  She heard the pain in his voice, and tears blurred her vision. “It’s okay,” she whispered.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “I love you. It’s always okay. No matter what you do.”

  “You deserve much better than anything I am or could ever offer you,” Wynn replied.

  “All I want is for you to be my home again,” she replied, choking back tears.

  “Always.”

  She wiped her tears and relaxed into him, too exhausted to identify what emotions she felt. But they weren’t the bad ones that had consumed her.

  “I made a mess,” she murmured.

  “Nothing we can’t fix together.”

  Hearing the raw note in his voice, she straightened and twisted to peer at her mate. Wynn’s eyes, always beautiful and mesmerizing, were even more so this day, because they didn’t hide his feelings. He was calm on the surface– but his emotions were stormy.

  She smiled and rested her palms against his warm cheeks. “I took out Raphael. He won’t try to hurt you again.”

  Wynn laughed quietly. “Thank you, goddess.”

  “You don’t know shit about loving someone else. We’re going to watch movies until you figure it out. That’s how I learned,” she said.

  “After we negotiate amends to the successors of the deities you balanced.”

  She debated reminding him she could handle things herself and then glanced around at the carnage remaining in the field. “Yeah, I might need help with that,” she said. “You can negotiate and I’ll handle anyone who refuses to do what you want.”

  Wynn pulled her back into his arms. She clung to him.

  “For the official record, if you ever do this shit again, Karma, I will render you dead-dead.” Gabriel’s tone was stern.

  “If you ever come for Wynn, I’ll do worse,” Karma retorted, glaring at her friend without leaving the warm embrace of her mate.

  “Also, stay out of my fucking Underworld,” Death snapped.

  “I have a new home, and it’s better than prison!”

  “Wynn, our deal is done,” Gabriel stated. “But Darkyn’s waiting for you.”

  Karma looked between them. “Darkyn? Why?” she asked, concerned for her mate.

  “Stephanie got herself killed by a demon,” Gabriel explained. “Now your mate is going to get her out of Hell. Right?”

  “I will,” Wynn replied.

  “Good. I’m done. Tell Fate I don’t want to see him for a very long time,” Gabriel said. He strode away from them, towards the nearest deity and knelt to help her to her feet.

  “You have to help Stephanie,” Karma said and leaned away from her mate. She searched his features once more, not wanting to move from his presence yet concerned about her brother and his mate.

  “Stay out of trouble, goddess,” Wynn said with a small smile. He cupped her cheek in one hand. “I might be a while.”

  “Will you come find me if I get in trouble?” she asked hopefully.

  “I’ll come find you either way,” he promised and rested his forehead against hers. “Please refrain from balancing anyone before I return.”

  Karma smiled. The lingering pain, doubt and fear slid away as they breathed in the same air.

  The peaceful moment lasted until Wynn drew away. He stood and pulled her up with him. He kissed her gently, and she leaned into him, loving his flavor and warm, soft lips. The tender exchange lit the fire in her belly and reminded her of how safe she’d always felt with the man everyone else feared.

  We have this in common, too, she thought.

  Wynn brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek. “After I confront a particular demon lord about murdering my daughter …” His eyes dropped to her lips, and hunger flared.

  She pulled his face to hers for a hungry, quick kiss. “Hurry up,” she said and stepped back.

  Wynn summoned a portal.

  Karma’s eyes didn’t leave his lean frame until he disappeared. Her emotions were contained, not because of her effort, but because Wynn’s touch had centered her.

  She stood in the middle of the field, surrounded by the corpses she’d created and smiled widely, unconcerned with anything but the idea her mate cared enough to want to spend his life with her. The day she’d expected to be her last was becoming her first in a new life instead.

  “Um, I have to tell you something,” Deidre said from behind her.

  Karma twirled in a circle, ecstatic. “It’s the best day of my life!” she exclaimed.

  “I see that. I think.” The queen of Hell stood to the side, observing the destruction with a grimace. Gabriel had disappeared. “I’m here for a different reason. You once challenged the Dark One long ago. I think that’s why your brother threw you in prison.”

  Karma’s smile faded. “But today’s the best day of my life,” she murmured, unable to fathom her life and world ending when things were just starting to go right. A flicker of uneasiness ignited within her.

  “There’s a reason it has to be now,” Deidre told her.

  “No. It can wait half an eternity.”

  “It really can’t.”

  “Fuck!” Karma began to pace, furious with herself for not understanding the consequences of the challenge she’d made long ago.

  “Don’t you want to know why?”

  “I don’t give a fuck!”

  Deidre laughed. “Karma, I’m the Dark One. But Darkyn can regain his position anytime he feels like it. So … you should balance me instead of taking your ch
ances with him.”

  Karma stared at Deidre. The demoness glowed with darkness rather than with the shimmer of other deities, but so did all demons in the human world.

  Deidre said and offered her hand. “Balance me, Karma, and your challenge to the Dark One will be fulfilled.”

  “You’re serious?” Karma asked in disbelief.

  “I am.” Deidre smiled. “You can’t tell anyone, though. Only Gabe and your brother know. And Wynn.”

  Karma drew nearer to the tiny demoness, entertained by the thought of the most innocent soul in Hell being in charge.

  “He must love you to give you Hell,” she murmured.

  Deidre beamed. “He does. It’s difficult to love a complicated man, which I’m sure you’ll discover. But it’s so worth it, too. When someone like that loves you, you never have to wonder if he’ll change their mind, or if his feelings will fade, or if he settled. Someone like Darkyn or Wynn devotes himself completely, no exceptions.”

  Karma smiled, loving the picture Deidre’s words painted.

  “I’ve got some business to attend to,” Deidre added and held out her hand. “Balance me, Karma.”

  Karma slid her hand into Deidre’s.

  The demoness was the only pure soul in Hell – and one of the few in any world. Her balancing required less than two breaths of Karma’s time.

  Karma released her. The demoness smiled.

  “You and Wynn have a fresh start,” Deidre said. “That’s my wedding present.”

  Karma began to smile again.

  “Your brother needs you. You should go.”

  “He’s free?”

  “He is,” Deidre replied.

  Thrilled, Karma didn’t stick around to ask any details but summoned a portal and crossed through. When she emerged, she was in Stephanie’s chamber. Her eyes fell to the prone form on the bed, and she gasped.

  Her brother was unconscious, pale beneath his golden skin, his breathing ragged.

  Karma dropped onto the bed beside him. “Shai!” she said and shook him.

  He didn’t wake up.

  Guilt assailed her. Wynn had said Stephanie was in Hell. Was this causing her brother’s condition? Was his weaker human body capable of handling a broken bond?

  She’d judged her brother before understanding the nuances of balancing, and how each soul was different and required a different level of balance.

  Karma gripped his arm in both her hands.

  For the first time in her career as a deity, she peered into someone else’s soul for a second time.

  His misdeeds, which she believed had outweighed his good deeds upon her first evaluation, took on new meaning, when she factored in not only his duty but also his heart and the ultimate impact on good or evil.

  Her brother was selfless. Yes, he had committed much wrong in his life, but it had never been for his own sake. He’d sacrificed his own balance and beliefs for a greater cause – to help shape the Future in a way that protected and helped others. He had never hurt anyone, unless the Future depended upon it. The withering part of his soul, which she’d witnessed the first time she’d balanced him, had begun to bloom again.

  Stephanie’s existence would have changed her brother, no matter what. But it was stripping him of his godly indifference that left him vulnerable to remembering why he mattered, and why he should care.

  Karma sat back, chewing on her lower lip.

  After her interactions with deities, she didn’t care if she’d misjudged them, and demons would always deserve death, as far as she was concerned.

  But how many Immortals and humans had she balanced too harshly? Without truly understanding what was in their souls? Without considering the context and good that could have come from actions she otherwise would’ve punished them for?

  “What would balance you?” she asked her brother, speaking to the soul that revealed itself without hesitation.

  The answer, more of a feeling than words, made her smile, not only because she’d already decided the same, but because she’d never viewed her duty as a conversation with a soul. She’d never discussed what a soul needed to return to its own unique alignment, and she was delighted when her brother’s soul responded.

  “Agreed,” she said. “You are balanced, brother.” A faint pulse of power shifted from her to him, and she released him.

  Fate began to glow once more with the faint aura of a deity.

  “Wake your ass up!” She snapped and smacked his cheek.

  “What the …” Fate’s eyes opened, and he sat, disoriented. He grimaced. “Forty two percent chance you’ll slap me again.” His eyes found her.

  Karma hugged him. He grunted and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I’m so sorry!” she said with a sigh. “I judged you too harshly.”

  “I’m not about to argue with you.” Pain was in his voice, despite the return of his powers. “Stephanie …”

  “Wynn went to save her.”

  “He’s going to need help.”

  Karma released her brother. “Why didn’t you tell me about Wynn?” she demanded.

  Fate smiled at her. He shifted to the edge of the bed.

  “You have to tell me, Shai.”

  “You’re my sister,” he said and straightened. His hypnotic eyes were turning colors as fast as her hair. “Had I understood how I should’ve acted towards you, or the strength of a mating bond … there are a lot of things I’d have done differently.”

  “I understand that feeling,” she murmured.

  “I’m sorry for interfering.” Fate paused. “I’m also grateful you judged me as harshly as you did. I told myself I was respecting free will but the truth was, I stopped caring long ago. People like you and Stephanie and every other being in existence deserve better.”

  “I can think of a few gods you need to fuck over.”

  “Oh, I intend to,” he said, a familiar cunning gleam in his eyes. “Deities are always fair game, especially those who took advantage of you and Stephanie.”

  “I can fight my own battles,” she replied. “If I fuck up too many people, then Wynn can fix that shit.”

  Fate laughed. “If anyone can, he can,” he agreed. “If you hadn’t balanced me, I wouldn’t be able to become a better person and more compassionate god. I learned what it means to be powerless to help those around me, myself, and the Future. I need to balance free will with my duty more responsibly.”

  “I did help you,” she said softly.

  “Absolutely.” Fate stood. “But right now, I have to have a word with Darkyn.”

  Karma watched him leave, content she hadn’t screwed over everyone she balanced.

  The day she didn’t think she would survive was definitely becoming the best day of her life.

  Twenty-Nine

  Stephanie became aware of the world around her. Hushed voices, the scent of vanilla, soft bedding. Her body was stiff and sore, as if she’d been lying in bed for days without moving. Her thoughts felt as if they were clawing their way through a heavy darkness to reach her conscious mind.

  “There you are.”

  The second she recognized the cheerful voice, Stephanie recalled everything that had happened.

  She sat up with a gasp. The world swam and wobbled around her, and she grabbed her throat, horrified to feel the bumpy, gnarled scars. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision.

  “You should lie down. It’s not easy being resurrected,” Deidre advised and pushed her back onto the bed.

  “I’m in Hell again,” Stephanie whispered.

  Deidre’s hovering features came into focus, framed by the black blocks of the ceiling making up Hell’s fortress.

  “Is this where Darkyn starts torturing me for eternity?” Stephanie asked anxiously.

  “He’d love to but no!” Deidre giggled. “You got lucky. Wynn and Fate negotiated to have you brought back and freed.”

  Stephanie’s heart felt as if it stopped before it began racing once more. “It worked?” she squeaked.
“Wynn didn’t become a god?”

  “Nope,” Deidre confirmed.

  Stephanie sighed. She sat up again more carefully. The movement caused her no dizziness or disorientation, and she leaned back against the headboard as black as the bedding and walls of the chamber.

  Deidre smiled, her tiny fangs perching on her lower lip. Her dress seemed to move of its own accord, floating in the air around her, and her hair was purple.

  “There is something I have to tell you,” the demoness continued. “In order to agree to resurrecting you, Wynn and Fate had to make concessions.”

  Stephanie waited apprehensively.

  Deidre bared her teeth and tapped her fangs.

  Stephanie frowned.

  Deidre tapped emphatically.

  Stephanie lifted a hand and tapped her teeth and then sucked in a breath. “Holy fuck! What is this?” She pulled her lips back and felt the lengthened incisors. She cut her finger on the razor edge of her fangs.

  “You kind of came back as a demon. Or partial demon,” Deidre said apologetically. “You’re half deity, so I guess that makes you half demon, half deity, half … well, maybe a third demon-Immortal-deity. I don’t know. According to our Oracle, it’s never happened quite this way.”

  Stephanie stared at her.

  “It’s not that bad,” Deidre said. “But it’ll take some getting used to.”

  “You think?” Stephanie demanded hoarsely. She tapped her teeth again. “I can’t hide these!”

  “You look cute!”

  Stephanie dropped her hand, dismayed. “I wish someone would have explained all this shit to me at some point.”

  “It could be worse,” Deidre said gently. “It took a lot, and I mean a lot, of negotiating with Darkyn for your resurrection to become a possibility. He really did want to hang onto you to use against Fate and Wynn. Demons at some point all end up answering to the Dark One. He believes making you a partial demon will ensure he has some influence over you, even if you’re free.”

  Dread slid through Stephanie. “When you say a lot, what do you mean? Fate didn’t have to sacrifice himself again, did he?”