by G. Bailey
“I fought you once, and I won’t again. You’re my best friend,” I tell her, tears falling down my cheeks and stinging on the side that hurts like a bitch. “You will remember me, and everything you do, you will regret. I won’t give you anything else to regret because I love you.”
“Go away,” she pleads, her glowing blue eyes shining with pain. I wish I could hug her, tell her it will be okay. “Go away, go away, go away!” Her pleas hurt my ears as she climbs onto the bed and hides her head behind her knees, looking like a frightened animal. A sob catches in my throat as I stand up and walk to the door, forcing myself not to look back. The second I step out of the door, I can’t stop the tears that fall as I slide to my butt on the floor and hug my knees. I need Killian to make me laugh, Seth to hold me and make me feel safe, and Storm to be my avenging angel who would always be there for me. I miss them so much it hurts.
I don’t look up as I hear tiny footsteps walking towards me.
“Here’s a cookie. I used to cry all the time too, but it gets better,” Ruby softly says, and I look up to see her kneeling in front of me, holding a cookie on a plate for me.
“You’re brave, Ruby. So brave,” I tell her, wiping my tears away before taking the cookie from the plate.
“You’re my sister, so you can be too,” she replies, and I chuckle because it’s so far from the truth. I’m not brave at all. Ruby moves to sit next to me, and her small hand takes mine, holding on tightly.
Storm, Killian, Seth stay firmly in my mind as I convince myself to stand up and take a bite of the delicious cookie.
“Karma, will you join me for dinner this evening?” Neritous asks, but it’s not a question, it’s more a demand from his tone alone. I turn to see him walking towards us from the other side of the room, and Ruby presses herself close to my side, clearly frightened of him.
Ruby looks up to me, pleading with her eyes that I don’t fight him. “Okay.”
The word feels like a betrayal, but it might be the only thing that saves me for now.
Chapter 4
“Thank you for agreeing to come to dinner with me,” Neritous states as I step into the room. I tense my back, watching him carefully as he straightens his tie.
“I wasn’t invited but demanded,” I remind him. “To be fecking truthful, I’d rather eat with a shark god. And they always stink of fish.”
“Did you know the lower water gods were the ones who made the fish in the seas?” he asks me, waving a hand towards a seat at the table. The smell of the food lures me over far more than my father’s invitation does. The small table is set for two, with several plates of various foods in the middle, waiting for us to help ourselves. Everything from rich roast potatoes, steamed vegetables, thick gravy and a whole leg of lamb calls to me. Roast dinners are my favourite, especially with lamb.
“How did you know this is my favourite meal?” I ask as he sits down. He doesn’t talk until I take my seat, and I feel like his answer is a reward for sitting down. More manipulation, with a side of lamb, it seems.
“It was your mother’s. I won her over with my cooking,” he remarks, cutting the lamb and placing some on my plate.
“Did you actually cook for her?” I question, crossing my arms. He serves me like I’m a child, and I’m not an eegit, but I know he sees me as one. His child that should be grateful to be around him. After he fills my plate, he works on his own, and I’d be tempted to throw the food at him if I weren’t so hungry. I feel like a traitor with every bite of the delicious food.
“To answer your question, of course not,” he tells me. “But she thought I did, and all that matters is you were the conclusion to our mating.”
“Unless you want me to puke this food up, can we change the subject?” I all but beg, and he laughs. I hate that his laugh is almost like mine. “Like the real reason you have me here, for instance.”
“The gods of the world are dying,” he announces, and I frown. From what I’ve seen and heard, they are not. “With every generation, they mix with humans, the magic fades, and over time, gods will be nothing but fairy tales in this world. A thousand years ago, a tree god could make a tree grow to the clouds within minutes, but now all they can do is heal a tree from dying. That is merely one example, but magic as a whole is fading. The world is dying.”
“Maybe if gods were allowed to mix with each other, that would change,” I suggest, and I instantly know I’ve said the wrong thing. Neritous stands, dropping his fork to the table, and the clang makes me jump.
“You might have killed my sisters and brother, the useless lot they were, but the higher gods’ law still stands with me. Mixing gods is dangerous,” he snaps.
“I’m a mix,” I point out, holding my head high.
“And you are far more dangerous than you realise,” he points out with a sneer. “Come with me.”
He walks out of the door, and knowing I don’t really have a choice, I stand up and shove some lamb into my mouth before following him out. I chew my food as I stay behind Neritous, following him to a thin steel door with three locks. It takes him a minute to put in all the codes, and then the door swings open on its own.
My skin immediately itches, like I can feel something wrong even before I step into the room behind Neritous. In the centre of the metal-covered room is a spinning, see-through green sphere that must be the size of a car. It constantly spins, like it’s actually alive, and right in the middle of it is a cube. The cube is a deep green colour, like the colour of the leaves in spring when they are at their brightest and most beautiful. Alluringly, I can’t stop staring at the cube. I almost feel like I’ve seen it before.
Without realising it, I’ve almost walked all the way to the edge of the sphere, and my feet knock into something. Almost slowly, I look down and see Faleria at my feet. Her eyes lack life, her soul is gone, and a smile is on her lips like she is almost happy to have died. Her body lies at an awkward angle, and sickness builds in my throat. I jump back, turning around to run away when I smack into Neritous. He grips my chin tightly in his hand, forcing me to look at him through my tears.
“Shame about her. Isn’t it?” he carelessly states. His daughter is dead on the floor behind me, and he doesn’t care one bit.
“We are all fecking experiments to you, aren’t we?” I spit out, and he laughs, shoving me away from him. He walks to the edge of the sphere, never looking down at the body. He traces his finger over the sphere, almost in a loving way that makes little sense to me.
“This is the source of all magic in the world. This is the dying soul of the goddess of life,” he whispers. “My adoptive mother, which I am sure you know the story of well from Storm.”
I stumble back, staring at the cube and sphere with a whole new understanding as he keeps on talking. “When one of my children, as promised, is given the power of life, they can give it to me, and I can rule the world. See, my adopted mother was a smart woman, and when she died, she made it impossible for a higher god to take the power. But I found a way around that. When one of you takes the power, I can make gods, I can level cities of humans to remind them who is ruling this world. I can and will do whatever I want, what she never wanted us to do.”
“And if the power doesn’t accept you?”
“You will become like Faleria,” he coldly answers, turning back to me. “But I don’t believe that will happen. The power only touched your friend, Madison, and transformed her. She is the first who survived that since I and my siblings were changed. I believe my adoptive mother’s soul is waiting for you and saved Madison for you.”
“That’s impossible. It’s just a cube, not a soul,” I say, shaking my head. I can hardly believe Storm’s mother’s soul is in that cube and saved Madison for me. Why would her soul know me at all?
Neritous smiles at me like he knows something I don’t.
Walking to my side, he pauses and leans down as I stare ahead, tears prickling the corners of my eyes. “You were born for destruction, Karma Kismet. Don’t l
et me down.”
“I was born from lies and loved from the second I existed by a brilliant mother. I will never be what you want me to be.”
“In three days, we will find out, won’t we?” he counters, finally leaving the room just before the first tear falls down my cheek.
Chapter 5
“I took some food to your friend, but she threw it back at me. Is she always so mean?” Ruby asks me, sitting next to me on the floor in front of the door. I overlook the grey waters, the shore lapping against the wooden planks outside the door. I’ve knocked myself out twice trying to walk out of here. Once, I attempted to just walk out the door, calling Neritous’s bluff. That hurt. The second time, I got creative and tried to escape through the roof. The same thing happened, and fecking hell did it hurt when it threw me back onto the steps I climbed up. I was almost thankful I passed out that time.
“Thanks for trying, and no, she is the kindest person I know. Mads is just lost right now,” I tell her, wrapping my arm over her shoulders. “Is Kit awake?”
“Just checked and nope,” she answers, moving her eyes to the water. “I’d never seen the sea before I came here. Mum wanted to take me, but we didn’t have much money. I told auntie Jade, or she overheard me, and she made a beach in our living room with a pool, sand and deck chairs with umbrellas.”
I watch her fond smile, and I can just imagine Jade taking the time to do all that. She was the kinda person who always made the best of any bad situation.
“I wish she was here. Jade would know what to do next,” I admit. “Or she would tell me I had the answers, or I could figure it out myself. She always believed in me, even when we just met.”
“Do you still think the weatherman and the twins will come to save us?” she asks.
“Weatherman?” I furrow my brow until it clicks. Storm. I chuckle as her cheeks go red.
“If anyone can find us, it’s him. The justice twins have a chance, and so do my family. We all defend each other and find a way. Even against all the odds.”
“I like that,” she replies with a shy smile. “Cats have packs, like most animals, and anyone we have in our pack, we would protect. That’s what mum told me once.”
“You’re my family always, Ruby. I will protect you, you know that?” I say, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I felt like I knew you before we met thanks to the stories Jade and your mum told me.”
“They didn’t tell you about that one Halloween, did they?” she asks, pure horror in her eyes as her cheeks go bright red, matching her hair. “I was five, and I made a bad choice in costumes.”
“Nope,” I laugh. “But I really want to know now.”
“I will never tell you,” she states and sticks her tongue out at me. I’m so busy laughing that I almost miss the sound of Killian’s voice. I pause, crawling to my feet and searching around me.
“Karma, we will find you,” Killian’s voice whispers to me like a ghost. But it is him.
Hope blossoms in my chest. “Killian?”
“Karma,” his voice softly replies. “Karma, we will—” The voice gets cut off, and whatever magic was here is gone, leaving me feeling cold all over again. Even though I only got to hear his voice for a second, it’s enough to fill my heart with hope and a longing that just comes with it.
I have to face it. Killian has dug his way into my soul and made roots there.
Roots I’m never going to be able to get rid of.
Not that I even want to.
“Do you two want lunch?” A nervous voice cuts into my thoughts, and I turn around to see Dominic standing behind us, shuffling his feet and rubbing his hands together like he just can’t stand still. “I mean you d-don’t have to but I—”
“That would be brilliant. Ruby told me that you can cook?” I ask, and he nods with a big grin. He relaxes a little as we walk to the kitchens, and he rambles with Ruby about the chicken noodles he has made for us and how he hopes we like it. I can see why Ruby likes him; he is just a nervous young teenager and really doesn’t seem to have an unkind bone in his body. Ruby is more like me, headstrong and direct, whereas I see he is the kind one of us all. He serves us chicken noodles as we sit at the table before he joins us. After a few mouthfuls, I can’t hold it in any longer.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?” I ask. “And can you teach me? I’ve always been a fecking shite cook.”
“Language,” Ruby scolds me, and I sheepishly grin at her as our brother chuckles.
Our brother.
“I grew up with twenty-four other kids in a foster home near San Francisco, and our foster parents didn’t care much for any of us unless we got them more money…somehow. I taught myself in order to survive and to seem useful to the other kids. I hoped they wouldn’t bully me as much if I could feed them,” he admits with a shrug, and my heart hurts for him. “It worked.”
“You don’t need to cook for me to earn my friendship, you know that?” I ask him, and he shrugs again, his white hair moving with him. “And most likely, they bullied you because they sensed you are different than they are. I had a similar experience, so I became defensive and never let anyone but my best friend get close to me. The last year, I’ve had those defensive walls stripped, and now I can look around me and see that I don’t need to push everyone away. Not everyone is cruel.”
He watches me for a long while, taking in my words. Until I said them out loud, I didn’t realise how true they actually are. “Not everyone is cruel, I can see that. Thanks, Karma.”
“You’re my brother. Another one, and you’re not a dipshit,” I say, and he frowns at me, not understanding. Ruby coughs about language, making us laugh, before Dominic asks me all about my family. By the time I get to Michael, they are in tears with how much they are laughing.
And it’s not just them. For a moment, I’m happy in my prison.
Chapter 6
“Kit, come on. It’s peanut butter...how can you not wake up for that?” I question, looking between the spoon and Kit with some kind of hope. Honestly, I’m starting to really panic and worry for Kit. He shouldn’t be sleeping this long, and if he does wake up, I don’t know if I want him to use his powers again if they are causing this.
“Why are the white star-like things on him glowing?” Ruby asks me, leaning over my shoulder as I sit on the bed. Ruby is right, he is almost giving off his own light in the dim room. Knowing he isn’t going to wake any time soon, I place him on his pillow on the floor and push it under my bed. I cross my legs, eyeing Ruby as she rubs her hands together.
“I don’t know, but I’m worried about him,” I answer, eying my nervous sis. “Out with it,” I gently coax her.
“Neritous…” She pauses, and it makes me smile that she won’t call him her father either. He damn well isn’t. Blood alone doesn’t make you loyal to your family. Everyone has to earn their place in someone’s heart, or at least be there enough to earn the respect of the title. “He had a dressmaker in this morning. I overheard him, and they are making you a dress for tonight. I’m scared, Karma. I’m really scared.” And then she bursts into tears, reminding me of how much she is still a little girl, and no matter how scared I am, I can’t let her see it. I need to be strong for her. I pull Ruby to me, wrapping my arms tightly around her like I can protect her from this insane world of gods. Her cat ears tickle my chin as she calms down, hugging me back just as tightly. I want to tell her it’s all going to be okay, but she is a smart kid. Lying won’t save us.
The truth condemns us. So that’s no fecking use.
And I’m counting on gods I am in love with to save me before it’s too late.
“Why don’t we go and find Dominic? I’m sure we can make a really good meal for everyone,” I suggest, knowing she needs a distraction, and food is always a good idea. She wipes her tears, and her bright eyes stare up at me for a long time. I can only give her a false smile, and I have to hope it is enough.
“I’m not wearing that,” I protest. “I’m no fec
king princess. For one, I’d be shite at it, and for two, I don’t want to look after a world. I can barely keep myself alive. How the royals keep anything around the world working is a mystery to me.”
“Put the dress and crown on, or you will regret it. Your friend is helpless right now. One slip of a dagger and...,” he drifts off, letting me fill in the blanks. I grit my teeth. Bastard. Neritous smiles as he wins this argument and walks out of the room, leaving me alone with the stunning dress. It’s a deep green, reminding me of the cube in its vibrant colour. It’s super tight, or at least looks it, at the top with an A-line drop and no shoulders. The bottom half spreads out into a princess ball gown that must touch the floor when I have it on. It’s gorgeous, fit for royalty and any higher god to wear. But it’s not me. I reach out, touching the extremely soft silk material and close my eyes, holding back my anger and my urge to rip it into pieces. Remembering Mads, I let the gown go and start undressing. It takes me a good fifteen minutes to get into the dress and get the zipper up. Breathless by the end of it, I try to breathe in, but the dress is fecking tighter than it looks.
Slowly I undo my plaited hair, letting it fall over my shoulders in soft waves before I pick up the gold tiara. I’ve seen it before on the head of my so-called “aunt” in a painting in the house I was in for the games. Why Neritous wants me to wear it when I hated her and killed her, is purely insane. Then again, he is a bastard with crazy ideas, so who knows? The gold tiara looks pretty in my wavy hair, and I hate that it suits me. The diamonds held inside the spiralling gold shine from the light coming through the window, and I breathe in the smell of whatever Dominic is cooking down the hall. I haven’t seen Ruby since this morning, and I know I have to see her before I go to that cube. I need to say goodbye, just in case.
My heart hurts when I think of the guys. How I never got to tell them I love them, and I know it’s weird, but I want them all in my life.