We ended up slipping behind another car as the gates opened into Beth’s old neighborhood. Slowly, we drove past the expansive estates, with their perfectly trimmed lawns, and their perfectly painted houses. All of us were silent, trying to casually glance at Beth to see how she was feeling. When we at last pulled up to her old house, the white and pink building reminded me of the White House with all it’s perfectly lined up windows and giant, oversized pillars out front. It sat there looking regal but also a little run down and overgrown.
“I can’t believe I used to live here with Roger,” Beth said bitterly. “And now my sister lives here.”
I couldn’t imagine that feeling. Actually, I could. When I’d seen my ex’s new girl wearing my mother’s locket, I’d been enraged. And turned them both into toads. I bet Beth wished she’d been able to do the same all those years ago.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “She’ll get hers.” Hey, I was Karma. I knew it was true.
And if it didn’t happen on its own, I could always help.
Beth sucked in a deep breath and opened her car door. We all marched out, and Deva handed around tiny sugar cookies, for courage, she said. Where she’d been hiding those when I’d started drinking my coffee earlier, I didn’t know, but I kind of wished I’d had them then and not now. That being said I was happier to have them than not. I wasn’t sure if they were actually magicked, but the second the sweet treat hit my mouth, I felt a lot better. Slamming the remains of my coffee, and only getting a few drops from the cup, I shoved the empty container in the little cup holder, then turned to face the house.
“How do you want to handle this, boss?” I asked Beth.
She put her small shoulders back. “Head on.”
As she hurried across the lawn, she passed a little gnome. Freezing, she pointed at it. “I picked that out. Someone throw it in the trunk.”
I was half surprised that gnomes weren’t real beings in the supernatural world, but Carol grinned, snatched it up without an ounce of hesitation, and headed for the trunk.
As Beth passed a little glass heart partially hidden in a bush, she froze, turned, and kicked it. The glass went flying as it shattered, and a triumphant smile touched her lips. “You know, the twins were at school when they told me they’d been having an affair and wanted me out. All I’d done was cry and pack up. I’d spent hours dragging what I could of the kids’ stuff too and loading up my car, before luckily finding a house for rent from a friend’s parents from high school. I’d been so focused on my broken heart; I hadn’t even gotten angry. And then, afterward, I’d had to play nice for the kids. Now though? Now I don’t have to play nice.”
For some reason, I felt like this was an important moment for Beth. A moment that was long in coming. A time for her to stand up for herself.
Carol was back without the gnome. She gave a nod and dusted off her hands. “Let’s go.”
Beth marched up the porch steps, then rapped on the door firmly.
It didn’t take long for her sister to answer.
Tiffany was wearing a white bikini and a white see-through covering over her shoulders. She wore ridiculously tall high heels, and her face and hair were done to the nines. She’d obviously braided her hair in an intricate design, like something off an online hair tutorial video. And, as much as I felt like a jerk, she didn’t look anything like a grieving widow.
In her hand was a martini glass with two olives, which she swung toward us, sloshing the vodka on the floor before saying, “Oh, it’s you guys.”
“Yeah,” Beth said, tilting her chin up. “It is.”
After an awkward second, she said, “Come in.”
We walked in, through a foyer with a massively tall ceiling with a crystal chandelier. On the floor, in tile, were Roger’s initials. She led us through that room to an open living room, that looked out on a massive pool and a rigid-looking garden. Tiffany sat gingerly on the sofa as Beth’s face reddened.
“Is this the same furniture?” I whispered as quietly as I could do to Deva.
She arched one eyebrow. “Mmhmm.”
Wow. As I glanced around, I realized that it was all the same furniture that Beth had picked out. In fact, the only thing that seemed to have been changed was that all the pictures were swapped out for ones with Tiffany and Roger. Hell, I was willing to bet they’d even used the same silver frames since they looked more to Beth’s tastes than Tiffany’s. Hers would probably be sparkly or nonexistent, similar to her bikini.
Man, if Beth wasn’t pissed before, she should be pissed now. It honestly felt like Roger had swapped her out for a younger version. Except that Tiffany lacked all useful skills, including design skills, so they’d just kept living in the beautiful space Beth had made.
It was awful. And, quite frankly, creepy.
“So,” Beth said stiffly. The tension in the room was palpable. I wanted to burst into song or something to break it. “Here’s what we know. Someone Roger was associated with put a curse on Cliff, Roger’s ex-business partner. Now, Cliff thought it was me that did the curse, but I didn’t know anything about it. There’s no way I could handle the kind of magic that had to be done for this curse.”
Tiffany looked at us with wide eyes. “Well, I didn’t do it. You know I didn’t get magic like you did.”
Yeah, that was something to be grateful for. I couldn’t imagine someone with her lack of an ethical code being given powers. She’d, no doubt, become some kind of fairy tale princess’ villain.
“We thought you might know who it is.” I gave Tiffany a firm look when she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Tiffany,” I said with a warning in my tone. “You know something.”
She shook her head. “I don’t.”
Carol sighed. “Do you know who Emma here is?”
Tiffany looked at me with wide, worried eyes. “No?”
“She’s Karma.” Deva grinned. “Literally. She can pay you back for every stupid, thoughtless, mean thing you’ve ever done in your life and all she has to do is think about it and that’ll be you, screwed.”
Tiffany gulped. “Here’s the thing. Uh. You know he cheated on you with me, but I wasn’t the only one,” she whispered. “I knew about the other woman, and when he and I started our life together—”
Beth scoffed and glared at her sister. “There’s no way he was cheating before he met you.”
Her sister wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I caught her with him when I was in high school. But you know how he bought me a new car when I turned seventeen? It was actually because I threatened to tell you if he didn’t.”
Beth looked like she’d been physically struck. “You betrayed me for a car?”
“A really nice car,” she rushed out. “And I would’ve eventually told you, but then, I didn’t see them together again, so I just kind of forgot about it.”
“Freaking convenient,” Deva muttered angrily.
Tiffany flinched. “I know. But when we eventually started dating, I told him he had to break it off with her or I wouldn’t keep sleeping with him. As far as I know, he did.”
Gosh. I hated everything about this woman.
“So, what does she have to do with anything?” Deva asked in a sassy tone of voice.
“She was a witch,” Tiffany said, as if it was obvious. “A powerful witch, supposedly.”
“More,” Carol growled. “You know more.”
Tiffany scuffed her toe on the carpet, digging it in as though she could dig herself out of this situation. “Um, her name was Catrin. As far as I heard, he hired her to turn Cliff into some animal or another. Then, Roger took over the business.”
Man, this woman and Roger really were the perfect match. Two cheating scumbags who would stop at nothing to screw over everyone around them.
I could feel my body tingling. No, I hadn’t consciously called on my powers, but karma was having trouble holding back.
“I doubt she would kill him though,” Tiffany rushed out. “If she wanted to, she would’ve done it a long time ago.”
“No, she isn’t trying to kill him, but Cliff is, because now the spell is falling apart.” Beth sighed and rubbed her eyes. “And Cliff is coming for us all.”
Tiffany went pale and drained the rest of her martini from the glass, before fishing out the olives and chewing on them like crazy. But call me heartless, I didn’t feel even a little bad for her.
“Where do we find this witch, Catrin?” I asked wearily. It was going to suck going after this one.
With a sigh, Tiffany wrote down an address. “Don’t tell her you got this from me, please. I have no way to fight back against her.”
I scoffed at Beth’s little sister. “You’d deserve it if we did.”
Her eyes widened.
Beth spoke before I could. “But we won’t.”
As we all stood, the others headed for the door, but I lingered back with Tiffany. When her gaze met mine, I said. “Karma should have punished you a long time ago, but she will now.”
“No,” she squeaked.
“Whatever the universe decides is your punishment.”
“What if I play nice with Beth again?” she rushed out, then pointed to the sofa. “She could have some of the furniture.”
I smiled but it wasn’t a nice one, and she stepped away from me, looking nervous. “No, you stay away from Beth. Be alone forever, like you deserve.”
And even though my words weren’t a spell, they felt like one. Yeah, Karma could hit her with a bus. Karma could make all her hair fall out and make her butt the size of a couch. But spending her life alone? That was what she truly deserved.
And when we spoke to the witch and were done dealing with Cliff, Beth would have the happiness she deserved. I swore it.
20
Emma
“Are we ready for this?” Deva asked. “I made a few hex bags, but I’d rather not use them on a witch like this.”
“I’ll do what I can,” I muttered. “Maybe my powers will really kick in and help.” I honestly wasn’t sure that they would. Sometimes it seemed like the more I tried to reach for them the further out of my grasp they went. I was trying to grab onto smoke. And sometimes, they worked when I least expected them too.
As much as I knew my power had to be instinctual on some level, I also wanted control. There was too much in my life that was out of control, I couldn’t stand it if my powers were the same and just burst out of me whenever they wanted. Sure, I’d made the waterfall flow, I’d even made that bully of a big brother run into his mom, but any time I tried to get Karma to do its job, it was hard, like walking on a sprained ankle, hard. When I’d first tried, I’d say it was more like walking on a broken ankle though, so at least it was getting better. I sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that I could do what I needed to in order to protect my friend.
Beth looked at the small house with fear in her eyes. “We have to. If she’s as dark as it seems we won’t have a choice.” The house was severe, all squares, metal and glass. Were those shipping containers? The closer we got to it the more I realized they had to be, there was nothing else that looked like that. The corrugated metal was a deep blue, and one end of a container still had the stickers and labeling on it. No joke. There was some siding around the rectangle that made up the front door area, as well as a little awning over the front steps. That was about the only normal part though. Everything else was either shipping container or window. It felt oddly exposed seeing floor to ceiling windows on a house like that if it could even be called a house. The windows allowed us to see inside though, and it was remarkable, from the inside I wouldn’t have guessed that the place was made of containers like that. It looked like a totally normal house.
Throwing open the passenger door, I stepped out of the car to get the ball rolling. If one of us didn’t move, then we would stay there waiting for hours as we worked up the courage to face this dark witch. It helped that I didn’t quite know what that meant. I was blissful in my ignorance of the different types of magic.
As soon as everyone was out of the car, I strode forward and rapped on the door. We had to get this figured out, had to save Beth. We didn’t have much time.
A woman opened the door with a knowing look on her face. As her gaze flitted from me, to Carol, to Deva. She smiled smugly, but then when she saw Beth, her smile broke into a wide grin. “Well, well, well.” She clearly knew exactly who we were and part of me hoped she knew why we were here as well. It would certainly make things easier if we didn’t have to catch her up on everything.
“Catrin?” I asked, needing to be sure before we launched any kind of attack at this woman. She looked unassuming, her mousy brown hair was pulled back in a French braid, and her eyes were framed with large, square rimmed glasses that had to be some kind of tortoise shell pattern. Behind the lenses sat eyes that were such a deep brown they almost looked black. They seemed to dance with amusement at the situation and also seemed more than a little observant. Anyone might overlook this woman without a second thought, but that would be a mistake on their part. At least if she was the dark witch we were looking for.
She kept grinning and nodded once. “That’s me.” She popped her hip to the side and tilted her head slightly as though she was trying to figure out what was going on.
“Can we come in?” I asked in a sarcastic voice, but I didn’t give her time to answer. I just pushed forward. “Great, thanks.”
The inside of the weird shipping containers was about as normal as a home could get. There was nothing in it that screamed “I’m an evil witch who likes to destroy relationships.” Cream colored walls met hardwood flooring, or at least what looked like hardwood floors. A black leather sofa was about the evillest looking thing in there, and that wasn’t even so much about the color as the fact that it looked uncomfortable as all hell. The living area led back into a kitchen and beyond that I could see stairs leading to the container that was on top of this one, and what I thought was a bathroom as well. In every corner of the place there were plants, everything from ferns to succulents to orchids. If I didn’t know she was a dark witch, I would have assumed she was an earth witch or something similar.
Catrin walked regally in front of me, indicating I should stay in the living area, but I wanted to put her off her game, so I moved past her walking into the kitchen, which was a challenge since the place was so narrow. I propped myself up at the end of her countertop where there were a couple bar stools. “This will do,” I said with my nose in the air. “We’re here to discuss the curse on Cliff.”
As everyone moved to take seats around the area, Catrin’s smile grew more Cheshire-like. “Oh?”
“Stop acting so coy,” Beth said in a low, dangerous voice.
Catrin’s smile took on a cold edge, like she was an animal showing her teeth instead of a woman smiling. “I am anything but coy.”
With a sigh, I decided to hurry this along. “I’m guessing that you’ve done some pretty terrible things in your life, Catrin.”
Her gaze snapped to me. “And that means?”
Deva leaned back in her chair. “You’re a mercenary, aren’t you? A magical mercenary.”
For the first time, Catrin’s smile disappeared. “That’s a pretty big charge.”
Magical mercenary? They hadn’t called her that before. What did that even mean? Could anyone suffer at her hands? Were all the rules that seemed to bind the rest of the magical community off the table?
“The thing is, Catrin, the thing is…” I paused and let her stew for a moment before I said, “You don’t realize who I am.” I smiled at her encouragingly. “Go on. Ask.”
The dark witch rolled her eyes, not picking up on the happy warning I was trying to give her. In many ways even though she was a grown woman she came off as a teenager. Like she’d never completely matured into who she was supposed to be. “And who are you supposed to be, as if I care?”
Carol leaned forward. “Allow me to introduce you to the one, the only… Karma.”
As we let the words si
nk in, I turned slightly so I could focus on her refrigerator. Apparently Catrin had done some terrible things, because with a pop, smoke began to rise from the back of it. “Oh, no,” I said in a sing-song voice. “Looks like your fridge just went on the fritz.”
Catrin whirled around taking in the fact that her fancy stainless steel, top of the line, fridge was now about as useful as a foam cooler, then looked at me with a healthy dose of suspicion in her eyes. “How?”
“Karma,” Deva whispered.
I glanced at Beth, glad to see she looked a lot more confident with a sly look in her sky-blue eyes.
“Now, how about you tell us about this curse?” I spoke.
With a sniff, Catrin shrugged. “Easily fixed,” she muttered.
I spotted her coffee pot, half full still. Focusing on it, I grinned when the carafe broke into a hundred tiny pieces of glass and the coffee splashed all over the counter. “Not quite as easily fixed,” I whispered as I focused again until smoke rose from the motor of that appliance as well. “Oh, too bad.”
When my gaze flicked to the microwave Catrin’s face slowly darkened. “Stop.”
“Speak,” Deva retorted.
She still hesitated though, so I let my karmic powers roam, knowing that my instincts would find something that meant a lot to her. I heard a pop from upstairs. Catrin jumped up and booked it up the tiny staircase. When she came back down her face was thunderous. “My TV is cracked down the middle,” she said in a low voice.
I focused more, reaching for the smoke that was my power, but this time instead of trying to grab it I mentally blew on it, encouraging it like you would the embers of a fire. Water began to spew from the faucet. Then, the small countertop dishwasher made a groaning sound before another loud pop made Catrin jump as water sprayed from it, before the door burst open and everything that had been inside seemed to shatter as water and shards of glass and china ran out. “Stop!” she cried.
“And why should I?” I asked.
“I’ll help you. What do you want to know about the curse?” The desperation in her voice made me smile. Just like her, I showed too many teeth. The threat evident on my face. Her gaze flicked between the four of us, trying to figure out who was going to ask the next question. Like it needed to happen before something else broke.
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