Fated: Karma Series, Book Three

by Donna Augustine

  I made my way down the aisle and took a seat, leaving a chair buffer in between us.

  There was a loud sigh before he spoke. “Great. I’m so excited I can barely express it.” His words were exaggeratedly flat. “I thought you were retired?”

  “I am,” I said, sounding no more enthused than him. I hadn’t wanted to see him but I’d felt compelled. If Fate had known I was here, he would’ve killed me. We’d decided we were going to live out at least one human life together in peace before we even contemplated going back to work.

  We’d bought a little house a few blocks off the beach. He’d taken a job with the local police department and I was working as a therapist in the hospital. It wasn’t a glamorous life but I was happier than I’d ever imagined. We were planning to get pregnant by the end of the year, and we’d even got a dog.

  Still, I’d had to come.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  He looked at me through antique-looking glasses and I could see the scars on his face and wondered how much I didn’t know about his actions.

  “Wanted to let you know I was in the neighborhood.” And bringing a child into the world knowing that he existed might have been the exact reason I was there.

  “Why show up at all? You’re powerless. You’re out of the game.”

  “Am I?” I asked as I met his gaze. He didn’t scare me. I’d seen every side of this life and knew that certain things were worth dying for.

  “You don’t wield the power you used to have.”

  “Don’t I?” I asked, really looking at him, wanting him to see the truth of who and what he was dealing with.

  He leaned as far as his seat would allow him. “How can that be?”

  I didn’t know myself but I didn’t tell him that. It had started creeping back in after I remembered. When I’d been given the choice to return, I’d thought I’d lose that part of myself, that special something that allowed me to twist things to fall into place the way I wanted. But I hadn’t. Paddy’s piece was gone, but I was the same me I’d always been. If I could get hold of the Universe I’d ask if that was what he’d intended but it wasn’t like I could pick up the phone and call him.

  Perhaps when he had told me I couldn’t return as I was, he’d only meant the Paddy part. Maybe Fia had been wrong. Maybe I’d been created just the way I was supposed to be.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said when I didn’t explain. “Go back to your little house with your fellow retiree. This isn’t a fight you can win. Without evil, there is no good.”

  “But I’ll never give up trying.”

  “Neither will I.”

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