by Amie Gibbons
“I don’t think so,” I said, kicking it again and pointing at it.
White jets of fast, boiling water shot from my fingers, piercing it.
The tentacle thing released me and I swam for the top fast as I could, head breaking surface just under the swirling red mess.
“Take me home, country wave,” I whispered, reaching up and grabbing the goo.
The water pushed and I pulled, closing my eyes against the yucky, sticky stuff.
The sensation disappeared and I opened my eyes just in time to see a blast wave coming for me.
I screamed and dove to the side, landing hard on my hands and knees.
“Karma! It’s me!” I yelled, holding my hands up as I stood. “I’m back. It doesn’t like water. Curse it with water.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” she said. “But whatever. I almost had the spell done before you flipped out on me.”
“I didn’t flip out. I was possessed. What about Karen?”
I ran to the side of the building and screamed again.
Karen was crawling up the side like freaking Spiderman.
And it was so much creepier looking in real life.
She cleared the top and I pointed at her, water shooting from my fingers with the force of a fire hose and slamming her right in the face.
She let out a howl that made the hair on my body stand at attention, and I focused harder, spraying more, faster.
The sound fell away and she crumpled to the concrete in a heap.
I glanced back at Karma and she was still whispering, eyes closed and hands up.
“AB,” I whispered, running for the edge again.
I focused on the ground, on my unmoving friend, and grabbed onto her mentally.
Quil was up, but his arm still looked funny. He moved it slowly and I could almost hear the bones knitting back together.
Carvi straightened, popping his neck and shaking his head.
He looked at me and I pointed to AB, letting her go.
“Karma,” I said, “you got this?”
“Almost done,” she said. “After this, get back to your time and tell future me about all this. I’m going to erase my memory when this thing is dead here so I don’t affect the future.”
“Okay,” I said, stepping up onto the ledge.
“Don’t forget my coin,” she said.
If she was worried about me getting up there, she didn’t show it.
I turned and held my hand out.
The coin flew into it.
“Thanks,” I said. “What about Karen? Will she be okay?”
Karma shook her head. “The virus had already eaten most of her life force. Take her body back to the future. Give her family something to bury.”
My heart sank.
She’d just been trying to save her child.
I jerked a hand and sent the body over the edge again.
Quil made a small noise of surprise as the body hit the ground.
When we took her back, we’d have to put her somewhere and call it in anonymously. It’d look like someone pushed her off a building and dumped her body.
I looked at Karma. “Any worry about all this affecting forces here or anything like that?”
“Lots of forces,” she said, “but I can balance it all off on that virus thing, and snuff it out in the process. Just make sure my future self knows all this too, so she can do it there.”
“Got it.” I jumped off the building, slowing my decent mentally so I tapped the ground.
Carvi was already kneeling next to AB and pulling her to sitting.
“I’m going to blast this thing outta her,” I said, “but you’re gonna have to be quick on the healin’. I don’t…”
I shook my head.
I couldn’t say it.
Couldn’t even think it.
She had to make it.
She had to.
“You up for giving her blood?” I asked my guys.
“Some,” Quil said.
Carvi searched my face and didn’t say anything, just nodded.
I held up my hand and focused on my friend.
And shot water into her mouth.
She gagged and thrashed, and Carvi held her close to him while Quil grabbed her legs.
I poured the water in like it was medicine burning away the infection everywhere it touched.
AB screamed. A choked, water logged noise.
I dropped my hand and sat back on my heels, meeting Carvi’s eyes with a grin.
It died.
Carvi stared at me in horror, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
“Here.” Quil pushed past me and ripped his wrist open, pushing it to AB’s mouth.
Her throat worked as she swallowed, and Quil made a small whimpering noise.
He pulled back after a moment and she hissed a protest.
Carvi looked at his wrist and it split open by itself.
He fed her.
But stared with a stone face at me the whole time.
“Carvi?” I said as AB started shaking out her arms and moving her legs.
“Karma,” he said slowly, “truly is a bitch. And I’m going to have a talk with her when we get home.”
“Ummmm, okay?” I looked between him and Quil. “Am I missing something?”
Quil shrugged.
Carvi turned his attention back to AB, stroking her hair and whispering as he took his wrist away.
AB’s eyes fluttered open and I sighed.
“Um…” She looked around at all of us. “What happened? Where are my glasses? I can’t see anything besides a bunch of blurry yous.”
###
“Thanks for the update,” Karma said after I finished explaining all that’d happened in the past. “How did you get back here though?”
She leaned back in the kitchen chair, sipping her coffee.
Mama was asleep when we got home, and AB and Quil couldn’t keep their eyes open, so we laid them down in the living room. It was just me, Karma and Carvi.
I shrugged. “Apparently that thing joining us took a lot more magic and that’s why it affected me so badly. Without it, it wasn’t too hard to power us back. But I’m wiped out now. Like about to pass out exhausted, but my brain is wide awake. I don’t think I could even get a vision right now.”
“You’re powerful,” she said.
“You would know,” Carvi snapped.
I jumped in my seat.
He hadn’t said anything since we got back besides a few murmured comforts to AB as he carried her into the living room.
“Figured it out, did you?” Karma asked, acid riding her tone.
“You bitch,” Carvi said. “You did this. You could’ve-”
“Ah!” Karma held up a finger. “I could do a lot of things. But I had to balance the forces, and that required her not being where you could find her. She had to die.”
“Says you!” Carvi shot to his feet, knocking the chair to the floor with a crash that had to have at least woken Mama again. “You put her out of my reach so I didn’t have the chance to save her! You made it impossible for me to fulfill my side of the bargain.”
“What’s going on here?” I asked, too tired to feel much of anything.
Carvi glared down at me.
“Carvi?” I flinched away.
How could he be looking at me like that?
Like he was furious with me.
Like I’d done something unforgivable.
“I swore an oath I couldn’t keep,” Carvi said through clenched teeth. “You… It’s no coincidence Milo died the night he met you, Ariana. Call it destiny, natural karma, fucking quantum entanglement. Our fates were tied to yours the moment I took that oath years ago. I sealed it with blood and sex. There is no greater magic.
“I swore an oath and I failed to fulfill it. So when Milo came across your path, that bill came due.”
He stared straight through me and I knew I wouldn’t like what I’d see if I met his eyes.
“I d
on’t understand what it has to do with me,” I finally whispered.
“Of course you don’t,” he hissed. “Because she spelled you not to. Same way she bound your powers. Until you knew you could use them, you could not. Until you are slapped across the face with the truth, you won’t see it.”
“Karma?” I asked, looking at her.
It was a lot easier.
“You were created as a counterbalance,” Karma said, voice as calm and casual as if we were talking about a bake sale. “There was a massive imbalance back then, and I needed a great force of good to balance out the bad.”
“But what’s Carvi talkin’ about?” I asked, staring her in her eyes.
They showed nothing.
“The girl who was put here from another reality by witches who traveled between realities. I saw that… well, heard it. That’s the deal he struck. That’s who he’s talkin’ about. So what does it have to do with me?”
“Her body could not handle the magic growing inside her,” Karma said after a moment. “She died. But she was supposed to be part of the counterbalance, so I had to… do the karmic version of massaging the numbers. That’s where you came in.”
Carvi snorted.
“You deliberately moved that girl to where I couldn’t find her,” Carvi said. “I could have kept her alive. I could have kept my side of the deal. I could have saved Milo!”
“No,” Karma said, “you couldn’t have. You and Milo would have died trying. Her body couldn’t take the magic. She wasn’t made for it.”
They stared at each other.
And I swear the air was thick enough to lick outta a cone.
“So she died after all that?” I asked after I couldn’t take it anymore. “That’s so sad. I mean, I heard that deal go down. Those witches were so upset. They tried so hard to save her.”
Karma nodded and stood. “It broke my heart to watch that girl die, but nobody could have saved her.”
“I’m sorry, Carvi,” she said. “I truly am. Your brother was a good man. He was a force of good. And we all felt it when he died. But you are not done yet. Don’t let this information affect your and Ariana’s future. She needs you. Don’t-”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Carvi cut her off. “I’ll do what I fucking please. And I won’t be taking orders from you or anyone else involved in this.”
“You can’t run from this,” she said, glancing at me. “You aren’t finished. Don’t break your promise.”
Carvi leaned over the table, staring her down.
“Fuck you,” he whispered, pushing off the table and stalking away, shooting off one more thing over his shoulder before he disappeared into the living room.
“I quit!”
I looked at her.
Way too tired to do anything but stare.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ariana.”
“My dad?” I asked.
She nodded. “You figured out what did this, gave me a sample to find it, and I can shift the imbalance to it. You did well.”
“What about Karen’s body?”
“I’ll put it somewhere. I can’t say the authorities won’t be baffled trying to find her killer, but it shouldn’t set anything off.”
“What about all the stuff we did in the past?”
She shrugged. “Minimal disruption. Nothing that sent out ripples.”
“Not even Karen’s soul? I mean, when she died?”
Karma pressed her lips together. “I thought you got it because you explained it to me. Ariana, the virus ate her soul. There wasn’t much of it left to do anything, let alone move on.”
I gulped.
“So, no heaven or whatever. She’s just gone?”
Karma nodded.
“She wanted to save her kid,” I said, sniffing as tears filled my eyes. “She just wanted to save her kid.”
“She did,” Karma said. “But at what expense? Her soul is as dead as she is. Her family will mourn her. Her child is a happy college student on a track scholarship, an intern in your father’s campaign who wants to go into politics, and her biggest worry is finding Mister Right and getting good enough grades to get into law school.
“That’s great for her, and her mother may have thought it worth it even knowing what would happen to her. But beyond her death, that boy who had the heart attack isn’t coming back. This is what happens when you mess with forces beyond your understanding.”
She stared me in the eyes.
“Remember that as you continue this journey, Ariana. Not all things are meant to be known. And those that are must come in their own time. Whatever comes up in this arena, whatever you do, do not scratch at it. You aren’t ready.”
She paused.
“Not yet.”
I nodded.
No clue what she was talking about, but whatever she was trying to say, I believed her one hundred percent.
I blinked and she was gone.
“Holy crap,” I whispered, laying my head down on the table, ready to sleep for like a week.
EPILOGUE
“You okay?” I asked AB, half shouting over the music.
Daddy’s results watch party was in full swing in a nice hotel’s ballroom, and the place just kept getting more and more packed.
The race results were barely starting to roll in when AB did.
She shrugged. “No, but at least now I know that. And I can get help.” She looked down. “More help, I mean. My friends have done a hell of a lot trying to help me with these issues.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I’m so ashamed. That thing got to me so easily. I can’t stand that I am so broken that I was that weak.” She looked up, holding up her glass of wine. “But I’m alive, thanks to you.”
She clinked her glass against mine.
“Well, in all fairness, I did kinda kill ya,” I said, grinning.
“Yep, and thanks for that too.”
We drank to that and I met her eyes over the glass as she finally lowered hers.
She shook her head. “He said he doesn’t want to talk about it.”
I sighed.
Carvi’d left without warning when he stalked out. He’d left a note for AB, saying he’d be in touch, but he couldn’t deal with me.
I’d called, emailed, and even astral plane stalked Carvi, and he wasn’t picking up or calling back on any of them.
I pressed my lips together.
Shoving down whatever was welling up.
“He promised,” I said after a moment. “He promised he’d never abandon me. He was… he was helpin’ me.”
I shoved whatever emotion that was down harder.
Nope.
I couldn’t take any more pain.
Not after the past two weeks.
Hell, not after the past few months.
Was every man I counted on gonna leave me?
Like he could hear the thought, Quil slid through the crowd and to my side.
I wrapped my arm around his waist and he moved behind me, hugging me tight.
“You psychic now?” I asked.
“You wear your heart on your sleeve, sweets,” he said. “Your face said you needed a hug.”
I smiled, and AB grinned back.
“Carvi give you any idea what happened?” I asked. “What did I do?”
She shook her head. “He said it isn’t you. But his bosses, I mean, his ex-bosses, want him to teach you, so he’s not going to, to spite them.”
My phone buzzed against my hip and I pulled it off the holder on my skirt’s waistband, heart jumping.
Maybe it was him, or even…
Nope.
“Speaking of bosses.” I held it up so they could see it was Director Foster.
I answered, said to give me a minute, and rushed out into the hallway where I could hear.
“Hi, Director Foster,” I said. “I heard about your race. I’m sorry.”
Her results weren’t fully in, but she was so far behind, it was clear she had no chance
of winning the House seat.
“Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t expect to win. How is your father doing?”
“Behind so far, but it’s close,” I said. “He’s in shock. He swore he’d never win, and even if he doesn’t, it’s closer than he ever thought possible.”
“Good for him.” She paused. “You called yesterday and said you wanted to talk, Ryder.”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me.
“Yeah, yeah I did, Ma’am.”
“I’m about to lose something else, aren’t I?” she asked.
I held back a snort.
“No,” I said. “Not lose. I’m just going to be asking you to share.”
She didn’t say anything.
I took a deep breath.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this, and at the same time, it’d been too long coming.
“This is my official two weeks’ notice, Director,” I said. “But, starting in the new year, I will be open for business as Ryder’s Psychic Detective Agency.”
I waved a hand. “I know that’s not good. We’re still working on the name. But anyway, you will be able to hire me on a case-by-case basis, and so will private entities and other law enforcement agencies.”
“Does this have anything to do with Grant?” she asked.
I made a face. “I’d be lying if I said no, but that’s not the whole story. I need to be out there solving cases, putting my powers to good use, not sitting behind a desk, doing paperwork and the like.”
“But you-”
“This isn’t up for debate, Ma’am. You have my two weeks. I will be finishing up my vacation down here and be back to work for that last week, but I am leaving. I have to go and get back to the party.”
I hung up before she could argue more.
And walked back into the ballroom.
I made my way back to AB and Quil and nodded, holding up the phone.
Quil smiled, big and beautiful, and swept me into a hug that sent my red wine sloshing around its glass.
I hugged him back, holding the glass out just in case it sloshed more and got his suit.
“How does it feel?” AB asked as we pulled back.
“It feels… like freedom,” I said, giggling and looking up at the giant flat screen closest to us.
It was showing as about half the votes being in, and it was still too close to count.
Daddy really could win this thing.
