Chapter 23
Iswear to fuck all if they don’t stop yanking me around, I’m going to fucking lose it.
Yet here I am, waiting patiently for someone to reveal themselves. I’m not in the void, nor in my section of Hell. Not the dragon realm or the chicken world, or any of the normal places I’ve haunted before. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m still topside.
Except the world is black and moist. My nose crinkles at the musty, swampy smell.
Wherever I am, it’s gross, especially while I’m naked.
I cross my arms to keep them from covering my junk.
If they want to summon me during what was probably the most important conversation of my existence, then they get me in all my fucking glory.
“Providence,” I bellow. “One word: squids.”
She doesn’t show. My nostrils flare and I close my eyes. I’ve already tried several times to call up my magic. The curse must have gutted me. It’s the only plausible explanation. The only other time I’ve felt this muted…
“Karma,” I growl.
A tinkling laugh echoes around me, and I pull in a deep breath to keep myself in check. I can’t electrocute her without magic. I can’t strangle her without knowing where she is. And I can’t pinpoint where she is without a little light.
“I will gut—”
“Wouldn’t finish that sentence if I were you,” she calls in a singsong voice.
“What the fuck are you do—”
She pops up right in front of me as the space floods with light, then dims. We’re in a cave.
A fucking cave with offshoots leading into the dark.
She skips around, half my height and annoying as shit.
She’s changed her hair again. A riot of rainbow swirls around her as she spins. At least she’s in a good mood.
“Karma,” I snarl in warning.
She huffs with her entire body and gives me a look. “Fine. You’re no fucking fun. Just because you’re being a pissy boy lately, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Although…”
“Why am I here, Karma?” The sooner she gets to the point, the sooner I can get back to what’s important—Mari.
“Well, I might have stirred the pot just a bit too much.” She digs her bare toe into the dirt, hands behind her back as she twists back and forth.
“Spit it out.”
She heaves a heavy sigh, and her form flickers.
I tip my head back and wait for her to settle once more.
This isn’t an unusual occurrence. With her tugging at various threads throughout dimensions, she can never fully be in one place for long.
It’s annoying, but I can’t blame her for it.
She didn’t ask to do this. It was thrust upon her by those ruling over us.
I don’t know why they skipped over me, but I’m not complaining.
“Seriously, humans need to get their shit together. Do you know how hard it is to rain down horror on all these fucking rich men? Ack. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and you know how I hate that.”
“Why. Am. I. Here.” It’s a demand, not a question.
“Oh, I have a teeny, tiny, little, itty-bitty, minuscule favor to ask of my dear little brother.”
“We’re twins.”
She waves away my words. “See, I might have meddled a little bit too much.”
“You already said that.”
She tilts her head, finally fixating on me. “Why are you naked? Oh! Did it work? I mean, I told her it probably wouldn’t, but if it did, then maybe you’ll be more inclined to help me since I’m the only reason things happened in the first place.”
I scrub my hand down my face and groan. Is this what I’m like when I’m babbling about some random bullshit? Because it’s frustrating as fuck. Explains why Omen tells me to get to the point when he’s in a hurry. All I want to do is shake her until she tells me what the fuck is going on.
“Send me back. Now.”
She purses her ruby red lips, then snaps her fingers. “I got it. You’re in the middle of it and I interrupted. That’s why you’re in a bad mood. Got it. Well, I can definitely send you back if you help me with my little issue and promise me you’re no longer mad at me.”
“I am still mad at you.”
She pouts, and I swear if she doesn’t stop acting like a godsdamn toddler…
her face morphs and she adopts a more serious look.
Her black dress splattered with pink dissolves into a crisp business suit.
Her eyes flash opaque before settling on her usual black orbs.
It’s as if she read my mind, which I wouldn’t put past her.
“You realize I’m not actually a flighty little sprite, right? I’m perfectly capable of acting every bit of my age. Except that’s no fucking fun. Do you realize how hard it is to go through my existence being shuffled around?”
“I’ve got an idea,” I mutter, yet she continues as if I haven’t spoken.
“Not to mention, everyone seems to think I can’t heap rewards on people. Oh, Karma will get them. Don’t you worry. I’m not a fucking genie or some harbinger of death, for fuck’s sake. I thought if I was…happy, others would think I wasn’t—”
“Incompetent?”
She lets out a humorless laugh. “Whatever. Are you really still mad at me?”
“Yes.” I can already see the question in her eyes. “You sent me to the bottom of a volcano in Odium. Then you told everyone I was dead.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
I throw my hands in the air. “You had a fucking funeral, Karma.”
“Except you weren’t really dead. You’re fine. Besides, the only reason I sent you to the volcano was because you pissed me off.”
“Oh yeah? And what exactly did I do?”
She purses and taps her lips. “I don’t remember, but it wasn’t very nice.”
“You trashed my apartment. Sold half my shit. And tried to get them to demote me instead of enshrined like a demon of my station would normally be. Whatever I did certainly didn’t deserve all of that.”
“Probably not, but you got me back. You sent me into the Mariana Trench. Do you know how dark it is down there? And the creatures.” Her whole body shudders.
I pace away from her, shaking out my hands.
I know I’ll eventually forgive her. This is always the way it is with us.
One of us fucks with the other and the retaliation begins.
It’s never-ending and is becoming exhausting.
I want off this ride. It used to be fun and quirky, but now we’re just doing it out of habit.
Something’s gotta give or we’re going to end up enemies instead of siblings.
“Can we just be done with this?” I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “And could you please clothe me?”
She snaps her fingers, and a toga drapes around my frame. Her eyes narrow. “Wait, be done with what? Us? Are you breaking up with me?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re my sister, not my soulbound, Karma. We can’t break up. You really need to get a grip on context clues when you watch human shows.”
“So, you’re just stuck with me and you hate me, then. Got it. Well, now I don’t feel so bad for cursing you.”
Slowly, I turn and glare at her. “It was you?”
She must not catch the warning in my tone.
She’s too busy off in her own head, probably thinking up the next way to torture me.
All this time I thought it was some rogue witch or a demon with a grudge who employed a witch when all along it was my fucking sister.
I didn’t think she’d go so far as to curse me.
I didn’t even know she knew how to curse demons.
Fuck, I accused Mari of being the culprit.
For nothing. I was an asshole and a vindictive one at that.
I wanted to hurt her, plain and simple—inflict a bit of the same pain I was feeling.
The betrayal in her eyes erased everything I’d built with her.
I betrayed her. Shame hits me hard and fuels my rage toward Karma.
“You bitch. Do you know what you did? Do you know who you hurt?”
Her shocked gaze meets mine, and my magic flares to life. Nets of electricity encase my hands and arms. I stalk toward her as my fury alone heats the cave. Karma holds up her hands to ward me off, but I won’t be stopped this time.
She’s pushed too far. She’s always gotten away with everything because of who she is, of what she can do. Her power’s gone unchecked for too long. This time, she fucked with the wrong demon.
My wings burst from my back, and ominous thunder rolls overhead. Karma shuffles back until she hits the rocky wall. Wind whips around her, tangling her hair in the crevices of the cave. A sword forms in my fist, and sparks flicker along the blade.
“Wait,” Karma screeches, straightening her arms. As if her puny hands will stop me from gutting her.
She won’t die, but she’ll have a hell of a time clawing her way back to this dimension. Or any dimension, really. A little time in the void will do her good. She can think about all the trouble she’s caused.
“You took months away from me,” I growl. “Time I could have spent—”
I shake my head as pain stabs through my temple.
If I’m pulled away right now because of her fucking curse, I’ll make her death that much more painful.
It’ll be payback for the time she dropped me in shark-infested waters in Waterworld and Omen had to save my ass.
Our little rivalry has gotten out of control, and I aim to end it now.
She’ll think twice about fucking with my life again.
Then I can go back to Mari. I’ll explain what happened and beg her forgiveness. All the other issues I thought impeded us from being together wash away in the wake of my rage. I can fix this. One little swipe and it’ll all be over.
“It wasn’t a true curse,” she yells, cringing away from me.
“I don’t fucking care.” I stalk toward her and flip the blade once. Twice.
“Dimitrius, please,” she pleads, tears filling her eyes.
The sight gives me pause, and my feet stutter to a stop.
I haven’t seen Karma cry in centuries. Not since she was thrust into the role of truly being karma, deciding which way others’ lives would go.
Doling out rewards or punishments must be exhausting.
Doesn’t absolve her of all the shit she put me through.
I rest the tip of my blade against the base of her throat. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t send you into twilight.”
“I’m the one who gave her the joining spell,” she says in a rush, then squeezes her eyes shut and turns her head away while waiting for my blow. When I don’t move, she peeks at me.
My nostrils flare and I grit my teeth. “What the fuck is a joining spell?”
She swallows hard and the sword tip bobs. “It joins two beings together. Duh.”
“Who?”
“The witch?” She winces. “The one in Hell.”
I glare at her, then drop the sword to my side. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but she clearly has some more explaining to do. Her shoulders sag and relief floods her face.
She smirks at me. “I knew you—”
My blade whips around and slices through the leather of her satchel.
Marbles scatter across the hard ground, and she cries out.
When she drops to her hands and knees to gather them again, I step back.
Exhaustion crashes into me, and the ache in my neck becomes unbearable.
I need to get back to Mari more than I need revenge on my sister.
“Tell me what you did,” I demand as my magic recedes, settling into the occasional snap, crackle, and pop.
“Me? I didn’t do anything. I stumbled on a witch in some basement of some building in some dimension within Hell.
We got to chatting and she wanted a joining spell.
I told her it wouldn’t work. She wanted to try anyways.
” She gathers the rest of her marbles and dumps them in the bag, then glances up at me.
“What does that have—”
“Because she needed to join someone who could protect them. I offered you up.” She sighs, sitting back on her heels. “I didn’t think it would work. I forgot I cursed you.”
Thunder cracks overhead and she yelps. “Forgot?”
She eyes the blade. “If you put that thing away, I’ll keep talking. Otherwise, I’m blipping out and leaving your sorry ass here.”
My chest tightens and I suck in a sharp breath.
While I’m sitting here demanding answers, my witch is wondering where I blipped off to.
I’m wasting my time. Karma isn’t going to give me anything of importance.
I squeeze the hilt as I attempt to get my shit together.
The whole sword shatters, raining sparks down my legs.
“Send me back,” I whisper while I stare into the darkness.
“I thought you wanted to know—”
“I don’t give a fuck. Just break the curse and send me back. Now.”
“Um, well, see, I…can’t.” She scrambles to her feet. “I can. I just can’t here. Plus, I can’t break the joining. You’ve gotta do that yourself. Might help to go see the witch. She’s probably still in that cage.”
My eyes snap to hers, and my mind nudges me to remember…something. Omen. The cage. Ludovic. Someone softly crying. Triton with the summoning circle. Mari. The witch. They’re all connected, yet I can’t figure out how. There’s a block in my mind, probably brought on by Karma’s curse.
“Break the curse, Karma.”
“I just told you I can’t. Besides, I don’t know why you’re so butthurt about this curse. It only sends you when someone calls you.”
I dig my nails into my palms, fighting against just leaving. Staying means knowing how to deal with this so I can focus on repairing things with Mari.
Karma’s face swims into view, and I realize I’m listing to the left. “Stop fighting it. You’re just making it worse for yourself. Someone’s thinking about you, needing you.”
“Who?” I croak out.
She shrugs, glancing away. “I’ll work on breaking it. I didn’t know it would be painful for you.”
It’s as close to an apology as I’m going to get. She hops so seamlessly between worlds, she probably didn’t understand how draining and disorienting it is for the rest of us. It’s a small consolation in the grand scheme of things.
As the edges of my vision darken, I send a silent prayer up to whatever god is on duty tonight to take me back to Mari. I need to get back to her.
I need to make things right.