Page 49 of Karma's Spell
“Enough gambling!” Carol said as she swatted him on the shoulder.
"Don't be out too late," I added, not wanting to say that my nerves were shot after today and that if he didn't come home I might assume that the siren queen, who had introduced herself to me as Ariquia before we left, had decided to take that blood payment after all. I didn't honestly think she would change her mind, but I also knew how my mind worked and how it would jump to the worst possible conclusion after something like this.
Henry merely nodded at me before getting out and bounding up the front steps of Alice's house. Beth waited to see him knock on the door. When Alice opened it, her face lit up and she threw her arms around Henry's neck. Suddenly I felt like a jerk for wanting him to spend time with me and not her. They obviously adored each other. We pulled away once the door shut behind them and made the short trip back to my place.
As soon as we walked into the house, I went for the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge. “If ever we’ve deserved some celebratory wine, it’s now.” I rummaged through the drawer next to the fridge for the bottle opener.
Deva appeared next to me and ran her finger up one side and down the other of the bottle. “Now it won’t run out for the next couple of hours.”
Once I had the bottle open I carried it and the glasses over to the table rather awkwardly before pouring four glasses and handing them out to my friends. We sat around the kitchen table and sighed, relaxing for the first time all week.
“To Emma,” Deva said. “We are so happy to have you as a part of our coven.”
“And if you officially join our business, you can be paid and help us. And we can help you figure out your magic. Honing it, making it stronger,” Beth added.
I nodded eagerly. “I’m in! Totally in.” It sounded amazing. I couldn’t help but be gleeful. I had a real future, a real reason to look forward to waking up tomorrow for the first time insomany years.
"Before we have too much wine, I have a present for you," Deva said.
My brows furrowed. A present? After I'd been a crappy friend for all these years?
"Stop looking like that. I knew you'd get your brother back tonight. In fact, I was so confident that I made up this necklace for you."
"Necklace?" I asked, just getting more confused.
"It's a protection charm, but it's not so much for you as it is for Henry." Deva pulled one of her rings off and flicked the stone.
The whole thing opened up, kind of like a locket. Inside there was a short needle and what I could only assume was a drop of blood. There was nothing else in the world that was quite the same color as blood. Deva pulled a necklace from her purse and set it on the table, dripping the contents of the ring onto the pendant. It sizzled and the blood seemed to be absorbed into the metal until there wasn't a trace of it left.
"There," she said a moment later. "Now, if Henry gets hurt you will know. This pendant will warm against your skin, letting you know he's in trouble. That way we can react as quickly as possible."
"Was that his blood?" I asked, dumbfounded.
Deva nodded. "I just gave him a pat on the shoulder with this, and it collected what I needed to activate the pendant." She waved the ring in the air before slipping it back on her finger. There was no way I would have guessed that it held a needle inside, or that it would shoot out and collect someone's blood.
Relief coursed through me. "Thank you. This is--I--"
Before I could continue to stumble over my words, the doorbell rang. I took another long gulp of wine and secretly wondered if maybe it was Daniel at the door. I hoped so. “Be right back.”
When I opened the front door, a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. I left it there and stepped onto the front porch, but in the dark, with the roof shielding us from the light of the moon, I couldn't see anyone around. I gave the neighborhood a long, narrow-eyed stare, as though I was getting ready to scold it, before picking up the paper and going back inside. Whoever dropped it off had hightailed it out of there faster than I would have thought possible. I was exhausted though, so maybe I was moving slower than I thought.
My mood was still light and happy. I opened the paper and gasped. In an instant, my happy, hopeful future crashed around me like a ton of bricks.
I know what you did. You’re going to pay.
“What is it?” Carol asked as I stumbled back into the kitchen, barely making sure the door was latched and locked behind me.
“It’s about my ex husband,” I whispered.
Beth took the note and almost immediately dropped it on the table. “Whoever wrote it isfullof power. I mean overflowing.”
Deva held her hand over it. “I feel it too. What did you do?”
They all looked at me with wide, worried eyes. Beth gave me a pointed look that said it was time to share the full story of what happened when I became karma with my other friends. I'd let it slip when it was just Beth and I, but ever since then I'd tried to keep quiet about it. I still felt guilty about what I'd done, even if they deserved it, and I didn't know what kind of ramifications doing something like that had in the supernatural world. Hell, I hadn't even known the supernatural world existed when it had happened.
I sighed and slumped down at the table, pulling my wine to me and taking a long, fortifying drink. I had to tell them the truth if I hoped to get their help getting myself out of this. “Once upon a time, a woman accidentally turned her ex husband and his new girlfriend into toads. Turns out she wasn't living in the fairy tale she thought, and now the evil witch is after her.”
Their eyes widened, and I took a long sip of my wine.
I saved Henry. But now, somehow, I needed to save myself.
