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 sink 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.
