He shook her hand off. “No, thanks. I think I’ll read it with my girlfriend.” He turned to look at me. “Are you ready?”
I nodded, seething. The instinct to call my powers to deal with this witch was tempting, but I sighed and pushed the temptation away. For some reason, this didn’t feel like a situation for karma yet.
We all headed up the stairs and Mari called after us. “Deva, you may have the book for seven days. After that, the librarians come looking for you.”
I laughed when we reached the outside. “That was scary.”
Deva gave me a look. “Actually, the librarians are far more frightening than you might imagine, but we’ll have the book back in time, so no worries.”
Interesting. Okay. “All right, should we meet at my place to read it?”
They both agreed, but then I turned to walk with Deva, and Daniel looked a bit hurt. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t mad at him, that I didn’t like the woman, but we were okay. The thing was, I didn’t feel that way, not entirely. I was having a hard day, so I didn't want to take something out on him that was all in my head. Instead of touching down on the subject, I said, “We’ll talk later, okay?” I tried to force a smile, but he didn’t believe it.
Daniel was a great guy who never did anything wrong. I needed a few minutes in a car with Deva to forget the woman who'd thrown herself at Daniel. The woman he'd been alone with. Basically, I needed to find a way to ignore my unreasonable feelings. No doubt they were entirely due to my ex cheating on me. I wasn't about to drag that toxic garbage into my new awesome relationship.
Unfortunately for me, we lived in a small town, so I needed to recover ridiculously fast or look like a total nutcase, a jealous nutcase to a man who deserved so much better than this.
9
EMMA
We arrivedat the house before Daniel. The moment we shut the door behind us, Deva's phone rang. "It's the restaurant." She sighed and stepped outside while I sent her all kinds of good luck feelings. Hopefully, the call wasn't for anything dire. I kicked off my shoes and plopped on the couch, opening the book to the page Daniel had marked. I’d only intended to glance at it, then wait for the others, but the instant I looked at the page, my heart sank. I was in trouble.
The left page had a detailed drawing of an older woman with her face hidden beneath a cloak, but her hands were wrinkled with age, as was her chest. Above her picture was the word, “Karma,” written in sweeping, gold-tinged letters. A shiver rolled down my spine, and I took a deep breath as my gaze skimmed the page. Even though I was alone, I read the words aloud.
Given the mysterious nature of Karma, the reader should be aware that there's no proof that this story is true. The story of the creation of Karma goes as follows: Once upon a time, there was a new mother. She put her child to bed in his crib, kissing him goodnight, and reminding him of her love before leaving the room. The next morning, the crib was empty. It's said that every member of the small village heard the young mother’s pain.
Many years later, the mother learned that another woman in her community, who'd been desperate for a child of her own, had stolen her baby and left town. The mother tracked down the woman and her stolen child. To her dismay, her child didn’t remember his mother. She tried everything she could to get her child to return with her, to no avail. The child only recognized the thief as his mother.
In desperation, the mother went to the witches of her village and asked them to make it right. They didn't believe they had the power to rectify the situation, but working together, and fueled by the mother’s need for karmic justice, they created an unexpected spell. Joining hands, the mother’s rage and desperation burning through them, it's said that an older woman in a hooded robe appeared in the center of their circle, then disappeared.
The witches believed they’d failed, but the next day the child returned to his rightful mother, knowing the truth, and feeling his true mother’s love to his very soul. If the stories are true, the thief became a statue, a statue that was always cold as ice, like her cold, cold heart.
From that day, Karma became a woman blessed with the power to right wrongs. Powers that are incredible but carry with them a terrible burden. Unlike with witches, Karma’s powers can’t remain with one woman forever. The powers must pass among worthy women. Women who have enough years and experience to use the powers for good.
What’s more, it is unknown whether Karma’s powers leave their chosen vessel by choice, or if the powers are taken by the next woman. Some people believe they leave when the woman is no longer deemed worthy, others say there’s a ticking countdown before the powers must pass on. All we know for sure is that we’ll never know the true nature of how Karma works.
Part of the bottom of the page had been torn off, but my voice was higher than normal as I read the end of it, the best I could, skipping over the missing info.
Karma’s powers are highly sought after.
The words after were missing, and then a tiny piece of the page remained.
Powers can be taken if so.
That was all. The next page moved to information about other powerful beings.
For some reason, my hands shook when I lowered the book and looked up. Daniel and Deva had entered the room completely unnoticed by me as I'd read. Both looked at me, but I couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Was it pity in their eyes? I couldn’t be sure, but I wanted to see hope in their eyes, not whatever this was.
“It says my powers can be taken, and there’s a bunch of different ways I can lose them, and—”
“Emma, it’s okay,” Daniel said, his voice soft. “That didn’t mean anything.”
“Didn’t it though?” I asked. “I mean, if someone tried to take away your inner bear, and you read a book that said it was possible, would that be okay?”
There was a moment of silence, and then he crossed the room and sat next to me. “No, that wouldn’t be okay. That would be the furthest thing from it.”
I let his words sink in. They comforted me. My feelings weren’t crazy. “What do we do now?”
