My lungs burned, desperate to breathe in. Twisting to reach my ankle, I grabbed at it but found nothing there. No seaweed. No debris. It was like an invisible force had snatched hold of me and wouldn’t let go.
I struggled more and more, trying to escape something that wasn’t there. Bubbles slipped from my lips, and I looked above me. The surface of the water was so far away I wasn’t even sure it was actually there. Kicking and flailing around, I tried my best to escape something that I couldn’t see. I thrashed like an animal caught in a net until dots floated in my vision, and then my vision went black. My lungs burned so badly. There was nothing more I could do.
Opening my mouth, water came rushing in, and I felt like a piece of garbage sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor. There was nothing I could do. No way to save myself. It was too late.
When the sun burned overhead as I spat out water, I couldn't figure out what happened, or how I'd gotten here.
I was alive. I drifted on top of the water, gasping for breath and staring at the sky. How was I still alive?
I had no idea. I was just so glad that I was.
When I’d gathered myself enough, I turned and began the long swim to shore. Slowly. Painfully slowly. I wasn't sure I'd ever make it. Every stroke of my hand felt like the shore got another stroke farther away.
It wasn’t until my feet touched the sand that I felt like I was really okay. Gasping, I settled on the sand and looked out at the water that had tried to kill me seconds ago.
Looking around the water, I froze when I saw her. Alma.
She stood in the water several yards to my left in a black dress with long sleeves. It trailed behind her in the water. Her hair was loose, blowing in the wind as she walked toward me in the surf. “Emma, listen to me. You will meet me tomorrow. Right here. You will give me your powers. It will be so simple, simpler than you ever imagined. All you have to do is want to give me your powers, and they’ll be mine.”
My voice comes out in a croak. “What if I don’t want to give you my powers?”
She smiled, but there was nothing kind about it. It was pure evil. “If you don’t do the right thing, Karma will punish everyone you love. It will destroy their lives.”
“No,” I told her as I pushed my shaking, exhausted legs to lift me so I could stand proud in front of the old hag. “I don’t believe you’re a good person, and I don’t believe you deserve my powers.”
Her glare sharpened, and she spread her arms out. “Search me. Tell me if you believe I’m a good person, deserving of Karma’s powers.”
I did, hoping that the results would be different than last time, but they were exactly the same. My powers told me she deserved nothing but good things. At the same time, the band on my chest. her spell, tightening around me.
“You know the truth,” she said. “You can’t escape it.”
She disappeared. I crawled further up the shore and collapsed into the sand. This woman, deserving or not, was powerful. There wasn't the slightest doubt she was the reason I'd almost drowned. Her powers were strong, and if she didn’t get what she wanted, she’d turn them onto my friends.
I only had one choice, and I had to make ittonight.
20
EMMA
The sun sanktoward the horizon over the ocean. The day had passed in such a hurry it scared me.
Tonight was the night. Tonight, Alma would be standing out on this very beach, expecting me to give her my powers.
Conflict surged through me. Over the past few days, my feelings surrounding this woman and what she wanted had changed. At first, it'd felt like I wouldn’t have a good life without my powers. As though all of my happiness was due to magic.
It wasn’t, though, was it? The things that made me happy in my life were Daniel, Henry, and my friends. My life was happier because I wasn’t in a terrible marriage any longer. I wasn't desperately lonely because my son was gone, and I wasn't still stuck in a life with nothing else that I loved. Even my business in Springfield hadn't made me feel the way I did when working with Beth. Back then, I'd obsessed over numbers, clients, and our employees. Here, I simply enjoyed my job.
The thing was, I still didn’t want to give that woman my powers. Not because I couldn’t survive without them, because I could, but because I knew in my heart that she didn’t deserve them. I didn’t know why my powers said otherwise, but my gut told me the truth. If I gave her my powers, the world would be a much worse place. My magic was telling me one thing, but for the first time, I didn’t believe it. Instead, I believed what I saw. Every single action this woman took was cruel and selfish. I'd do everything I could to protect my loved ones from the wrath of this spell, but I wouldn’t be intimidated into doing something that would hurt the whole world.
The sun hung on the horizon, taunting me, reminding me that the time was almost here. I turned away from it and headed inside.
Everyone was hanging out. Deva’s kitchen was still not up and running, so she’d made an absolute feast. Tender steaks, mashed potatoes, two different kinds of pies, asparagus, and more. Eating it had calmed us all, which she’d very likely woven into the food. The food was gone, and now we were all sitting around, waiting to be run over a bus, even though they pretended otherwise.
The sounds of their conversation washed over me when I walked into the kitchen. When they realized I'd entered the room, they went silent. It was awkward as heck because I didn’t know what to say. Part of me wanted to comfort them, and part of me wanted to freak the heck out.
“It’s nice outside, huh?” Daniel asked then came over to pull me into his arms.
“Yup,” I said, hugging him back before pulling away. “The perfect night for a showdown.”
