Fated: Karma Series, Book Three (23 page)

I woke up with my cheek pressed to an ice-cold surface and could see the bottoms of massive columns and the strange light that flowed through their floors. It was definitely Paddy’s home. There wasn’t a marble or granite supply on Earth that carried something of this variety.

The sound of footsteps echoed around me and I didn’t think they were Paddy’s. Thankfully, I’d gotten up for water in the middle of the night and thrown on a t-shirt and shorts or I’d be lying there naked before my host.

Of all the possibilities I hoped for when I looked up, Fia standing above me, and alone, was my least favorite. Paddy was willing to kill me, but Fia gave the impression she’d enjoy it. So of course it was Fia.

“You could’ve just invited me over for tea,” I said as I got to my bare feet, not feeling comfortable lying prone and helpless anywhere around her.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked me over. “Don’t talk. Just listen.”

She was already pacing away from me as she spoke, which was a good thing, so I did as she asked. More distance played in my favor. I might not be able to outrun her but damned if I wouldn’t give it a shot.

“On September 14, 1186, according to astrologers at the time, the five known planets aligned. In actuality, every planet in the galaxy aligned. If the significance of this eludes you, due to your lack of knowledge, Genghis Khan, arguably the greatest Mongol leader ever to live, was born that day. I stress the fact that he was born, not created. To give you scope. Genghis had already lived several lives before that one and had an essence of greatness about him, but still had never amounted to much. It was being born on that day that instilled him with the final ingredient to become what he did.” She finally stopped walking to nail me with a stare. “Do you have any idea what you share with Genghis Khan?”

I hated pop quizzes. As far as I was aware, no one liked them. Figured it would be her style. “Shiny dark hair?”

Disdain was probably the most accurate description of her reception to my answer. I wanted to tell her it was her own fault for quizzing me on material I wasn’t prepared to be tested on but didn’t. I was actually quite curious where she was going with this.

“The date, September 14, 1186, is what you have in common. Except instead of simply being born, you were created that day. No one new was supposed to be created that day. Certain dates are strictly recycles.”

“Recycles?” I had a feeling I knew what she meant but I wasn’t leaving this place to only think later
shit, what did she mean by that
? I was certain if I got out of here alive, I wasn’t going to get a do-over.

“Old souls being reintroduced. As if that weren’t enough, it happened at the location of one of Earth’s most powerful chakra points, in Glastonbury, England. Some drunk slob tumbled a barmaid in a pile of hay. That was your lofty beginnings. It lasted all of two minutes and this is the mess I end up with.”

She flittered her hand toward my messy self. She was the one who’d dragged me out of bed, but again I held my tongue, wanting the information she had.

“You were always meant to exist but the when and where you came into existence was an accident. It gave you a pull in this Universe that should never have happened. That’s why you can bend things to your will. Why even Paddy’s essence is being drained by you. There is a weight to your being that acts almost like gravity. It’s why the guards react to you as they do. They think you
are
part of the Universe.” She snorted after this statement, marring her refined demeanor and it made her seem oddly human, if only for a second.

“Why did Paddy never tell me any of this?” I asked. And why couldn’t I beam myself out of here if I was so special? This might have been the most uncomfortable biography ever, and the orator wasn’t making it any better.

“Because he doesn’t know why you are the way you are. He thinks you’re some sort of miracle toy he amuses himself with. Only I know the details because you were my mistake.

“Every so often, windows of opportunity arise. We each took turns guarding against
this
,” she tilted her head toward me with a lemon face, “happening. The night you were created was my responsibility. But so many other windows had come and gone with no issue, I grew complacent and bored of safeguarding, the way only time can make you.”

She shook her head and I thought I saw some self-disgust there this time, which was a nice change in direction.

“I didn’t even realize it had happened until you’d died and been reborn a few times. I tripped over you a century later, by accident, and then put the pieces together. It was too late to kill you at that point, since you’d already been created.”

I weighed the pros and cons of interrupting again but decided the question merited it. “Why couldn’t you kill me?”

“You were already made. Once created, a soul never truly disappears.” She paused, as if her next words were much weightier than anything she’d previously said. “Except in one circumstance.”

Holy shit. The pieces started to fall into place and the larger picture was alarming. “If I were recruited. You were the one that wanted me to be Karma because it was the only way to get rid of me.” The implications made the strength disappear from my legs and I wasn’t sure how I remained standing. “The train wreck. That was you?” Shock had stolen my voice and the words came out more of a whisper.

“Yes. It was the only way.”

This whole thing from the beginning had been her.
She’d
stolen my life, not Malokin. If I had found out this information a couple of months ago, I would’ve tried to rip her apart even if it meant the end of me. But as I stood there, as much as part of me mourned my human life, I wasn’t as angry as I’d thought I should be. Part of me felt compelled to attack her simply on principal but then I could lose Fate.

She moved about the massive hall like structure, oblivious to my thoughts, as she started speaking again. “When Paddy was willing to bring you here, I thought that alone might kill you but he’d given you a piece of him. That was a critical mistake but he’s always had a soft spot for you. Even now that you are draining him, I doubt he’ll be able to go through with killing you, not that he could if he wanted to. And my only shot was if all four us tried. I thought I might have had Paddy convinced but it didn’t last. After the initial fear of dying himself sank in, he started rambling on about having an even stronger connection to humans because he was experiencing the fear of his own mortality.” Her hands fluttered in the air as she got disgusted. “Or some utter nonsense he was spewing. I had a hard time listening to the whole tirade.

“As if I didn’t have enough issues, Fate took a liking to you. He’s Fith’s child, if you didn’t know, conceived when Fith was going through his Greek goddess phase. It was some minor strumpet, long gone now after Hera had found out she’d moved in on Zeus. The point is, Fate kept stepping in to protect you as well and he’s no slouch himself. You shouldn’t have made it past the transition. Yours was deliberately bad on purpose. But if it wasn’t Paddy, it was Fate.

“You kept gathering up steam and I kept covering up what was going on. The longer I hid the secret, the harder it was to come clean. I’ve had to hide and cloak things about you the last twenty times you’ve been born. Burying your natural energy under tragedy after tragedy. Century after century of compounding the lies made it even harder. It was my final act of trying to hide you that threw off the balance. I’d been tweaking here and there, messing with things that I shouldn’t have, and it finally thinned the balance enough to allow Malokin to exist.”

“So you created this mess?” All this time we’d been looking outward for the problem.

“And the girl wins a prize. Took you long enough to figure it out.”

“Why not just let me be? Is it so bad that I exist?”

“Like I said before, you’re like gravity. You’ll slowly pull energy toward you until you yourself throw off the balance just by being you. You’re dead already. It’s just whether you go alone or take everything down with you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re right. And there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.”

“Then why bring me here? Why didn’t you just kill me?”

“If only. I would’ve shot you in the garage if it were that easy. I can’t. I’ve tried. But if I can’t get rid of you, at least I can use you to get rid of Malokin.”

We’d finally come to something we could agree upon.

“What do you want me to do?”

I was slammed none to gently back in bed as if the meeting with Fia had never happened, Fate staring at the place I’d just appeared.

“What just happened? You flashed in and out of sight for a second.”

“A second?” Time warp, that was interesting.

“Yes.”

“I know how to get rid of Malokin.”

The office building stood before me. I put the key into the rusty lock and left it open as I continued on towards the office.

Fate, Angus, Lars, Cutty and Bic were in the room directly above me and had been camped out there since the previous evening, in preparation for this meeting. We had to take every measure possible to make sure Malokin thought I was alone.

Everyone else had stayed behind. If it went bad, at least there would be staff to try and carry on.

We needed to get Malokin as close to the retirement door as possible. That door was the only way to strip him of the energy he’d accumulated on this Earth and dissolve what he was back into the natural balance.

This part was mine to play, much to Fate’s aggravation. The larger the entourage, the less likely we’d get him near enough. We’d thought of many different scenarios but Fate finally had to concede that we were right. It had to be me and I needed to be alone.

It was a lot easier said than done. I still had to get him in the vicinity and then hopefully, between us all, we could force him through the door. Lars had set up a trip wire of sorts that would alert them as soon as Malokin’s energy entered the inner office.

I walked over and settled down at my table, waiting with ankles crossed and my heels resting on its surface. The clock struck noon just as he appeared in the doorway, alone.

He needed to cross the room to me, where I was closer to Knox’s office. He strolled in a couple steps with his usual swagger but then stopped.

“Why are we meeting here?” he asked but didn’t seem overly worried about being in the den of his enemy.

“Because this is the place they’re most vulnerable.”

He was so calm that I wondered if I was the one missing something about what was going on here. It wasn’t like I’d expected him to show nerves. That wasn’t Malokin. He wasn’t the type to ever seem weak, but to be this calm?

“That was what you said when you called but why would I believe you want to help me?”

“If you didn’t, why’d you come?” Why
had
he come? Something about this felt very wrong.

He looked down at his wristwatch. “Slow afternoon?”

And now he was joking. I’d never heard him joke, ever. Under the calm veneer, he seemed almost…happy?

“The four who run everything are starting to see me as a threat. It’s coming down to them or me.”

He stood barely inside the doorway, taking in my relaxed position while I tried to maintain it. I’d been so concerned about keeping him at ease and now I had to force it for myself. The guys were one floor above me. I needed to keep that in mind and proceed with the plan. It wasn’t as if I were truly alone.

I dropped my feet and headed toward Knox’s office, praying he’d come closer and follow me in. I heard his steps behind me and tried not to tense at having him at my back. The masquerade of calm was easier once he was beside me and in sight again.

The interior office felt even smaller with him in there and I took a step closer to the opposite side. We both looked toward the door. The light was blaring underneath, and if Fia were true to her word, when I opened it, the heart of the Universe’s power would be blazing in all its glory.

I thought back to what Fia had explained to me. “That door is a mainline. If we can destroy it, it cuts the head from the beast. Upper management can add another connection but not quickly. It buys time to gain strength.”

He walked closer to the door and let a few fingers trail over the surface. I knew it didn’t look like much, just your average interior door—except for the light of the Universe blazing behind it. “Are there more of these?”

“Mainlines to the heart of the Universe? Not that I’m aware of.” I guessed there were but Fia had only told me the bare minimum. Not that I would’ve passed the information on.

He tucked his hands in his pockets. “How do we do this?”

I’d just walked him up to the key to his victory and he acted like I’d handed him a brunch menu. I had to play this hand though and see the plan out.

“I was hoping you would help me figure that out.”
While I open it and kick you through it.
It had been at least several minutes since he’d come in the office. The guys should be here soon.

Malokin eyed me. “Nice try.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“No.”

“You wanted to recruit me. You really don’t think I can do this?”

“I wanted you for what you could become, not what you were.”

“I’ve got a reason to help you.”

He took a couple of steps back. “Open it.”

Get him in here and open the door if possible. That was the plan, but all of a sudden I didn’t want to do it. I was being silly. I needed to do this. I’d have the door wide open, the guys would come and a simple shove and this part of the nightmare would be over. As far as what Fia said about me being a problem, if we could fix this, we could fix that. As long as I made it that far.

I stepped forward and swung the door open and immediately had to turn my head. It was as if I were staring at the sun, ten feet from its surface. The room was almost blinding in its brightness and I had to squint to keep my eyes even partially open, trying to not lose track of him.

All the feelings of dread finally made sense as I heard footsteps approaching that heralded disaster. Fate and the guys wouldn’t announce their approach. I wouldn’t have known they were here until they’d been at the door.

“Your friends aren’t coming. I’m not the one being destroyed today.”

I couldn’t see his face well but the gloating in his voice was more than clear. I cursed myself as all sorts of stupid. Fia had betrayed me. I wanted to curse him as well but I couldn’t let my anger get the best of me. It would feed him like it had on the beach. Plus, I needed the silence to listen to how many sets of feet were approaching. It was five at minimum.

My window of opportunity was closing quickly. I had one shot to get this done myself and only if I acted quickly. There was no time to contemplate what would come next.

I zeroed in on his location, pivoted and rammed into his midsection with every ounce of strength I possessed. His feet left the ground with an umph. My momentum had us across the office and into the door before we were stopped short. His hands had grabbed the door jamb as we flew through it, halting us at this critical point. Every part of him, down to the tip of his pinky, had to be past the threshold.

“You’re never going to make it out of this,” he said as we struggled, his calm finally shattered.

“I promise you, I won’t go down alone.” I directed all my energy to pushing, digging my heels into the cheap carpet of the office trying to find more leverage.

The footsteps of his people were getting closer. I had seconds left, if that.

“You two thought you knew everything. You walked right into our trap.”

His words were like venom, trying to stir my anger, but I pushed it out of my mind. I couldn’t feed him anything. I had to think of good things, like a life with Fate. Then I felt something start to burn around my tattoo. It felt like a hot poker was being pressed against my skin and that feeling quickly expanded, but instead of collapsing in pain, a burst of power shot through me. The resistance disappeared as his fingers slipped off the frame.

He was gone, and I fell to my knees, almost landing through the doorway myself.

There were too many and I was drained. I willed myself to get up off my knees, thinking if I just dug deep enough I could do it but my body wouldn’t obey. I could hear the people shuffling into the office as I fell forward, trying to use my hands to push myself upward, when I was jerked backward and a blade slid across my throat.

I heard a roar of anguish in the distance. Fate had arrived but it was too late. Another cry, this one from the agony of someone dying nearby. There was fighting all around as I lay there on the floor, in a pool of my own blood. Then he was there, cradling me with fingers pressed against my throat. I knew it was too late and from the look in his eyes, so did he.

I did it.
I mouthed silently, using the last of my strength to raise my hand to his.

“I knew you would.” He pulled me closer, hugging my body to his and rocking me. “Don’t go. Please, don’t go.”

My eyes fluttered shut as I heard him whisper, “I love you.”

I tried to say it back but couldn’t as everything faded away.