“I will set her free once she wins this game,” Eenta says, moving her hand to Mads’ shoulder. “She wins, and you come to live with us forever. Our little family will be complete, and you will have a friend. Isn’t this just what you wanted?”
“You turned my best friend into a monster! Look at her, you crazy bitch!” I shout. Eenta takes a step back, looking almost surprised at my outburst. As if I should be thanking her for taking my friend away from me.
“Well, aren’t you just one ungrateful child?” she says, crossing her arms. “This is why you need to be taught a lesson in respect, Karma. You can’t have everything you want - surely you must know that?” She gives Mads one more proud look. “Her future is tied to yours now. You will learn to obey - one way or another.” Turning to Xur, she says, “I’m going to go sit with our sister. I’m sure you can handle the rest, Xur.” With that, she turns around and walks back down the steps in the direction of the stands. I struggle to control my dire urge to feckin’ murder her in the most painful way I possibly can. She stole Mads from me, turned her into a monster, and no matter what else happens, I’m not going to stop until she pays for what she did to her. That’s a promise.
I’m left staring at Xur and the empty shell of my best friend, who is still holding the golden sword. Xur follows my gaze to the blade, a cruel smile spreading on his face. “Do you recognise the sword, my sweet little Karma?” he asks. “It was my brother’s sword, you know.”
“That’s…” I nearly trip over my words as the memory comes back to me. “That’s a lie. You’re just trying to psych me out. Neritous left it behind.”
“You think so, do you?” asks Xur, raising his eyebrows. “You think he left it in the stomach of your mother, in his attempt to kill you, too. Is that right?” I don’t say anything in reply, seething as I wait for an explanation. “You know,” he continues, “Neritous wasn’t the one who killed your mother and family, Karma. It was me.” My heart damn near stops, my eyes going wide as his words sink in. As much as I rail against it, I can see a cold, brutal honest in his eyes that makes my stomach drop.
“Why?” I finally ask, my voice cracking. It’s the only thing I can manage to say.
“Believe it or not, Neritous never wanted his children dead,” Xur replies coolly. “He was collecting them for something - although what, I have no idea.” He shakes his head. “I knew you would be too powerful to be kept alive. So I found your mother and did what I could to make sure you wouldn’t become a threat.”
I nearly drop my daggers, shock taking hold of my body. The man in the memory, the man who killed my mother… it was him all this time. Xur was the one responsible. Xur is the one who should have died all this time. And as for Neritous, he died…
No. That’s not right. I killed him.
“I’m going to kill you,” I vow in a low voice, shaking with anger.
Xur gives me a condescending smile, not even bothering to respond to the threat. “The game is simple,” he says. “Win the fight and get the sword from your best friend. The moment you touch the sword, its magic will break the blood bond. Though, let’s be honest, here... she will never let you touch it, and you could never beat her.” He shakes his head, crossing his arms. “I’ve watched you for weeks, Karma. You’re nothing more than a child with too many men in her life. And now you’re going to finally grow up - whether you want to or not.” Without another word, he turns and walks off the platform.
Still reeling, I return my gaze to Mads, wishing I could see something in her eyes that would make me think there was any part of my friend left. She looks like a zombie. Lifting the sword higher, she starts walking towards me as a tear falls down my cheek. I can’t fight her. Not her.
But before I get a chance to think of a way to get out of this, she thrusts her sword straight at me, forcing me to scamper out of the way before she can injure me. Whirling around, I lift one of my daggers into the air just in time; I manage to block another incoming swing, but the sword is much heavier than the dagger. Mads puts her weight on it, pushing it straight towards me, and the blue lightning burns my skin where it flickers.
“Madison Grey, stop it!” I yell, desperate to get through to her. “It’s me, Karma! Your best friend. I love you, and you love my brother, Peyton. Remember Peyton?” My voice is frantic as she forces the sword further down at me, threatening to make my knees buckle. It’s like she can’t see me at all, my cries falling on deaf ears.
I scream as the sword cuts into my shoulder and I fall to my knees, using my other dagger to try and push her off me without hurting her.
“MADISON!” I scream her name over and over, but she doesn’t see me. The sword digs further into my arm, and as I search her expression, part of me wants to give up. I want to stop the pain and let her kill me; maybe then no one would win this game. The higher gods would never get me or anything they want.
But dying won’t solve anything. As I stare into my best friend’s glowing eyes, I realise I can’t let her kill me. I have to fight. And I will not die by the same sword that killed my mother. I would be letting her down if I didn’t fight.
“Fight her!” I hear Killian scream at me, as if echoing my own thoughts.
“I’m so feckin’ sorry, Mads. This is going to hurt,” I warn her, though she doesn’t respond to me. I close my eyes, imagining the moment Jade died. The memory of the anger. I remember the visions of my mother who loved me so much, and how any future we had was stolen away by these higher gods. I remember the sight of Neritous dying by my hand, the countless lies told to me to manipulate me, the life that’s been taken from me.
Now they want to take my best friend...and that is not happening.
“I’m Karma Maria Kismet. Daughter of a higher god and a karma goddess...and I will not go down without a fight!” I scream, letting the rage take me over. A familiar power begins to surge through me, and I allow it to take me over the way I did in the prison. Green lightning blasts up my arms, crashing into the sword and slamming into Mads’s chest. She screams as she flies off me, and I struggle to my feet.
The lightning is now flickering around my whole body, and it feels amazing. I feel like I could do anything. Every step seems slower as I look away from Mads and towards the higher gods, watching me like an animal in a cage from their places in the stands. I lift both my hands into the air, and my feet begin to float off the ground. With a smile on my lips, I throw both the daggers at the same time. They flicker with green lightning as they each slam into the hearts of Eenta and Gestune. The women gasp, clutching at each other as green lightning flickers all around their bodies. Just as the tips of their fingers touch, they scream and burst into an explosion of green lightning and dust. Gone, just like that.
I turn my eyes to Xur next; his eyes are wide and he looks stunned, as if he never prepared for this possibility. He thought he could wear me down, manipulating me into playing his game. But he underestimated my determination to protect the people I love, and now I’m going to make him pay for it.
I reach a hand out towards the gold sword on the floor next to Mads, who seems to have passed out. I can’t focus on her right now.
I need revenge. I need more power. I need this.
The sword flies into my hand before lighting up with green lightning. Xur looks from me to the sword, a new expression appearing on his face: fear. Good. I want him to feel afraid.
He debates for a moment before making the decision to try to run away, conjuring a portal in front of him. He lunges for it, but Storm is next to him in two seconds flat, grabbing his neck and throwing him onto the dirt at my feet as I approach. Xur tries to crawl away as I step closer and stand on his cloak, stopping him escaping.
“It sucks to feel weak. Doesn’t it?” I ask him as he grabs my ankle, and I place the tip of the sword in the middle of his chest, right above his dead, unfeeling heart. I’m going to make that heart feel something.
“Let me go. I won’t—”
“You know what they say, right?” I whisper, tightening my grip on the sword pressed into his chest.
“S-stop!” he screams, but I’m past hearing his pleas. Or caring about them.
“Karma’s a bitch.”
I don’t think I will ever forget the look on his face when I shove the sword straight through his heart. I never want to forget. This is for Mads, for my family, for my mother, my aunts I never got to know, for my grandparents.
This is for everything he has done, and all the people he has wronged along the way.
He bursts into dust as my lightning travels from my sword all throughout his body. The surge of energy continues until I’m just holding a sword on my own. I go to look at my family, knowing we just won, but before any of us can speak, a dome of red light suddenly appears around the platform. I can see through it, and watch in confusion as my family runs into the dome wall, slamming their hands against it. Storm flings a bolt of lightning into the dome at the same time the justice twins push gold power into the wall, but none of their abilities do anything.
“Oldest daughter, I am glad we finally get to meet.”
I turn slowly, choking back the fear lodged in my throat as I see a man in a cloak, holding Mads’ body in his arms. A red portal flickers behind him, crackling with a lightning so much like my own. Except this lightning is red, and it belongs to an all-too-familiar man.
“Neritous Cyncus?” I ask in shock as my body shakes in denial. “What… what are you doing here? You’re alive?” The questions pour out of me as I stare at the man I thought I killed.
“If you want to know the truth, if you want to save your friend, come with me. You have thirty seconds to make your choice, and then the portal will close forever. There will not be another chance.” Neritous walks through the portal, never looking back once as he and Madison disappear in an instant. I count the seconds down in my mind. One, two, three, four... but on number five, I know what I have to do. Mads needs me, and I need to know the truth. I look back at everyone I love once more before turning away and running headfirst into the portal.
