We walked to the car in silence. Since the witch’s words, no one knew what to say, which was troubling. I was new to the magical world. They were not. If they thought there was a problem, there was a problem. Plus, this crew was used to dealing with random, crazy crap. Heck, it was what we did for a living most days. They didn't know how to fix this.
The band across my chest tightened another notch as panic tried to set in. I was going to lose it all.
“Emma?” Carol’s voice was hesitant.
I stopped walking and looked at her, waiting.
“Your powers, Emma, I don’t completely understand how they work, but can you tell what kind of karma people deserve?”
Everyone stared at me while I tried to explain something I didn’t completely understand. “When I use my powers, the powers know what a person deserves. Often, I also know, when I’ve seen what they’ve done, good or bad.”
She nodded. “Do you think you can try thinking of the woman to see if you can tell what kind of karma she deserves?”
I hadn’t considered that. “It’s worth a shot.” My mind was in chaos right now. It was no wonder I hadn't thought of the simplest solution.
In the middle of the woods, halfway to the car, with everyone looking at me, I closed my eyes and thought of the horrible woman. I took my time calling my powers forth, even though I wasn’t sure how they'd respond. I'd never tried to use my powers in this particular way. It was like walking toward a giant moon in the sky, but having it get farther and farther away the closer I got to it.
“Take a breath,” Carol whispered. “Think about all the many times your powers steered you right. When they punished someone who deserved it and rewarded someone who earned something good.”
So, I did.
I breathed in the cool night air and let my mind wander. I thought about all the times my powers had helped me, guided me, and showed me the way. How they'd protected me from harm and kept me safe from danger. A warmth grew inside of me—a warmth of power. A spark that slowly grew into an inferno. I opened my eyes and looked at Carol. "Okay."
“Now,” Carol continued. “Think of that woman. Think of her face. Think of her clothes. Picture her the best you can.”
I called up my memory of her in the woods. The brown cloak, the white hair. The no-longer-faceless face that I'd seen in the woods when she'd nearly killed the gnomes. Wrinkled, sharp nose and chin. Ice blue eyes.
“Do you see her, and do you also feel your magic?”
It was the craziest feeling of power and fire, but I did, so I nodded.
“Now, try again to see what kind of karma she deserves.”
My magic buzzed around me, inside me. I reached for the woman, expecting to feel something slimy, or maybe something hot. Whatever a terrible person might feel like to my magic. Instead of negative, a rush of sensations came over me, good sensations. It was almost like touching a sunbeam full of beauty. Warm and energizing. She was full of everything good and right, but also, wrong. Maybe I just wanted it to be wrong. I needed her to be bad. If she were evil, I could push my powers to punish her. This was anything but evil.
I opened my eyes to find everyone still gawping at me.
I shook my head. Darn it. I hated to let them down. “She feels like a good person who deserves good things.”
Their faces fell, but they rallied. Not quickly enough, but they tried. “That’s okay, that still doesn’t mean she can have your powers,” Carol said.
What she said was logical, but what she didn’t say was that it also didn’t mean I didn’t have to give her my powers. Okay, that was confusing. I was overthinking this.
Darn it. I’d expected to feel better after going to the cave. Nope. I couldn't get so lucky. I felt worse, much worse.
We all walked for a while longer before I realized we probably should've been out of the woods by now. I stopped, and Daniel frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Shouldn’t we have reached the car already?”
Worry tinged with amusement as I watched it hit him. “Yeah, crap. I was so distracted I wasn’t paying enough attention, which was stupid. My dad would be disappointed.” He said the last part in a teasing tone, but he was trying to figure out where we were. He was not a happy bear.
I glanced around and looked for any landmarks I remembered from when we’d come in. Nothing looked familiar. It was like the trees were playing a game of hide and seek with us, never letting us see the same shape or two trees together.
Daniel stepped up, his green eyes twinkling with knowledge. “I know where we are in relation to the car. I can get us there. Gimme a few minutes, and we'll be on our way.”
Relief flooded me, and I smiled at him gratefully as Carol patted him on the back.
He gave me a wink before turning and leading the way.
A squirrel appeared in our path. "You guys lost?" He scurried up to us and looked up, blinking several times.
"Uh, yeah, actually. Can you help?" Daniel looked at me completely bewildered, but then smiled at the squirrel. He gave us directions in a squeaky voice, then scampered off.
"Okay." Daniel grinned after him and set off, following the little gray guy's directions. We walked for what felt like an eternity. I checked my phone. It'd only been twenty minutes.
After another thirty, I stopped. "This is messed up. He gave us bad directions."
Bryan snorted. He'd been pretty much silent the whole time, so we all stopped to look at him. He shrugged. "I mean, come on. A squirrel gave us bad directions. It doesn't get funnier than that."
Daniel burst out laughing but turned. "Come on, let me get in touch with my furry side and we'll be on our way."
I already knew he was like a human GPS, but I couldn't help but be pretty impressed with his sense of direction. He went quiet, his brows furrowed as we followed right on his heels. Within an hour, we reached the car.
He turned and smiled at us. “See, told you. Now, let’s get out of here before we manage to get lost again.
We sank into our seats with a groan. As Daniel turned on the car, he said, “I’ve been thinking about this whole other Karma thing. We know she’s trouble, right? We know she put the gnomes in danger, cut down the tree, stole the dwarf's wealth, and hurt the mother and the child.”
“Yes,” I said, although we hadn’t seen it all done. There was no way it was anyone but her.
“All we need to do is catch her doing something bad, and then she doesn’t deserve Karma’s powers, and it fixes everything. Right?”
Silence. I looked at Carol, and she raised her brows like she found the idea possible.
Turning on the car, I took a deep breath. “Right. Now we need to catch her being bad. That can’t be too hard…” Pfft yeah right. We had three days to catch a very strong witch who'd evaded us all doing something bad enough to let my powers loose on her.
Three days. Fabulous.