Page 23 of My Karmic Destiny

“How bad was the private session?” he asks.

Not the question I was expecting.

My first reaction is to blow him off and walk away, but the three of us have been through so much together. We have a bond that shouldn’t be fractured just because we all fell for the same beautiful woman. So I give in and tell him how it was.

“Different, not bad. She used her healing power to help with some of Instant Karma’s damage to my soul. She also counseled me about a few personal things.”

“Personal?” Kurtis prompts. Of course, he would pry into my privacy. He was never great with boundaries.

“You do understand the word, right?” I snark. “It seems you both don’t know how to back off.”

“Hey, no need to be a dick.” Kurtis steps into my space.

My goodwill vanishes with his aggression, triggering the wounded part of me that my father created—when I had to match violence with violence. “Seems like I do need to be a dick. I know what you guys are doing with Tessa.”

“She told you?” Kurtis asks with a frown.

Told me? What the fuck happened?

I don’t want to lose face with them anymore, so I just storm off. When Tessa gets back, I plan to ask her if they made a move. If they pressured her into something.

I don’t know if I can wait that fucking long to get answers.

11

A REAPER'S LIFE

TESSA

“Death thought we should start you out on an easy reap,” Megan says, like any of this is easy.

I might be a bit flippant about death in my day-to-day life, but hearing that someone I barely know has passed away isn’t the same as being responsible for their souls and reaping them.

We’re standing in our supernatural astral forms at the bedside of an old woman, Betsy, invisible to her and her family members inside their home. I study her face and the people surrounding her, like her great-grand kids, and I’m sure she must be closing in on one hundred years old.

Her eyes are closed, and everyone appears to be at peace with this transition. I inspect the home’s photos on the wall and find our target in them. Betsy lived life to its fullest. She traveled all over, was big in her community, and seems to have a huge loving family.

“She lived the fuck out of her life,” I remark.

“I find reaps are easier when a person has truly lived instead of having their whole life ahead of them and then some accident or illness cuts their time short.” Megan smiles at the old woman. “I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if Death hadn’t come for me.”

I don’t get the sense she wants to open up about her life, so I commiserate, “Your life would probably be better than the one I would have had if Instant hadn’t ensnared me. I was just scraping by and hustling suckers with my psychic ability.”

She eyes me for a long moment. “You didn’t con everyone you gave a reading to.”

I stare at the photos for a minute before answering. “No. I didn’t. I offered solid insights to a few. Well, actually, all of them got one legit piece of advice. I gave genuine answers to the ones who seemed like they might actually be good people.”

“See?” She knocks me on the shoulder. “Not all bad. And the reason you were in a position to be on the streets and needing to hustle was because of Instant fucking with your life. Isn’t that right?”

Before I can respond, the old woman’s breathing slows.

Suddenly alert, Megan moves closer. “She’s no longer connected fully to her body. Sort of like when we sleep. Our souls mostly detach to explore. Can you sense what’s happening?”

I reach out with my senses, and feel, then see, what she’s talking about. Betsy’s energy is floating just above her body.

“Now we use our tool to sever the cord to make sure she untangles completely.” In Megan’s hand there’s a tiny, curved sickle. She gently swipes over the body and the woman’s spirit floats higher.

The amorphous spirit energy now coalesces into an almost solid form. Betsy’s eyes open and she looks around, first at her family, then in our direction. “Are you my angels?”

---