Page 1 of Stuck with my Frenemy
Chapter One
Ebony
Karma is a bitch.
While watchingthe platinum pixie cut of the lady entering the vast, ornate room where my mother forced me to attend tonight’s gathering—as she likes to call this torture event for the senses—I couldn’t help but take a step back in hopes to disappear and blend in with the walls. No, I wasn’t being hypothetical. The blonde I wished would ignore my presence, whose stilettos were kissing the marble floors with a flinch-inducing smack as she walked, was actually Karma herself.
And, she was a literal bitch.
Gods, demigods, and all kinds of creatures who were voluntold to attend—just like I was—parted in front of her like the Red Sea, all conversation and hushed whispers silencing in her wake. Even the greatly feared Morrigan paid her respects by slightly lowering her nose, which was usually so high up I was shocked she didn’t trip while walking. That was my mother, by the way. Morrigan, I mean.
I often wondered how we were blood-related.
With my resting bitch face firmly in place, I glared at anyone who might have the insane idea to accidentally consider approaching me. I neither wanted to be present here nor had a desire to talk. To anyone. So, when a rainbow-colored blur caught my attention from the corner of my eye, nothing could’ve prevented the pained groan rumbling in my chest. The stiffening of my mother’s shoulders from the sound didn’t go unnoticed, but I couldn’t care less. My jaw hurt from clenching my teeth when Cherry—Aphrodite’s daughter and the last person I wanted to be around in my life unless you gorged my eyes out—breezed after Karma with her hand reaching out and the widest smile ever plastered on her unnaturally pretty face. The girl was unicorns shitting rainbows in everything she did, and I knew in the bottom of my soul that this was about to be a disaster of epic proportions.
Not in a thousand years did I think she would take me down with her.
Sheets of golden sunlight cascaded over the shiny floors covered with white marble. Pairs of golden stone-carved pillars sprinkled at regular intervals through the room reached toward the cathedral ceilings to bloom like flowers, the petals blending with the painted night skies full of glittering stars above our heads. The scent of jasmine, mirth, sandalwood, and pomegranate saturated the air, wafts of it slapping me in the face each time someone flicked their hair while waving their over-the-top dresses with flourish. Keeping my lips pressed in a firm line so I didn’t gag, all I could do was flare my nostrils and hope I didn’t faint. I hated these get-togethers if I wasn’t clear enough.
Unlike Cherry, obviously.
Lungs burning from trying to hold my breath, I watched unblinking as Karma stepped up to the tall chair resembling a throne on a dais, sharply turning on her needle-thin heels and gracefully lowering her royal ass to the thick cushion. No trace of makeup on her stern face made her razor-sharp cheekbones, thin nose, and slightly wider mouth stand out more instead of softening her features. The slashes of her eyebrows had a permanent line etched between them, and there was this glint in her pitch-black eyes that scared the shit out of me no matter how many times I’d seen her. Since she was friends with my mother, I saw her enough times to last me lifetimes. Paired with a tailored black suit which was her trademark attire, the only feminine thing on her was the thin tie curling over her breasts in some floral design that was burned into my retinas for eternity.
Choking on my spit when Cherry barreled in front of the dais, tripped on something, and almost face-planted in Karma’s crotch, I hacked as if I was about to spit out the biggest hairball. My eyes bulged when my mother slammed the heel of her palm on my back, scowling as if I was having the time of my life not being able to breathe. The shriek coming from the dais luckily pulled Morrigan’s attention away from me.
“Oh dear Cupid, did you see that? I almost broke a nail.” Cherry squealed, wiggling her middle finger in Karma’s face.
All the air was sucked out of the room. I could’ve sworn I saw Loki, the god of mischief, snickering while hiding behind Demeter’s back, and a group of shifters were inching closer to one of the open balconies. Not that I blamed them. I wanted to make a run for it, too.
The immortal and most powerful group gathered in this room at the moment had only one thing to worry about, and they were not exempt from it. They escaped death by having immortality, by living forever, but no one could escape Karma. Not even the gods. If you didn’t believe me, ask Odin why he walked around with an eyepatch like a damn pirate or how Zeus ended up with the god of the Underworld as his son-in-law.
That bitch was all over everyone like white on rice.
And Cherry just flipped her off.
Pursing her glossy lips, Cherry blew out a breath, pressing a hand over her bright pink glitter top. “That was a close call.” Flicking her rainbow hair over one shoulder, she grinned, “Anywhooo, I just had to come up here and tell you how happy I am to finally meet you. My mother has told me so much about you it’s like we’re already best friends. I’ve dreamed of this day for like, ever.” The girl bounced on the balls of her feet, or maybe not. I couldn’t tell because her boobs were bouncing with her.
My mother’s cold fingers wrapped around my upper arm, chilling me to the bone, and without a word, she yanked me closer to where Cherry was busy making a fool of herself. Maybe she wanted us to leave, and I had to admit the exit was taunting us from behind the car crash waiting to happen between Cherry—aka sports car—and Karma—aka a freight train—but my panic didn’t allow me the luxury to think. Suffering under my mother’s thumb was bad enough without Karma’s attention on me, thank you very much. I dug my heels in, but nothing could stop Morrigan when she had something planned. Her floor-length black dress swished around her feet, and I couldn’t see her expression from the cloud of blue-black curls falling like a waterfall to her lower back. I paid a lot of favors to have mine purple in case some poor soul was dumb enough to mix us up.
I was not my mother.
“Although,”—While I was internally panicking, Cherry leaned closer to Karma, who was spitting venom through those abyss-like eyes, which rainbow girl missed by a long shot—“I know you are like this amazingly popular person, but would it kill you to brush some bronzer over those cheeks? A little sparkle never hurt anyone.” Tilting her head, she flashed a beaming smile at her, and I rolled my eyes. “And I’m saying this as a friend.” Acting like no one could hear her words even though her whisper-yell bounced off the walls in the deathly silent room, she domed her hand over her cheek as if to cover her mouth. “The black wool of that suit makes you pale, and it’s not that nice alabaster look either. It’s like the she’s-about-to-keel-over kind of blanched look, you know?”
We were almost at the dais, my mother marching and me wiggling to get away from her like a fish trying to get off a hook when Aphrodite joined us as well. The poor goddess of love was almost sprinting to get her daughter away before the girl had her head ripped off. That was how all of us ended up clustered in the same spot when Karma’s voice slashed the silence like a whip.
“Enough!” Her deep voice boomed around us like it came from everywhere. “Aphrodite.” Her pitch-black eyes flicked to the side, landing on my mother and me, who were the only idiots moving in a room full of statues. Smart statues. “Morrigan, you as well. Approach me.”
I wouldn’t lie. I might’ve tinkled in my panties a little. Also, in one crazy split-second, I thought about biting my mother’s hand like a feral animal so she would let me go and I could bolt out of there. Stupid, I knew, because there was no way I could escape Karma, but the urge was there. Unlike Cherry, who was grinning from ear to ear as if she won first prize at a contest instead of frowning because we were all about to kiss our lives goodbye.
“Karma.” Both goddesses, one a golden-haired, curvy bombshell that smelled like flowers and the other willowy, harsh, and so dark it looked like death clung to her skin, bowed to the bitch glaring at all of us.
Cherry got animated as I was revealed, waving her hand a thousand miles per hour at me like I was on the other side of the realm. I, on the other hand, stared owlishly at Karma—my black shirt glued to my back and drenched in cold sweat—before angling my lower body and trying to hide behind my mother. No one needed to see my ripped jeans and fishnet stockings beneath. I wasn’t dressed for a grand gala because I didn’t even want to be here in the first place.
“This is preposterous.” I felt the deep voice of Karma like a punch to the gut.
“I know, right?” Cherry chirped, giving the pissed-off bitch an exaggerated wink.
My eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.
