The Keeper's Curse (42 page)

Breckin.
She had to speak with him.

“
Can you two do me a favour and get Breckin for
me?”

The two
of them were off the bed and promptly carrying out the request
before Emmy had time to blink.

She was
alone in the room again with nothing but her thoughts. Now that
nobody was watching, she took out the incantation from the bodice
of her dress. The yellowed vellum paper was weighty in her hands,
but light as a feather compared to the words on the page. The
directions were right in front of her. It would be so
easy.

“
Lana!
”

Her head
jerked up, and there he was, her sweet, perfect Breckin with dirt
on his face. He stood in the doorway, still in his dress clothes
from the previous night. He hadn’t gone home.

In a
couple of long strides he fell into Emmy’s open arms. She dug her
face into his chest, feeling his radiating warmth, the heartbeat
underneath his shirt. She had nearly lost him, she reminded
herself. That heartbeat she was hearing was her
lifeline.

“
Lana you’re so
stupid
!” he bellowed, slipping out
of her grip. “You could have
died!
Do you have any idea what you did to me?
You
idiot!
”

His eyes
were wild with worry, and it only made her smile.

“
I’m okay. We’re okay.”

“
Don’t you e
ver
scare me like that again!”

“
If I die you won’t be able to worry, remember?”

Trying to
joke with him clearly didn’t help the situation. The pulse in his
neck was back, and he had that look people got right before they
got a brain haemorrhage.

“
You’re crazy. You’re insane, and reckless, and you don’t
think things through – yes, I’m aware of how hypocritical this
sounds – but you’re also very, very brave.”

Emmy
shrugged. “Some people say there’s a fine line between bravery and
stupidity.”

“
Then you’re one of the stupidest people I know.”

“
You’ve mentioned that,” she chirped, feeling a lot better now
he was here.

I can handle this
, she thought to
herself. That dull ache was still there, but maybe she could get
used to it and learn to ignore it. Surely that would be a better
alternative than to not have him in her life at all. She sighed,
knowing it was time to ask. If she wanted him in her life, and
wanted them to be friends, she needed some distance. Emmy pulled
out the incantation from her bodice for Breckin to see.

“
Hey, while you’re here, there’s something I need to ask you
...”

Chapter 28

Deal

“
Are you sure you want to do this?” Jade asked.

Jade,
Emmy and Persephone stood on the edge of the forest, all giving
each other apprehensive looks. Emmy was standing in the center of a
complicated assortment of signs dug into the grass that resembled a
crop circle. The girls had spent several hours creating it to
perfection, Jade and Persephone now a few feet away. Jade had the
phonetic translation of the spell in her hand, holding it with the
tips of her fingers like it was laced with poison.

“
Yes,” Emmy said for the sixth time.

It had
been several days since the kidnapping, and as Circlet had
promised, Emmy was signed up to take her exam. She was to be in
Ministrial the next day, and she wanted Breckin out of her head
forever before she left.

Protestations flitted across Jade’s face, but all that came
out was an ineloquent “You can’t do this!”

Emmy dug
her hands into the light jacket she wore; it was a nice day, as far
as nice days went in Methelwood. Her mood was another matter.
“Actually, I can. It’s my body, and I’ll do what I want with it. I
already asked Breckin, and he gave his consent.”

That was
all she was going to say on that matter. She wasn’t going to
mention the devastated expression on Breckin’s face when she
proposed it, or the pain that emanated from him when he realized
what she wanted was to get away from him. But of course he smiled
through it and said yes because that was what Breckin
did.

“
This bond saved your life!” Jade said.

And ruined it.
“I won’t ever need it
again,” Emmy said in a harsh tone that sounded like Cyrus’s
whenever he got defensive. “Ministrialians are interviewing every
single family in Methelwood to make sure there aren’t any more of
Thoreoux’s spies, so he’ll never be able to make another orb here.
He’ll never get to me again.”

Jade
threw up her hands in exasperation. “You can’t know that! There’s a
reason Thoreoux and Stockwell tried so hard to break your bond –
you two could be the greatest weapon we’ve ever had! If you break
this bond you’ll never be able to get it back.”

“
I don’t want it back. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s a
curse
, and Breckin is
a
parasite.
”

Persephone, who had been silent throughout the bickering,
narrowed her eyes and spoke up, “Emmy, I know why you’re doing
this, and it isn’t going to work. Breaking the bond isn’t going to
make you stop loving him.”

A shiver
so cold passed through Emmy she was surprised her bones didn’t
shatter. “You don’t know what it’s like.” She hated how fragile her
voice sounded. “This bond tries to pull me towards him all the
time. It’s been doing it since the day we met. Before, even.” She
began to blink rapidly. “It’s like he has some gravitational pull I
can’t get out of. I know what he’s doing, all the time, and
whenever he feels something strongly, I feel it.” Her voice came
out more offensive than she had intended, “So tell me, how am I
supposed to let him go if I’ve got a physical reminder constantly
exhausting me? I hate it. I want to be able to leave him if I want
to. I want to have a choice.”

“
You won’t leave him,” Jade said with a certainty that
infuriated Emmy. “And he won’t leave you either! He needs you too
–”

“
No, he doesn’t! Don’t you understand?” The bewildered stares
indicated they didn’t. Emmy ran her fingers through her hair, not
wanting to explain her epiphany in the hospital, but knowing she
had to. “He’s a bit like Jesse.”

“
Jesse? Your human friend?” Persephone asked.

“
Yes. I didn’t ... notice it at first, but I finally realized
Breckin fell for Rozelyn right after the Keeper’s Curse was
performed on us. I remember right after the curse was put on me I
felt this need to ... attach to somebody, and I started clinging to
Jesse like my life depended on it. The difference was I was normal.
I had my family and my friends so I balanced it out with this new
obsession, but Breckin didn’t.”

“
You’re saying he wanted Rozelyn because of the
curse?”

“
It happened to me, why wouldn’t it happen to him? But I
didn’t need someone the way Breckin did, so my friendship with
Jesse wasn’t as extreme. I didn’t even think of him romantically.
Breckin on the other hand was completely alone. His sister had died
and his parents had deserted him. He had no one. You don’t know
Jesse, but he’s a lot like Breckin, and Breckin flat at told me
once I remind him of Rozelyn. Do you get it? He bonded with Rozelyn
the way he was supposed to bond with me because I wasn’t there when
he needed me.”

Jade
gaped at her desperately while Persephone just crossed her arms,
looking disappointed. Neither of them, however, objected. Emmy
continued her firm stance until finally, Jade sighed in
defeat.

“
I won’t do it,” she said, handing the paper to
Persephone.

Persephone begrudgingly took hold of the paper, and as if
everyone word was being ripped out of her, she read the
incantation.

***

It was
strange to lose her bond with Breckin. It wasn’t like a radio
flipping through programs and suddenly finding static, but rather
having the radio unplugged altogether. Nothing dramatic happened
like when the soul had been put into her. She didn’t writhe on the
floor or see visions. It was there, and then it wasn’t.

When it
was over, Emmy asked her friends to leave, which they did
obligingly. They were barely out of earshot before her back was to
an oak tree and she was sobbing. It was bizarre; she had never been
much of a crier, but her short stay in Methelwood had garnered more
tears out of her than all the tears she had cried in the real world
combined.

She slid
down into the grass, crying until her eyes hurt, until her face was
sticky, until she was exhausted. Like she did every once in a
while, she craved the arms of her dad, and Jesse’s voice. Her
mother had never been the one Emmy went to when she was miserable;
it was her dad who was sensitive to her tears, who would hold her
until she stopped crying because he was in as much pain as she was
when she was unhappy.

Jesse’s
approach would be different: he would tell her to toughen up, to
stop being a girl. And because she had always put him on a
pedestal, wanting to be like him, she would do it, and she would
feel better.

But she
would never see her father or her best friend again, so she cried
some more. Where could she find a reprieve from this? She racked
her brain. The equivalent to her father would probably be Jade, but
all this crying would make her worry.

However,
there was one person she could think of that would tell her to
toughen up and stop being a girl. Someone who held the perfect
balance of caring about her but knowing she could handle much more
than anyone gave her credit for.

Suddenly
she wanted to see Cyrus more than anything in the world.

With
everything left in her she rose to her feet and surprised herself
with how much strength she had. She sprinted over to a small pond
to look at her reflection, which turned out to be ghastly. She
yanked the hair tie out of her hair, letting her curls fall, then
proceeded to wash her face in the water to get rid of the
tears.

Now that
she looked marginally better, she headed over to the horse she had
ridden into the forest on and mounted him. Which way was the Crow
mansion? A sudden urgency to see him overpowered her in a tight
clutch. She spurred the horse on, pushing him into a gallop, the
fastest gait, the one her teacher had not allowed her to try out
yet.

The feel
of the horse was exhilarating. The speed and wind on her face just
made her even more excited to see Cyrus, who hadn’t visited her in
the hospital. Maybe he didn’t want to see her anymore, but she had
to try. The upcoming exam would keep her in Ministrial for weeks,
which would give him time to wonder why he had ever cared about her
in the first place, and possibly move on.

She moved
so fast through the woods all she saw were blurs; she felt like the
only living being in the world. At long last the trail finally
ended, and there it was.

It was
late afternoon and the sun was low in the sky, directly behind the
Crow mansion, the rays framing it. Forgetting to tie up her horse,
she slipped off, ran to the front entrance, and hammered her fist
against the door.

She was
disappointed when the door opened and revealed Brynn.

“
May I help you?” he asked, sounding far too polite for a
little boy.

“
Is Cyrus home?”

He
nodded, opening the door for her and gestured her in. “Yes, please
come inside.”

She
obliged, inviting herself in, looking around for her
friend.

“
He’s in his room,” Brynn said. “It’s on the third floor in
the east wing, second door on the left.”

Emmy
repeated this in her head, thanked him, and made a dash for the
stairs.

“
Oh, Emmy?” Brynn added. “Thank you.”

Emmy
smiled at him, knowing what he meant. “Always.”

She
continued her way up the staircase, keeping track of the storeys
carefully, and getting more excited with each step. She made a mad
rush to the east wing once she had reached the third floor. She
didn’t stop to admire the intricate murals on the walls, or the
cream marble statues huddled in the corners like something out of a
museum. She counted the rooms, careened to the right, and finally
stopped to take a breath.

When her
breathing finally slowed to a somewhat normal pace, she looked
around for what she wanted. His bedroom here was nothing like the
one at Thoreoux’s mansion, even though the construct was similar.
There was a four poster bed draped in velvet, and a matching
mahogany set that consisted of a bureau, nightstand and
escritoire.

The
difference was the light. There were little windows, big windows,
hexagonal windows, embrasured windows, and a pair of French crystal
doors that led out to a small balcony. And on the ledge of that
balcony, lying on his back, was Cyrus.

Emmy,
with hesitant steps, made her way over to the threshold that led to
the balcony. His eyes were closed, but her breathing must have done
it. His eyes flew open when she reached the entryway.