The Curse Breakers

by Denise Grover Swank

  I was on top of the one-story lighthouse with no easy way down, destruction all around me.

  Now I was really screwed.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I sat against the railing for a moment, waiting for Tom to appear. A crowd had gathered at the end of the pier. The cloud layer and lack of lighting still hid me from the people on the street. I could either wait to get caught and be forced to come up with a logical explanation. Or I could try to get away.

  Climbing over the railing, I glanced back toward the street again. Several police officers were heading down the pier.

  I hunched down, trying to stay hidden in the darkness as I lowered myself to the metal roof. I slid on my backside to the bracket I’d used to climb up. Leaning over, I grabbed hold of it and lowered myself to what was left of the upper deck. A bolt of pain shot through my leg when I landed.

  The clump of footsteps on the pier sped up my heart. There was only one way to escape.

  I stepped through one of the holes the badgers had created and plunged into the water.

  Vegetation brushed my legs while my head was still submerged, causing me to panic. I pushed up to the surface, telling myself I was in salt water, my new natural habitat. But the usual energy surge I felt in the ocean was missing, replaced by a dull thrum.

  I swam backward, under the lighthouse, as approaching footsteps clattered on the deck over my head.

  “What in God’s name destroyed the deck like this?” Tom’s voice was unmistakable.

  “I thought I saw something on the roof,” someone else said.

  I needed to find a way out of here quickly. It would be a matter of minutes before they started searching the water for a suspect.

  Moving slowly so I didn’t splash, I started swimming around the lighthouse support beams, heading toward the pier. I had to duck under the horizontal supports of the pier, but thankfully a crowd of curious onlookers appeared to have gathered near the lighthouse, and their loud voices covered the small splashes I made. If I could continue under the boardwalk and around the edge of downtown to the swimming ladder behind the Tranquil Inn, I’d be able to climb out with my injured leg, and I’d hopefully be far enough away that no one would notice me.

  My plan worked perfectly, but it took me several minutes of slow swimming to reach the ladder, and I needed to dodge a few docked sailboats to get there. By the time I pulled myself up the metal ladder, my leg was throbbing.

  I skirted the side of the hotel, looking at the crowd that had gathered down at the end of the street. I had no idea how I’d get to my apartment in my sopping wet clothes without attracting attention.

  I hobbled a couple of blocks west, then south. Thankfully, most of the people who were still out were gathered by the pier.

  The insides of the Dare Inn and the residential house were both lit up. I ducked in the side door of the house and headed to the laundry room to grab a towel from the dryer. Wrapping it around my shoulders, I slipped into the butler’s pantry to get the first-aid kit that Myra kept hidden there. I had just pulled it out when David appeared in the doorway, his face drawn.

  “Ellie. Where in bloody hell were you? Myra is frantic. We rang your mobile and went to your apartment. She’s waiting over by the lighthouse; she was sure you had something to do with the disturbance there.” His gaze dropped to my leg. “I’m guessing she was right.”

  “Call her and tell her that I’m fine. I don’t want her to worry.”

  He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Myra, speaking in hushed tones. After he hung up, he frowned.

  I flinched as I dabbed the five-inch-long claw marks on my leg with an alcohol swab.

  “I hate that I just lied to your mother. You’re obviously not fine.”

  “I will be.”

  “What happened?”

  “Ukinim.”

  He paused. “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to go home, but I can’t go looking like a drowned rat. If Tom sees me, he’ll know straight off I was on that pier.”

  “I’ll run upstairs and get you some of my clothes, but you really need to take care of that gash. Is it from Ukinim?”

  “That or his buddy.”

  “There are two of them?”

  I sighed. “I’m full of all kinds of good news tonight.”

  David went upstairs while I taped large gauze squares over the wound.

  He returned with a T-shirt and I pulled it over my head, my damp tank top still underneath.

  “Can you walk home?”

  “It’s not like I have a choice.”

  We hobbled down the street, my leg throbbing with every step. David helped me up the stairs, following in silence. There were still a number of people milling about behind the apartment building, and a cacophony of sounds bounced around in the night. I was so eager for the safety of my apartment that I didn’t notice the person sitting in one of the plastic chairs on my porch until I almost stumbled upon him.

  Collin leaned back in the chair, narrowing his eyes. “Well, aren’t you the cute couple?”

  David’s arm stiffened around my waist.

  I groaned. “Not now, Collin. I’m too tired for more drama.”

  “What happened out there, Ellie?”

  “Ukinim showed up, that’s what.” I pushed David’s hand away and started to look for my key when I realized I hadn’t locked the door. In fact, I hadn’t even closed it. Collin must have.

  “Why in God’s name would you go out there alone?” Collin asked. He shot David a condescending look. “Or did you take your new friend with you?”

  “I went alone.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Satisfied?” I leaned into the railing, white-hot pain shooting up my calf. “I woke up when I heard a woman screaming. Since my palm was itching, I knew it was supernatural. Which meant calling the police was not an option. I considered calling you, but I wasn’t sure you could—or would—help. So I went alone.”

  “Why would you even go at all?”

  “Because we let those things loose, Collin.” I stepped forward and jabbed his chest with my finger. “You and me. If you think I’m going to let some woman get her insides shredded while I lay in bed listening, you don’t know me at all.”

  “You could have been killed, Ellie! It was stupid and reckless.”

  “Maybe so.” I lifted my chin in defiance. “But I’d do it again.”

  Collin’s face contorted in rage, and he turned his attention to David. “So you’re the college professor who’s supposed to be helping her? Where the hell were you?”

  Fury blazing inside me, I shoved Collin’s chest, and he stumbled backward.

  “Excuse me? Do you think he owns me, Collin Dailey? Do you think I’m some witless girl who needs a man to boss her around? No one tells me what to do. I thought you would have figured that out by now.”

  His face darkened. “He’s going to get you killed, Ellie. He doesn’t know a goddamned thing.”

  “Well, at least he’s trying, which is a hell of a lot more than you’re doing.”

  Collin’s gaze dropped. “What happened to your leg?”

  “A gift from Ukinim or his friend.”

  He stiffened. “You’re bleeding.”

  Blood was seeping through the gauze. “Gashes from claws will do that,” I said with a snotty tone.

  Before I knew what he was doing, he grasped my right hand with his, pressing our marks together.

  The sensation of every living creature in the vicinity filled me. I felt the heartbeats of the seventy-two humans by the sound. The flutter of mosquito wings in the parking lot below. Grass in the park, stretching upward.

  Collin stared into my eyes and I felt the yearning in his heart. The ache that soaked every cell of his body.

  A burning sensation engulfed my calf, and the gashes on my leg closed, the cells repairing and knitting together.

  Collin pulled his hand from mine and dizziness swamped my head.

  “What did you just do?” I gasped.
>
  He looked down at my leg. “Testing a theory. It looks like it worked.” His jaw clenched. “But I might not be around to help you next time.” He pointed to David, getting angrier by the second. “And that fool sure as hell can’t do anything.”

  Collin stormed down the stairs, and my mouth gaped open as I watched him go.

  “What just happened?” David asked.

  “He healed my leg.”

  I opened the apartment door and went inside, David following behind me. I bent down and ripped the gauze off my leg, still amazed. There was no sign of the injury. Not even a scar.

  “He’s right, you know.”

  My anger rekindled and I spun around. “About what?”

  “I might get you killed.”

  I shook my head and sat down. “I don’t expect you to know everything, David. Any information is better than none.”

  “I have something new on Ukinim.”

  I froze. “You do?”

  David sat on the sofa beside me. “I found a text that lists him by name. It says he was a warrior turned into a badger.”

  “Yes! That’s what he told me.” I stood up and went into the kitchen.

  He turned to watch me. “You had a conversation with a demon?”

  “Once I realized it was a trap, I figured I might as well get something out of it.” I grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, handing one to David as I sunk back into the sofa cushions.

  He twisted the cap off his bottle. “What else did you find out?”

  I looked up. “Well, there are two of them. That caught me by surprise.”

  “The text said the second one’s his wife. They were cursed together.”

  “His wife? How did that happen?”

  “I copied the text into an e-mail. Hold on a second.” David grabbed his phone out of his pocket, pulled up the e-mail, and scowled, enlarging the text. “The story says that Ukinim was the greatest warrior in all the tribes. He was boastful and claimed he could beat Okeus in a wrestling match. One evening at twilight, Okeus walked into the camp and accepted Ukinim’s challenge, but Okeus insisted on setting the rules. If Ukinim won, he could have everything he wanted—power and wealth. But if Okeus won, Ukinim would be banished; he would spend the rest of his life ostracized from his people. Ukinim accepted. If neither of them won, they would walk away with nothing. Their match would be the next night.

  “Word spread far and wide, and many people arrived to see the great Okeus take on the warrior Ukinim. They brought offerings to the god of war, piling them so high they rose into the heavens, attracting the attention of Ahone himself.

  “At twilight, Okeus walked into camp. Ukinim’s wife, Ilena, heard the cheers of the nuppin and became furious that her people wanted the god to beat her husband. The contest lasted for hours. The people grew weary, but Ukinim’s strength never wavered and neither did Okeus’s. The sun had begun to rise, and yet the warrior and the god still fought.

  “Ilena believed her husband deserved to win. What other nuppin had dared to challenge Okeus? What other nuppin could stand against him for so long? So she approached the edge of the circle where the warrior and the god were fighting and tossed a handful of dirt into the face of the god, temporarily blinding him. Ukinim took his chance and pinned the god, winning the challenge. Ukinim strutted around the circle, boasting that he was better than the gods.

  “Okeus was furious that Ukinim had dared to claim he was his better and that the man had won by cheating. The ground shook and the nuppin screamed in terror. Ukinim swore he didn’t know his wife had cheated, but Okeus didn’t care. He banned them both from the nuppin and changed them into badgers, forced to live underground except for one day out of the year.”

  I rested my head against the cushions of the couch, completely exhausted. “Does it say how we can defeat them?”

  “From what I’ve read, a god can kill them.”

  “Oh, good. I’ll just ask my good friend Okeus to get rid of them for me. When he springs his surprise.”

  He grimaced. “Don’t be so cheeky.”

  “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes.” He hesitated. “But it’s vague.”

  “What is it?”

  “It says that a conjurer with strong power can defeat them and send them to Popogusso.”

  I sat up. “A conjurer?”

  “Conjurers were real members of the Algonquian tribes and were said to have magical powers. They had a connection to the spiritual world that the nuppin and the priests, the other spiritual leaders, lacked.”

  My chest tingled with excitement. “So where do we find a conjurer?”

  A hint of a smile appeared as he leaned closer, his face inches from mine. “Ellie, you’re the conjurer,” he whispered.

  “What?” I leaned back. “Does it say how I can defeat them?”

  “No.”

  “So we’re no closer than we were.”

  “Not true. Collin told you it took both of you to banish them. This is singular. I think you can do it on your own.”

  A huge weight fell off my shoulders. “David . . . this changes everything. How?”

  “I don’t know. But if it’s out there, we’ll find it. I promise you that.”

  I reached around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. “Thank you.”

  David pulled back and stared into my eyes, his smile fading. “But next time, don’t run out there on your own. If something happens to you, we’ll all be lost. We’re partners now, remember?”

  That was still going to take some getting used to.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  When David and I showed up at the inn the next morning, Myra gave me a long hug and told me not to scare her like that again. While I hoped I wouldn’t, I also didn’t offer any promises.

  After I helped with breakfast, I told Becky I wouldn’t be able to work with her today.

  “Don’t worry about it.” A wicked smile lit up her face as she leaned to the side to watch David talk to his colleagues. “Myra already made arrangements for someone else to help me today.”

  “She did?”

  The side door opened and Becky laughed. “Talk about perfect timing.”

  I turned to see who was walking through the door. “Claire?”

  She laughed. “Don’t sound so happy to see me.”

  “Why aren’t you working at the Tranquil Inn today?”

  “It’s my day off. Isn’t that weird? I never get Thursdays off, but my boss called me last night and told me I could take the day off to get ready for my wedding. With pay, even. How weird that Myra asked for my help on the same day.”

  Another eerie coincidence. “If you got the day off to work on your wedding, what are you doing here?”

  She shrugged, looking over my shoulder. “That’s really him.”

  “Him, who?”

  Her eyes widened in exasperation. “Hot British Professor him. Who else?”

  “I already told you he was here.”

  “I wanted to meet him up close and personal for myself.” She pushed past me and walked up to David, extending her hand. “Hello, I’m Claire, Ellie’s best friend. I saw you in Chapel Hill, but we weren’t introduced, Dr. Preston.”

  He looked down at her, amusement dancing in his eyes, and shook her hand. “David, please. And we weren’t introduced because I was about to call campus security on Ellie.”

  Steven was sitting at the dining room table eating his breakfast, but he glanced up at us. “Ellie came to see you in Chapel Hill?”

  “Yes,” David said. “It’s a long story that I’ll share with you later.”

  Claire couldn’t stop grinning. “So you’re taking her to see the Lost Colony.”

  He winked. “It’s not lost anymore.”

  Claire turned toward me. “I like him. You can keep him.”

  I groaned and grabbed her arm, dragging her toward the kitchen. “Thank you. I feel so much better to have your blessing.”

  “It was nice to officially
meet you, Claire, Ellie’s best friend,” David called after us.

  “I’m serious,” Claire said when we reached the butler’s pantry. “I like this guy.”

  “You like his accent and his build.”

  “Well . . . that too.”

  I laughed and put a dirty plate into the dishwasher. “This is a working relationship. No flirting. No fooling around.”

  “But fooling around is the best part of a relationship.”

  My eyes widened in frustration. “There is no relationship. There is no us. This is a professional partnership.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  I shook my head and stared out the window over the sink. “I don’t want to royally screw this up. If we keep it professional, it will be easier for us to work together.”

  “Uh-huh.” She sounded far from convinced.

  “Stop trying to force something that isn’t there.”

  “Hello, Ellie! He’s hot! And that accent!”

  “Collin was hot too.”

  “Collin doesn’t count.”

  “He most certainly does. I don’t trust my judgment when it comes to men.”

  “Then trust mine. Do not let Dr. David Preston get away. This man is perfect for you.”

  I scowled. “You don’t even know him.”

  “I see the way he lights up when he talks about you. And the way you get flustered when I bring up the idea of him getting in your panties.”

  “Umm . . .” David was standing in the doorway, his face flushing. “Ellie, I’m ready to go when you are.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “‘I’ll be ready in a minute.” I waited a moment. “Is he gone?” I asked in a whisper.

  Claire laughed. “Yep.”

  I opened my eyes and smacked her arm. “Thanks a lot! You knew he was there, didn’t you.”

  A wicked smile lit up her eyes. “It should be an interesting day now.”

  I dried off my hands. “Just for that, you can clean up the kitchen on your own.”

  David was waiting in the dining room, and he didn’t say a word as we got into his car. The silence was awkward, so I tried to break the tension. “I meant to tell you that the dream catcher worked.”

  His eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Not a single dream. I didn’t even see the animals this time. I woke up when I heard the woman’s screams.”