The Keeper's Curse

by Diana Harrison

  “Just hurry,” Emmy said. “If the guards see him, we’ll just say he’s drunk and we’re taking him home.”

  Persephone nodded, wasting no more time, running up to the entrance. Emmy impatiently hurried Breckin along, who every few steps asked where they were. Emmy grimaced in the sudden lit lobby of the complex. Sure enough, the guards were there.

  “He got out earlier and had too much to drink,” Emmy said, as Breckin wobbled beside them. “You recognize us, don’t you? Can we just take him to his room?”

  As expected, the guards recognized Emmy and Breckin, and seemed to vaguely recognize Persephone as well, so they waved them on.

  “Lana, I don’t think I can make it up all those stairs,” Breckin said, his voice slow and heavy.

  “Come on, which apartment is yours?” She turned to Persephone. “Just get back home, I’ll take him.”

  Persephone placed a hand on her shoulder. Emmy tried not to look startled; Persephone had never touched her before. “I need to talk to you, first thing in the morning.” And she left.

  “I have to go home now,” Emmy whispered. “Can you make it home from here?”

  Breckin shook his head so slowly it was like a parody of slow motion. “No, Lana, you can’t go home with those monster things running around. Come on, stay with me.”

  Emmy tried to protest, but he took her arm and began dragging her up the stairs. His lethargy clearly did not diminish his strength, which Emmy was helpless against. No matter how hard she yanked her arm, he didn’t budge, nor did he even seem aware she yanked at all.

  He finally stopped in the middle of a corridor on the fourth floor, forgetting that he didn’t have a key. He grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open with a crack, and Emmy realized he had broken the lock.

  Whoever he lived with didn’t wake up as he fumbled through the darkness, still not letting go of Emmy’s arm. After a flight of stairs and down a hallway, they had reached his bedroom.

  “Okay, so,” he said. “I think I’m kind of messed up right now, so we should probably sleep this off. Take the bed, I’ll ... sleep on the floor.”

  “No, Breckin,” Emmy said just as he fell to the ground. “I should probably go home, I need to make sure Jade got home alright.”

  “Don’t be stupid, someone just tried to kill you. Can I borrow a blanket?” He didn’t bother waiting for a reply, pulling the top cover hanging off the edge of his bed and wrapping it around himself.

  The excitement from the last hour or so had drained her, and the idea of getting some sleep before dealing with the aftermath of what had happened was indeed tantalizing. The chances of those strange people finding her again tonight were low, and both her friends were safe. Probably.

  She sighed, rubbed her eyes and stared at Breckin’s bed in the dark. She headed over to his door to close it in case his uncle saw her in the room, when Breckin mumbled a response.

  “No, keep it open.”

  Emmy hesitated. “What if someone sees us?”

  He chuckled quietly in the dark. “Um, I’ve sort of got a problem with small, enclosed spaces.”

  “Oh.” She let the matter drop, leaving the door open. Suddenly she remembered back in Ministrial when Breckin had refused to ride in a pod, which now made more sense. With the last bit of her energy left, she climbed into Breckin’s bed. She saw him moving around into a comfortable space on the floor as she slipped under the covers. “Breckin?” she whispered.

  “Mm?” he said, his eyes closed.

  “How did you know where I was?”

  He moaned again, tossing and turning. “I’m not sure ... I ... I think I was dreaming, and then I was forced awake. And I heard your voice, and saw you were at the school and I ... I just knew I had to help you.”

  So it had worked. It was a two way street – they could talk back and forth to each other. “Thank you.” She waited for a reply, but none came.

  She wrapped the heavy blankets made of animal fur tightly around her, digging her face in them. They smelled just like Breckin himself, a mix of grass, tea leaves, and cotton. It smelled so good it jolted her awake. Then she realized – she was in his bed.

  Suddenly the idea of sleep ran away, leaving her shivering despite the more-than-effective blankets covering her. She was in his room, in his bed, surrounded by his scent. He was a few feet away from her, his deep rhythmic breathing indicating he had fallen asleep.

  It was ridiculous to be thinking about those things, she realized, but at least it got her mind off what she had learned that night, and the attack, and what could possibly have happened to Jade. She sat up, pulling the blankets off her and craned her neck to where he was sleeping on the floor.

  Frustration – illogical, baseless frustration – burned in her at the sight of him. He didn’t want to hurt her, clearly. Besides Cyrus, he didn’t seem to want to hurt anybody, despite the fear and distrust he received from everybody around him. She feared him too, but for an entirely different reason.

  She didn’t quite understand why he intrigued her so much. He wasn’t a mystery really – that choirboy face always told her exactly what he was thinking – but she still wanted to know everything about him. He was helpless in revealing how he was feeling, but it didn’t explain why he was feeling it. She had started up a habit of watching him, and noticed, despite the fact that he usually wasn’t alone, he didn’t talk much. The only time he was ever animated was with Gabe or Rozelyn.

  And inexplicably, she wanted him to be that way with her. She wanted him to trust her, despite that she could read his thoughts, that there were people out there who wanted to kill him, and that – most importantly – she had been dreaming about him before she had ever met him. Whatever all this meant, she thought, he wasn’t doing it to her.

  The lines on his face that never seemed to let up were finally gone, making him look even younger. A stray lock of his hair had fallen over his closed eye, and that bothered her. It obscured his face.

  Without thinking, she got to her feet and leaned over him, inches from his face. Her inner voice chided on, but it wasn’t enough to stop her.

  It wasn’t like she had never thought about touching him before, but it was just one of the many things about him she had blocked out. But he was asleep now, and it was a little thing she wanted to do.

  With trembling fingers, she reached out and pulled the stray lock from his face, brushing it back into his hair so it wouldn’t fall back. The texture was different than she had expected – coarse and thick – but it still made her legs feel hollow. Her fingers traced the waves in his hair, her fingers traveling across the skin on his face and pulling away. His skin burned her, hotter than Jade’s or any strapper she had come into contact with.

  Her fingers itched to do it again, but, calling on her willpower, she resisted and headed back into his bed. She would never be able to sleep if she was looking at him, so she rolled onto her other side, staring out the window instead.

  It took several hours for her to become tired enough to fall asleep, her exhaustion finally outweighing her desire to keep listening to the soft, heavy breathing behind her.

  Chapter 15

  The Keeper’s Curse

  Emmy did not wake up the next morning the usual way, by the gentle murmurs of Jade. The arm pushing her was much too strong. The voice was different as well.

  “Hey, Lana, you have to wake up ...”

  Her body relaxed at that voice. She must still be dreaming. “Breckin.”

  “Yes, it’s Breckin. I’m sorry Lana, but you have to get up.”

  Emmy stiffened, her eyes popping open. And sure enough, Breckin Crawford’s face was inches from her own. Her sleepiness evaporated instantly, jolting up into a sitting position.

  “What are you doing here –?” she demanded, and then noticed her surroundings. She was in a room she didn’t recognize at all. The peeled wooden walls were covered in photographs of smiling people; one wall as an exception, covered in what appeared to be a collection of diffe
rent animal horns.

  And then she remembered.

  “Viarge,” Emmy swore. “I have to get home and check on Jade. We really need to talk about what happened last night.”

  “Okay, let me take you home.”

  “No, you’ve done more than enough. You saved my life last night.”

  At this, his face clouded over. “I know, and that’s why I feel responsible for you. Come on, I’ll help you out through the window.”

  “Window?”

  Without another word, Breckin headed over to his window, opened the latch, and pushed it upwards. A conveniently placed tree branch was positioned right outside.

  “We can’t use the stairs?”

  “Do you have any idea what Noah would do to me if he found out a girl slept in my room overnight? He doesn’t even let Rozelyn come up here.”

  She giggled at his passionate voice, but Breckin simply looked bewildered as to why she would find such a thing funny. He went first, wrapping himself around the branch without any noise. Breckin held out his hand.

  Emmy had more than her fair share of sneaking out of rooms, but she took his hand anyway. She nearly screamed when she realized how far up they were, but Breckin helped her all the way down. Within five minutes, they landed safely on the grass.

  “Want a lift?”

  Normally, she would have replied “no”, but getting increasingly more nervous about Jade, she accepted. Emmy jumped on his back, wrapped her arms around his neck as he ran through the forest.

  Within minutes they were at The Noir Beanery. Emmy’s mouth opened in shock. Several officers milled around outside – crests of Methelwood on their black clothing – with open notepads, speaking to Vera and Sol. Sol’s face was frozen, while Vera stood beside him, crying.

  “What happened?” Emmy asked, standing several feet away from the scene.

  The officers, Sol, and Vera all turned to her. For several moments there no one answered, and suddenly Vera burst into a fresh horde of tears, running over to Emmy and throwing her arms around her.

  “You’re alright,” she said. “I didn’t know where you were and nobody could find you –”

  “Where’s Jade?”

  Vera retracted her hug and mopped her eyes with her billowing sleeve. “Enforcement found her in the woods this morning. She was unconscious, and it looked like there had been a struggle.”

  This couldn’t be happening. “What?”

  “She’s at the hospital now, and they’re saying she should be fine.” She sucked in a sob. “I don’t know why on earth she would be out of the house at one in the morning. I was so worried something had happened to you, too. I had promised your mother –”

  “Don’t worry, I was with Breckin,” she said, motioning to him. “Can I go see her?”

  “Of course. But please, I’m begging you, next time you sleep over at a friend’s place, please tell me. I was worried sick. If something happened to you, and it was because I hadn’t been watching you, Annalise would never –”

  Emmy reached out and hugged her again, squeezing her tight. “I’m so, so sorry Vera. Tell Sol I’m sorry too.”

  Vera waved the apology away. “As long as you’re safe. Go.”

  She didn’t expect Breckin to come with her, but he did; she remembered he was also a friend of Jade’s. The two of them stumbled through the forest until they reached the great white building. Emmy rushed to the unit clerk’s desk, demanding to see Jade Woodworker. The clerk’s face fell and told her to go to room A13.

  When Emmy found the room, Jade was not alone. Persephone had already arrived. She jumped up at Emmy and Breckin’s entrance and turned around. Her eyes were pink from crying.

  Jade, to the left of Persephone, lied perfectly still in her white linen bed, in an unnaturally straight position. A bruise had flourished on the left side of her face. Emmy burst into tears.

  “I’m so sorry,” Emmy said again. “I didn’t know, I figured she had made it home. Was it those monsters that attacked her?”

  “Had to be,” Persephone replied flatly.

  I wish there was something I could do.

  “I’ll call up Ministrial today,” Breckin said softly. “I’ll try to have them put a guard around you, alright? They won’t get you again.”

  Emmy wanted to hit him. Why was he being nice to her? He knew Jade never would have been hurt if it hadn’t been for her.

  Persephone let out sound in between a scoff and a laugh. Emmy was startled by the sound. Puzzled.

  “You would try and protect her, wouldn’t you?” Persephone stood up, not waiting for an answer. “Emmy, I still need to talk to you. Alone. We need to go back to my place.”

  Emmy gaped, not wanting to leave Jade, but not wanting to upset Persephone further.

  “Breckin, can you stay and watch her? Just until someone else gets here?” Emmy asked.

  He nodded with a grim smile. “Of course.”

  Persephone led her out of the room, and in a few minutes, out of the hospital. The weather was pretty nice outside, hardly any snow on the ground and above freezing. It was quite a pleasant change from the usual, but the two girls dragged their feet all the way to the complex, which made for a rather long walk.

  Persephone led Emmy up the stairs to her apartment, opened the door and invited her in, and led her into the living room.

  Unlike what Emmy had become used to in Methelwood, Persephone lived in a lavish apartment. The main source of light came from a dragon-shaped candlelit lightbox in the corner, casting designs on the onyx pier table and the art on the walls. At first Emmy thought they were expensive, rare paintings – most of them drawings landscapes and people in purple and blue hues – but when she took a closer look, she noticed they were all signed “Persephone Nassar.”

  “Don’t be so surprised,” Persephone said, striding over to the far wall where a bookshelf filled with tomes stood. “I’m not unsophisticated.”

  Persephone ran a finger across the spines of the books on the third shelf, until she reached a dark green one and pulled it out.

  “If you had just told me the voice you’ve been hearing was Breckin Crawford’s, I would’ve known your problem right away,” she said.

  Emmy blinked. “How?”

  “I knew when I heard the language in the downloader room,” she continued, flipping through the book. “It’s the palewraith language.”

  Emmy took a step back. Persephone’s eyes were glittering. “How do you know what the palewraith language sounds like? Nobody knows. The only books that have the language in them have been gone –”

  “Well, I do. And so do most of Thoreoux’s followers. There are thirteen books of the palewraith language. I’m not sure if you know this, but palewraiths have far more power than they let us access.”

  “I was told the palewraiths are the source of magic in all forms. But they constrain crafters to only physical powers.”

  “Yes, they do that so our powers are limited. But if we spoke their language, we could do far more with them – we could make them do anything.” Persephone sifted madly through the book, flipping several pages per second. “It’s unnatural of course, and the palewraiths would fight us if we forced them into anything since the spells are mostly harmful, but they’re helpless against the commands. There’s the Book of Hexes, the Book of Enchantments, the Book of Bewitchments, and so on. They’ve been lost for centuries. Thoreoux was able to find one – the Book of Curses. Originally he only wanted to reverse his own curse – the Eldoir’s Curse.”

  Persephone stated this quite calmly, but she didn’t dare look at Emmy. Without realizing it, Emmy had been tapping her foot. Why was she being told all this? She wanted to be back at the hospital with Jade.

  “I can’t speak the language, of course. But I know what it sounds like.”

  Emmy didn’t know whether to run or to stay. Her curiosity was piqued.

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  Persephone walked over to her, the book open i
n her hands. She handed it over to Emmy.

  “I’m telling you because the Book of Curses was given to Rhoan Crow for protection. Clara Crawford got a hold of it. Just read.”

  Emmy still didn’t understand, but she did as she was told, and looked down onto the page.

  A title in perfect calligraphy that read “The Keeper’s Curse” glinted back at her in gold.

  Beneath this was a drawing, primitive like the pictures on cave walls, of a person being split, becoming two people – but joined at the waist. A chill ran up her spine, and she began to read the paragraph below.

  The Keeper’s Curse is a spell found in the Book of Curses, one of the 13 Books of the Palewraith Language. The intent of the curse is to dislodge the soul out of an individual’s body and transfer it into a second body, the first party thereby relinquishing all control of their life.

  The Keeper – the individual whom the soul has been transferred into – becomes in full possession of the first individual. The Keeper shares the thoughts, feelings, motivations of the other and can take full control of their physical body if they so desire.

  This leaves the first – the parasite – at the mercy of the Keeper. Since a person cannot live without a soul, if the Keeper were to die of any cause, the parasite would die as well. This is both a strength and weakness of the bond – the parasite becomes invincible, unable to die, as long as the Keeper remains intact.

  When a Keeper’s Curse is performed, the criteria the soul has in choosing a Keeper is simple: it chooses the person with the strongest compatibility to the parasite. This is to ensure the Keeper will not take advantage of their powerful position, and will instead guard and protect the parasite rather than cause them harm.

  If the parasite and Keeper were to meet, they would be two pieces of a whole. Ideally, they would become each other’s greatest ally, having all their imperfections balanced by the other. If one were to be aggressive, the other would be calm. If one were to be proactive, the other would be passive.

  A Keeper and their parasite are complete opposites, and exactly the same.