“Your friends or mine first?” Emmy finally asked after taking in her surroundings.
He gave her a sardonic smile. “I’ve just been outed as Rhoan Crow’s son, remember? My friend list currently stands at zero.”
She felt awful. “I’m sorry. Come with me, I’ll introduce you to mine.”
Emmy took his hand and began to move through the crowd before he could protest. She took in quick glimpses all around the clearing for a head of either carrot red hair or spiky black hair, but she found brown dreadlocks first.
“Teddy! Hi!”
His head jerked up at the sound of his name, fixing his eyes on Emmy and breaking into a grin. Emmy recognized the girl whose hand he held beside him – the blonde Teddy had left Emmy for when they had practiced flying, the day she had met Breckin.
“Rookie, wow,” he said, eyeing her up and down. “I barely recognized you. This is Daphne, I’m sure you remember. And … you. Hi.” Teddy took a step away from Cyrus like he worried Cyrus would hit him if he stood too close.
Emmy flashed him a warning look. “Are you all sitting somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Teddy said, his eyes still on Cyrus.
“Can we join you?”
Teddy tore his eyes off him. “Of course you can. We’re, um, over here.”
Emmy tried to relax; if she appeared uncomfortable, Cyrus would notice instantly and would, in turn, be uncomfortable himself. She had ruined his life – she owed him this.
It wasn’t too long before they reached a pair of circular tables drawn together where all her friends were. They seemed to be in a heated discussion that came to a halt when Emmy, Cyrus, Teddy, and Daphne walked up to them.
Jade looked up with sly amusement. “Ah, there you are.”
“Hi, Jade,” Emmy said in a tone that indicated she was going to behave. “You remember Cyrus.”
“Vividly,” she said. A smile was plastered on her face when she held out her hand. “I’ve watched you in peacekeeping class. You’re incredible.”
He shook her hand. “Well, I did learn from the best.” Emmy shook her head to show how inappropriate this remark was, so he recovered with, “You’re not bad yourself.”
She beamed. Emmy was thankful for how easy it was to win Jade over. The others, unfortunately, were not. Emmy could see them shift in their seats when they sat down and tried to join in on the conversation. Emmy and Cyrus stayed relatively quiet for a while, but Cyrus slowly inched his way in. First it was a comment here and there. Then it was a suggestive comment, which led to more questions, which gave him more opportunity to talk. Within half an hour, the tension had thinned and Cyrus talking just as much as anyone else as if he was part of their group.
The only one who had not warmed up to him Emmy couldn’t help but notice, was Persephone. The timeout Emmy and Persephone had from their fight was clearly over, because Persephone wouldn’t even look at Emmy again.
“And here I thought you were socially inept,” Emmy murmured in Cyrus’s ear.
He scoffed at her. “But I’m also manipulative – comes in the job description.”
Just then someone tapped Cyrus on the shoulder. Alex.
“May I dance with my little sister?”
Cyrus looked bewildered but let her go.
Emmy nodded, headed out onto the dance floor, and got into position. Luckily for her Alex was not a master dancer, so they just swayed back and forth to the music, trying to avoid the embellished movements of those around them.
“Go on, say it,” Emmy said.
The sentence came out in a garble. “Are you out of your mind!”
“Not you too,” she sighed. “Look, you have no wiggle room to judge me. You’re dating my best friend.”
“Amazing, isn’t it? I’ve liked her for ages, but I didn’t want to say anything because we lived together. Plus, you know, she’s taller than me, and she just refuses not to wear heels - ”
“A big hurdle to overcome in a relationship,” Emmy said, trying to sound impressed.
Alex ignored her. “But mom’s going to get out of jail in a few days now! Of course, now I’ll have to watch out for you all the time. Where is that soul partner of yours, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Emmy said, trying to avert the topic. “You be careful with Jade, Alex. She’s crazy about you, for some reason I can’t even begin to understand.”
“I won’t, Em,” he said with a smile on his face just as the song ended. Instead of being upset over discovering that Emmy held a separate soul inside of her, Alex looked more relaxed than ever. He wasn’t happy her life had been in danger of course, but when she had told him, the first words out of his mouth were “So that’s why Mom was so much more protective of you?” A burden seemed to have been released from his shoulders, finally getting a reason as to why their parents had focused so much more on her for so long. “I guess I’ll leave you to your psychotic, meterosexual date. I’m such a good brother, eh?”
He was lost in the crowd before Emmy could verbally retaliate. She grumbled and headed back to her friends where she noticed a crystal pitcher of something dark pink sat on the table.
“Is that alcohol?” Emmy said. She poured herself a glass before anyone had the chance answer.
Now that Cyrus was off somewhere, Persephone as talking again, with everyone except Emmy, so she just eavesdropped. Persephone had come with a boy Emmy vaguely recognized as Quinn Fowler, who, while good-looking, was not the most intelligent person in Methelwood, and not Persephone’s type at all. Apparently she had said he couldn’t pay her enough money to go out with him, thus he had provided her with generous compensation. Emmy poured herself another drink; she would give anything in the world to tease her about this, but until that guard lingering behind Persephone in the shadows was gone, that wouldn’t happen.
As Emmy poured herself a fourth drink, Cyrus returned beside her.
“Er,” Cyrus said. “Maybe you should slow down a bit.”
“Oh, look who’s telling me to be responsible,” Emmy said rather loudly. “That’s kind of funny. Where’ve you been?”
“Circlet,” Cyrus said. “You won’t believe it – not only did they find the Book of Curses, but they found Stockwell’s notes to phonetically speak the Possession Curse. It’s reversed, and the mental patients are all back to the way they were.”
“Really? That’s good!”
“It is, isn’t it? You don’t look so happy about it, Perse.”
Even through her misty brain, a bell went off in Emmy’s head. “Perse”? Cyrus and Persephone had never exchanged a word to each other, and he was on a nickname basis with her? Persephone stopped talking mid-word, and all the color drained out of her face. She didn’t answer him.
“Hello everyone!” came Jade’s voice from afar. “I’d like to open up with a song I wrote for my boyfriend, called ‘Candlelight’.”
“Hey! Jade asked me to dance to this with you,” Emmy said. “We’ve got to go.”
Cyrus did not look pleased. In fact, as the syrupy music began, he looked like he would rather face the possessed mental patients again.
“Come on, I promised her,” Emmy said. She got up too quickly and nearly fell over, not realizing the effect the drinks had had on her until then. “See – I can’t do this myself.”
His expression changed from “horrified” to “slightly amused”, and he took her by the hand, leading her to the dance floor.
Jade’s voice was nothing like Emmy would have expected it to be. Her speaking voice was high-pitched but her singing voice was low and raspy. It was an especially strange combination with the lyrics she chose.
There I was, in the dark alone,
Hopelessly lost, falling apart,
Twisting up in tree boughs,
But then you ... untangled my heart
Suddenly I was not alone,
There you were, burning bright
Shining through my loneliness
You were my candlelight
For years we wandered on the chess board,
Me on black, you on white,
a terrible fate,
But out pieces crossed paths
And we reached our checkmate
Cyrus appeared to be in intense physical pain.
“Relax,” Emmy insisted. “It’s not that bad.”
“‘Not that bad’? This is unbelievably humiliating.”
Emmy looked around and sure enough, they were surrounded by couples looking longingly into each other’s eyes. He twirled her out and in again as the music grew grander for the chorus. “Think about me – this is my brother she’s singing about.”
“Poor sod,” Cyrus said. “If I were him I’d be hiding under a table until this was over.”
Emmy agreed with him, but Alex didn’t have the same reaction they did. He was visible from a distance, sitting on the edge of the dais staring up at Jade, adoration in his eyes. Did he think this display was endearing?
Baby, I don’t know what I would do
If you were to leave me,
Because you know how lost I’d be ....
Without my candlelight
“I’m sorry, I can’t take this anymore,” Cyrus said. He took a good look around them and then leaned in towards her, a light in his eyes. “When I was younger, my father used to throw these really boring parties, and to ease my suffering I’d dash through the dance floor, breaking up all the couples. It was a lot of fun.” He gestured to the people around them.
Emmy giggled. “Wow, you’re kind of immature.”
“Come on! I don’t think I can stand must more of this weep fest.”
Maybe because was she was lightheaded, or maybe it was Cyrus’s excitement, but she sighed and nodded once. The music rose in volume again, right about to hit the chorus when Cyrus tightened his grip on her hand and waist, making her slightly breathless.
“Now!” he said, and they were off. He pulled her in close to him when he began twirling, twice as fast as the beat of the song intended, whizzing through the crowd like an arrow. Emmy wasn’t able to keep up with him – her feet were everywhere – but Cyrus didn’t slow down; he just raised her up so her feet weren’t on the ground anymore. Everything around her blurred besides Cyrus’s face, which was more relaxed than she had ever seen it, and she started to laugh. She felt guilty pleasure at the couples making annoyed noises around her at their erratic dance, which only made her laugh harder.
Finally the music slowed again, Jade finished singing, the last few notes of the song trailing off. Cyrus dug his heels into the grass and began slow dancing again, holding Emmy up as she continued to laugh.
“Now who’s immature?” he muttered. “You shouldn’t be drinking so much.”
“I’m fine!” Emmy said. “How about you get me another one, then we’ll see just how fine I am.”
Cyrus opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it and instead rolled his eyes and disappeared into the crowd to get her drink. The next ballad started up, Emmy standing in the middle of the dancers like a lost child. She couldn’t believe it; she was sincerely enjoying herself. With Cyrus. She was having so much fun she almost forgot –
Someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the crowd, bumping into couples that appeared to be glued together. Whoever had grabbed her was uncharacteristically strong, she noticed, and it had to be either a boy or Jade, but she was on stage. The mystery solved itself immediately when Emmy caught a glimpse of the auburn hair in front of her.
She had never seen Breckin look so angry.
Emmy didn’t fight him, not seeing much of a point in doing so. They traveled out of the dance floor, passed the tables, and out of the archway, back into the cold night. She expected a ripple of goosebumps but none came. Those drinks must have numbed her more than she realized.
The pair of them ended up at the side of the clearing, next to a shallow stream and a stone bridge.
Breckin whirled around, dropping her wrist. His breathing was dangerously shallow, as if a bomb was about to go off inside of him any second now.
“Hi,” she said cheerfully.
The bomb exploded. “You – what – pink cocktails – him – tacky lyrics of doom –”
“Breckin,” she slurred. “Forget about Cyrus, won’t you? I missed you.”
“So you’re dating him now?”
Emmy thought about this for a moment. “I’m not sure – this is only our first date, but it’s going well.”
He stared at her like she had just adopted the custom of matricide. “Lana!” He spluttered a few times, and Emmy vaguely wondered how he was ever going to give speeches being this incoherent. “Alright, I get why you like him because of what he did for you, but any decent person would’ve done it. He’s not good, Lana.”
“But he’s different now.” Emmy was aware of how cliché it sounded, but her foggy brain couldn’t think of anything creative.
“Are you doing that thing girls do, trying to fix some horrible loser you dress up as an antihero, insisting that you can change him with love and kisses and caresses and THERAPY?”
Emmy frowned. “You need to calm down –”
He gasped, ignoring her. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? Because of that whole psychology thing you’re into! He’s an experiment!”
“Not at all! I don’t want to change him – I like how he is.”
“How? Lana, you can’t go out with him! You deserve so much better.”
She felt herself crashing from her high, like gravity, falling faster and faster until she came to a bone-crushing slam into the ground. Everything – Cyrus, fighting with Persephone – all of it faded away, as it always did, when she looked at him. It bothered her Breckin had that power over her.
“I want better,” she said, not able to help herself. “But it’s not an option right now.” Usually staring at Breckin was a stealthy undertaking, but she couldn’t stop now. He wasn’t traditionally attractive like Cyrus was, but she preferred him so much more. His hair fell into that unconventional face of his with its curious expression, his shirt ruffled and loose – he wasn’t put together. He was so genuine, like his eyes that pierced right into her that made her wonder how he hadn’t seen through her already.
“Why are you with Rozelyn?” she asked.
He didn’t seem to expect the tables to be turned on him. His nose crinkled up, so sexy it made her legs wobble.
“Why do you ask?”
“It’s not fair you’re bothering me about who I date if I can’t ask you.”
He shrugged, indicating this was a waste of time for him. “I had a crush on Rozelyn from the minute I saw her when I was twelve. Gabe invited me over for dinner, and when I was half way up the stairs and saw her, I fell over. It was really embarrassing.”
Emmy wanted to snap at him, but she let him talk. He had momentarily forgotten to be angry with her.
“She was two years older than me so she didn’t take my advances seriously at all. It took me two years to convince her to go out with me, but I was fine with that.”
“But why do you like her?”
“I don’t know! She’s confidant and she’s funny and really smart. She’s in the top five in her year because she works so hard – she wants to be a tracker. She’s the most determined person I’ve ever met. But not only that, she’s really protective of people she cares about, and she’s brave.” He paused and turned away from Emmy. “She’s a bit like you, actually.”
She didn’t know whether to be pleased or furious by this. What was she supposed to say? She wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him she was literally the most perfect person on the planet for him. That he was an idiot. That she wanted him so badly sometimes she couldn’t sleep at night.
“Breckin –”
There was a shuffle in the bushes. Both Emmy and Breckin jumped and turned to the left to see where the noise came from. Emmy backed up just a smidge closer to Breckin, whose spine had gone rod straight.
“What was –?”
There was a sudden explosion from behind them, destroying the little bridge. In a flash Breckin wrapped himself around Emmy to protect her from the rocks whizzing passed them, tackling her to the ground.
“Hurry,” Emmy heard a hissing voice command from behind her. “Grab her before anybody comes out here.”
Breckin rolled off her and stood up again, crouching down like a protective tiger. Emmy looked around Breckin, seeing several dark hooded silhouettes making their way closer to them.
“Lana,” Breckin said with perfect clarity. “Get out of here.”
She didn’t even have time to get up before the men attacked Breckin. She couldn’t even scream, her mind racing so fast she couldn’t see straight. I need to help him, she thought. But she knew the only way to help him would be to get back into the clearing. They couldn’t kill him, but they could kill her. Emmy hoisted herself up and ran as fast as her legs let her toward the fire looming above the trees.
She didn’t even get around the corner when one of them pushed her to the ground. He rolled her over to get a good look at her face. Emmy shut her eyes; the face was leathered and scarred with missing teeth – she didn’t want to see it.
“Olwenn! Take her to Thoreoux.”
Emmy felt herself being pulled back up, and her curiosity got the better of her: she opened her eyes. Breckin was a blur, moving so fast all she could see of him was the gray of his shirt and the red of his hair. A woman was standing in front of Emmy – young, honey-blonde hair, pretty in a white dress. For a second she stared at Emmy before she threw back her head and wings sprouted out of her back. A flier.
The man who had grabbed Emmy threw her into the winged woman – Olwenn’s – embrace. She wrapped her arms around Emmy’s waist, beat her wings, and took flight.
The Keeper's Curse Page 25
