Hereditary Curse (The Gatekeeper's Curse Book 2)

by Emma L. Adams

  And the book is mine again.

  I didn’t care about the book. I cared about my family. “Hazel. Morgan. Are you two okay? You don’t need any healing spells, right?”

  “I’m good,” said Hazel. “Really confused, but—Morgan, put the iron back on.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He slid the wristband back into place. “The fetch bastard is dead. And—”

  The ghost’s scream interrupted him. She beat at the walls of the castle, from the inside, while Grandma’s ghost floated near the door, looking incredibly smug.

  “You locked her in,” I said. “Thank you for saving us.”

  “It’s always a pleasure to help the Gatekeeper,” she said. “And my grandchildren. I’m glad to see the three of you together.”

  “Yeah. We’re getting along just fine,” Hazel said, and the ghost screamed again.

  “Have fun in your castle,” I told the raging spirit. “I even left your entertainment.” I nodded to the remaining hellhounds. “They feed on death energy, if you didn’t already know. That includes you. The curse states that you can’t move on… but does it say anything about being devoured by hellhounds?”

  She howled, but the doors remained closed. I gripped the book tightly. “Let’s get out of here. I think we should warn the necromancers about this place, in case anyone decides to go wandering along the spirit lines.”

  The book began to glow in my hands, and the castle faded slightly. With magic in Edinburgh going back to normal, we’d be back home before we knew it.

  But Grandma made no move to follow us.

  “When we return to the mortal realm, I’ll move on,” she whispered. “But before I go, I have to tell you, Ilsa—your mother is alive. She’s in the Vale, in danger—”

  “What? How?”

  She shook her head, already fading. The book glowed, the shapes of graves appearing around us. The church towered overhead, below a sky dark with rainclouds.

  Grandma waved once, and was gone.

  Outside, the smoke was clearing, revealing Edinburgh’s stone buildings and spire-like churches. I swallowed hard. “She didn’t have to sacrifice herself for our sakes.”

  “You know she’d have done it anyway,” Hazel said quietly.

  River rested a hand on my shoulder. I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Let’s go.”

  24

  The city was remarkably clean, all things considered. I did spot a few undead lying in the road, dismembered. Before we reached the guild, I paused to look at the others. “Morgan, do you have the book from Lady Montgomery’s office?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I should take it,” I said to him. “If you get that dark magic into your head, any other psychic might be able to read it from you at any time.”

  “Not if I’m wearing iron,” he said smugly. I hit him in the arm. “Ow! I was joking, Ilsa. Don’t worry, I haven’t read it all, just the hellhound part.”

  “Good,” I said. “We’ve broken the law enough times lately. What’re the odds of Lady Montgomery throwing the lot of us in jail?”

  “She won’t,” Morgan said. “Not now we’re heroes.”

  “I think that honour goes to Grandma,” I said, which sobered us all up instantly. Even knowing she’d stuck around for longer than the average ghost, if Mum was really trapped in the Grey Vale, we could have used her help. My wounds had healed, but tiredness pierced me down to the bone, and the others looked equally exhausted.

  Back at the guild, the candles still burned outside, though the smoke had entirely cleared away. The necromancers stared at us, Jas and Lloyd in particular. I couldn’t say I blamed them. I wondered if the necromancer I’d cursed at had spread word that I was a dangerous madwoman out to kill them all.

  “Let them pass,” Lady Montgomery said to the guards, beckoning us inside. They shuffled aside, questions brewing in their eyes, so intense I could almost hear them like through Morgan’s psychic link. What had our battle looked like to them here? Surely they didn’t know we’d been to the liminal space… oh. The mark. That’s what they were staring at. My Gatekeeper’s symbol blazed from my forehead, bright and impossible to miss.

  I averted my gaze and followed Lady Montgomery through the oak doors into the lobby. The others filed in behind me. River had kept his blade out, while Hazel’s forehead shone equally as bright as mine.

  “The ghost is gone,” Lady Montgomery said. “Correct?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “She and the fetch are trapped forever.”

  “Come and explain,” she said, beckoning us to follow her.

  Once we were in her office, I launched into my explanation. Amazingly, she didn’t interrupt too many times, not even when I talked about the liminal space and the hidden castle.

  “So it’s still there, just hidden,” I finished. “I’d advise you to tell the necromancers not to go near that particular spot to do summonings or anything, but most of her power is gone. She never really had any in the first place.”

  “Which is why she wanted the book.” She held out her hand expectantly. I hesitated, then passed it over. The book hadn’t stopped glowing once since I’d got it back. I expected it to reprimand me for losing it by going blank for a month or calling me a clueless amateur again, but for now, being able to hold it again was enough.

  “She said she killed the former Gatekeeper,” I said. “Did you know?”

  “No,” said Lady Montgomery. “I didn’t. She killed many people, according to our records.”

  “It’s how she lost her power,” I said. “The Gatekeeper cursed her, and grounded her in that graveyard, forever. She couldn’t move on, and her power was gone. That’s why she got half-faeries to help her. But her scheme collapsed around her. Not being able to do anything herself was her undoing, in the end.”

  “Normally I’d reprimand you for acting behind the guild’s back, but there is no doubt that the council would support your actions in this case, Ilsa. And the same goes for you, Morgan and River. I’m going to have to ask for reports for our records—not just for us, but for the future, in case that ghost manages to escape.”

  “Yeah, my main goal as Gatekeeper is to actually leave the next one some direction,” I said. “It’s only fair.”

  “And do your plans involve the guild?” she asked.

  I hesitated. I barely had the energy to be afraid she’d lock me up anymore, and besides, Mum’s dilemma was paramount.

  “Maybe,” I said. “I just found out my mother is in Faerie, potentially being held captive. I need to get her back before I begin to make a plan. She’s—in the Vale.” The words tasted of ash on my tongue. Even knowing the Gatekeeper’s power, could she really stand up to the monsters of Faerie’s darkest corner?

  “And you, Morgan?” she asked.

  My brother blinked, looking startled. “I—I wouldn’t mind staying at the guild,” he said. “Seems the best place to learn how to use my power, right? But I want to help Ilsa find our mother first.”

  I shot him a grateful look, but I had no intention of dragging the others into the Vale with me, if it was even possible to do so.

  River hesitated like he wanted to speak, then stopped and shook his head.

  “It’s not up to me what you do with your time, Ilsa,” said Lady Montgomery. “But as a member of this guild, I at least expect you to follow our rules, as you promised when you joined.”

  I nodded. “I know, but the book… I don’t think the book plays by anyone’s rules. I can promise I won’t harm anyone or compromise the safety of the city, the guild, or anyone else.”

  “You speak sense,” she said. “If the Gatekeepers have lasted this long without being arrested, I assume they found a way to temper the book’s power. Is there a reason it’s glowing?”

  “Maybe it’s happy I found it again. I don’t know.”

  Maybe it wants to show me the rest of its pages. It was about bloody time.

  “I’m giving the three of you the rest of the day off, unless you’d like to v
olunteer to help clean up.”

  “I should probably check my house is in one piece,” I said. “Thanks, by the way. For letting us get on with the job.”

  “I know better than to stand in the way of a Gatekeeper,” said Lady Montgomery. “That said, you will remain under my authority as long as you are a member here. Ilsa, Morgan, you are dismissed. River, stay for a word, please.”

  Morgan and I left. I hoped River wouldn’t be in too much trouble, though from her tone, she wasn’t angry with him. Morgan hovered beside the door, then disappeared into shadow.

  “What’s he doing?” asked Hazel, who’d waited outside for us.

  “Returning the book he borrowed, I’d guess,” I said in an undertone. “I’ll explain later.”

  “I can’t believe she didn’t arrest you,” said Hazel.

  “She already tried that,” I said. “Didn’t work. Are you okay? The witch said you were drugged…”

  “Honestly, I don’t remember much before I woke up in that castle,” she said. “I—are you sure that creature won’t come back?”

  “I don’t think it’s the ghost or the fetch we should be worrying about,” I murmured. “Mum. The Vale. Aren’t you worried?”

  “Of course I am.” She bit her lip. “But I can’t see Mum getting kidnapped. And I’d be able to sense if she was severely harmed.” She ran a hand over the mark on her forehead. “Are you going to wear that mark all the time?”

  “No.” I dug in my pocket for any stray spells. “Spare disguise charm… wish I’d thought to put this on before all the necromancers saw.”

  “They can see it in Death anyway,” Hazel said. “I can’t believe you got away with that either.”

  “You get away with crap all the time,” said Morgan, slipping out behind her. “Being Gatekeeper.”

  “Not here,” she said. “I guess you’re right, though. You, a necromancer, though? Are you sure?”

  Morgan shrugged. “Are you sure you want to be Gatekeeper?”

  Hazel blinked. “What? I don’t have a choice. Neither does Ilsa. That’s why I asked. You could go anywhere or do anything.”

  “Not really. I’m flat broke and I owe a bunch of people money.”

  “You never mentioned that,” I said. “Which reminds me. Corwin helped the enemy. I guess it’s the Mage Lords I should be reporting him to.” I looked at River for confirmation as he exited the office behind Morgan. “Or should I have told Lady Montgomery?”

  “Nah, he’s gone,” said Morgan. “Ran off. Guess I scared him.”

  “You sure?” I asked, as we turned away from Lady Montgomery’s office.

  “Yeah, he wasn’t the mastermind. He knows I’ll end him if he came back.”

  The guild doors opened and we walked out. “Wait, who was it?” asked Hazel.

  “The one who hypnotised you into taking the book. Corwin, my housemate.”

  Hazel nodded. “Oh, that guy. Morgan and he had a thing.”

  “We did not.” He looked at me. “Did you tell her?”

  “Nope. Didn’t need to.”

  Morgan scowled. “Where are you going, anyway?”

  “To check the house is in one piece,” I said.

  “Oh yeah. Wonder if Corwin left his Xbox behind.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Didn’t you steal enough from his store?”

  “Yeah, I got these firework spells—”

  “Don’t you even think about it,” I said. “Anyway. You’ll find someone better than that tosspot.”

  He smiled a little. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  The book chose that moment to interrupt by glowing bright green. “I think it wants me to read it.”

  We walked quickly to the house, and I unlocked the door. I threw my necromancer coat aside, my heart lifting a little despite the heavy weight on my chest. We’d made it out alive, none of us had been banished by the guild or thrown in jail—and I knew better than to think Lady Montgomery hadn’t noticed how River and I felt about one another, so I could only assume she didn’t mind.

  But saving Mum had to come first. I opened the book, flicking through the pages. A whole new section had appeared towards the back…

  “This is the key to the Vale,” I said. “I’m sure it is. Mum’s in there, and Grandma said her life’s in danger.”

  “So is yours, if you follow,” River said. “The only way to cross to the Vale as a necromancer is to disconnect from your body. You can’t do that indefinitely. You’d die.”

  Morgan gave him a sharp look. “What? You sound like you’ve done it before.”

  “He has been there before,” I said, lowering the book. “Right, River?”

  He wasn’t looking at me. My heart beat faster.

  “Tell me you didn’t know,” Hazel said. “Tell me you didn’t know where she was this whole time.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was sworn not to tell on pain of death. Until you figured out—”

  “The vow,” I said. “You swore a vow to someone there. In the Vale.”

  The room felt colder, like it’d fallen under another Winter magic spell.

  He knew Mum was alive.

  He lied to you for weeks.

  And he never tried to save her.

  “She gave me the orders herself,” he said. “She was furious like you wouldn’t believe that your life was in danger, and told me that I was to defend you beyond the limits of my vow, if necessary. I’d already been in the Vale and found out about the conspiracy against the Courts, so I knew I had to take on the case.”

  “So when you said you hadn’t heard from her, it was a bare-faced lie?” I said. “I know you aren’t bound to tell the truth, but I trusted you.”

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “She really didn’t want me to tell you she was in the Vale.”

  “Because we’d stage a rescue,” Hazel said. “Well, no shit. We’re not letting her rot in the Vale. She’s the Gatekeeper. What the hell do the Summer Court have to say to that?”

  “I didn’t know where the client was based when I received the message. By the time I realised I was in the Vale, it was too late to turn back.”

  “But why can’t she turn back?” I asked. “Why stay there at all? For that matter, how did she end up there?”

  “On a quest for the Court, from what I gathered,” River said. “She wouldn’t tell me the details. But the last I saw, she wasn’t a prisoner. She was there by choice.”

  “We can’t leave her there,” Hazel said. “Summer needs a Gatekeeper. I can cover for her, but she… dammit, she should have told me.”

  “I don’t understand it at all,” I said. “Summer should have sent someone of their own, not her.”

  “The Grey Vale drains the Sidhe’s power,” said River. “As a human, the Gatekeeper isn’t as badly affected.”

  “But she could die there,” I said. “Every nightmare from Faerie exists in that realm. Who sent her there?”

  “I don’t know,” River said. “Like I said—I was given the bare minimum of information and then told not to tell you the truth. I can only apologise for it. If it’s any consolation, I believe your mother is in every way equipped to survive the Vale. Don’t forget less time has passed for her than it has for you.”

  “Still.” I paused, taking in a deep breath to calm myself down. We all knew faerie vows. But I’d trusted him with my life and safety, and Mum… she knew I was Gatekeeper, and had chosen to leave us here alone anyway. Or rather, the Sidhe had. Assuming that, sending Mum into the Vale made a lot of sense. Humans were expendable, after all.

  Anger sparked inside me. “Bloody Sidhe,” I said. “I’ll take it up with the Erlking himself if I have to. Considering what happened to that ghost, they might think twice about threatening me.”

  “Don’t,” warned River. “You might be able to go after your mother, but you’d be endangering your own life for no reason. Trust that she knows what she’s doing.”

  “I trust her. The Sidhe are a different story. And that goes
double for the people who lie on their behalf.”

  He paled. “Ilsa…”

  I held up a hand. “Give me some space. That’s all I ask. Hazel, will Arden take a message into the Court?”

  “Sure. I was thinking of sending them a drawing of a giant middle finger.”

  Morgan snorted. “Yeah, right. Guess I wouldn’t survive the Vale, but I wish I could help.”

  We looked at one another for a moment. Hazel’s phone buzzed in the silence and she picked it up. “Hi…” Her voice rose in surprise. “She what?”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  She lowered the phone. “The Winter Gatekeeper’s back.”

  Thank you for reading!

  The story continues in Hereditary Power (The Gatekeeper’s Curse, #3), available soon.

  Find out more at http://smarturl.it/GatekeepersCurse

  If you want to be notified when my next book comes out, you can sign up to my author newsletter: http://smarturl.it/ELAnewsletter

  I hope you enjoyed Hereditary Curse. If you have a minute to spare, then I’d really appreciate a short review. Reviews tell me which stories readers want more of, so if you’d like to see more of the Lynn family, let me know what you think!

  Other books by Emma L. Adams

  If you’d like to see how Ivy’s adventures in Faerie started, you might like Faerie Blood, the first book in the Changeling Chronicles series.

  When faerie-killer Ivy is hired to find a missing child, replaced with a changeling, she’s forced to team up with the seductively dangerous Mage Lord, at the risk of exposing her own dark history with the faeries—and this time, running won’t save her.

  Find out more!

  If you’re interested in exploring the faerie realms in more depth, you might like Mortal Heir, Book 1 in the Thief’s Talisman series.