The Curse Defiers (18 page)

Her expression softened. “I don’t mean to sound hateful, Ellie. I just worry about you. With all the responsibilities of the curse . . .” Her gaze landed on my right hand. “I see you’ve taken to wearing the ring. Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“I . . . David . . .”

Myra’s eyes narrowed. “Ellie, do you hear yourself? All you can say is
David this
and
David that
. You are a grown woman, and you need to make your own decisions without his influence.” She stood and picked up her plate. “You said you’re not working at the New Moon anymore. I take it that you quit because of your horrid new boss?”

I numbly nodded.

She set her plate on the counter and smiled. “Perfect. I think you should leave the inn in Becky’s care and come stay with me for a while. Maybe we can get you enrolled in some classes. I know how much you regretted not going to college. It could be a fresh start for both of us.”

I shook my head in confusion. “But just a few minutes ago, you said I shouldn’t sell the inn. And the semester has already started. Not to mention the fact that it’s
Duke
, Myra. I’d never get accepted.”

“I didn’t say sell it. I said leave it with Becky and come stay with me.”

My phone went off in my pocket again. I glanced at the screen and saw that it was Claire again. She wasn’t usually this persistent. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take of Myra’s planned reboot of my life, so I decided to use Claire’s calls to my advantage. I stood. “Myra, I hate to leave like this, but Claire has a crisis going on and I need to go help her.”

“You’re going back to Manteo?”

I didn’t want to lie to her, but I needed to get out of there as soon as possible. “Yes.”

She emerged from the kitchen and walked closer to me. “Ellie, I beg you to consider what I’ve said. I think if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see that I’m right.” She pulled me into a hug. “Just know I care about you and my door is always open.”

“Okay.” Her body felt piping hot next to mine, and no matter how upset I was with her, I was still worried about her health. “Are you sure you’re not sick? You feel like you have a fever.”

“I’m fine. It’s just hormones. I’ve been having hot flashes, embarrassing though that is.” Her smile tightened. “You scoot and take care of Claire.” She moved toward the front door and opened it.

“Okay.” My breakfast weighed ten pounds in my stomach. I couldn’t bear to leave with things like this between us, but I wasn’t sure how to fix the situation. “Take care, Myra.”

“You too.”

I walked through the door and my hand burned again as I passed through the threshold. I turned around to mention it to Myra, but she’d already closed the door.

Whatever was on the door was messing with my mark.

I pulled out my phone and took multiple pictures to show David, then practically ran out to the car and slid behind the wheel. Once I had the door shut, I gave in to my storm of emotion and let the tears flow freely down my cheeks. I wanted to dismiss everything she’d said, but the problem was that I could see some truth in it. But how much was truth and how much was overprotectiveness?

My phone buzzed again.

I answered this time and Claire sounded beyond irritated. “Ellie, I’m sorry, but she’s bugging the shit out of me. She won’t leave me alone until I talk to you.”

I shuddered in confusion. “Who’s bugging you?”

“My ghost.” I could practically hear her roll her eyes. “The one that thinks you need to move out. She won’t leave me alone until I tell you something.”

I wiped the tears off my cheeks and started the car. “And what’s that?”

Claire paused. “She says you need to leave your house and you need
him
.”

“Him who?” I asked as I started to pull out of my parking space.

“David. She’s very upset. She insists that you need him.”

My head grew fuzzy, so I pulled back between the lines, shifting the car back into park. “How did she know?”

“Know what?”

“That Myra was giving me a huge guilt trip about selling the inn and being with David. She asked me to move to Durham with her and start taking college classes.”

“
What?
That’s the craziest idea ever. That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

“I know . . .”

“She’s probably lonely, Ellie. Sure, she’s got an exciting new job and a boyfriend, but she’s left her entire life behind. I bet she misses you and this is her way of trying to get you back.”

“Maybe . . .”

“Plus, my ghost is adamant that you need David.”

I laughed even as tears burned my eyes. “Too bad your ghost isn’t Myra.” I sucked in a deep breath to get control. “Can you see your ghost yet? Do you know who she is?”

“No.” She sounded frustrated. “And I still struggle to understand her. Her words are often garbled. But I do know it’s a
her
, and she’s quite persistent in regards to you.”

“And you think we can trust her?”

“Yes. I can feel her concern for you. So put Myra’s words out of your head.”

“Easier said than done, Claire. She’s my mom.”

“I know, but she’s still human like the rest of us, which means even Myra is fallible from time to time.”

I smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.”

“What’s a BFF for?”

I filled her in on everything that had happened since I’d talked to her last, which took up the whole twenty-five minute drive to Chapel Hill.

David wasn’t home yet, so I resumed packing but wondered if I was overstepping my bounds. He sent me a text saying one of his friends had dropped him off at the library and he’d call me to pick him up later.

My encounter with Myra, along with everything else that had happened over the weekend, had been overwhelming. After I heated up a can of soup for lunch, I went into David’s room and crouched next to the bed, pulling out the sword Tsagasi had given me from between the mattress and box springs. Sitting on the edge of the mattress, I held the blade in my hands. It needed to be sharpened, although I had no idea how to do that, but it had proven effective nevertheless. Still, I couldn’t ignore how quickly I’d gotten worn out in my fight with the Raven Mockers. If I was going to start using a sword regularly, I needed to learn how to wield it. And build up my upper-body strength.

But first I needed a nap. I lay down, setting the sword on the comforter next to me. Then I grabbed David’s pillow and wrapped my arm around it, breathing in the scent of him—the clean smell of his shampoo, with a hint of musk. Myra’s admonishment was still fresh on my mind, but so was the message from Claire’s ghost. Did I trust the woman who had been my mother for the last ten years or some nameless ghost?

I roused out of my dreamless sleep and blinked my eyes open as I felt movement on my arm. “David?” I murmured.

He was sitting on the bed next to me. “Hey.”

“How did you get home?” I asked, still groggy.

“I ran into a friend who gave me a ride. How was your visit with Myra?”

I rolled onto my back to face him. “Don’t ask. Moving to Durham has changed her in a lot of ways.”

“I’m sorry.”

I told him about the whole incident, and when he heard what Myra had said about him, pain flickered in his eyes. “It’s not you, David. She thinks it’s all me.”

“What do you plan to do about her advice?”

I sat up and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “I’ll hold off on selling the inn for a few months. But I’m not giving you up. Even Claire’s ghost agrees that I shouldn’t.”

A grin spread across his face, even if his eyes were slow to catch up. “Well, there you go. It’s a good thing this ghost likes me since you follow her lead so much.”

I shook my head and smirked. “It just so happens Claire’s ghost and I think a lot alike. Anyway, I wanted to show you the marks on Myra’s door. They’re really different.” I dug the phone out of my pocket and pulled up the photos. “Have you seen anything like this before?”

He enlarged the photos and scrolled through the images. “I can honestly say I don’t recognize any of the marks. Forward them to my phone, and I’ll see what I can dig up.”

“Thanks.” I texted them to him, then put my phone on the bed. “Now tell me about your day.”

David had spent several hours with his friends, helping Allison’s parents arrange for her body to be moved to her hometown of Asheville for her funeral, and then Phil had dropped him off at the library.

“I read the letter Penelope recommended, and it helped confirm a lot of what we know.” It was written by a man claiming to be part of a group of Keepers whose duty it was to watch for a curse to break. The man spoke of a gold ring and a spear that could be used to rid the world of demons. Both objects had been lost for over fifty years, but he’d discovered that the prominent Middleton family in Charleston, South Carolina had gained possession of them. He had gone to the plantation to confront the current heir, but had never made it past the caretaker. He’d tried to talk to the sheriff in Charleston, but the man had refused to listen because the Middleton family was so respected, not only in Charleston but in the entire nation.

“Middleton,” I said. “I’ve heard that name before.”

“Are you sure? Could it have been from a history class or book?” He winked. “Or perhaps a
People
magazine story about Kate Middleton?”

“Very funny.” I shook my head. “It’s a memory, trapped in my head. I’m sure it’s associated with the Ricardo Estate. I don’t know how, but I am.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding. “Somehow the Middletons got possession of the ring and the spear. And we suspect the ring you’re wearing came from the estate through your mother. But what happened to the spear?”

“Allison told Trina that the collection also had Native American spears. Some were so old that the shafts were warped.”

“So the Guardians might have the spear. That’s good.”

“Tsagasi says that there are things from the night my mother died that are important. I need to remember what happened.”

David grabbed my hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb. “I know you weren’t keen on the idea before, but do you want to try hypnosis?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” If I were back home, I could ask Collin to go into the ocean with me. But that would hurt David. He might not ask questions, but he knew my encounters with Collin were far from innocent. Yet if I could get necessary answers, didn’t that justify it?

Didn’t Tsagasi say that the right- or wrongness of a situation depended on which side you stood on?

But there had to be another way. Hurting David was an absolute last resort. Some of the memories had already emerged. I just needed to tap into the others.

He lowered his voice. “Ellie, there’s one more thing the letter mentioned.”

“What?”

“The writer of the letter—a man named Samuel—said the Middletons were part of a secret group. But when he tried to appeal to the sheriff, he was just laughed out of the station.”

“Secret group?”

“The Guardians.”

I sat up straighter. “Oh, crap.”

“Samuel found out they had the ring and the spear because he’d heard they were seeking weapons created to fight supernatural creatures.”

“It’s them.”

“I think so.” He paused. “There’s one more thing and it’s the best news of all.” His grip on my hand tightened, counteracting his words.

My breath stuck in my chest.

“This afternoon, I received a phone call from a woman associated with the collection. She had heard about Allison’s death, and she asked if I knew anything about the research Allison had been doing. When I said yes, she asked me to come to Charlotte in Allison’s place. I’m meeting them at ten tomorrow morning.”

My eyes widened. “How is this good? It’s creepy enough that they knew about her death this soon, but they specifically sought you out. I don’t like this . . .”

“Ellie, this is my chance to see the weapons for myself.”

“And look what happened to the last two people we know who saw them.”

“Don’t be so superstitious.”

“Superstitious? My mother and your ex-girlfriend were both murdered less than a week after they saw the collection. You’re the one who keeps claiming there are no coincidences in any of this.”

“This will be different. I’m not going in blind. I have an idea of what I’m looking for.”

“But you have no way of knowing what their plans are. They might be waiting there to kill you.”

His back stiffened. “Ellie, I’m doing this with or without your approval.”

I hopped off the bed and headed for the kitchen, David on my heels. “Don’t be angry with me.”

I placed my hands on the counter and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to smother my panic. “I’m not angry, David. I’m terrified.”

He stood behind me and pulled my back to his chest. “I have to do this, love. And you know it too, deep in your gut.” When I didn’t answer, he bent his mouth to my earlobe. “This could be the big break we need. We have a sword that kills Raven Mockers, but I suspect they have many more weapons we can use. This is our chance to not only protect you but to go on the offensive. To save the world.”

He was right, and it killed me to admit it.

We hung around his house and ordered a pizza. He said he had more research to do to prepare for his visit the next morning, so I told him I was going to sit in his backyard in the hopes that Tsagasi would come to me. I hadn’t seen him since our middle-of-the-night chat.

“This is going to sound quite bizarre,” David said, glancing up from his laptop. “But I think you should take the sword with you.”

I put my hand on my hip, my eyebrows raised. “What will your neighbors say about a woman walking around your backyard with an antique weapon?”

“We’ll deal with it if it comes up. But the sun will set soon, and I’d feel better if you could defend yourself with more than the mark on your palm.”

“Okay.” Minutes later I was behind his house, heading for the woods as the sun hung low in the sky, my nearly three-foot sword in my hand. I hiked a good thirty feet before calling out Tsagasi’s name.