The Keeper's Curse (34 page)

Circlet’s
eyes were shining, and Emmy had a feeling she was trying not to
laugh. “Ahem, well, anyway – Mrs. Crow do we have the go from you
that we –”

“
It’s Miss Hawthorne.” Brenna’s voice was fierce.

“
My apologies, Miss Hawthorne – may we search your dungeons
for these mental patients? They need to be attended to right away
or they will die.”

“
Of course.”

The room
emptied in the next minute, everyone going their different
directions, leaving Cyrus and Emmy alone.

Emmy
leaned back in her chair. “He hates me.”

“
Don’t be ridiculous, he does not hate you. He’ll get over it
– he’s got the attention span of a gnat.”

“
Don’t,” Emmy warned.

“
Fine, no jibes at Crawford. Are you sure you don’t want
anything to eat?”

Emmy
shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. The mansion was
always so cold – how could Cyrus stand it?

“
If you don’t want to talk about Crawford, there’s something
else I want to address,” Cyrus said. “Now that everyone is
gone.”

Distraction was exactly what she wanted; it was weird Cyrus
knew that. “What?” She turned to look at him and noticed he
suddenly appeared very uncomfortable, even slightly ill. “Are you
okay?”

“
About last night,” he said. “I just want to ...” he choked,
“apologize.”

Emmy was
fairly sure Cyrus had never said that before in his entire life.
She was oddly touched.

“
You couldn’t have known why I was ... acting the way I was,
and I want to explain it now.” He loosened his collar. Emmy was
curious now; she wasn’t used to seeing Cyrus in any way flustered.
“Now that we’re out in the clear, I can be with you in
public.”

Emmy
laughed disbelievingly. “Are you saying you want to be
friends?”

“
Along those lines ... actually, I wanted to ask you ...” He
looked like he was about to vomit up the words. “... You know the
Blossom Ball is tomorrow night, right?”

This was
not what she had expected at all. “Yeah?”

He closed
his eyes, trying to regain composure. His eyelids were pale blue,
and Emmy wondered how much sleep he had been getting.

“
Would you like to go with me?”

Emmy’s
jaw dropped.

This is definitely a day of firsts
,
she thought. Breckin was angry with her. She had seen a man die.
And someone was asking her out.

She
couldn’t believe this; she had never been asked out before. Back in
Canada, because she was friends with the majority of the boys at
school, it hadn’t occurred to them to think of her romantically.
The closest thing to dates she had gone on were when her friends
asked to “practice” dating with her before they asked the girls
they actually liked out. They hadn’t understood why she had been
upset by this, so she would sigh and accept being the dating guinea
pig, getting a lot of free dinners and movies along the
way.

But this
was very different.

He was waiting for her answer in silent torment as she
considered this. It had never crossed her mind to think of
him
that
way
before. And he didn’t act like he liked her either. But then again,
he was as clueless about dating as she was – he hadn’t been around
girls his entire adolescence.

They did
get along well enough, she thought, when they weren’t snarking at
each other. And she never noticed before, but he was sort of good
looking. How had she not noticed before?

With a
little quiver of her lip she let out a tiny, “Okay.”

He let
out a breath Emmy hadn’t realized he had been holding. He looked at
her as if she had hit him. “Really? You actually will?”

She let
out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, I actually will. What, you didn’t think
I’d say yes?”

“
Well, no.”

She shook
her head at him, not being able to suppress a grin. He really was a
strange boy.

“
I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?” she said to him. “The
Woodworkers have probably just found out what’s going on and I’ll
have a lot of explaining to do.”

“
I understand.”

“
I know those animals are still around,” Emmy said, getting up
from her chair to leave, Cyrus following. “But we don’t really have
to worry about a few owls, right?”

He shook
his head. “I wouldn’t worry about it. They’ll die soon, anyway, and
then they’ll all be gone for good.”

She
nodded as Cyrus opened the front door for her. “I just hope they
find that orb.”

“
They will,” he promised. “Will you be fine to walk
home?”

“
I have a horse,” she said. “Thank you, Cyrus. I meant
it.”

He
shrugged. “You were the one who figured it out. I should be
thanking you. You saved my family.”

“
And you saved me. I guess we’re even.”

He still
looked bewildered, standing in the doorway, as if he couldn’t quite
believe this was real. She had been hoping for a smile, but he
still seemed too dazed for that. That was alright though; she could
wait. She would get that smile out of him one way or
another.

They
exchanged a goodbye and she made her way back down the steps
towards her palomino waiting in patience at the gate. She felt
giddy, both in a good and bad way – she had just been asked out, by
Cyrus of all people, but they still weren’t in the clear. Thoreoux
might find out about what had happened, and there was still that
portal to worry about. And Emmy didn’t even want to think about
what Breckin would do when she showed up at the Blossom Ball with
Cyrus. She just hoped that vein in his neck wouldn’t
explode.

Chapter 23

Last
Chance

She said yes.

Cyrus
couldn’t believe it. He had been exposed by Circlet, had
Ministrialian officials in his dungeons examining possessed
patients he had gathered in the middle of the night at this very
moment, but that was what he couldn’t believe.

Brynn and
his mother were thrilled with him for what he had done, which made
it all the more surreal. Everything was going so well. It made him
suspicious.

He made
his way back up the staircase, down several corridors adorned with
torches and suits of armour, and back into his room. He lied down
on his enormous four poster bed dressed in a canopy of dark green
velvet.

Liking
Emmy had never really been part of the plan. He had actually quite
disliked her when they first met, not only because of the trouble
she had caused him, but her snoopy, stubborn personality in
general. But after a while, after spending so much time watching
her from afar, he began to think of her less of a subject and more
of a person

She was
so sad, which was the first thing he noticed. She missed her home,
and he could relate to her that way. All these distractions with
Crawford, the dream downloader. and the Book of Curses were a
blessing for her – it got her mind off her misery, and at the same
time, gave her time to adjust to her new life.

Then he
had crossed over from pitying her into liking her. When she had
come over to his house that day, he had not expected her to
actually believe him – this left him stunned. She hadn’t changed of
course; it was how he thought of her that changed. Her stubbornness
became bravery, her snoopiness became intelligent curiosity, her
blindness, loyalty.

His
perception of her appearance changed also. He used to think she
looked like an insect with those protuberant eyes, pointed chin and
skinny body. Now she looked more like a feline, her sly movements
and mane of pale gold hair making her look like a lion –

Tap, tap, tap.

He sat up
in bed to see an owl at his window, staring at him with yellow
eyes.

Might as well get this over with,
Cyrus thought, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. He
trudged over to the window. He lifted the latch, letting in a gust
of frigid white air.

The owl
opened its beak, and Thoreoux’s voice came out of it.

“
Cyrus ... I have been hearing some rather peculiar rumours
about you this morning.”

He doesn’t control you anymore.
“You
should know better than to believe rumours.”

“
You know what they say – rumours always have a seed of truth
in them. I witnessed the regrettable accident of my dear friend
Milo this morning. It’s a pity he had to go that way, but he died
protecting me and my cause. I can’t say the same thing about
you.”

“
I’m not going to kill myself, if that’s what you
want.”

“
No, I’m giving you one last chance out of respect to Rhoan,
who would already be disgraced by you, to fix this. Are you aware
how far I’ll go to get that girl? Who I will sacrifice? Kill her
now, and I’ll forgive you. Only her blood will be spilt, no
more.”

Cyrus set
his chin and replied in a lucid voice, “No.”

The hard
expression on the owl’s face was eerily similar to Thoreoux’s face
right before he had someone killed.

“
Do you think I’m bluffing? Do you not believe I’ll risk
everything to make sure the Eldoir will not come to power? I’m
trying to prevent a monarchist rule. You’re clever Cyrus. You’re
capable of understanding that one girl’s life is more than a fair
payment for everyone.”

“
As if you care about ‘everyone.’ There’s no doubt in my mind
you’ll risk everything, Thoreoux. But it’s out in the open now. By
tonight Methelwood will be infested with Ministrialians looking for
that portal Stockwell placed.”

“
They won’t find it quickly enough.”

“
I’ll take my chances.”

The owl
closed its mouth. “I’m sorry things had to end this way between
us,” Thoreoux said in his normal charismatic voice - as if Cyrus
had merely told him they disagreed over beverage choices. “I
genuinely did want you by my side. You were a really good
liar.”

“
I didn’t have a choice, did I?” Cyrus said, taking one step
closer to the owl. He was in arm’s reach of it now. “Thoreoux –
this is for threatening my brother.” With lightning speed Cyrus
grabbed the owl’s head with both hands, jerked it to the left and
broke its neck instantly. Its brown body dropped to the floor with
a thud.

Cyrus
stood still for several moments to regain composure – he had done
the right thing. He hoped. He turned on his heel and headed
downstairs, just praying the right thing was the wise
thing.

Chapter 24

The
Blossom Ball

“
Cyrus asked you out
?” Jade
exclaimed.

“
Did I leave out the part about the stolen mental patients
being possessed by a long lost spell book and being forced into
trying to kill me by an insane anarchist?” Emmy said with
exaggerated patience.

Jade was
propped on the edge of Emmy’s bed with Emmy herself underneath the
covers. When she came home from Cyrus’s she went straight to her
room and subsequently slept for six hours, and would have slept
longer if Jade could have waited longer. But she couldn’t contain
herself, wanting to know everything that had happened. Emmy was
informed the situation that morning was all anybody was talking
about now. Persephone sat in her room as well, cross-legged on the
floor and leaning against her bureau. She had not said a word for
the past half hour as Emmy explained everything that had happened.
Emmy figured Persephone’s plan was to have visited her while she
was asleep without actually having to talk to her.

“
Right! Of course, that’s the most important part,” Jade said.
She punched Emmy in the arm. “You should have said something
before. I’m hurt you didn’t tell us about all this.”

“
There was nothing you could have done besides worry. I’m just
so glad this is over.”

“
You’re going to have legendary status at school, you know,”
Jade said. “I mean, everyone already knew who you were because of
the half human thing but now it’s out in the open that you’re
carrying around Breckin Crawford’s soul. And the fact that you
solved the missing patient mystery that’s been going on for months?
People are going to love you.”

“
All I’m worried about is how Cyrus is going to be portrayed
in all this.”

Jade
waved the comment away. “There’ll be a few that’ll be impressed,
but really, he’s Rhoan Crow’s kid. I recognized the last name, but
it’s a very common name! I had no idea. Neither Breckin or Cyrus
ever mentioned being related.”

“
That’s hardly fair,” Emmy sighed. “That everyone’s going to
hate him because of what his father did.”

She
shrugged. “It’s how it is here. Last names are important. I don’t
think you understand just how bad Rhoan Crow was – his name was
almost as feared as the current right hand man, Grayson
Rathbone.”