The Curse Keepers Collection (112 page)

“When was the last time you were in the ocean?” he asked, keeping his gaze on the horizon.

“Last week.”

“You need to visit it more, Ellie. It’s a part of you now.” His voice was soft and noncondemning.

“It’s hard to get over here, even though it’s just a fifteen- to twenty-minute drive. When you take into account that I lose anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour when I zone out every time I come . . . ” My voice trailed off in frustration.

“You wouldn’t spend as much time in the water if you came more often. It gives you power. And if you’re losing that much time, you’re using more energy than you’re getting.”

“This Curse Keeper gig didn’t come with an instruction manual, Collin. At least not for me.” Ordinarily it would have come out as an accusation, but today it was laced with exhaustion.

Collin’s hand covered mine. “I know.”

His touch was comforting, and although I knew I should pull away, I couldn’t make myself do it.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said when I took you out on the boat, about me keeping things from you so you’d keep coming back to see me.” He paused, then stared into my eyes. “I think there might be some truth to it, but it’s more complicated than that.” He offered me a wry smile. “I’ve partially done it to protect you.”

“Hiding things from me won’t protect me. It puts me in more danger. I have no idea what to expect, and that could get me killed.”

Collin stiffened and started to say something before stopping himself. “Why did you want to see me?”

He changed the subject. He still wasn’t willing to fill me in on everything. Bitter disappointment seeped into my blood. “Do you know anything about people being able to see ghosts?”

He hesitated. “Why do you ask?”

My anger, dormant for longer than I’d expected, rushed to the surface. “For once would you just answer a
goddamned question
?”

His jaw clenched and I wondered if he was going to get up and walk away, but he blew out a breath instead. “Yes. I’ve heard of it. But contrary to what people believe, it’s not that common.”

“Are the ghosts good or bad? And how would someone know if they were ghosts and not spirits or demons?”

“I told you the first day you asked about good gods and bad gods that there’s good and bad in everything. People included. There are a lot of shades of gray, Ellie. Take Ahone.”

Pissed, I started to get up, but Collin wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me back down. “For Christ’s sake, you asked me a question, and then you start to storm off when you don’t like the answer. Did you ever consider you might actually know more if you stuck around and listened?”

I sat back down and took several breaths to settle my anger, part of which was directed at myself. He was right.

“Okay.” His hold on my wrist loosened, but he didn’t let go. “Ahone isn’t all good, Ellie. He made you sacrifice your father, for fuck’s sake.”

My simmering temper exploded again and I turned to him, livid. “That was your fault, Collin! You broke the curse! Daddy never would have died if you had left things alone.”

A tourist family gave me curious looks as they walked by, but kept moving.

Collin watched me and waited until they passed. His face softened. “You asked me why I broke the curse. Do you remember what I said?”

My anger clung to me like a familiar friend. “You said you wanted it done! That your family had paid the price, but you didn’t give a shit about my family.”

“Ellie.” His voice lowered and there was no anger in it, only regret. “Did you ever wonder why I walked into your restaurant that day? Or how I knew where to find you? Did you wonder how I had the henna supplies ready the day I took you to Buxton?”

My mouth opened and then closed without emitting any sound.

“I didn’t just come up with this on my own, Ellie. Granted, I hated the fucking curse, but I never considered breaking it until about two months before I did.”

I blinked, amazed that he was finally opening up to me. “What happened?” I asked, my voice breathless.

“Something came to me one night while I was out on the boat.” He paused and glanced out at the water. “I had already forked over a ton of money on repairs for the engine, and Marino wanted me to work some big job. I’d been resisting because I was trying to distance myself from him.” He swallowed and let go of my wrist. “This ball of light appeared and told me that I could change things. That my family had been punished because of the deeds of my ancestors and that we didn’t need to suffer any longer. It told me that I could make things right. All I had to do was break the curse.”

“But—”

Collin turned and put his finger on my lips. “Shh. Let me finish. Then you can ask questions.”

My lip tingled where he touched it and fire raced through my body. My breath came in rapid bursts as Collin’s finger lightly slid along my bottom lip, his gaze pinned on my mouth. It took every ounce of restraint in me not to close the distance between our mouths. It couldn’t have been more than a foot.

David. Remember David.

My expression must have changed because the longing in Collin’s eyes turned to resignation. He dropped his hand and turned back to face the water. “I didn’t listen at first. My job was to
protect
the curse and keep the gates closed, but the seed of doubt had been planted. And I began to wonder: What if the curse was broken and I didn’t have to spend the rest of my life stuck around Roanoke Island? I could go anywhere I wanted. I could start over where Marino would never find me. After that, it was easy.”

I watched the emotion battle in his eyes.

“A month or so later, the ball of light returned with its whispers about how I could make things right. This time I was willing to listen. It told me that all I had to do was find you—I already knew we had to touch our right palms together. Then the curse would break, cracking the gate open, and after six days I could seal it so that it would never open again. And the curse would be done. Forever. The light told me that I would need to protect you until the ceremony because you didn’t have the mark of protection that the Manteo line wore. After the ceremony, you would be safe.”

Collin ran a hand through his hair, then leaned his forearm against his upright knee. “I still wasn’t sure. It went against everything I had been trained to do and believe.” He sighed and closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. “That’s not entirely true. My father was the Keeper before me. He was angry about his fate, and he always swore he’d break the curse someday. Then he disappeared when I was ten. He just vanished, and my mother didn’t take it well. She was in and out of mental health facilities and my brother . . . ”—he turned to me, his eyebrows lifted—“
Conner
and I were passed around from family member to family member when she was away.”

I stared up at Collin in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he was sharing so much with me.

His hand rested between us on the blanket. I placed my hand over his and he flipped it over, lacing our fingers together. I could feel strength from my body flow into his, and we weren’t even touching marks.

Our power had grown.

Collin’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before he continued. “I decided to get advice from my grandmother, who was the Keeper before my father. After he left, she took over responsibility for my training, teaching me everything I needed to know. She was only the third female Keeper in the Manteo line, but when I was younger, my father told me that she was the wisest of them all. I suspect he was right. She has much wisdom about the curse and life in general. She instructed me with a firm hand and made sure I believed in the importance of our task. So I went to her and told her about the ball of light. She told me not to trust it.” He laughed. “Of course, I talked myself into believing it in spite of her warnings. The ball of light was telling me things I wanted to hear. So I went to Conner and asked what he thought. He told me that if I was conversing with talking balls of light, I was crazier than our mother. But I think a tiny part of him believed.” He grimaced. “Or was afraid not to believe. Rosalina was Conner’s girlfriend and I knew she had access to henna supplies. After the wind god Wapi almost stole your Manitou, I knew I needed to step up to keep you safe. So I went to Rosalina. Conner had already warned her that I was going to come by for supplies, so she had them ready.

“By then I knew I’d fucked up and fucked up big, but the gate was open and I only had to keep you safe until the sixth day. Then we’d shut the gate and that would be that. But when Wapi attacked you in the ocean, I knew that the ball of light had lied.”

“What did you expect, Collin?” My tone was hateful and condescending. “Okeus is a liar. He’d do anything to get what he wanted. Besides, you told me that Okeus bribed you to keep the gate
open
, not closed.”

Collin stared into my face with more patience than usual. “Okeus is a
god
, Ellie, and gods are by definition self-centered, egotistical beings who will do whatever they have to do to get what they want.”

“You’re defending Okeus again? After everything you just told me?”

My hand was still linked with Collin’s and he grabbed my other hand, searching my eyes. “After you had your vision of creation in the ocean, you told me the gate wasn’t thrown open all the way when you and I met, that it was only partially open and only a few spirits were let loose.”

“So? Okeus lied again. Why are you surprised?”

“
Ellie
, you told me who escaped that day. Okeus hadn’t.”

The blood drained from my head. “What?”

“You told me that two spirits and one god escaped when we cracked the gate. Who was the god?”

“Wapi,” I whispered, horror washing over me.

“The ball of light came to me
before
the curse broke. Before the spirits and god were released. Four hundred years ago only one god escaped being trapped in Popogusso by the curse, and he ascended to the heavens to wait for hundreds of years. You saw it in your vision.” His voice was low and insistent. “Who was it, Ellie? Who convinced me to break the curse?”

My mouth gaped in dismay and the edges of my vision went black.

“Ellie, who was the god who escaped being trapped in Popogusso with all the others?” he asked again, more insistent.

Tears stung my eyes and I shook my head. “No.” Everything I’d been led to believe was an outright lie.

“Who deceived me and told me that you would be safe when you are anything but? What sick and twisted god withheld his mark from you until you finally came to me and I took you out on the ocean?”

My mouth opened, but I couldn’t make the word come out. If this was true, what did it mean? Not
if
it was true—I knew in my gut that it was. I’d seen the proof of it. Only I’d been too stupid to put all the pieces together.

Sympathy filled Collin’s eyes. “You know. I can see the horror in your eyes, but you have to tell me, Ellie, you have to tell me who betrayed you. Who betrayed us both. Which god
really
wanted to break the curse?”

My shell of control was cracking. The black edges were creeping into my peripheral vision.

“Ellie, who
really
destroyed your life and killed your father?”

“
Ahone
.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

I was in the upstairs hallway, my pretty white princess nightgown billowing around my legs. I clutched Bunny to my chest, terrified.

I could hear my mother crying downstairs as the rain beat against the windows. A crash of thunder made the whole house shake.

“I’m going to ask you nicely one more time:
Where is the ring?
” a mean man asked Momma.

“Do you want my wedding ring?” my mother asked. “Here. I’ll give it to you.”

A man slapped her and she cried harder.

I knew I had to help Momma, but I was terrified.

“Amanda, I thought you were smart. Isn’t that why Higgins asked you to come to Charlotte?”