The Keeper's Curse (24 page)

Emmy
blinked. “How?”

“
I knew when I heard the language in the downloader room,” she
continued, flipping through the book. “It’s the palewraith
language.”

Emmy took
a step back. Persephone’s eyes were glittering. “How do you know
what the palewraith language sounds like? Nobody knows. The only
books that have the language in them have been gone –”

“
Well, I do. And so do most of Thoreoux’s followers. There are
thirteen books of the palewraith language. I’m not sure if you know
this, but palewraiths have far more power than they let us
access.”

“
I was told the palewraiths are the source of magic in all
forms. But they constrain crafters to only physical
powers.”

“
Yes, they do that so our powers are limited. But if we spoke
their language, we could do far more with them – we could make them
do anything.” Persephone sifted madly through the book, flipping
several pages per second. “It’s unnatural of course, and the
palewraiths would fight us if we forced them into anything since
the spells are mostly harmful, but they’re helpless against the
commands. There’s the Book of Hexes, the Book of Enchantments, the
Book of Bewitchments, and so on. They’ve been lost for centuries.
Thoreoux was able to find one – the Book of Curses. Originally he
only wanted to reverse his own curse – the Eldoir’s
Curse.”

Persephone stated this quite calmly, but she didn’t dare look
at Emmy. Without realizing it, Emmy had been tapping her foot. Why
was she being told all this? She wanted to be back at the hospital
with Jade.

“
I can’t speak the language, of course. But I know what it
sounds like.”

Emmy
didn’t know whether to run or to stay. Her curiosity was
piqued.

“
Why are you telling me this?”

Persephone walked over to her, the book open in her hands.
She handed it over to Emmy.

“
I’m telling you because the Book of Curses was given to Rhoan
Crow for protection. Clara Crawford got a hold of it. Just
read.”

Emmy
still didn’t understand, but she did as she was told, and looked
down onto the page.

A title
in perfect calligraphy that read “The Keeper’s Curse” glinted back
at her in gold.

Beneath
this was a drawing, primitive like the pictures on cave walls, of a
person being split, becoming two people – but joined at the waist.
A chill ran up her spine, and she began to read the paragraph
below.

The Keeper’s
Curse is a spell found in the Book of Curses, one of the 13 Books
of the Palewraith Language. The intent of the curse is to dislodge
the soul out of an individual’s body and transfer it into a second
body, the first party thereby relinquishing all control of their
life.

The Keeper – the
individual whom the soul has been transferred into – becomes in
full possession of the first individual. The Keeper shares the
thoughts, feelings, motivations of the other and can take full
control of their physical body if they so desire.

This leaves the
first – the parasite – at the mercy of the Keeper. Since a person
cannot live without a soul, if the Keeper were to die of any cause,
the parasite would die as well. This is both a strength and
weakness of the bond – the parasite becomes invincible, unable to
die, as long as the Keeper remains intact.

When a Keeper’s
Curse is performed, the criteria the soul has in choosing a Keeper
is simple: it chooses the person with the strongest compatibility
to the parasite. This is to ensure the Keeper will not take
advantage of their powerful position, and will instead guard and
protect the parasite rather than cause them harm.

If the parasite
and Keeper were to meet, they would be two pieces of a whole.
Ideally, they would become each other’s greatest ally, having all
their imperfections balanced by the other. If one were to be
aggressive, the other would be calm. If one were to be proactive,
the other would be passive.

A Keeper and
their parasite are complete opposites, and exactly the
same.

Emmy’s
hands shook so violently the book fell on the floor. Blood pounded
in her ears, and if her stomach had contracted any further, she
would have been sick on the floor.

Persephone rushed to her side, putting her arms around Emmy’s
shoulders.

“
I know. It’s a lot to take in,” Persephone said.

“
It’s not possible. I am
not
that.”

Even as
she said the words, she thought of the ritual, Breckin’s small body
writhing in pain, while Emmy, thousands of miles and a world away,
did the same thing.

“
It was rumoured the Keeper was a human, a non-crafter. The
rumours were only half right.”

She
remembered Breckin telling her the story of him and his mother, of
how he had cryptically said, “She” – his mother – “did something to
me to make sure Thoreoux couldn’t ever hurt me.” And that had been
all he said.

“
It’s not me, it can’t be me.”

Persephone didn’t reply, which only made Emmy panic more. She
yanked herself away from Persephone, backing away. Persephone’s
expression wasn’t cruel or encouraging. There was only
pity.

So Emmy
did the only thing that made sense in the moment. She bolted out of
the room.

~

Breckin
waited hours for Lana to come back. He didn’t quite understand why,
but he wanted to make sure she was alright. Was it because he had
been telling her so much in the past few days? He had told her his
life story. And now she knew about his severe
claustrophobia.

He felt
his face burn. He had never voluntarily told anybody that before.
Noah, Gabe and Roz knew, but they had found out the hard way.
Images of Rhoan throwing him in the frenum closet began bubbling
beneath the surface, and he had to force them away, returning to
his train of thought. Lana.

She had
been so scared, and the guilt had been practically emanating from
her in waves, like he felt her fear. But she never
returned.

Soon
enough, other people came to visit Jade, but he didn’t leave.
Despite Jade’s physical strength, she was one of the softest people
he knew, and imagining her being in fear, being hurt by those
monsters, made him furious. All he wanted to do was fix this for
her, and hated himself for not knowing how.

Gabe came
in soon enough and they sat together. Breckin explained what had
happened the previous night, jumbling his words from talking so
quickly. Gabe didn’t interrupt him once, and didn’t say anything
after he finished.

That was
one of the perks of having Gabe as your best friend, Breckin
thought. You could bare your soul to him and he wouldn’t judge you.
On the other hand, he wouldn’t comfort you either. Although he had
no expression, Breckin knew he was worried. Jade was his sister,
after all.

Soon
enough Alex showed up, then Teddy, and the rest of Jade’s friends.
Later in the day the Woodworkers came - Sol’s brother, his wife,
and their three daughters, Rozelyn among them.

“
Why would anyone want to hurt Jade?” she whispered to him
after the others left, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“
I don’t think it was Jade they were after,” Breckin said. “I
think they were after Lana.” At Rozelyn’s puzzled expression, he
expanded. “You know, Alex Rathers’s sister.”

“
You mean Emmy?”

“
Who on earth is Emmy?”

There was
no time to elaborate, for just then Persephone Nassar burst into
the room, her black eyes round and huge, and out of breath. Breckin
and Rozelyn stood up.

“
What happened?” Breckin demanded. “Is Lana
alright?”

“
No, she bloody well isn’t,” she panted. “I left her alone and
she’s gone. I went back to The Noir Beanery to see Vera and Sol and
she’s not there. Her clothes and bag are missing as well. She’s
gone.”

Breckin
took a deep breath, trying not to get upset. “Where did she
go?”

“
How the hell should I know? You’re going to have to find her,
you’re the only one who can.”

“
Okay, sure. Just let me try and track her.”

“
You don’t have to do that,” Persephone said shortly. She took
another deep breath, trying to control her breathing. “I don’t know
how to tell you this, Breckin, but brace yourself, alright? I
should’ve told you both before, but... Breckin, Emmy is your
Keeper.”

The
loudest sound in the room for several seconds was Jade’s breathing.
A thousand jumbled, crazy thoughts, most of them involving denial,
raided Breckin’s head. After about a minute of gaping, he finally
verbalized one of them.

“
That’s impossible,” he said. “My mom looked up my Keeper, and
she said she was a human.”

“
Did she say that? Or did she say the Keeper was in the real
world?”

Breckin
thought about it for a moment, not remembering the exact wording.
His mom had told him years ago, right before she had disappeared
from his life forever. It hadn’t been the most important thing on
his mind at the time.

“
Lana never said anything. How can you be sure?”

Persephone smiled without mirth. “She can hear you talk in
her head. Last night we broke into the dream downloading room, and
guess what we found? She had a dream about you years ago when you
were having the curse put on you.”

There
were so many things he wanted to protest, but none of them came to
his lips. Lana, his Keeper?

He
thought of her, the skinny, awkward girl who always stared at him
intently, sometimes with suspicion, other times with ... almost
adoration.

Ever
since he had met her, something about her had drawn him in, despite
her initial hostility. Maybe because the first time he had ever
seen her she had been hurt, or maybe it was because she looked so
helpless, but he hadn’t been able to control his reaction to her.
If what Persephone was saying was true, those feelings would have
made a lot of sense. Lana, his Keeper. Lana, with his
soul.

His mind
wandered to the previous night, when he had been jerked awake. He
had heard Lana’s voice in his head, pleading for his help. And he
had known where she was. Like a tug inside him, bringing him to
her. He hadn’t even questioned it.

“
Listen,” Persephone said, breaking him out of his thoughts.
“She didn’t take the news so well, and you have to bring her back.
Those monsters that nearly killed us last night were after her.
She’s defenceless now.”

She was
his Keeper. This was real. He had met her.

Breckin
began pacing back and forth, ignoring all the eyes on
him.

The
Keeper had always been this far-off entity to him. He had never
given her a face, never tried to find her or contact her. He had
just thanked his lucky stars she was a human, that she would never
be hurt on account of him. She would live her whole life never
knowing he existed.

It took a
moment for him to adjust that blurred image to fit Lana. Lana, one
of the most vulnerable crafters in the world. She was not at all
his naive idea of an Amazon with a whip in one hand, and a knife in
the other. But that girl didn’t exist, and she never had because
she had just done the one thing the books said a Keeper would never
do – she deserted him. He hated himself for being
surprised.

“
No,” he finally said. “Let her go.”

Persephone gave him a look that indicated he was clearly
stupid. “Excuse me?”

Rozelyn squeezed his hand. “Breckin, if they find her they’ll
kill her. They’ll kill
you
.”

“
I know that, it’s just ... I can’t make her stay.”

“
Of course you can,” Persephone said automatically.

Breckin
threw his hands up. “Okay, yes, I can literally force her to stay,
but I can’t do that to her. Do you realize what she’s just
discovered?”

“
Yes, it’s awful,” Persephone said. “But she can’t take care
of herself.”

“
I don’t think you quite understand what’s been done to her,”
Breckin said, his voice rising. “I’ve ruined her life. Thoreoux
knows I have a Keeper.” And then another realization hit home; his
knees nearly buckled under him. “Cyrus. That’s why Cyrus is here.
That’s why he threatened her. Oh, God.”

Persephone paled at Cyrus’s name. “I should have known
that.”

Breckin narrowed his eyes at her. “Exactly how
do
you know all about
this, Persephone? How do you know I have a Keeper? Hardly anyone
knows. Thoreoux and his clan know. My mom knows. Circlet and Oka
know. Noah, Gabe and Rozelyn know. And that’s all.”

Persephone paled further, but straightened her back. “That’s
none of your business, Crawford. I’m just trying to help
you.”

“
If she wants to leave, let her leave. I can’t blame her for
wanting to. Maybe she’ll come back.” Persephone rolled her eyes,
which made Breckin’s neutral feelings for her slip into dislike. He
already felt stupid enough. You could only have so many people
leave you before you just start accepting it when it
happens.