Page 50 of The Curse Breaker

“I will, Mama,” I promised. I was counting on that to be true.

A gust of wind blew as Mama stared at the clouds. “I think the rain will hold off this afternoon, so Papa is taking me to the Old Burying Ground to see Maeve.”

I stiffened at mention of my baby sister’s name. She died when I was five. Maeve was only six months old. My brothers say she was sick since birth, but I don’t remember. I remember holding her tiny hand in mine, but that is my only memory of her. Mama didn’t talk about Maeve often, but she and Papa brought flowers to her grave at the Old Burying Ground near the edge of town every few weeks. They didn’t have money for a headstone, so there was a simple marker with her name and date on it. I knew it was Mama’s hope to someday afford a proper slate headstone for my sister. I wanted that for her too.

With all the rain from the Blood Orange Moon, I realized my parents hadn’t visited Maeve in a while. They’d be gone a good long while, which meant I could slip away to see Charlotte without worry.

Mama gave me a stern look. “With the Cough and Axel Rudd missing, stay here.”

I nodded. I think we both knew I would not listen. I did, however, wait till her and Papa’s wagon had rumbled down the road before I hurried to the beach. I could feel the wind at my back, pushing me toward the seagrass. Welcome, Evelyn Terry. Welcome! I heard the whispers begin. The island was still here. I closed my eyes and listened to the beating of my heart. I only hoped when the time came, I would have the strength to do what I had to do.

“Hello, Evelyn.”

Charlotte was sitting on one of the jagged rocks that poked out of the water. The sea was choppy, a low fog obscuring Greenport from view. The whispers grew louder, and I had to avert my eyes to keep from staring at Charlotte’s traveling cloak, where I suspected the coins were hidden.

For two people who claimed to be leaving Greenport, we traveled light. “Hello.”

She stood slowly, stretching like a cat. “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

“No,” I kept my voice steady, one hand on my pocket. “I’ll get my friends to give me back their coins, help them off the island, and bring the treasure chest here.” My heart started to beat quicker at the thought of these things.

“We will do these things together,” she corrected me. Her eyes glowed, just like Kimble’s. “You didn’t think I’d trust a child to do all this on her own, did you?”

I had a habit of being rash, so I tried to think before I spoke. “If you’re going to the island, why do you need me?”

“Because I do!” she said, her voice raising slightly.

And that’s when I realized something. She can’t go without me. The island won’t let her. My fingers tingled with this realization. The island was taunting her.

“Stop dawdling, dear. Find the new entrance. This is where we found it last time.”

Who was we? Kimble? I let her pull me along, my feet slipping in the wet sand from the earlier rain. I could hear the wind as we pushed against it along the shore. My fingers were cold and numb, but after a few minutes I noticed the stretch of sand widening, the sun peeking through the clouds, the fog lifting, and the path along the water seemed to climb—sand on one side and a rocky hill on the other, like a mountain made of rocks I’d never seen before. I stopped short. Welcome, Evelyn Terry. Welcome.

“What is it?” Charlotte pressed. “Do you see the entrance?”

I pulled my arm away. In the water directly in front of me was a rock, just a few yards out. It looked entirely out of place, and in a storm a ship that came too close to the shoreline could hit it. What was it doing here? I stepped to the water’s edge, the voices growing louder.

Sparrow? Where are you? I heard someone call, and I swallowed hard.

That sounded like Gil!

I waded into the water up to my ankles, and I heard his voice louder than before. “Here.” I said. “I think there is an entrance here. I don’t see one, but I feel the sun.”

“You are certain?” Charlotte asked breathlessly.

I nodded. “Yes. And the voices calling me back are louder. Can you hear them?”

“I can,” she said quietly. “They’re calling me too.”

“Then this is where the sandbar must be…if, as you say, we have what the island wants and it will let us across. Now we need your treasure.” My palms began to sweat.

Charlotte reached into her top and pulled out the two coins.

She held them in the palm of her hand. Seeing them made my breath hitch. The voices were so loud I felt as if the whole world could hear them.

“Do you see the sandbar now?”

“No,” I said, looking at the rock again. She sighed heavily. “But that could be because I need to be the one holding the coins.”