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Her eyebrows shot up. “You think Tom has a thing for you?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not like that. He said Daddy helped him when he was in high school. He got into trouble and was almost kicked off the football team, but Daddy spoke up for him. He said he wouldn’t have gone to college and gotten his criminal justice degree without his football scholarship. He feels like he owes it to Daddy to make sure I’m okay.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“Me neither.” I sighed. “But that means he feels a personal connection to this whole thing, so he might not back down. I’m going to have to convince him I’m okay…I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“You have to admit that you could use some help since Collin’s hiding from you.”
“Tom wouldn’t be of much help, Claire. It takes two Keepers to send a spirit or god to hell.”
“But you said Collin thought you could probably send the minor ones back on your own.”
“But I don’t even know how to dothat. I don’t know anything.”
“We can look through your dad’s things again. See if we can find the notes he says he wrote down. Maybe there’s something in there about what to do in the case of an absentee Keeper.”
“Yeah…” Daddy had recognized Okeus’s mark. Maybe he had Ahone’s mark written down somewhere. Still, we’d been through his office and his old bedroom three times without turning up anything. If there were notes somewhere, they had been hidden well. My current hopes were pinned on the professor at UNC. He couldn’t know about the curse, but I hoped he’d know Ahone’s symbol. And maybe he had enough knowledge about the gods and spirits to at least help me understand the nightmare I was facing.
It was after two when we arrived at the UNC campus and found a place on the street to park.
“Are you sure he’s here?” Claire asked as we walked through the campus bookstore toward Greenlaw Hall. “This place looks like a ghost town.”
“I called this morning, and the department secretary told me he had office hours from one to three. He’s in office 232.”
“Did you get an appointment?”
“No, she said it was first come, first serve.” My stomach knotted.
“Do you have a plan?”
“I was just going to wing it.”
“Excuse me, Dr. Preston,” Claire mimicked. “My name is Ellie Lancaster and I need you to help me send Okeus back to hell before he tortures me for four hundred years.”
“Not helping.” But she was right. I should have come up with something better than that. “He’s the head of his department. He’s bound to be an old guy. I’m sure he’s dealt with all kinds of crazy questions.”
“Yeah, which is bound to make him cranky.”
Crap. I hadn’t considered that. We were already inside the small lobby of Greenlaw Hall. I stopped and took a deep breath.
Claire stopped too and looked me up and down. “Well, you’ve got a damsel-in-distress look about you. When all else fails, go for the pretty, helpless girl act. How can he resist? You’ll have the old fart eating out of your hand.”
“Shut up, Claire.” I tugged up the neckline of my T-shirt to show less cleavage, then tugged down my above-the-knee cotton skirt. “I want this to be a professional conversation.”
“Then you should have tried to look frumpier, not that I’ve ever seen you look frumpy.”
“You think I look slutty?”
“God, no. I’ve never seen you look slutty either. You’re a pretty girl, Ellie. Guys notice, even if you ignore them most of time.”
“I’m not here to get a date. I’m here to hopefully save my life…and the rest of humanity.” That made me think of Collin, and a wave of pain flowed through my body, anger fast on its heels. I had thought we were saving humanity then, when in fact we’d been condemning it. I didn’t have time to think about Collin right now. Fucking asshole.
We climbed the stairs to the second floor, still without seeing anyone. I wiped my sweaty palms on my skirt and sucked in a deep breath.
“Two thirty-two.” Claire pointed toward a door several feet away. It stood ajar and voices were coming from inside the office. “Do you want me to come inside with you?”
“No. I need to do this myself.” I tried to slow my racing heart. Why had I not come up with a better plan—or any plan at all?
