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I stood and stretched. “It’s worth a chance. I’ll leave as soon as I finish up at the bed and breakfast this morning.” I only hoped the anxiety I always felt when I left the island—a wretched side effect of the curse—wouldn’t be too debilitating. But I’d suffer through just about anything to improve my chances of long-term survival.
“You’re going to gotoday?”
“I need this information as soon as possible, Claire.”
“How do you know if he’ll even be there? It’s summer.”
“I’ll call and see if he’s available. Maybe he teaches summer classes.” I sat down and turned my back to her, pulling aside the top strap of my tank top. “The henna tattoo is almost gone. It’s my only protection. I have a few days left at most.”
“So just replace it with what Collin put on you.”
“But he used Okeus’s mark on my back. The spirits keep telling me I have to choose. If I put Okeus’s mark on my back permanently, it will mean I’ve chosen him. I have to wait until I find Ahone’s symbol.”
She sighed, nodding reluctantly. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
I got up and headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll call you later.”
“Ellie, wait.”
I paused next to my bathroom door.
“Let me go with you.”
“But you have to work.”
“I’ll work for a few hours and then tell them I’m sick.” She gave me a wry smile. “I’m worried about you. Chapel Hill is a good four hours away, and I don’t want you going by yourself. What if…”
“What if what? I get attacked by the badger thing that showed up in my dream?”
She looked down into her coffee.
“All the more reason for you to stay home.”
Her face shot up, a determined look in her eyes.
I sagged against the door frame. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her. But I also couldn’t stand the thought of being alone all day. “Thanks, Claire. You’re right. I’m scared to death, and I need you.”
Claire got up and walked over, pulling me into a hug. “I’m here for you. As long as you don’t try to back out of wearing the maid of honor dress I picked out for you.” I tried to pull back and swat her arm, but she tightened her hold as she giggled into my ear. “I know you hate that dress, but you’re going to have to wear it. It was a concession to my sister for picking you as my maid of honor. So get over it.”
“I know, but orange taffeta ruffles? Really? I’m going to look like a pumpkin.”
“Nah, you’re not round enough. Maybe a squash.”
I laughed, breaking free. “Lucky for you, I’d wear a burlap bag if you asked.”
She patted my cheek with a sneaky grin. “I’m counting on it.” Her smile slid off her face and she stared into my eyes. “I’ll help you anyway I can, Ellie.”
“I know, Claire. And I love you for it.” But when things started getting really bad, I’d turn away from her rather than put her in harm’s way. I wasn’t sure how I’d manage that, but I was determined.
“I know how hard all of this has been for you; losing your dad—”
I waited for the usual tears to fill my eyes, but they stayed dry. Maybe I was cried out. For now. “The best thing I can do for Daddy is carry on his legacy. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“He’d be so proud of how brave you are.”
Daddy would have been prouder if I’d taken the curse more seriously from the beginning, but it had sounded like a fairy tale passed down from generation to generation for over four hundred years. I’d stopped believing in the curse when I was eight years old. Right after my mother was murdered. Every piece of information he’d told me completely disappeared, something I’d attributed to the trauma of witnessing her death. Daddy had done his best to reteach me, but I’d turned my back on it. My mother hadn’t believed, and I felt I owed it to her to give the curse up as well. For the last two weeks I’d beaten myself up about it, wondering if Collin would still have been able to trick me if I’d remembered all the details. I’d like to think he still would have snowed me, but there was no way of knowing.
Claire left for work with the plan that she’d develop a convenient case of food poisoning as soon as I called her with confirmation that the professor would be at the university. I grabbed a quick shower, trying to keep my left shoulder blade out of the water. Anything to make the henna tattoo on my back last longer. I would have skipped showering for another day or so if I weren’t going to see Dr. Preston.
