Page 79 of The Curse Defiers


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Feeling uneasy, I took a step backward. “Let’s get started.” I sat on a log and laid my sword beside me. Taking a deep breath, I curled my fingers around the rough tree bark and then released it as I closed my eyes. “Okay.”

Taking several slow and even breaths, pulling up my memories of the birth of the world, I found myself immersed deeper in them than I’d ever been. I was the first drop of water to hit the earth. The memories of the changing and evolving world sped up to warp speed, a dizzying display of images that left me disoriented and anxious until it all stopped, dumping me into the memory of a cool winter day.

I was eight years old again, sitting under the oak tree with Claire. The wind was cool and crisp as I stared into her tear-splotched face, desperate to make her feel better. She had just told me that her father was thinking about a divorce. So I shared with her the one thing I knew would distract her—the story of the curse. As soon as I shared the information, I realized I was already forgetting things about it that I should have remembered.

Momma came home and made a phone call to Steven, asking him to help her access the archives at Chapel Hill, and she mentioned calling the police. But whatever else she said was confusing to the little girl me. I only knew she was hiding something from Daddy, and she thought he’d be unhappy when he found out.

Since I was upset, Claire decided to share another secret of her own—that she heard voices. She said one of the reasons her family had moved to Manteo was that she was teased at school. But the voices had begun to quiet over the last few months, even though they all still said the same thing:you must help her.Only Claire didn’t know whom she was supposed to help.

The next two days seemed to be on fast-forward as I traveled through my memories, and the action only slowed again when I was working on my homework after school. Momma and Daddy were still fighting about Momma’s visit to Charlotte the week before and how she wouldn’t tell him about what she’d seen. They went into Daddy’s office to argue, but I hid around the corner, listening to their raised voices and getting peeks through the French doors. Finally, Momma relented and showed him a ring that she wore around her neck on a chain. It was an artifact from the Middleton collection that had been stolen and lost during the Civil War. The ring had been lent to her in good faith with the request that she discover its significance. Daddy became very excited when he recognized the engraved Croatan symbols on the ring. He told her it was the ring Ananias’s great-grandson had created with a Croatan priest. He’d had it made so that he could banish demons on his own if necessary.

She reluctantly gave him the ring, but only after he made an agreement: if he couldn’t find the gate to hell within a week, he would completely give up the curse for the rest of his life and stop telling me about it. Then he went back to his office at Fort Raleigh to get papers that would help him translate the markings on the ring.

After Daddy left, Momma told me she’d read me a story before I went to bed, but she needed to check on the guests at the bed and breakfast first. I went upstairs and put on my favorite nightgown, a lacy, white cotton, billowy gown that made me feel like a princess. After brushing my teeth and picking out the story, I started downstairs to tell Momma I was ready.

That was when I heard glass break.

A man was downstairs, threatening Momma, asking for the ring. But Momma pretended not to know what he was talking about until he threatened to hurt me if she didn’t give it to him and started to hit her.

I wanted to help Momma, but a man’s voice in my ear told me it was too dangerous. I sat on the stairs crying. When the intruder told another man to go upstairs and find me, my mother begged them to leave me alone. The voice in my ear told me to hide.

So I ran to my closet and burrowed into the back, hiding even though I was desperate to help Momma.

Momma and the bad men came upstairs. One was looking in the rooms while the other asked Momma questions.

Then there was scuffling in the hall and I could see shadows moving along the wall. A smaller shadow jumped on a larger one, and then I heard my mother’s screams.

I sobbed in the closet, anger rising up inside me. I needed to protect Momma, but some unseen force pinned me to the wall.

The bigger shadow grunted and growled as his arm swung over and over toward the smaller shadow. My mother screamed and screamed.

I tried to burst free, but the invisible hold kept me in place and the voice in my ear whispered, “Not yet, Ellie.”

A figure stood in the doorway to my bedroom, his head concealed by the hood of his sweatshirt. He held a large knife in his hand, the metal shining in the lightning flash outside my window. I stopped crying and held my breath, terrified.

He moved into the room and around the bed, crouching down to check underneath. Then he rose and moved past the closet door. Just as I thought he was going to leave, he spun around, squatting in front of me. Blood dripped from his knife onto the floor. He reached for me and I screamed, but a bright light filled the room. The man covered his face with his arm.

“I claim her as my own, Curse Keeper. You will not harm her.” The angry words belonged to the voice that had told me to hide.

Curse Keeper?

I tried to break free of the memory, but it pulled me back down, smothering me with renewed grief.

“Do not think mestupid, son of the earth. You wish to break the curse. You are not the first, nor will you be the last,” Ahone said.

The Curse Keeper still held his knife, ready to attack, and Ahone’s light shone brighter in warning. “You are mistaken if you think that I will let you hurt her. I need her for another purpose. The curse will be broken, but not today. It will happen whenIdeem it so.”

“I’m sick and tired of being at the mercy of the curse,” the man said, his voice gravelly. “I want this to end.Tonight.”

“It began atmywill and will end whenIwish it. I do not condone you forcing my hand, Curse Keeper, and you willpayfor this transgression, just like the others before you.” The light glowed bright white. “This girl changes everything. If only you had shown patience and restraint, you would have seen this. You will get what you want, but not during your tenure. At a time of my choosing, I will find your son and help him break the curse.” Ahone’s voice lowered and sounded more menacing. “But because of your treachery, he will rue the day I sought him out, and he will curse you for the sacrifices he must make as penance foryourbetrayal.”

The Curse Keeper climbed to his feet. “With the help of Okeus, my son will defeat you, Ahone.”

“He will try, and he will fail. The girl will be his downfall.”

“No!” The man grunted, lunging for me.

I screamed and the light burst brighter than before, blasting the man out the door and onto the floor in the hall.

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