The Keeper's Curse (25 page)

“
She won’t come back, you moron. Cyrus is going to kill
her.”

As the
two of them went on in this manner, neither of them noticed Rozelyn
left the room.

~

Stop.
Turn around. Stay. Like a metronome, the words pounded in her head,
in her heart, in her blood. Every step she took that led her
farther from Methelwood made her skin crawl.

Emmy had nothing but a bit of clothing and the meagre amount
of money she had made working at The Noir
Beanery
.
She had
no idea what she was going to do, and the pleas her body was making
didn’t help her think any clearer. All she could hope for was that
there was some orb out there that could transport her back into the
real world. She wouldn’t go back to Canada, but that wasn’t the
point. She just needed to go somewhere where there were no
crafters, where it would be nearly impossible to find
her.

The only
person who would be honest about that would be her mother, so there
she was, in Ministrial, heading for the prison where her mother was
kept.

When she
demanded to see her mother at last, she was taken aback by the
guard at the gate being agreeable and told her to wait a few
minutes. After a thorough body search, less than ten minutes passed
before she was assisted by a Ministrialian guard to the wing where
her mother was imprisoned.

Emmy had
never been in a prison before, but this one didn’t look too
different than ones she had seen in movies. It was dank, dark, with
paltry living conditions, and for the first time since Emmy had
learned about the orb world, she felt pity for her
mother.

The
security guard eventually came to a halt, gesturing to the right.
Emmy followed his lead, and then she saw her.

Annalise
sat curled up in her little bed in a grey robe, reading a paperback
novel. Her hair was slightly longer than Emmy had last seen it, and
her skin, greyer. She must have felt eyes on her, because she
raised her head, and when her eyes laid on Emmy, she began to
cry.

“
Would you like to go inside?” the guard asked her.

“
No,” Emmy said. The guard backed off and made his way back
down the corridor.

Annalise,
with sluggish movements, got off the bed and walked over to the
edge of her cell, curling her hands around the bars.

“
You finally came,” she said. “I thought I would never see you
again.”

“
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Look, this isn’t a social
visit. I need to get out of here. The orbs, I mean. You did it,
clearly, so I need you to tell me where the portal is.”

Her
mother’s face fell. “Honey, only one portal in existence can get
you back into the real world. And they move it around all the time.
It took me months to find it.”

“
I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.”

Emmy
hated herself for sounding so desperate, and her mother picked up
on the tone. Realization dawned on Annalise. “Oh, no. You know.
About the curse.”

Could
this situation get any worse? Emmy backed away from the cell. If
she stood too close, she would hit her mother.

“
You
knew
?”

“
Yes, I knew. I got a letter from Clara Crawford about what
she had done to you about a week after your eleventh birthday. If I
ever find the woman, I’ll kill her.” Emmy felt like she was on the
edge of flying into a rage. “Anyway, it’s why I tried so hard to
keep you out of the orbs. More than your brother, that is. I didn’t
want you anywhere near Breckin Crawford.”

“
I’m – going – to –
die
. Do you understand? Someone is
trying to kill Breckin. And to do that he has to kill
me
.”

Annalise
didn’t flinch. “James Thoreoux. The would-be Eldoir.”

“
Maybe I could have protected myself, if you had only told me!
Instead you lied, you left me vulnerable. What, you were hoping I’d
die in ignorance? That it wouldn’t hurt?”

“
No, Emmy.”

“
Did you think Thoreoux wouldn’t come looking for
me?”

“
No.”

“
Then WHY?”

Annalise
sighed, burying her face in her weathered hands. “I was hoping
you’d never find out.”

Emmy’s
voice reverberated off the walls. The other prisoners heard the
commotion and began to watch. “I LIVE IN METHELWOOD! HOW WOULD I
NOT KNOW?”

“
I was hoping you’d stay away from him!” she shouted back, not
in anger. “I know, it was a stupid hope, but I still hoped. I knew
if you met him it’d be over. That you couldn’t leave
him.”

Annalise
was right, and Emmy couldn’t stand it. She felt whatever was inside
her screaming, begging her to stay. The part of Breckin inside her.
“It hurts. It hurts so badly. I want to stay, but I know
can’t.”

“
No, you can’t. Emmy, there’s a reason I didn’t tell you. You
may look like your father, but you’re
me
.” Emmy waited for her to explain
whatever that meant. “You know how stubborn I am. I escaped the
orbs for the first time when I turned seventeen years old, and
after that I traveled back and forth constantly. At first I just
did it for fun, but then I met your father, and I couldn’t
stop.”

She had
Emmy’s attention. Never had Annalise talked about how she had met
her father.

“
My friends kept warning me – Vera and Evelyn Circlet included
– to stop doing it, that it was too dangerous. I knew what I was
doing could ultimately ruin my future, that I could end up in jail,
but I couldn’t stop seeing him. I fell in love with him within a
month. Everyone thought I had lost my mind. Eventually, one night,
I made a decision to never come back. I left my entire life,
everyone I loved, for a boy.”

Emmy had a hard time believing this. Her sensible,
passionless mother ruining her life for a caring, affable person
like her father? Emmy nearly threw up again at the parallels. But
she was different. She
wasn’t
staying for Breckin.

“
And the worst part is I don’t regret the choice. I’m still
just as addicted to him as I was when I was seventeen. I’m
miserable, Emmy. Not because I’m in prison, but because I’ll never
see your father again.” Annalise turned her face away from her
daughter. “I love you, Emmy. I love you and your brother so much,
but if I ever get out of here, I’ll wait until you two turn the
legal age, wait until you’ve made lives for yourselves, and then
I’ll try to get back to your father again. The idea of having to
live forty more years without him drives me insane,
Emmy.”

After
this little story, they stayed silent for several moments. A cold,
piercing fear began traveling through Emmy’s veins. That would
never happen to her. Never. If there was one thing that terrified
her beyond all reason, it was not having free will. There was a
reason that no matter how often Emmy snuck out of the house and did
dangerous things, she never did drugs or got drunk. Not because
they were bad for her, which would have been a normal person’s
reaction, but because the idea of her body craving something,
against her will, and perhaps succumbing, was revolting to her. If
you didn’t have free will, you were nothing more than an animal
driven by its instincts. You had nothing.

But then she thought about it. Why
did
she used to sneak out of her
house all the time? Why did she used to wander for hours in the
dark, her body leading her about, searching for something, despite
not knowing what it was?

“
Do you ever feel like you’re not in the right place?” she had
asked Jesse once. “Like you’re supposed to be somewhere more
important,
doing
something more important?”

“
Not really,” he had said.

But that warm ache in the center of her body had always told
her differently. It had never stopped stinging, that place inside
her she had always gone to when she got scared or angry or sad. It
had always been a comfort to her, but she hated it now, knowing it
wasn’t hers. She thought of the first couple of times she heard his
voice in her head – she had been meditating, searching for that
familiar tranquility in her breast. It was
him
.

“
I don’t need Breckin,” she whispered. “I barely know him. And
I’m leaving him.”

“
Then you’re smarter and stronger than I am,” she said. “I
envy you. Get out of here and don’t ever come back. I’ll do
whatever I can to help you.”

Emmy
stayed silent while Annalise gave her an orb name (Seawych), with
an address. Apparently this address belonged to her grandparents,
who would hide her until she had a plan.

Emmy
thanked her, taking in one last look at her mother, not knowing if
she would ever see her again. She took finally left, in long,
deliberate strides, leaving without thanking the guard.

Once she
left the prison, she picked up the pace into a sprint, sidestepping
the business men and women on the street, nearly getting run over
by the pods in the process. The House of Law, the largest and
grandest building in the orb, stuck out like a sore thumb. Emmy ran
back in, heading up the stairs and into the portal room.

She
didn’t get two steps in before she was tackled to the ground. Emmy
rolled over onto her back to face her attacker. Rozelyn.

“
How could you leave him like that?
”

“
Get off of me, you crazy bitch!” Emmy shouted, taking her
free hand to throw Rozelyn an uppercut to the jaw

This
surprised Rozelyn enough for her immobilized body to roll off
Emmy’s, but it wasn’t enough to stop her. Emmy crawled away, only
to have Rozelyn loop her arms around Emmy’s waist.

“
You’re not going anywhere,” Rozelyn said.

Emmy
sighed, taking a break from the struggle. “It’s cute you’re worried
about me, but I can handle myself.”

“
You can’t actually, and to be honest, I couldn’t care less
what happens to you. Unfortunately, you’re carrying around the most
important thing in the world to me, so your safety is my
concern.”

Emmy
rolled around onto her back to face Rozelyn, who was still holding
onto her waist. The girls glared at each other for several moments,
neither backing down.

“
You sound like a bad romance novel,” Emmy finally
said.

“
I don’t care. I’m not going to let some stupid kid run off
and get Breckin killed, which is what will happen if you’re not
careful. Which you aren’t.”

Emmy
rolled her eyes. “You’re three years older than me. Don’t be
condescending. Believe it or not, I don’t want to die.”

“
But Breckin –”

“
I don’t want Breckin to die, either. Think of it this way –
if I leave here, Thoreoux won’t know where I am. It’ll be safer for
Breckin too.”

“
Yes, for a while. And then Thoreoux will inevitably find you,
and Breckin won’t be around to protect you. I’m sorry, but I’m not
putting Breckin’s life in your hands. You already nearly got
someone else I care about killed.”

Jade
. Emmy had forgotten about Jade
and the crushing guilt that came along with her.

Emmy fell
back on the ground. What was she supposed to do? She had two lives
to consider, and although she didn’t want to admit it, Rozelyn was
right. Methelwood was the toughest, most militant orb, and the
strongest crafter in the world was here. If there was anywhere she
should be, it was Methelwood.

“
Think about your mom,” Rozelyn said.

Emmy
wanted to hit her again. Ah, yes, her mother. If she left, she
wouldn’t pass her admission exam, become a citizen, and her mother
would be stuck in prison forever. Her mother would never see her
father again, which apparently was at the top of her priority
list.

Rozelyn
must have seen something on her face, because her grip loosened on
Emmy, and she slid her arms out from under Emmy’s waist. Rozelyn
lay down beside her.

“
I’m going to want complete protection, around the clock,”
Emmy said.

“
You’ll get it. And everything else you might want. I’ll see
to it personally.”

Emmy
couldn’t believe she was doing this. She was going to stay in a
death trap, and it had been Rozelyn Woodworker who convinced her.
Emmy wanted to punch the delight off her face.

“
I’ll stay. You have permission to bask in your sanctimonious
glee now.”

“
No, not really.”

“
Nothing makes you happy, does it?” Emmy said, sitting up and
getting to her feet.

Rozelyn
snorted in disbelief. “You’re his Keeper, Emmy. You do realize I’ve
been praying ever since he told me about the curse you’d never show
up, right?” She ran a hand through her hair. “I’ve read more about
Keepers than Breckin has. Breckin didn’t care one way or the other,
but I wanted to know who you were. And I found out most Keepers and
their partners ... when they meet, and they always eventually do
... they marry.”