The Keeper's Curse (32 page)

“
He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met.”

“
He’s an idiot. He doesn’t have one original idea in his head,
he does everything he’s told by Circlet and the Caelum Union
without question, and in case you haven’t noticed:
he doesn’t even know your bloody
name
.”

“
What difference does it make to you?”

He threw
up his arms in defeat. “Unbelievable, you’re as dense as he
is.”

“
He isn’t dense and neither am I,” she said with finality, and
the two of them didn’t speak another word all the way back to the
mansion.

She was
nothing short of furious. They had almost been getting along, and
then he had to go and touch her most sensitive nerve for seemingly
no reason at all.

When they
were finished putting the victims away, Emmy slammed the door shut
as loud as she could then stomped towards the exit.

“
You’re going to meet me tomorrow night, right?” Cyrus asked
without shame.

“
Why would I? We have them all now. It’s not like there’ll be
another batch, or at least not for a while.”

“
Yes, but there are probably still a few animals left. Those
will be harder to catch, so bring a crossbow with you.”

Her face
tightened, “I don’t –”

“
Just one more time. That’s all I’m asking for.”

“
Fine.” She continued down the aisle toward the staircase when
one of the victims reached out between the bars and grabbed hold of
her hair. She screamed as he pulled her in towards him, ramming her
head against the iron bars. She saw its gnarled hand, knuckles
bared, and then she noticed something else. There was a mark on its
arm, very neat unlike the rest of his cracked and peeled
skin.

Within
seconds Cyrus had ordered him off her and she fell to the
ground.

“
Are you alright?”

She
didn’t answer. Instead, she whirled around and pressed herself up
against the cage, examining his hand; the mark was still there. She
clapped a hand over her mouth; it was the insanity mark Circlet had
just shown her that afternoon.

“
Emmy? Are you hurt?”

Her eyes
scoured the whole cell now, seeing the identical mark on every one
of the victims’ hand. How could she not have noticed it
before?

“
Hey? Keeper, can you hear me?”

She
pulled him over. “Look – do you see them? Those marks on their left
arms? Right there, on the skin between the thumb and index
finger.”

Cyrus
narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I do. What is it?”

“
It’s the mark of insanity. Mental patients have them. I
didn’t know they had them tattooed.”

“
They’re not tattoos,” Cyrus said. “They’re branded. They have
that mark for life.”

Emmy felt
sick to her stomach, not only by the barbarity of such a thing, but
the pieces falling into place in her head. “Thoreoux was using
mental patients.”

“
Extra bodies he could use,” Cyrus said. “People he thought
nobody would miss, people he thought were broken.”

His voice
was grim, and she knew he was as just as disgusted as she
was.

“
I hate Thoreoux,” she said, really meaning it for the first
time.

“
Come on, I’ll let you out,” Cyrus said, pushing her towards
the exit. She didn’t fight him, not wanting to see the bodies
anymore.

Her mind
wandered as he let her out, exchanging a goodbye and promising to
meet up again tomorrow.

So
whoever did this was someone who had access to the hospital and to
the patients, she thought. Someone with authority. Emmy remembered
walking through the empty corridor in the mental ward, and now she
knew why it was empty.

She
obsessed about it all the way home, as she put on her nightgown,
and crawled into bed. Someone who had access to the patients.
Circlet had described the intruder who stole the Book as young and
tall. Emmy’s mind wandered back to when she herself had been in the
hospital, remembering the hospital staff, the majority of who were
women, most of them old.

And then
she remembered one doctor who was, in fact, young and tall, and
would indeed have had access to the mental patients because – as he
had told her – he was not only a doctor, but a mentalist as
well.

She sat
up in her bed.

Milo.

Chapter 21

Confessions

By eight
o’ clock the next morning, Emmy found herself once again in
Circlet’s apartment. She was not in the least bit pleased to see
her. Circlet had clearly just woken up, wearing a silk nightgown
with purple half moons under her eyes, uncovered by
makeup.

“
I usually don’t let people up in my suite at this hour, so
you better have a damn good reason for bothering me. The doorman
said you were half-hysterical.”

Emmy had
spent the last several hours attempting to get into see Circlet and
she was now an emotional wreck.

“
I know who has the Book. At least, I’m fairly sure. From your
description it sounds like it was my doctor, Milo
Stockwell.”

Circlet
bit down on her lip, not saying anything for several moments. Her
governor face was on – unreadable, impartial, calculating. “That is
a very serious accusation.”

“
I’ve been attacked several times now by these people who I’m
pretty sure are possessed,” she went on to leave nothing out now.
“I saw them up close and they were all branded with that symbol –
the one you showed me yesterday. The person with the Book had
access to the patients at Mercy Hospital, and also someone with
medical equipment – Milo is both a mentalist and doctor. And the
person you said who robbed you fits the description.”

The skin
around her eyes tightened. “I’ve met Milo. He came to my apartment
when I initially interviewed him for his credentials. He seemed
normal enough; he’s worked at the hospital for years.”

“
He came here, to your apartment? That just makes it more
possible that he saw the Book here. How many years ago did he come
to Methelwood? Was it four?”

Breckin
arrived in Methelwood when he had been twelve, and he was sixteen
now. Circlet did the simple math in her head and closed her
eyes.

“
I’ll look into it.”

“
Ms. Circlet,
please
. If it is him, he’s hurting
his patients every single day. If we can get the Book away from him
and be able to reverse the spell, the patients won’t have to die.
The spell is killing them, and the palewraiths doing it. And
they’ve been ordered to kill me.”

Another
silence followed. Emmy’s heartbeat was three times as quick as the
clock ticking on the wall.

“
I can’t believe this has all gone on under my nose,” she
said. Her eyes brimmed over with tears. Emmy waited awkwardly while
she pulled herself together and wiped her eyes. “I’ll go get
dressed and we’ll head over to the hospital immediately. Wait
here.”

She
dashed out of the room, leaving Emmy in the parlour. There was a
chaise lounge next to the door Emmy plopped into, feeling she had
done her part. She hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep all night and it
was starting to affect her head. She leaned back against the wall,
wondering if Breckin had woken up yet.

She
closed her eyes and immersed herself inside her head, searching for
the part of her that was Breckin for any sign of consciousness. He
was getting dressed for school.

Breckin?

Hi. You sound worried, are you alright?

While
Circlet changed her clothes and made some calls for enforcement,
Emmy summarized the update to Breckin. She flashed him an image of
Milo.

He was my doctor. I let him touch me.

We don’t know that it’s him yet. But I’ll go to the hospital
right now in case he tries anything.

Don’t, Breckin, it’ll give him a chance to get away. Circlet
and I are heading over there right now with
enforcements.

Then at least let me go with you. Hang on, I’ll be there in a
minute.

Circlet
came out of her bedroom just then, dressed in black with her hair
tied back, which amplified the lines on her face. She gestured Emmy
to follow her and the two girls made their way through Ministrial
to the House of Law, meeting up with seven large men in
black.

“
Blast Methelwood for not having the pod system,” Circlet
muttered when they arrived in the living complex. Breckin was
already there in the orb room. “Oh, you. Ah yes, of course, I
suppose Rathers told you.”

They
continued down the way to the front of the complex, signed out the
horses, and galloped the rest of the way. Emmy’s hands were clammy
on the reigns, slipping on the leather. This could be it, the end
of all this. She would be safe, Breckin would be safe, and Cyrus
wouldn’t have to worry about Brynn anymore. They would be
free.

They
received a slew of furtive glances from people on the side of the
road, heading to work or school. Methelwood’s militant atmosphere
made it certain that the people were hardly ever in trouble with
the law. Seeing Circlet with such a menacing party clearly
interested the civilians.

Circlet
dismounted her horse first when they reached the grounds of the
hospital. The grand white building shone like rose quartz in the
early morning light, looming shadows falling against all their
faces. The ten of them continued on into the lobby. Circlet asked
where Milo’s office was when she saw him standing there, a
quizzical look on his face and a clipboard clasped limply in his
hands.

“
May I help you?” he asked, noticing the sound of his
name.

“
Yes, Mr Stockwell, I need to take you into
questioning.”

The lines
in his face deepened. “May I ask what this is about?”

“
It’s about the recent disappearance of mental patients. We
need to ask you a few questions.”

He stood
there without moving, laughing nervously at the group of
Ministrialians behind Circlet. When Circlet didn’t smile back, the
blood seeped out of his handsome face, he dropped the clipboard,
and broke into a run. The guards were on him so quickly they were a
blur.

“
You can’t arrest me without some proof!” he shouted at
Circlet, suddenly looking very small between the two
Ministrialians.

“
I didn’t say I was arresting you, but it’s funny you came to
that conclusion,” Circlet said, cool as ice. “Take him outside, I
want to talk to him. He’s making a scene and I don’t want him
upsetting the patients.”

Emmy
looked around and saw it to be true; the majority of the people
gathered in the lobby were either glancing nervously at them or
full-on staring.

The
guards did as Circlet said, Emmy and Breckin trailing behind. Once
they were outside again on the front grounds he turned around to
face Circlet.

“
I demand a lawyer now!” he nearly shrieked at her, wriggling
in the guards’ grasp.

“
Once again, Mr Stockwell, you seem to be under the delusion
I’m arresting you. What we’re simply asking for are some answers to
some questions, and we are requesting to search your
house.”

“
Oh please,” he spat. “If you wanted to ask me questions you
would have come along without your entourage and
him
.” He glared daggers
at Breckin.

Breckin
did not react to this well; he sped to Milo’s side, glaring into
his face. “You are going to answer everything I ask,” Breckin said
in the weirdly flat driver voice.

“
Crawford don’t,” Circlet said. “It’d be better to wait until
we get him to Ministrial and have written documentation
–”

“
Who do you work for?” Breckin interjected.

“
James Edward Thoreoux,” Milo said without hesitation, his
face burning bright red trying to stop himself.

“
How did you get into Methelwood?”

“
Thoreoux had a portal that led directly here, the one you
confiscated. He recruited me when I had already finished medical
school, so all I did was request a job in Methelwood.”

“
I don’t understand ... if you didn’t grow up with him, why do
you work for him?”

“
I was brought up to respect the Eldoir. The
true
Eldoir, mind you,
which is Thoreoux, and if he gives me a job to do, I will do it. He
needed someone like me – someone with a respectable background,
someone with a keen interest in politics, and someone
loyal.”

“
Do you have the Book of Curses, stolen from Evelyn
Circlet?”

“
Yes.”

“
Were you trying to murder Evangeline Rathers for being my
Keeper?”

“
No, that was Cyrus Crow’s job.”

Breckin jerked his head and glowered at Circlet. “I
told
you.” His focus
went back to Milo. “So if your job wasn’t to kill Lana, what was
it?”