The Keeper's Curse (36 page)

Emmy took
his hand and began to move through the crowd before he could
protest. She took in quick glimpses all around the clearing for a
head of either carrot red hair or spiky black hair, but she found
brown dreadlocks first.

“
Teddy! Hi!”

His head
jerked up at the sound of his name, fixing his eyes on Emmy and
breaking into a grin. Emmy recognized the girl whose hand he held
beside him – the blonde Teddy had left Emmy for when they had
practiced flying, the day she had met Breckin.

“
Rookie, wow,” he said, eyeing her up and down. “I barely
recognized you. This is Daphne, I’m sure you remember. And … you.
Hi.” Teddy took a step away from Cyrus like he worried Cyrus would
hit him if he stood too close.

Emmy
flashed him a warning look. “Are you all sitting
somewhere?”

“
Yeah,” Teddy said, his eyes still on Cyrus.

“
Can we join you?”

Teddy
tore his eyes off him. “Of course you can. We’re, um, over
here.”

Emmy
tried to relax; if she appeared uncomfortable, Cyrus would notice
instantly and would, in turn, be uncomfortable himself. She had
ruined his life – she owed him this.

It wasn’t
too long before they reached a pair of circular tables drawn
together where all her friends were. They seemed to be in a heated
discussion that came to a halt when Emmy, Cyrus, Teddy, and Daphne
walked up to them.

Jade
looked up with sly amusement. “Ah, there you are.”

“
Hi, Jade,” Emmy said in a tone that indicated she was going
to behave. “You remember Cyrus.”

“
Vividly,” she said. A smile was plastered on her face when
she held out her hand. “I’ve watched you in peacekeeping class.
You’re incredible.”

He shook
her hand. “Well, I did learn from the best.” Emmy shook her head to
show how inappropriate this remark was, so he recovered with,
“You’re not bad yourself.”

She
beamed. Emmy was thankful for how easy it was to win Jade over. The
others, unfortunately, were not. Emmy could see them shift in their
seats when they sat down and tried to join in on the conversation.
Emmy and Cyrus stayed relatively quiet for a while, but Cyrus
slowly inched his way in. First it was a comment here and there.
Then it was a suggestive comment, which led to more questions,
which gave him more opportunity to talk. Within half an hour, the
tension had thinned and Cyrus talking just as much as anyone else
as if he was part of their group.

The only
one who had not warmed up to him Emmy couldn’t help but notice, was
Persephone. The timeout Emmy and Persephone had from their fight
was clearly over, because Persephone wouldn’t even look at Emmy
again.

“
And here I thought you were socially inept,” Emmy murmured in
Cyrus’s ear.

He
scoffed at her. “But I’m also manipulative – comes in the job
description.”

Just then
someone tapped Cyrus on the shoulder. Alex.

“
May I dance with my little sister?”

Cyrus
looked bewildered but let her go.

Emmy
nodded, headed out onto the dance floor, and got into position.
Luckily for her Alex was not a master dancer, so they just swayed
back and forth to the music, trying to avoid the embellished
movements of those around them.

“
Go on, say it,” Emmy said.

The
sentence came out in a garble. “Are you out of your
mind!”

“
Not you too,” she sighed. “Look, you have no wiggle room to
judge me. You’re dating my best friend.”

“
Amazing, isn’t it? I’ve liked her for ages, but I didn’t want
to say anything because we lived together. Plus, you know, she’s
taller than me, and she just refuses not to wear heels -
”

“
A big hurdle to overcome in a relationship,” Emmy said,
trying to sound impressed.

Alex
ignored her. “But mom’s going to get out of jail in a few days now!
Of course, now I’ll have to watch out for you all the time. Where
is that soul partner of yours, anyway?”

“
I don’t know,” Emmy said, trying to avert the topic. “You be
careful with Jade, Alex. She’s crazy about you, for some reason I
can’t even begin to understand.”

“
I won’t, Em,” he said with a smile on his face just as the
song ended. Instead of being upset over discovering that Emmy held
a separate soul inside of her, Alex looked more relaxed than ever.
He wasn’t happy her life had been in danger of course, but when she
had told him, the first words out of his mouth were “So that’s why
Mom was so much more protective of you?” A burden seemed to have
been released from his shoulders, finally getting a reason as to
why their parents had focused so much more on her for so long. “I
guess I’ll leave you to your psychotic, meterosexual date. I’m such
a good brother, eh?”

He was
lost in the crowd before Emmy could verbally retaliate. She
grumbled and headed back to her friends where she noticed a crystal
pitcher of something dark pink sat on the table.

“
Is that alcohol?” Emmy said. She poured herself a glass
before anyone had the chance answer.

Now that
Cyrus was off somewhere, Persephone as talking again, with everyone
except Emmy, so she just eavesdropped. Persephone had come with a
boy Emmy vaguely recognized as Quinn Fowler, who, while
good-looking, was not the most intelligent person in Methelwood,
and not Persephone’s type at all. Apparently she had said he
couldn’t pay her enough money to go out with him, thus he had
provided her with generous compensation. Emmy poured herself
another drink; she would give anything in the world to tease her
about this, but until that guard lingering behind Persephone in the
shadows was gone, that wouldn’t happen.

As Emmy
poured herself a fourth drink, Cyrus returned beside
her.

“
Er,” Cyrus said. “Maybe you should slow down a
bit.”

“
Oh, look who’s telling me to be responsible,” Emmy said
rather loudly. “That’s kind of funny. Where’ve you
been?”

“
Circlet,” Cyrus said. “You won’t believe it – not only did
they find the Book of Curses, but they found Stockwell’s notes to
phonetically speak the Possession Curse. It’s reversed, and the
mental patients are all back to the way they were.”

“
Really? That’s good!”

“
It is, isn’t it? You don’t look so happy about it,
Perse.”

Even
through her misty brain, a bell went off in Emmy’s head. “Perse”?
Cyrus and Persephone had never exchanged a word to each other, and
he was on a nickname basis with her? Persephone stopped talking
mid-word, and all the color drained out of her face. She didn’t
answer him.

“
Hello everyone!” came Jade’s voice from afar. “I’d like to
open up with a song I wrote for my boyfriend, called
‘Candlelight’.”

“
Hey! Jade asked me to dance to this with you,” Emmy said.
“We’ve got to go.”

Cyrus did
not look pleased. In fact, as the syrupy music began, he looked
like he would rather face the possessed mental patients
again.

“
Come on, I promised her,” Emmy said. She got up too quickly
and nearly fell over, not realizing the effect the drinks had had
on her until then. “See – I can’t do this myself.”

His
expression changed from “horrified” to “slightly amused”, and he
took her by the hand, leading her to the dance floor.

Jade’s
voice was nothing like Emmy would have expected it to be. Her
speaking voice was high-pitched but her singing voice was low and
raspy. It was an especially strange combination with the lyrics she
chose.

There I was, in
the dark alone,

Hopelessly lost,
falling apart,

Twisting up in
tree boughs,

But then you ...
untangled my heart

Suddenly I was
not alone,

There you were,
burning bright

Shining through
my loneliness

You were my
candlelight

For years we
wandered on the chess board,

Me on black, you
on white,

a terrible
fate,

But out pieces
crossed paths

And we reached
our checkmate

Cyrus
appeared to be in intense physical pain.

“
Relax,” Emmy insisted. “It’s not that bad.”

“‘
Not that bad’?
This is unbelievably
humiliating.”

Emmy looked around and sure enough, they were surrounded by
couples looking longingly into each other’s eyes. He twirled her
out and in again as the music grew grander for the chorus. “Think
about me – this is my
brother
she’s singing about.”

“
Poor sod,” Cyrus said. “If I were him I’d be hiding under a
table until this was over.”

Emmy agreed with him, but Alex didn’t have the same reaction
they did. He was visible from a distance, sitting on the edge of
the dais staring up at Jade, adoration in his eyes. Did he think
this display was
endearing
?

Baby, I don’t
know what I would do

If you were to
leave me,

Because you know
how lost I’d be ....

Without my
candlelight

“
I’m sorry, I can’t take this anymore,” Cyrus said. He took a
good look around them and then leaned in towards her, a light in
his eyes. “When I was younger, my father used to throw these really
boring parties, and to ease my suffering I’d dash through the dance
floor, breaking up all the couples. It was a lot of fun.” He
gestured to the people around them.

Emmy
giggled. “Wow, you’re kind of immature.”

“
Come on! I don’t think I can stand must more of this weep
fest.”

Maybe
because was she was lightheaded, or maybe it was Cyrus’s
excitement, but she sighed and nodded once. The music rose in
volume again, right about to hit the chorus when Cyrus tightened
his grip on her hand and waist, making her slightly
breathless.

“
Now!” he said, and they were off. He pulled her in close to
him when he began twirling, twice as fast as the beat of the song
intended, whizzing through the crowd like an arrow. Emmy wasn’t
able to keep up with him – her feet were everywhere – but Cyrus
didn’t slow down; he just raised her up so her feet weren’t on the
ground anymore. Everything around her blurred besides Cyrus’s face,
which was more relaxed than she had ever seen it, and she started
to laugh. She felt guilty pleasure at the couples making annoyed
noises around her at their erratic dance, which only made her laugh
harder.

Finally
the music slowed again, Jade finished singing, the last few notes
of the song trailing off. Cyrus dug his heels into the grass and
began slow dancing again, holding Emmy up as she continued to
laugh.

“
Now who’s immature?” he muttered. “You shouldn’t be drinking
so much.”

“
I’m fine!” Emmy said. “How about you get me another one, then
we’ll see just how fine I am.”

Cyrus opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it
and instead rolled his eyes and disappeared into the crowd to get
her drink. The next ballad started up, Emmy standing in the middle
of the dancers like a lost child. She couldn’t believe it; she was
sincerely enjoying herself. With
Cyrus
. She was having so much fun
she almost forgot –

Someone
grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the crowd, bumping into
couples that appeared to be glued together. Whoever had grabbed her
was uncharacteristically strong, she noticed, and it had to be
either a boy or Jade, but she was on stage. The mystery solved
itself immediately when Emmy caught a glimpse of the auburn hair in
front of her.

She had
never seen Breckin look so angry.

Emmy
didn’t fight him, not seeing much of a point in doing so. They
traveled out of the dance floor, passed the tables, and out of the
archway, back into the cold night. She expected a ripple of
goosebumps but none came. Those drinks must have numbed her more
than she realized.

The pair
of them ended up at the side of the clearing, next to a shallow
stream and a stone bridge.

Breckin
whirled around, dropping her wrist. His breathing was dangerously
shallow, as if a bomb was about to go off inside of him any second
now.

“
Hi,” she said cheerfully.

The bomb
exploded. “You – what – pink cocktails – him – tacky lyrics of doom
–”

“
Breckin,” she slurred. “Forget about Cyrus, won’t you? I
missed you.”

“
So you’re
dating
him now?”

Emmy
thought about this for a moment. “I’m not sure – this is only our
first date, but it’s going well.”

He stared at her like she had just adopted the custom of
matricide. “Lana!” He spluttered a few times, and Emmy vaguely
wondered how he was ever going to give speeches being this
incoherent. “Alright, I get why you like him because of what he did
for you, but any decent person would’ve done it. He’s not
good
, Lana.”