Cleo's Curse

by Allie Burton

  The hooded robe had a gold sash tied around the waist, resembling the opposite of what the Ku Klux Klan wore. I scrunched my nose. Not very fashionable. And a bit scary.

  I puffed a breath, trying to calm myself. This was Demetri. He was a designer, not a member of a strange cult. He wore rhinestones and feathers and would never approve of mismatching shades of black.

  He waved me farther into the temporary dressing room. “I think you’ll look fabulous in this outfit. I was saving the design for you.”

  I stepped into the large area, curious what he’d designed for me. He’d been thinking of me, even though I hadn’t returned his most recent texts and calls. See, nothing to worry about.

  Shiny, black metal poles supported the changing room like a circus tent without a top. A circular enclosure reaching the ceilings and the windows that cut into the roof. This would be an easy way to build a dressing room at fashion shows or other events. The area was big enough for several models to change, and the heavy red curtains gave plenty of cover.

  Demetri took a skimpy metallic outfit off the rack and held it out. This was the outfit he’d presented me the other day.

  I took hold of the wooden hanger, unsure of actually wearing it. Several places were see-through, the metallic stripes barely covering the chest area. “I thought you were showing this to the daughter of your overseas client.”

  “No. It’s only for you.” Thoughtful of him to design something special for me.

  Odd, too. Something was off. Like his sense of fashion. The outfit was weird looking.

  “I don’t know. This isn’t my normal style.” I imagined Antony’s expression, seeing me wearing the skin-tight, see-through-in-places bodice and short skirt. He’d regret throwing away my affection.

  “Please, CC.” Demetri pouted. “You don’t have to buy the dress. Just try it on while we wait for my investors.”

  Even if I didn’t love the outfit, he’d designed it for me. Demetri was my friend. He thought he could help my current predicament. I could at least try it on. I loved modeling possible new outfits. It was one of the best things about shopping. Beautiful clothes made me feel beautiful, and I felt pretty terrible right now. A way to pass the time while we waited.

  “Please.” He moved to the changing-room doorway. “I’ll wait out here while you get dressed.”

  “You won’t be able to see the outfit on me.” Which would actually make trying it on more comfortable. Demetri couldn’t see the way the fabric would cling to my body and expose my skin.

  “You’ll be able to see yourself.” He waved at a mirror with a highly-decorated frame standing by the far side of the curtain, and closed the metal-bar door. “That’s really the point of fashion. To make the wearer feel good.”

  Totally agreeing with the statement, I slipped off Olivia’s jeans and top. Leaving the golden rope around my neck, I pulled the outfit over my head, zipped up the back and straightened the short skirt. I slipped the belt around my waist and ogled myself in the mirror.

  My image shimmered in the reflection. The opaque gold material felt soft and soothing and radiating. Almost magical. The bejeweled collar hugged around my neck, and the Knot of Uset dropped perfectly between the two metallic stripes hiding most of my breasts. The metallic stripes met where the belt hugged my hips. And the short skirt puffed out from the waist.

  The material molded to my body like it was made for, and could only be worn by, me.

  Wonder suffused me, creating an aura of glowing light. “How did my mother hear about what a wonderful designer you are when she stays on the east coast?”

  The dress fit perfectly, and made me feel strong and powerful. My heart no longer ached. The Knot tightened around my throat.

  “I specifically sent her promotional material.” Demetri’s tone was curt. “Are you finally dressed, Cleopatra?”

  He always called me CC as I’d requested. “CC. And yes, I’m dressed.”

  “Such a common name.” He whipped the curtain open and glared through the metal bars.

  My tummy tightened. The Knot choked. Something wasn’t right. Demetri stared as if he could see me. Not just sense me.

  He flicked a wooden yardstick and reached in through the bars to grab my clothes. “Let me fold these.”

  Shivering, I moved away from the mirror. Enough of dress-up time. I needed help. I couldn’t live the rest of my life invisible. I couldn’t, or wouldn’t need to, wear designer clothes. I couldn’t go to school, get a job, make friends, have a boyfriend. My bloodstream pulsed with pain. Maybe not having a boyfriend was a good thing.

  “How are your investors going to help me become visible again?”

  “Let me worry about that.” Demetri fussed with a lock by the changing room door.

  A large click echoed.

  The red curtain swooshed up, resembling a magician’s magic trick, revealing not only the posts holding the curtain in place, but bars. Shiny metal bars only a few inches apart.

  A cage.

  The Knot at my chest crushed into my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. Gasping, I rushed forward and grabbed the metal between my hands.

  Searing pain scorched my palms. “Ahh!” I let go of the bars and examined my red hands. “What’s going on? Let me out.”

  Demetri’s gaze raked my body. “You look beautiful.”

  My hurting palms was nothing like the torture of betrayal slicing through my heart. “You can see me?”

  “Yes.” His sharp, superior smile shredded my midsection. “The sacrificial gown is perfect.”

  My stomach swayed with nausea, radiating fear. “Sacrificial gown?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cleo

  Sacrificial gown.

  The meaning slammed into me. My body shuddered, and the threatening nausea scorched my throat. Swallowing, I refused to let panic overtake me. I wouldn’t return to my whiny old self. “What’re you talking about? Why are you doing this? Let me go.”

  “I said, you look beautiful in the sacrificial gown.” Demetri’s gleeful smile grew into a maniacal grin.

  I buckled. The weight of the ridiculous outfit dragged me down. Demetri, the designer, wasn’t my friend and wasn’t helping me. He’d used my need for stylish clothes and attention to trap me. Similar to the Emperor’s New Clothes, except the clothes weren’t invisible—I was.

  I was an idiot.

  An idiot who was now stuck in a cage with burning bars in a ridiculous outfit called a sacrificial gown.

  Sacrificial as in sacrifice. My brain caught up to my reaction. Demetri planned to sacrifice me? Was this the ancient Egyptian Arts he’d mentioned?

  Alarm bells rang in my head.

  I couldn’t trust anyone. Ever.

  Not my parents, who didn’t return my calls and didn’t care. They’d never loved me, didn’t even give me a name.

  Not anyone at Exeter Academy, or even my friends on the east coast. The relationships had been superficial.

  Not Antony and the warriors, who’d tricked me into believing they did care. I’d let my guard down and trusted them.

  And not Demetri.

  Each of these thoughts plopped like acid, destroying the fabric of my being. Burning a hole in my insecurities. The acid flared, mixing with my wariness and my fears and exploding into anger. Creating a firestorm inside me and incinerating my self-doubts, making me stronger.

  Like a convertible coat, my vulnerability and troubled past flipped and changed. I emerged more secure in myself, even while I was in more danger.

  I needed to rely on myself.

  First, I needed a few questions answered. “What do you mean sacrificial gown?” My voice trembled, but not with fear. With anger. Anger at Demetri and Antony and my parents. Anger at the world for putting me in this predicament. “Surely, in this modern day and age you don’t believe in human sacrifices.”

  “Some sacrifices need to be made for order to be restored and truth to progress.” Demetri sauntered around the edge of my cage. “T
hese garments are hideous on you.”

  The old me would’ve been devastated by his insult. The new me brushed it off.

  “You couldn’t see me. I was invisible.” I knew that wasn’t true. Demetri had played me, too.

  “I could see you.” He bundled my clothes in a ball. “I could see you from the moment you walked into the shop this afternoon.”

  Bristling, I thought he’d stared through me. “No, you couldn’t.” I don’t know why I continued to deny it when Demetri was finally telling the truth.

  He shook his head. “You made those funny faces at my client. You thought the one dress looked terrible on her, too.”

  Before, I found our likenesses comforting, now I hated the thought of being similar to him.

  “How can you see me?” Others could see me too. The men near the hospital who’d tried to kidnap me, and the men by the student union. And the Soul Warriors.

  Wariness slithered across my skin. Were they in league with each other? Or against each other?

  “I’m one of the anointed ones.” His self-important tone caused the slithering to morph into undulations, making my spine weak.

  Antony had used the word anointed when he’d massaged the oils into my skin. What I thought had been a sensual act had actually been an act of betrayal. The undulating throbbed harder, pulsed faster. I could hardly stand. I went to grab the black poles and snapped my hand back realizing in time that touching the bars would only cause more pain.

  If Demetri wasn’t working with the Soul Warriors than he was working with one of the other groups. “You’re part of the group that tried to kidnap me.”

  His expression warped into pure evil. “Not kidnap you. We wanted the Knot of Uset.”

  Everybody wanted the Knot of Uset. Demetri, my aunt, Antony.

  I held up my arms in a fighting pose—fighting not fashion. I’d learned a few things about fighting, thanks to Antony, Olivia, and Aria. “Come and take the Knot from me.”

  “I don’t want to touch the Knot of Uset.” Demetri pulled his chin in, acting as if I hadn’t a clue. “Contact is dangerous, and you’re safe holding it for a few more hours.”

  “Why would you want to be invisible?” I questioned in disbelief. Was invisibility really worth kidnapping and sacrificing someone for?

  He laughed. A big, stupid, belly laugh. A laugh making fun. I’d experienced that kind of laughter directed at me before. In the past, it always caused hurt. This time it only caused bewilderment and more anger.

  “There’s so much you don’t know. So much your Soul Warrior didn’t tell you.” He spoke as if I was stupid.

  Antony had kept me in the dark by not sharing all his secrets, and now I was blindsided. Like being released from a constant night, realization dawned, and with it fury. If I had known more, I could’ve prepared better.

  Fisting my hands, I controlled the urge to act out. I couldn’t let Demetri know I wasn’t as gullible as he thought. I needed to keep him talking and have him not realize I was analyzing every word he said for information on how to escape. “If you’re so smart, why don’t you tell me?”

  His smirk perverted into a gleeful grimace. He slapped the yardstick into his open palm. “Oh, I’m smart. Smart enough to align myself with the most powerful person in the universe.” He slapped his palm again. “Smart enough to have procured a believable cover in the States.” He slapped his palm for a third time. “Smart enough to fool you into believing I was your friend.”

  The cold fingers of betrayal crept up my spine and tapped on my ribs. I’d been a fool believing Demetri liked me for the money I spent at first, and then because he’d become my mentor.

  Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

  “I want to control the Knot’s powers.” Demetri slashed the yardstick through the air, making a swishing noise. “All of its powers.”

  Powers? As in plural?

  My mind twisted around the fact. At this moment, I controlled the Knot. What could it do? Besides invisibility, the Knot shaped into helpful things. My gaze shifted around, searching for a way to use the Knot to escape. I’d made a hair accessory, a necklace, a scarf, and a belt. I’d also made the hammock Antony and I had slept in.

  My heart spiraled down, thinking of him. I had to forget him. He wasn’t the hero I’d thought. I needed to rescue myself.

  A man resembling a baboon entered the room. His hairy face and arms were unkempt. His mismatching black gave him away. He was from one of the Egyptian societies the warriors had talked about. He belonged to the group who’d tried to kidnap me. “Finally, we have her.”

  My lungs shrank. I stepped farther back into the cage, trying to get away from his wild-looking eyes. Who was this? He didn’t sound pleased with Demetri and he sounded bossy. He was more ape-ish than leader-ish.

  “Babi, you must be patient.” Demetri’s superior demeanor changed. He gave a half-bow. A bow that was supposed to show respect, but somehow didn’t. “We will use her to get the other.”

  “The other what?” Confusion spun in my head. Was there another magical relic? “Don’t talk as if I’m not here.” I needed to learn and understand.

  “You will be told only what you need to be told.” Demetri’s expression hardened when he glanced away from Babi.

  “No.” Babi strolled to the shiny black bars and stuck his chin out. His broad forehead and thick skull proved he should be the one in the cage. “It’s her fault we need the other.”

  “You want me to tell her the tangled web she wove?” Demetri disapproved.

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Webs and weaving and the Knot of Uset in the same explanation.

  “Because of your contact with the Knot of Uset you have been filled with the power of the Knot and have energized another.”

  Energized? “Like a battery charger.”

  “You silly child, a powerful gift.”

  A gift that had gotten me expelled, attacked, and kidnapped.

  “I don’t consider invisibility a gift.” I’d basically been invisible my entire life and hated it. Sure, I’d had some fun with literal invisibility, but I wanted nothing more than to be seen.

  “Powers.” Babi’s voice deepened with a mystical tone. “Powers you have no idea what to do—”

  “Babi, do you think telling her everything is wise?” Demetri stood in front of Babi, blocking his view.

  Demetri might not be in charge, but he seemed smarter than Babi. He’d fooled me from the beginning. Fooled me into believing he was my friend. Explained enough about the situation to make me more scared, yet not enough to be helpful.

  Babi’s big brow furrowed. “I will do whatever I want. I’m the leader of the Magical Order of Crucis.”

  The Soul Warriors had made the organization sound formidable. Led by this guy, I found it hard to believe. “Who died and left you in charge?”

  Babi’s furrowing brow turned into a storm of fury. His fat lips snarled. He slammed his fist into the bars and screamed. Either he hadn’t known, or had forgotten about the burning power of the bars. He grabbed his hand, shook it up and down, and swore.

  I must’ve guessed right. “So someone did die.”

  Babi snarled again.

  “It’s time to put the rest of the plan in motion.” Demetri took my cell phone out of my pants. “I’ll text the Soul Warrior and tell him Cleopatra wants to meet with him.”

  Dread pooled in my belly. I moved closer to the bars. “Wait. What Soul Warrior?”

  “That’s right,” Demetri peered up from texting with humor in his gaze. “You know all of them by name.”

  The dread heated and expanded, scorching. Demetri knew I’d been hanging out with the Soul Warriors.

  I asked the question, already knowing in my gut. “Who?”

  “Antony, of course.”

  The answer punctured my stomach, exploding the dread and expediting it through my veins.

  “No.” Even though Antony didn’t like me, was only using me, I didn’t want to put him in danger. “
Antony won’t come to meet me.” He might come for the Knot of Uset, but not for me. “He was using me to get the Knot.”

  Babi’s expression went alert, glaring at me and believing my denials.

  Demetri set the phone on the large layout table. “Lovesick girls are so predictable.”

  “You know because you are one. A girl, that is.” The insult-return reaction was part of the old me.

  Babi snorted.

  Demetri didn’t blink. “Antony will come.”

  I wished.

  Immediately, guilt struck. I might be pissed at the way Antony had used me, but I didn’t want to put him in danger. Didn’t want revenge against him.

  “You didn’t hear what he said about me.” My heart sputtered. The hurt I’d experienced returned, repeating the words. “He was romancing me to get the Knot.”

  “I don’t care why he comes, just that he comes.” Babi grunted and moved toward the door.

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s the one you energized with the Knot.” Babi’s cruel smile showed his missing teeth and his evil disposition. “In order to gain the Knot’s full power we’ll have to eliminate you both.”

  A scream filled my lungs, refusing to come out. Instead, the shriek scraped against my chest. My earlier pain didn’t compare to the agony ripping through me at this moment. I didn’t want to die. And no matter what Antony did to me, or how he felt, I didn’t want him to die, either.

  I took a menacing step toward the bars, careful not to touch the strange metal. “No.”

  Ignoring my protest, Demetri stepped closer to the bars, moving to the edge of my vision. He wasn’t the one who’d said I’d be killed.

  I focused on Babi. “You can’t kill me. My parents are rich. Important. You’ll never get away with it.”

  Then again, my parents hadn’t returned my calls. Would they even notice if I was gone? I took a shattered breath. I hated using my parents and my wealth. I took another quivering breath. I had to find a way to escape, to not be killed. I tried to take a third breath, but the air choked in my throat. I was so distracted I didn’t see Demetri slip out a syringe until the needle was already in my arm.