The Curse Breakers

by Denise Grover Swank

  “That will be too late.”

  He chuckled as he put his keys into his pants pocket. “The Croatan tribe has been thought to be extinct for over two hundred years. I assure you that five weeks won’t be too late.”

  “Please, this is important.”

  He looked skeptical, but he tilted his head toward the stairs. “You can accompany me to the exit and ask any questions you can fit into the thirty-second walk.”

  Thirty seconds? I had no idea where to start. I hurried to keep up with him as he headed for the staircase, his long legs making the trek even shorter. “Do you know anything about the Croatan gods and spirits?”

  “Yes.” I waited for him to expand upon that, but he just gave me a slightly irritated look. “While I admit that my knowledge of their spiritual beliefs is scanty, it would certainly take more than thirty seconds to discuss it.”

  When we reached the staircase doorway, I cast a quick glance at Claire. She looked up from her phone with raised eyebrows. I just shrugged and hurried down the stairs after the professor.

  I decided to ask him about my most pressing concern first. “Do you know about a spirit that looks like a huge badger and attacks animals, ripping out their internal organs but not eating their meat?”

  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, narrowing his eyes. “Excuse me?”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  He abruptly started walking again, hurrying for the exit. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’ve heard enough.”

  I grabbed his arm. “Dr. Preston, please.”

  He stopped and looked from my hand to my face, his expression all wariness.

  “I promise you that this is important. Have you heard of a spirit that does that?”

  “No. Look, Miss . . .”

  “Ellie. Ellie Lancaster.” He tried to pull out of my grasp, but my fingers dug in deeper. “I know this sounds crazy, but you have no idea how important it is for you to tell me what you know.”

  “Ellie, I suggest that you do an Internet search and perhaps read the book Indians and English by Karen Ordahl Kupperman.”

  “I already have.”

  “Then I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you.” He pried my fingers off his sleeve.

  “Wait! Please!” I begged, digging my cell phone out of my purse. “Can you just look at this photo for me?”

  Indecision flickered across his face before he closed his eyes with a sigh and then reopened them, shaking his head. “I’m going to warn you right now that if you’re showing me a naked photo of yourself, I will call security and have you arrested.”

  I looked up from scanning my photos for the one Claire had taken of my back a week ago. “What? No! God, no.” I handed him the phone. “Here. I know the mark’s faded, but if you zoom in, you can see it better.”

  He reluctantly took the phone, pulled a pair of glasses from his shirt pocket, and put them on his nose. “Is this a tattoo?”

  “Yes, but it’s henna.”

  He rolled his eyes and started to lower the glasses. “Miss Lancaster.”

  “Dr. Preston, please.”

  The desperation in my voice must have swayed him, but he didn’t look happy as he examined the picture. “The symbols look Native American . . .”

  “Can you make out what they mean?”

  “Well, yes. They stand for forces of nature.” He pointed to the screen. “The sun, the moon. I believe these symbols in the corners stand for rain and storms.”

  “What about the one in the center?”

  He tilted his head to the side as he examined the image. “Some obscure texts show that symbol in relation to an Algonquian deity.”

  “Okeus.”

  His gaze lifted toward me, now tinged with curiosity. “Yes, but very few laypeople know that. Where did you learn of it?”

  I ignored his question. “What about all the symbols put together? Are they like our alphabet? When you put a bunch of symbols all together, do they mean something different? Does this tattoo have a deeper meaning?”

  He studied me with an expressionless gaze. “Yes.”

  For the first time in weeks, I felt like I was getting somewhere. “Really? What?”

  He slowly handed the phone back to me. “It means some drunk college kid went out and got a bad henna tattoo during spring break. Now if you’ll excuse me, you’ve wasted enough of my time.”

  I followed him toward the exit, tears springing to my eyes as I kept pace with him. “Dr. Preston, this isn’t a joke. I need your help. Do you know the symbol for Ahone? My life depends on it. Please.”

  He looked back at me with disgust and pity. “Miss Lancaster, if this isn’t a joke, the only help I can give you is to suggest you check yourself into a hospital for psychiatric screening.” He pushed the door open. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”

  I watched him walk across the courtyard, my last bit of hope leaving with him.

  “That was painful to watch.” Claire had followed us downstairs, and she stood next to me, looking out the glass doors.

  “If he won’t help me, I’m as good as dead, Claire. He was my last chance at answers.”

  “No, Ellie. You and I both know who you need to go see.”

  I hated her for suggesting it, but I supposed there was no way around it.

  It was beginning to look like I would have to pay a visit to Collin Dailey.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I was already having a shitty day, and then my car broke down in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge when we were almost home. I sat on the side of the road and allowed myself ten minutes of tears while Claire called her fiancé, Drew, to come and get us.

  “It could be worse,” she said as we sat on the trunk, watching the cars speed past us as we waited for our rescue. “We could be two hours from Manteo instead of forty minutes.”

  “I know.” She was right, but I barely had enough money to pay my rent, let alone the bill for a tow and car repair.

  Claire wrapped her arm around my back and pulled my head to her shoulder. “You deserve a good cry. You’ve had a hell of a few weeks.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said, wiping my face. “Dr. Preston was my Hail Mary plan.”

  She turned to face me. “Ellie, you know you need to ask for Collin’s help.”

  I shook my head and leaned my arms on my thighs. “He was the one who wanted the gate open in the first place. What makes you think he’d help? He doesn’t give a shit.”

  “Yeah, that man doesn’t give two fucks about you. Which is why he sneaks to your front door in the middle of the night to put his protective marks over yours.”

  “But I told him I never wanted to see him again. It would be humiliating.”

  “How could it be humiliating?” She leaned back and stared into my face with disbelief. “He’s the shithead who made you a buffet for a bunch of vengeful gods. He owes you more than a few marks on your door.”

  “Yeah.” Claire was right, and my head knew it, but I wasn’t sure if my heart could handle seeing him. The wound was still too raw. As much as I hated him for what he’d done, I didn’t feel whole without him, which seemed ridiculous given that we’d only known each other for a few weeks, and we’d only been together for less than a week of that time. But I also knew my feeling had more to do with the fact that our souls were bound together than it did with our attachment to each other.

  Claire shivered. “This marsh still gives me the creeps.”

  “Me too.”

  The sun was setting, and a shiver ran down my spine as I watched it bow beneath the clouds. Over the past several nights, I’d noticed a new heaviness in the air for about thirty minutes during the merging of day and night—all shadow, substance, and danger. As the mark on my back faded, I could feel myself becoming more and more vulnerable. The things in the night were getting stronger while I was becoming weaker. It was only a matter of time before they overpowered me.

  I had hoped Dr. Preston would know
the symbol for Ahone. I had already accepted that I had to permanently etch a protective mark onto my skin. I just needed that final piece of the puzzle. Sure, I could ask Collin, but I couldn’t trust his answer. After all, he was the one who had originally put Okeus’s mark in the center of my henna tattoo.

  “Curse Keeper,” a voice hissed.

  I jerked upright, a slight tingle in my palm. “Did you hear that?”

  Claire looked around, her forehead wrinkling with worry. “Hear what?”

  “Shh.”

  We sat in silence for a moment, the only sound the cars whizzing past.

  I turned my ear toward the marsh. “Shouldn’t there be some kind of sound? Birds? Bugs?”

  Claire’s eyes widened. “Yeah.”

  I slid to the ground, my heart racing. How could I be so stupid? This was a wildlife refuge, and the spirits had been targeting animals. “Get in the car.”

  I walked to the edge of the marsh as she scrambled off the trunk and ran to the passenger door.

  “Ellie, what are you doing?”

  Ignoring her, I looked into the canal that ran alongside the road. “What’s out there?”

  “Curse Keeper.” A low hiss filled the air. “You’ve come out to play.”

  “Holy shit,” Claire murmured, swinging her door open. “Ellie, get in the car.”

  I steeled my back and tried to stop my hands from shaking. “Spirit, show yourself.”

  “Ellie!”

  The water splashed and the marsh grass rustled. The movement headed my way.

  “Ellie,” Claire begged. “You don’t have to do this. Just get in the car.”

  I wanted to run to safety, but this was my chance to get some answers. I needed to know what I was fighting. “Who are you?” I asked, willing myself to be brave.

  The rustling stopped in front of me, but the canal was covered in shadows, and I couldn’t make out what was hidden in the vegetation.

  “I am your nightmares come to life.” A giant snake’s head rose from a patch of reeds six feet in front of me. Its scales were green, its eyes were red, and it had horns. Shiny green scales covered the snake’s lithesome body, and its head was probably over three feet long.

  When it said it was from my nightmares, the creature was right. I’d dreamed of it several nights ago.

  The snake’s head bobbed, and the image shimmered and became hazy. The spirit still hadn’t regained enough strength to have a solid form. That would hopefully work in my favor.

  I flexed my hand, ready to lift the mark on my palm toward it and send the beast away. It would only be banished temporarily, but at least I’d be protected for the moment. I wasn’t about to let it know I was scared. “Who are you?”

  “I am Mishiginebig.” Its forked tongue slipped out of its mouth and quivered. “Have you heard of me?”

  I lifted my chin. “No.”

  “Before long, you will know me well. I slither through the water, hunting my favorite prey. Humans.” His eyes lit up with excitement. “The nuppin feared me, and soon, so shall the tosh-shonte.”

  What the heck were the nuppin and the tosh-shonte? I tried to hide the fear that turned my knees shaky. The snake would feed off of my weakness. “Why are you here?”

  “To see the witness to creation for myself.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “Why?”

  The snake slid from side to side, its red eyes tracking me. “You’re not so special.”

  “That’s right. I’m not. Now go tell all your spirit friends.”

  Mishiginebig lifted his head high and slid back several feet, looking haughty and regal. “Okeus has special plans for you.”

  “Yeah, your badger buddy told me the same thing last night.”

  “Okeus wants to have an audience with you.”

  “Since when does he ask for permission?”

  The giant snake’s red eyes blinked, then narrowed to slits as it leaned closer. “You’re alive because Okeus wishes it. Many of us would rather it was otherwise. Do not doubt that for a minute.”

  I didn’t, but there were several ways they could do me in. One, I was pretty sure they could outright kill me, but Collin was certain they wouldn’t. Because my Manitou had never been recycled, my life essence had been pure since the creation of the universe. That had earned me the title of witness to creation, but it also meant my Manitou was much stronger than other creatures’. For beings that gained strength from consuming the life essence of other creatures—including most of the beings that had escaped from the gate to Popogusso—I would be the ultimate catch. Collin had assured me that the mark on my back would protect my Manitou. But I wasn’t sure if his information was trustworthy, and even if it were, the mark would soon be gone.

  A car approached from the other direction, its headlights illuminating the snake in gruesome detail.

  “Drew!” Claire shouted, waving her arms in desperation.

  “You’re almost ready,” Mishiginebig hissed. “Okeus will visit you soon.”

  “Almost ready for what?”

  Drew made an illegal U-turn and pulled up behind my car. Mishiginebig faded into thin air.

  Getting out of his car, Drew looked from one of us to the other, his expression alarmed. “What happened?”

  Claire ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  I was still standing at the side of the road, my eyes glued to the spot where the snake had appeared and then disappeared.

  “Ellie, let’s go!”

  I felt nauseated. Okeus was waiting for something before he was ready to come for me. He had to be waiting for the mark to disappear. How long could I make it last?

  Claire grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the side of the road. “Ellie!”

  I turned to her, surprisingly calm. “The snake won’t hurt me.” Not yet. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt Claire and Drew if he managed to regain his physical form. I grabbed my purse from my car, locked it up, and got into the back of Drew’s sedan.

  As soon as he pulled away, Claire let loose. “What were you thinking?” she hissed, turning in her seat to glare at me.

  “I told you he wouldn’t hurt me, Claire. He said Okeus has plans for me.”

  “And you believe that . . . that thing?”

  “Yes. Without a doubt. At least I got some information.”

  “You have to go see Collin. Immediately.”

  I leaned my head back on the seat and groaned. “No.”

  “Ellie!”

  She was right, but I still didn’t want to see him. I still had a few days. Maybe I could come up with something else. Anything else. My pride was on the line. “I don’t even know where he is.”

  “I do.”

  My mouth dropped. “You what?”

  “I know where he is. His boat is in Wanchese. He seems to live on it. Sometimes his truck disappears for a few days, but his boat stays docked. You find one or the other, and he’ll return to it soon enough.”

  “What the hell, Claire? You staked him out?”

  “I knew you’d need him.”

  I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. Claire always had my best interests in mind. “Well, it doesn’t change anything. I’m still not going.”

  “You’d rather let those things kill you than go talk to him?”

  “Yes!” I leaned forward. “Yes! I don’t trust him, Claire. He betrayed me.” My voice broke. “If he could put my life in danger after everything we shared, why would he help me now?”

  She clenched her jaw. “I’ll go find him myself.”

  “No you won’t!”

  “Yes I will, and you damn well know it. I’m giving you twenty-four hours. Tomorrow night. And if you don’t go, I will.”

  Drew had been silent for our entire conversation, but he cleared his throat and spoke. “Claire’s right. You need to see him, Ellie.”

  “Et tu, Drew?” I asked, my tone a little more hateful than intended. “You only found
out about all of this last week.” Up until a few weeks ago, I’d kept the curse secret, telling only Claire about it. But between my involvement with Collin and the marks on my body and door, Drew had grown suspicious. Now that hell had literally broken loose, I’d spilled all the details.

  “You’re running out of time. If you don’t do it, I’ll help Claire find him and drag him to you.”

  Gritting my teeth, I looked out the side window, intent on ignoring them for the rest of the car ride. I knew for a fact that they meant it . . . and I also knew I couldn’t let that happen. But what could I possibly find out in the next twenty-four hours?

  I tossed and turned that night, worrying about how to pay for my car repair bills—but also worrying about my mark. Even if I found Ahone’s symbol, I was smart enough to know that getting the tattoo wouldn’t just mean putting a mark of protection on my skin. I would be committing my soul for eternity. I needed more reassurance. One way or the other.

  When I went to bed, my dreams were filled with animals begging for my help, but the spirits left me alone. They didn’t even show up at my front door. Seeing Mishiginebig must have been message enough.

  The next morning, Myra pushed open the back door of the bed and breakfast as I walked up. “Good morning, Ellie,” she said with a worried smile.

  “Were you waiting for me?”

  She shrugged. “I just wanted to say good morning.” Myra had always been a terrible liar.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Is it a crime to want to see you?”

  “Something’s up, Myra. What is it?”

  “There’s been . . . an incident.”

  My breath caught as I spanned the rest of the distance between us. “What kind of incident?”

  She put a gentle hand on my arm. “Don’t worry. Everyone is fine, but Tom is here . . .”

  “Tom Helmsworth? Why?”

  She looked worried again. “Tom thinks some kind of wild animal is on the loose.”

  I looked around her to see if he was in the great room. “Tell me what happened, Myra.”