The Curse Servant (The Dark Choir Book 2)

by Sloan, J. P.

  Wren put a hand on my arm. “Dorian? Are you really okay with cursing this Carmody guy?”

  “You have to ask?”

  “If the Presidium finds out about it, chances are you’ll get disappeared too.”

  “But Elle would be okay. That’s all that matters. She’s family.”

  Wren stepped around the back of my chair before throwing both arms around my shoulders.

  “So are you.” As she pulled away, I caught her wiping a single tear from her cheek. “So, you want to do it in your ritual space, Edgar says?”

  “That’s right. The less Gillette moves the better.”

  “I don’t want Eddie involved.”

  “Agreed. Is there no one else he can stay with?”

  She shook her head. “We’re running out of friends. And with all this, I don’t feel like leaving him with a stranger.”

  I took a step back and snapped my fingers. “Yeah. That’s right.”

  “What?”

  “I might have a solution.”

  I hopped out onto their balcony and pulled my phone to make a call.

  “Hello?”

  “Ches? It’s Dorian.”

  “Hey.”

  I pulled in a breath. “Listen, you told me you wanted to help me out with Elle?”

  Her voice rose a register. “Yes, definitely!”

  “I might have this figured out, but I need your help.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Mostly I need you to babysit.”

  Long pause. “You’re kidding.”

  “Really not.”

  “You want me to babysit Elle?”

  “Her brother. Their parents and I are about to bring her to Baltimore, and none of us want him to be exposed to this.”

  “Back up a bit. What are you going to do? I mean, how are you going to fix Elle?”

  “Long story. I’ll fill you in when it’s done. In the meantime we really, really need someone to watch Eddie for the next, oh, eighteen hours.”

  “Eighteen… Dorian, I said I wanted to help―”

  “Awesome. They’re in Frederick, by the way. It’s about an hour west.”

  She shuffled her phone with a lot of ruffling. “You realize I have class in the morning, right? Can you bring Eddie here to Baltimore?”

  I hadn’t thought of that, but as I gave it a second’s consideration I realized that I didn’t want either Eddie or Ches in the same city as Gillette. There was just too much that could go wrong, especially with Carmody on the warpath.

  “It’s basically a hundred times safer out here in Frederick.” Her silence didn’t give me lots of encouragement. “Ches? This is end game. Last thing we have to do. It’s all over after this.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her voice dropped a little. “Why are you brooming me out of Baltimore?”

  “Am I that obvious?”

  She muttered, “I told you I’m a pro at sniffing out bullshit.”

  “Okay, truth is I don’t want you in Baltimore. I basically have two practitioners at war with each other, and I’m choosing sides. I don’t want you in the trenches.”

  “Well, thank you for leveling with me. And the answer is yes. I’ll help.”

  Muscles I didn’t know were tensed released across my back. “You’re a life-saver.”

  “I’ll pack some things and get there as soon as I can. What’s the address?”

  I gave Ches some basic directions and stepped back inside. Wren sat at the table next to Eddie. I gave the boy a smile. “How’re you doing, buddy?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “You are, aren’t you?”

  Wren asked, “Well? What’s going on?”

  “I called Ches. She’ll watch Eddie here overnight.”

  Wren closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh. “Okay.”

  “We should pack some things.”

  “Edgar’s already on it.”

  “That much faith in me?”

  Wren smirked. “What’s family for?” She stood up and ruffled my hair. “Well, you’re not like a brother or anything. More like the asshole cousin who keeps calling in the middle of the night for bail money.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  She disappeared into the back, leaving me with Eddie.

  He stared at me for a while before asking, “Is she your girlfriend?”

  “Who, Ches?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s right. You met her once.”

  “She’s the spy?”

  “Barista. She just makes coffee. Also, she’s a psychologist, so don’t try to pull anything over on her, or she’ll tell your Mom.”

  The Swains put together a bag for Elle, and Edgar finally reappeared lugging it in tow.

  “You set?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I guess so. Ches is coming?”

  “You okay with that?”

  “She’s cool. Glad she’s talking to you again.”

  “Listen, there’s something that you might need to know about.”

  “What now?”

  “You remember Julian Bright?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He’s just been publically stoned for a relationship with a minor. He’s resigned his office, and probably won’t be able to work in politics again.”

  Edgar winced. “Fuck.”

  “Right?”

  “That sucks, but what does that have to do with us?”

  “Carmody.”

  “What about him?”

  “Who do you think leaked the story to the news?”

  Edgar squinted and jutted out his jaw. “He’s swinging back at you?”

  “Preemptive. A warning shot.”

  “Think he’s got something on us?”

  “I’d be prepared for it. Until the curse takes hold, however it takes hold, he’s going to be a threat.”

  Edgar stared at the floor, then paced a tight circle. “Okay. We’ll be ready for him.”

  I found myself wandering down to the store, watching Carroll Street for Ches. At the hour mark, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I figured Ches had gotten lost and was nudging me for directions.

  I was wrong.

  It was a text from Carmody, a single word. RECONSIDER?

  Before I could even ignore the comment and shove the phone back into my pocket, it buzzed one more time. This time Carmody had sent me a photo. It was just a single photo.

  It was the act of a desperate man, but it succeeded in knocking the wind out of me.

  y knees weakened, and I grabbed the door frame to keep from hitting the floor. The phone shook in my hand. No, it was my hand that was shaking.

  I stuffed the phone into my pocket to keep from dropping it, but managed to get my legs again. I paced. Keeping my feet moving helped to keep the vertigo of cascading thoughts from physically knocking me over. My brain spun with calculation, deduction, contemplation. My heart raced. I balled up fists. Before I could turn another corner to pace, I kicked at an old coat rack, sending it teetering across the shop floor.

  Edgar poked his head down the stairs at me, but I held up a hand with enough force to warn him off. He disappeared back upstairs, and I managed to snap out of my cycle of anger and alarm. I had no idea how to deal with this latest salvo from Carmody. None.

  Tires crunched up the alley beside the store, and I bolted for the door. I spotted the back end of Ches’s crappy, old blue Chrysler sliding between buildings, and released a long slow breath between my teeth. I trotted around the corner and found her stepping out of her car. She turned and gave me a bashful grin.

  “Hey,” she chirped.

  “Hey.”

  “Sorry it took so long to get here. Missed my exit, and couldn’t figure out how to turn around.”

  “Yeah,” I grumbled.

  She cocked her head at me. “You okay?”

  “Sure.”

  “You look pale.”

  I stretched my neck and took a
nother deep breath. “No, I’m fine. This has just been one hell of a month.”

  “Everyone inside?”

  “Yeah, but I wanted to catch you before we go in.”

  “What’s up?”

  I cleared my throat and tried to shake the nerves out of my arms. “I really suck at this, so I’m probably going to ramble. Bear with me.”

  She frowned and leaned against her car.

  “Okay, so, I feel like I owe you an apology.”

  “For what?”

  I held up my hand. “Just let me go with this, or I’m going to screw it up. I feel like you’ve given me a couple second chances already, and maybe it’s because I’ve been making assumptions about you. Maybe it’s my past, maybe my upbringing. I’m not sure, really. But I haven’t given you enough credit. I assumed you couldn’t handle the Life, and that’s my fault.”

  Her frown melted into a thoughtful melancholy.

  “It’s possible I’ve misjudged you for as long as I’ve known you. That makes me feel like shit because I could have saved us both a lot of suffering if I had just taken time to know you instead assuming I already knew.”

  “This all sounds really sweet, Dorian, but I really don’t follow you.”

  “Yeah, I suppose not. I have this bad habit of taking the blame for other people’s dickbaggery. I mean, look at Elle. Some rank amateur stuck this thing inside her, and they didn’t have any clue what that would do to her or the servitor.”

  Ches blinked at the word, and leaned back. “The what?”

  “Servitor. Cognizant thoughtform.”

  “You think that’s what this is?”

  “I know it is. And I blamed myself for the longest time because it was clearly sent to screw with me. I’m not entirely sure why, or why the person McHenry hired to fuck with me didn’t have the basic sense God gave an eggplant. Because if they did, they would have known children have a basic fundamental psychic shielding that makes them living soul traps. They would have known this thing would begin to starve to death inside that girl, and it would have to consume the host’s soul to survive. They would have known they were effectively murdering a thirteen-year-old girl, but they were too incredibly, unforgivably stupid to put that together. Either that, or they were so thunderously arrogant they thought they could fix this before it turned into my personal crusade. Before I got creative. And when I get creative? I get scary.”

  She took a step back. “Why… why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I’m curious, and I want to know. Was it arrogance or ignorance, Ches?”

  “What?”

  “I’m betting on ignorance because as cool as you played me this entire time, I don’t think for a second you’re capable of murder.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  I pulled my phone from my pocket and flipped to the photo Carmody sent me just minutes ago… a photo of Ches receiving an envelope from McHenry. It looked like they were on a boat, probably on the Bay. A discreet meeting. A payoff.

  Services rendered.

  She shook her head and took another step away.

  “Francesca? Is that even your name?”

  “Yes.”

  Bile burned in my esophagus. “Well, at least there’s that.”

  She sighed and slapped her leg. “That fucking scumbag.” She worked her jaw, grinding her teeth as she stared into the distance. “For the record,” she added, “it was ignorance.”

  I turned and walked a few paces to keep from blowing my top. I paused behind her Chrysler. The old blue Chrysler. I had seen it once before.

  “It was you. At the campaign office. You were there watching us.”

  She turned and nodded curtly.

  I squinted at her license plate.

  “Oregon tags?” I looked up at Ches. “You’re not even from Florida.”

  Her eyes were heavy. With a ragged breath, she answered, “I went to Disneyworld, once.”

  “Don’t!” I held a finger up and paced around her car, putting it between us.

  Her voice drifted from across her hood. “I didn’t have a lot of choice.”

  “That’s crap.”

  “It’s true. Yes, I lied to you. But I had to.” Ches unfolded her arms and turned to lean against the fender. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. You’re right. I didn’t know this stupid thing would get trapped inside Elle.”

  “Why did you even send it to her? What did she ever do to you?”

  “It was supposed to be in and out like the other one. That was actually how it was supposed to happen. Short. Sudden. Then back out again. Just enough to rattle you. That was the job, keep you distracted. He wanted you out of the campaign.”

  I growled, “McHenry.”

  She nodded. “That was the plan.”

  “Instead, you performed a working without full possession of the facts. And now Elle is paying for it.”

  “I told you I wanted to help.” She looked over to me, her eyes weary. “And I meant that. I tried pulling it back out. It just can’t leave. It’s changed, anyway. I’ve lost my energetic affinity. I think it’s mutated. Wound too tightly around her mainline.”

  “The night Elle got out. She wasn’t coming to my house. She was coming to you.”

  “I tried. I really did. All I did was weaken it.”

  I shook my head. “Where did you study soul magic, anyway?”

  “Where do you think?”

  I thought about it. “Oregon. Quinn Gillette?” Oh, fuck me. “You were her student?”

  Ches’ face soured. “I was until Carmody screwed us all.”

  “What happened?”

  “Quinn was brokering borders with the Dead Ch’ans, dividing up the Willamette Valley, so we could stop the open fighting.”

  I held up a hand. “I’m already lost, here.”

  “I’m not surprised. No offense, Dorian, but you really have no idea what it’s like outside of the Presidium’s sphere of control. Out there, where every working has consequences, no matter how elementary. Where you can’t even buy reagents without permission from four cabals. Where you keep wardings sewn into your clothes in case some vodoun decides to take offense over something your lodge-mate did years ago. The Presidium has a good thing going here, which was why Carmody dragged me out here.”

  “What did Carmody do?”

  “He sold the Ch’ans a list of our addresses. People like Quinn and her seconds were safe. People like me? Not so much. They came after us. Our families. After the third ‘accident,’ we realized what was happening, but all I could do was beg Quinn to intervene. By then, she was hip-deep in a war with the Ch’ans, and my brother and his family had a curse carved into their door.”

  My shoulders wilted. I took a seat on her hood, back-to-back with Ches as she continued.

  “I knew a few unmaking spells.”

  “Proto-Egyptian?”

  “Uh, yeah. How did you―”

  “Go on.”

  “I tried to unwind the Ch’an curse, but it was too strong. I saved their lives, but not their marriage. I moved my brother to a safe house, but without an address, he couldn’t fight for custody of his kids. I had to make a deal with the Ch’ans to keep him safe.”

  “Let me guess. Carmody brokered the deal?”

  “When Quinn found out, we were both screwed. Coming to the East Coast was Carmody’s idea. We’d be safe from Quinn, and as long as we kept our heads down, we wouldn’t have to worry about the Presidium.” She sighed. “But he got restless. Started nosing around the practitioner community from Atlanta to New York, looking for work. He couldn’t do any business without crossing the line into Netherwork. It seems there’s only one Curse Merchant on the East Coast, and he doesn’t take on many clients.”

  I looked over my shoulder, but held my tongue.

  “Yes, I know it’s you.”

  I turned away.

  She continued, “Then my brother sent me an email. He was broke and couldn’t pay the lawyer. I mean, I got him into this. He di
dn’t ask for any of it, and here he was about to lose his kids.”

  “So you went to Carmody.”

  “He got me together with McHenry. By the time I sent the money to my brother, I realized McHenry was just as scary as Quinn. There wasn’t anything I could do.”

  I sighed and pushed off of the car, walking around to face Ches.

  “Is your brother still in danger?”

  “No. He’s safe from the Ch’ans and Quinn. It’s not her style to go after innocents.”

  “What about you? You’re in school under your real name. You don’t think Gillette will find you here?”

  She took a deep breath and looked up at the side of the Swain’s building. “I’m sure she could if she really tried. I suppose I’m banking on it being too much trouble for her. I’m small potatoes.”

  Clearing my throat, I offered, “She’s way more pissed at Carmody. I can tell you that much.”

  Ches nodded. “That’s not surprising. He’s a genuine pile of shit.” She looked over at me. “Dorian, you can believe me or not. But I had no idea this would happen to your friends. To Elle. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

  “I do believe you, as a matter of fact. But as scary as Gillette is, as scary as McHenry is… do you have any idea what the Presidium would do to you if they knew you had created a servitor and sicced it on innocent people?”

  She scowled and looked back down to her lap.

  I took a step forward. “And that’s not the worst of it.” I pointed up to the side of the building. “There’s a mother in there who is probably the most frightening force of nature I’ve ever encountered. If she ever finds out you’re responsible for this, you’d better find a god to pray to.”

  “If?”

  I shook my head and leaned against the car beside her.

  “What the hell was with you jumping me at the café?”

  She started and stopped the same sentence a few times before finally saying, “I needed distance.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “We kept talking. And you invited me over. And then you asked me out, and then you got kicked out of that horrible Club. I was happy for you, but you were crushed.” She let slip a single laugh. “You’re so much more likable when you’re not trying to be.”

  We stayed there in silence for a while before she asked, “Are you going to tell them? About me?”

  I chewed on my lip for a minute, pondering the question.