The Curse Keepers Collection (119 page)

I grabbed the edge of the door and leaned into it. “Well,
Mekewi
, I’ve had a long day and you’re interrupting my sleep. How about you cut to the chase?”

He shouted something unintelligible, but the force of his breath blew my hair out behind me. “You do not give orders to a wind god!”

I waited a couple of seconds and then lifted my eyebrows in mock surprise. “Are you done with your fit now? Because so far this has been a huge waste of my time. Do you have something to tell me or not?”

“Do not trust the children of Kalona or their overseer. They wish to seek you out, but Okeus worries for your safety.”

I wanted to ask why Okeus hadn’t bothered to mention it the day before, but I didn’t want to broach the subject while David was listening. “I’m an equal opportunist—I distrust all of you, so tell Okeus not to worry. I’ll be on guard.”

The bird moved closer until he stood only inches from the invisible wall between the inside and outside. “You have many enemies in the spirit world as well as out of it. One day, Okeus will be done with you. And then we will feast.”

“Sorry. My Manitou is no longer fair game.”

His grin was wicked. “There are other parts of you to devour besides your Manitou.”

Then he vanished into thin air.

“You really need to quit taunting them.” David stood up from behind the sofa. “He’s right. Okeus’s protection probably won’t last forever. Then you’ll be at their mercy.”

“Not for long, I won’t.” A small part of me knew he was right, that mocking them was stupid, but I hated that they had the upper hand. I needed to show my defiance somehow and my mouth was the only way I knew how.

But not for long.

I slammed the door shut and strode past David to the bedroom. “I will never be at their mercy, because you and I are going to figure out how to defy them with magic.”

I was amazed that I managed to get back to sleep. I usually couldn’t after a confrontation with a god, but I realized I was becoming desensitized to them. I was also smart enough to know that that could prove dangerous. I could mock the gods and spirits all I wanted behind my protected doors, but I refused to live hidden behind them. Especially while people were dying.

When I woke up again, sunlight was streaming through the crack between the curtains hanging in David’s window. He sat upright in bed, holding a cup of coffee, his computer in his lap. When he realized I was awake, he glanced down and smiled. “Good morning.”

I arched my back and stretched. “What time is it?”

“Seven fifteen.”

“I haven’t slept this late in weeks.” I sat up, propped my pillow against his headboard, and leaned back. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

David set his cup on the nightstand. “You needed the sleep, and I loved watching you.”

“Well, you obviously have coffee, but is there anything to eat?”

He leaned over and gave me a kiss.

“I was talking about actual food.”

He pushed me back down. “Did I mention how sexy you looked standing in my doorway last night, wearing my shirt with nothing on underneath?”

I grinned. “No. You didn’t.”

His mouth covered mine as his hand slipped under the covers and up my shirt. “We have an hour and forty-five minutes and I live ten minutes from the library.”

“Don’t we have something more important to do?” I asked, my chest rising and falling in quick bursts.

A huge smile spread across his face. “I can’t think of a single bloody thing.”

“Well, all right then.” I reached behind his head and pulled his mouth to mine, kissing him hard. A half an hour later, we lay in bed naked, our arms and legs tangled.

“As crazy as it is in all this chaos, I’ve never known such contentment as I feel with you, Ellie.”

I sighed with my own contentment, even if it was tinged with guilt. David was the man I wanted. The one whom I had chosen. I’d be damned if some asshole gods thought they could control that part of my life. “I know exactly what you mean, but I want it to last. Let’s go find some answers in your books.” I sat up. “But first you need to feed me breakfast. I’ve worked up an appetite.”

After we got ready for the day and stopped to pick up breakfast sandwiches and coffee on the way to the campus, David parked in the faculty parking lot at eight fifty.

“We need to stop at the coffee shop on the way to the library,” David said as he took the key out of the ignition.

“We just got coffee.”

“Oh, this isn’t for us.” He climbed out of the car, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Okay . . . ”

As we started to walk across the campus, he shot me a sly grin. “This is for Penelope, the archivist I usually work with. I’m lucky she works on Saturdays.”

“You’re bringing the archivist coffee?”

“This morning I made a list online of all the books and documents I want to see and uploaded it to the system, but one of them is an older letter that will require more attention. This is my way of saying thank-you.”

“What?” I laughed. “Your good looks, charming smile, and sexy accent aren’t enough to get her to help you?”

He shot me an ornery look. “Penelope can see right through that nonsense.”

“Then I can’t wait to meet Penelope.”

The coffee shop was in the bookstore, which happened to be on the way to the library. Once we reached the library, David logged on to one of the computers and printed out his list of requested documents before taking it to the desk.

“Well, Dr. Preston.” A woman with graying dark hair beamed from behind the desk. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I’ve been working in Manteo. At the colony site.”

Her eyes widened. “What I wouldn’t give to see that.”

“Come over to the Outer Banks and I’ll get you a visitor’s pass and show you around.”

She blinked in surprise. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m totally serious; just give me a day or two of notice so I can get it pushed through the approval process.” He set the coffee cup on the desk. “In the meantime, I hope you still like vanilla soy lattes.”

“You know that I do.” She grinned and took the cup, then glanced up at me.

“Ellie, this is Penelope Fisher, my favorite archivist.” He winked at her, and an amused smile spread across her face. Then he motioned toward me. “Penelope, this is Ellie Lancaster, daughter of John and Amanda Lancaster. They both lived and breathed the Lost Colony before their deaths. John was well known for his work—”

“On the colonists and their relationships with the neighboring Native Americans,” Penelope finished. “We have some of his work in the North Carolina collection.”

My mouth parted in astonishment. “You do?”

“I attended one of your father’s lectures twenty years ago when he came to Chapel Hill. He had some fascinating insights. He was a great man. I was sorry to hear about his passing.”

“Thank you.” I waited for the familiar lump in my throat when talking about my father’s death and was surprised when it didn’t come. Maybe I was getting desensitized to that too.

“Ellie’s mother was an archaeologist who worked at Fort Raleigh. She specialized in English artifacts dating back to the colonies. Ellie practically cut her teeth on anything to do with the Lost Colony, so you can appreciate her fascination now that it has reappeared.”

“Of course,” Penelope agreed. “Are you two here to research something connected with the colony?”

“Yes, but I’m studying Manteo’s hut that was located on the site, and I need to research some books and letters that might help me interpret what I’ve found. And there’s also an old letter I’d like to examine.” David handed Penelope the printout.

She studied the list before looking up at David. “The books I can get for you right away. But it will take me a bit to get the letter.”

“Thanks, Penelope.”

“I’ll bring the books into the reading room. Why don’t you two wait for me there.”

David nodded his agreement and led me into a large room full of wooden tables and chairs. The marble floor was set in a checkerboard pattern, and tall arched windows lined the walls. The multiple gold chandeliers hanging overhead completed the impressive décor. Less than a dozen other people filled the room, not that I was surprised. Who wanted to spend a Saturday morning in the library the first week of school? Even one as nice as this.

“This place is amazing,” I murmured.

He looked around with a grin. “One thing I love about it is that there’s always plenty of light in here. I spent so much time in this room when I first came to Chapel Hill, I was grateful it wasn’t some dark, dingy hole.”

The archivist appeared ten minutes later with several books and set the stack on the table. “Give me about twenty minutes’ notice before you want to see the letter. Then I’ll take you back to examine it.”

David smiled softly at her. “Thanks, Penelope.”

“I’ve missed your face around here,” she said with a wink before she left us.

“You haven’t been gone that long,” I murmured, sitting next to David.

“True. But I haven’t been here in the library since last spring. As I mentioned, I spent a lot of time here when I first came to Chapel Hill. There were so many documents about the Cherokee that I could access from the archives. But I was also lonely and didn’t have anywhere else to go. After spending so much time here, I got to know Penelope pretty well. She lived in London in her twenties and early thirties, so we had that in common. She felt sorry for me and started baking things and bringing them for me to take home.” He pulled the first book from the stack. “I’m going to put you to work on this too. These books are older, but they’re not rare and fragile. I’m not sure how much we’ll find, but a few pieces of information here and there could help. If you find something that looks useful, let me know.”

“Okay.”

We spent the next hour and a half reading and scanning through the books before I found something that mentioned Ukinim, the malevolent badger. “David, look at this.”

He leaned closer, reading the passage. “This is good. And a few more of the deities are mentioned as well.” He reached for the book. “Do you mind?”

I gladly slid it over to him. “I’d like to read it when you’re done, but go for it.”

He scrawled several pages of notes and then glanced up at me with excitement. “I’ve got a list of twelve supernatural beings, some considered good, some evil. This is fantastic.” Glancing down at his phone, he grimaced. “The library closes in two hours. I’ll go tell Penelope we’re ready to look at the letter as soon as possible. We can come back when the library opens tomorrow to review the rest.”

“Sounds good.”

He passed the book back to me and I read the material about the assorted spirits. There was a rabbit that watched over crops, a white crane that brought good luck, and a lizard that liked to play tricks on children. I read about a bear that brought destruction to those who offended the gods—I suspected I’d meet him at some point—and a large bird with razor-sharp teeth that liked to eat young men as they passed into adulthood. But the scariest was the Wendigo, a demon that possessed the body of a human before attacking and killing other humans.

“Have you heard of a Wendigo before?” David asked. I hadn’t even processed his return, but he must have noticed I was lingering over that portion of the text.

“No.”

“They appear quite a bit in folklore and stories. Most historians think the legend came from the northern Algonquian, who were known to perform acts of cannibalism on enemy tribes. But consuming human meat produced a psychosis in aboriginal tribes called Wendigo psychosis.”

“So you think that maybe Wendigo aren’t real?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.” He shook his head. “While there were cases that were attributed to psychosis, they happened after the disappearance of the colony. I think it’s two different things, but I also think it’s good to have all the facts and not jump to conclusions.”

I nodded my agreement.

We had gone through six books by the time Penelope came back an hour later to tell us the letter was ready, apologizing for the delay. “We’re short-staffed today.” She collected the volumes and asked us to follow her into a small hallway with dim lighting. “Wait here a moment and I’ll let you in.”

Penelope carried the books down the hall and turned the corner as David cast an anxious look at the closed door.

I glanced at it too, now worried about what lay behind it. “Why do you look nervous?”

“I’m hinging a lot of hope on this document, Ellie.”

“
What?
You didn’t tell me that. Only that you thought you could get some useful information.”

“I didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about. In case it came to nothing.”

I wanted to call him out for keeping something from me, but who was I to judge? My own guilt smoldered in my gut. “What do you hope to find?”

“I think this letter will tell you what you can do with the ring on your finger. I only hope it lives up to my expectations.” He paused, fear filling his eyes. “Ellie, your life depends on me finding answers. What if I’m wrong? What if I keep failing you?”

My eyes widened. “David, you could never fail me. Even if we don’t find anything useful in the letter about the ring, you still haven’t failed me. Besides, we’ve already gotten information about a dozen other spirits today, not to mention your connection to Allison and her possible information about the Ricardo Estate. And what about everything you’ve discovered about the Guardians? I never would have known about any of it if not for you.”

“But the possible connection to the Guardians is a shot in the dark. And it could be a coincidence that Allison saw a watch similar to your father’s.”

“Who’s the one who keeps insisting there are no coincidences?”

“I know, Ellie.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s just that if you can’t learn how to fight these things on your own, we’re lost. It’s almost too much to hope for that the information would conveniently show up like that.”

“We could use a little convenience for once. But I understand what you’re saying.”

His voice softened. “You have so much faith in me. I just hope it’s not misplaced.”