The Curse Girl by Kate Avery Ellison Read Free Book Online Page B

figure out what to do. The pompous jerk in charge isn’t helping matters at all. I call him the Beast, which I don’t think he likes very much.”
    Liam just laughed a little, and it sounded bitter.
    He’d probably had similar problems with Will, I supposed. Especially if he were chained down here in the dark like this.
    “Liam?”
    “Yes, Bee?”
    “Will you be my friend? I don’t have any friends here.”
    He squeezed my hand again. I took the gesture as a yes.
     
    ~
     
    “Good morning, Beauty.” Housekeeper tiptoed into the room with a worried smile. I wondered if she’d heard about the conversation between me and her Master last night—was anything private in a house that whispered and muttered in the darkness, possessed by a curse that made deals with evil fathers about their daughters’ lives?
    I turned over on my side and stared at the wall while she filled up the water basin and fussed with the dirty clothes at the foot of my bed. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to breathe.
    “You must not blame the Master,” she said after a long silence that she probably interpreted as me sulking. “He’s angry a lot, because of the curse. He’s changed since it happened.”
    “I should think so,” I mumbled. It was hard to focus on anything except the feelings of betrayal that simmered in my stomach. “It’s his fault.”
    “I don’t remember the details,” she murmured. “The curse, you know, interferes with our memories . . . but I remember him. He wasn’t a bad person. He was a good boy. Kind, honest. Very friendly. But he’s very angry now, very hurt.”
    Kind . . . honest? I almost laughed, but I swallowed and it came out a sob. The curse must have really messed with her head. Thinking I was crying or something, Housekeeper drifted to the bed and patted my shoulder awkwardly.
    “There, there,” she said. “It will work out. You’ll see. You’re the Curse Girl. You’re here to help us now.”
    “What I am supposed to do?” I burst out. “Am I supposed to know what I’m here for? The curse doesn’t say. I’m just supposed to ‘give aid.’ It doesn’t give any—” I yanked the covers back and shoved my feet over the side of the bed. “—Directions! Just some crap about pearls and moonlight and letters—” I froze.
    Letters?
    An idea flared to life in my head like a struck match. I’d assumed—as had Beast Boy, I guess—that letters mean ABCs and such. Letters of love and fury, it said. But what if they meant letters as in paper? As in correspondence, as in instructions, or maybe even explanations?
    I turned to Housekeeper. “Beast B—er, the Master said the witch used to live in this house. Where was her room?”
    Housekeeper touched a hand to her cheek. Her thin mouth worked like she was trying to decide whether to tell me or not. “I don’t know if I can . . .”
    “Please,” I said. “This will help him. This will help you. Don’t you want to remember your name?”
    “All right,” she said. “Come with me while I do the dusting. I’ll show you what it looks like. But I don’t know when we’ll find it. The house is very fickle in the morning.”
     
    ~
     
    To Housekeeper’s surprise, we found the room right away.
    “Maybe it wanted to be found,” she said, surprised.
    I took several steps inside the room. Dust lay over everything. A four-poster bed dominated the space and dwarfed a fragile-looking writing desk in the corner. Velvet curtains covered the windows, blocking the sunlight.
    Everything seemed dead.
    Housekeeper lingered. “The room’s been sad ever since she left. Like the soul went out of it. I suppose you could say a room’s soul is its resident, couldn’t you?”
    “I guess so.” I needed to think. If there were letters hidden in this room, where would they be?
    I started with the writing desk. All the drawers were empty of everything but dust. My fingers left little trails in it, like tears. Something skittered away from my