The Keeper's Curse by Diana Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

was probably the polite thing to insist she could get
along on her own and she didn’t want to bother Jade, but she was
too scared Jade would agree with her and run off.
    Jade
couldn’t seem to slow herself to walk at a leisurely pace and
trotted ahead of Alex and Emmy, smiling all the way.
    “ She’s going to give me diabetes,” Emmy said.
    Alex
laughed. “Jade? She’s harmless, just a little hyper is all. Are you
warm enough by the way?”
    Emmy
wrapped her new overcoat with ermine lining closer to her. The wind
had picked up, and although it wasn’t snowing, the snow blew
upwards against her already-reddened skin.
    “ I’m okay. Hey Alex, you know that glass bracelet Mom put on
me? Should I put it back on for school? It seemed to stop the
palewraiths.”
    “ Yeah, probably. You’re right by the way, it does block the
palewraiths.”
    They
walked a few more steps, and when he didn’t say any more, Emmy
asked, “What is it?”
    “ It’s made from this material called ‘frenum’.” He ran a hand
through his hair, his face quickly turning red. “The reason you
didn’t manifest when you were a preteen like me is because when Mom
would visit me every few months, she’d bring back a load of frenum
and she’d ... pulverize it, and put it in everything you ate. It
kept your powers dormant.”
    Emmy
stopped in her tracks, and her jaw dropped. In her white fury she
heard a tree fall behind her.
    “ I’d put the bracelet on,” Alex advised.
    Muttering
to herself, Emmy took the bracelet out of her pocket and clasped it
on.
    “ I don’t believe this,” she shouted, stomping towards the
school. “ I don’t believe this. Was she trying to get herself thrown in prison? Why would she do
this to me and not to you?”
    “ I don’t know, she’s always been more protective of you,” Alex
said, with a trace of bitterness in his tone. “You’re the youngest,
I guess. And you’re a girl.”
    Emmy
wanted to counter the accusation, but he looked so miserable she
let it go. There was no point in upsetting him further by getting
into the details of how Annalise protected Emmy in ways she hadn’t
with Alex. And she didn’t need to; they were blatant.
    Of the
two of them, Alex had always been the more responsible one, getting
into less trouble. Emmy’s friends had always been a large part of
her delinquency, but Annalise always worried the most when Emmy
went off on her own. She never meant to do it, but every once in a
while her mind would wander on her way home from school, and before
she knew it, it would be nightfall, with an itch in the back of her
mind unfulfilled despite being physically exhausted.
    “ What were you doing?” her mother would always scream at
her.
    “ I was looking for something,” she would always
say.
    “ What?”
    Emmy
would always tell the truth, and it would always get her grounded.
“I don’t know.”
    Still,
she found it curious that Annalise would go through all this
trouble for her. It was so much effort, so much lying, and for what
purpose?
    Alex saw
her staring at her bracelet and mistook her expression. “It isn’t
perfect,” he said. “If you get excited enough, a little bit of
powdered frenum isn’t going to stop you.”
    She
tucked her hands in her pockets, hiding the bracelet. “Yeah, they
seemed to be more uncontrollable out of the orbs. This is way more
manageable.”
    Alex
nodded. “There are wards up around the orbs as well as a wall of
frenum. It’s to keep us grounded. That’s why Dad can’t be here, by
the way, or any human. The toll on our bodies is pretty tough. They
couldn’t handle it.”
    The idea
of her dad alone in their house was still too fresh in her mind.
The thought had obviously occurred to Alex too, because neither of
them spoke until they reached Urquhart Institute.
    It didn’t
take too long until they reached a wrought-iron gate decorated in
an intricate design of whirls like vines with the two letters “UI”
embossed in the center.