Page 103 of The Curse of Indy Moore
“Yes, woods are dangerous after dark. Demons love to prowl in the night, you know.” She followed to the cottage without fuss, where I moved the couch back into place.
Carline sat in front of the fire, muttering to herself while I got dressed upstairs. A whimper broke past my defenses, urging on tears that I wiped away. I couldn’t cry yet, not when our lives remained on the line.
Using bedsheets and tacks, I covered the broken windows on the first floor. That was the worst of the damage. We could stay in the cottage until daybreak. It wouldn’t be safe to travel the woods so late when it was cold, and I didn’t know how far we were from any town or the main road.
Checking the kitchen, there were stocks of food, and the water worked. We would be alright for a few days even. I could make us packs for our traveling, so I took to doing that. Carline sang from the couch. I didn’t recognize the lullaby, but it eased the eerie sense of the cottage. She had a lovely voice that didn’t suit the demon that had cursed me.
“Did you write that lullaby yourself?” I asked after finishing our packs. They sat on the kitchen counter while I joined Carline on the couch.
“Yes, for my Antonia. She won’t sleep without a lullaby.” Carline abruptly stood, ringing her hands together. “Where is she? Antonia!”
My girl,she had said. For her Antonia. Did she name a wolf that? Or was Antonia a person?
“Antonia isn’t here right now.” I took her hand to ease her onto the couch. She looked at me for answers that I gave in lies. “She’s at a friend’s house. We’re setting out to find her tomorrow.”
“Oh, good, good. Having friends is important.”
A frantic voice sounded from outside. “Indy! Indy, are you there?”
My heart leapt into my throat. I ran for the door, throwing it open. Otis and Professor Kumir stood on the porch, their expressions panicked then relieved. Otis dragged me into his arms, where he hugged me so fiercely I thought I’d break. I didn’t want him to stop, though. He smelled nice, like the chamomile tea he loved to make, and it brought a comfort I sorely needed.
“Thank the stars, you’re alright.” He grabbed me by the shoulders to look over. “You are alright, aren’t you?”
“Yes, the curse is broken, and I’m as well as I can be,” I answered with a nervous glance at Professor Kumir. She had a stern look about her, like she was about to deliver bad news. Or knew I was. “But Rooke…”
“Has vanished.” Professor Kumir shoved her way into the cottage, a hand waving wildly above her head. “The child appeared at Ivory House like a storm, snatched up his damned cat, then disappeared. I wouldn’t have known he had returned at all if Beamy hadn’t been on my lap when it happ—” Professor Kumir fell silent upon seeing who sat on the couch.
Smiling with all her teeth that were still oddly pointed, Carline waved. “Good evening. Are we having a party?”
“Tell me that isn’t who I think it is,” Professor Kumir whispered.
“This is Carline. Carline, this is Otis Thatcher and Professor Nysha Kumir,” I said, earning confused looks from Otis and Professor Kumir.
Carline’s eyes lingered momentarily on Otis, then she gave a dainty bow of her head. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Professor Kumir and Otis simultaneously yanked me into the dining room. It was a miracle they didn’t pop my arms out of their sockets.
Professor Kumir double checked that Carline hadn’t followed before hissing, “What in the blazes is going on?”
I explained the fiasco as much as I could. Professor Kumir, with her wisdom on demons, asked for specifics concerning Slate and Rooke, the look of them, the feelings I had during the attack, and the words used afterward. I gave every detail I could recall. After what we went through, I understood that the details mattered most. Saving Rooke would be in those details, and I couldn’t risk faltering, but it wasn’t my information that had the cottage falling silent.
Some time later, as I was questioned, Carline walked to the window. She pressed her fingers against the glass, her eyes half-mast and voice low. “I was hiding. I was hiding, and he found me. He consumed the others. He wanted to consume me, too, so I ran. I ran, and he found me.”
“Rooke did?” Otis took a careful step toward her. “Do you mean Rooke had been searching for you?”
“I didn’t know who he was, just that he was taking us one by one, and soon, he will be taken too.” Carline met my eyes. Her expression softened with pity. “You should fear what he does next.”
She wandered to the couch with a palm pressed to her temple. Groaning, she shook her head and laughed. “What a lovely little cottage, reminds me of home!” She sang her lullaby, utterly oblivious to what she shared. Otis tried asking about Rooke again, to which she responded, “Oh, I do love chess, especially against such a handsome man. Shall we play a game?”
Otis choked on his own breath, and Carline laughed.
“We shouldn’t push her. Her memories may return in time. Hopefully.” Professor Kumir had hunger in her eyes. “Can you imagine what she could share with us? The stories she could tell, if her memories recover. We may yet understand how demons come into being. Oh, I could write for the remainder of my life and have more to tell.”
“Let’s focus on Rooke for the time being,” I said.
“Right, yes, of course, that stupid boy.” The professor fell into a chair in the dining room.
Otis and I joined her. A sense of melancholy hung over all of us.
