Page 85 of The Curse of Indy Moore
The atmosphere shifted instantly. Mr. Hawthorne stiffened prior to releasing me. The loss of his warmth made me shiver.
“I didn’t know you lost anyone,” I said after his prolonged silence.
“Most have.” He sought to escape through the trees. We abandoned the field along with its warm golden light. I already wished to return to it.
“You’ve never talked about him.”
“Why would I?” he muttered.
“Because you need to? Or you want to. I don’t know.” Because I wanted him to be comfortable enough around me to know he could talk about who or what he lost.
“There is nothing to be said. We both know what it is like to feel like something is missing that can never be filled.” Mr. Hawthorne went abruptly still in the middle of the forest.
“Are you alright?” I asked, worried, then frightened when he spun to grab me by the shoulders.
“Filled,” he said, shaking me. “That’s it. Brilliant!”
“Brilliant?” I repeated, then nearly fell over when he released me to run off.
Mr. Hawthorne sped through the woods as if he caught fire. I ran after him, straight for the house and up the stairs to the office. He threw open the door just as I stumbled behind him. Otis and Professor Kumir sat over their books, both utterly exhausted with dark bags under their eyes and empty coffee mugs.
“Packs!” Mr. Hawthorne bellowed. He leapt over the mountains of books, knocking over a dozen, slipping on a page, and face-planting. Professor Kumir and Otis were too tired to laugh, but I did.
He shoved books off the table to replace with more, all the while saying, “Carline seeks out lonely souls each and every time then brings them into her pack. A family to fill what she is missing.”
A memory resurfaced that I voiced. “I hit one of the wolves with my lantern and another…”
Mr. Hawthorne snapped his fingers. “Lingered behind to check on it. Wolves look out for each other like a family would, and Carline cares for her wolves. They may be stolen souls, but she adores them. You pointed that out yourself, professor. We have countless depictions of her wrath when anyone dared to harm her wolves.”
He threw open one book to hand to Professor Kumir. Adjusting her glasses, she read over the passage he pointed at. “Yes, but what are you leading to?”
Mr. Hawthorne slammed his hands on the table and looked at us one by one. “What happens if one of the family turns on her?”
He pushed the books he found forward. “There are stories of Carline hating betrayal. I bet if we looked at her confirmed victims, most of them would be good, well-rounded individuals that others couldn’t imagine hurting or betraying anyone. Look at Miss Moore! She is the definition of loyal. She puts her family above all else. What if that is protection on Carline’s part?”
His questions spurred hope within me. It made sense for her to go after me. She saw my loyalty toward my family. While I would hate her for taking them from me, I wouldn’t be myself as one of her wolves. They would become my family, and I’d share that same loyalty with them and thus toward her. She would feed off my corrupted feelings while simultaneously gaining what she desired most.
Professor Kumir removed her glasses to tap her bottom lip with the temple tip. “This is all speculation. We require proof.”
“We have read of at least a dozen similar demons, whose curses have been broken by the hands of whom they cursed. Here.” He ripped through another book and dropped it in front of Professor Kumir. “A fox demon who forced humans to care for his every need, but when one human had the courage to poison the fox, all the curses were lifted, and he fled.”
“He could merely have been weakened by the poison,” Professor Kumir argued.
I knew that was part of her job because he could still be speculating, but it irritated me that she set it aside so lightly.
“That fox demon was never as powerful as Carline, either,” she added.
“There are more,” Otis chimed in to my great relief. He tore through the books to set one in front of Professor Kumir. “A fire demon was doused with water thousands of times until a child it cursed to never sleep poured water on it, and the curse was lifted.”
Professor Kumir tapped her glasses on the desk. “This could be plausible.”
“The Grand Tempest Archives may have better answers now that we have a lead. I could pay them a visit and search for further material to back up our theory,” Mr. Hawthorne suggested.
“I hate to bring it up,” Otis glanced nervously at me, “but we do not have the usual time to consider this theory or any way to test it. If Indy could go against Carline,howcould she go about it? Carline is no fire demon to douse in water. We aren’t sure mere poison will work as it did with the fox, either.”
“He’s right.” My ears flattened against my head. “Am I expected to invite her to a round of fisticuffs?”
The once jubilant atmosphere dulled, and all fell silent, despaired. Mr. Hawthorne took his bottom lip between his teeth. Frown lines made deep impressions on his face, and the frustration in his eyes put sweat upon my skin. He opened and closed his mouth, willing words that didn’t come until he ruffled his hair.
