Benedict Jacka - Cursed

But if I was being honest, the bigger reason was our history. Rachel and I had never been friends; we’d tolerated each other at best and hated each other at worst. I’d fled Richard once I finally understood what he was, while Rachel had given herself over wholly to his path. But twisted as she was, Rachel was one of the last links to my past-someone once told me that she was what I could have been and they were right. And as far as I knew Cinder was the only person she trusted. The more you know about someone, the harder it is to kill them. I didn’t want to kill Rachel or Cinder, and if I got into a fight without being ready to kill them, there was a good chance they’d kill me .

But if I didn’t do anything, I’d be leaving them free rein with creatures like Arachne.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I hate decisions like this. No matter what I did, bad stuff was going to happen. What I wanted was for Rachel and Cinder and Meredith and Belthas to drop the whole thing and stop trying to kill each other (and stop catching me in the crossfire while they were at it). But I couldn’t make them do that. The only choice left to me was whether to be involved. I studied my phone, thinking how easy it would be to send a message to Belthas telling him I wanted out.

The sound of the opening door brought my head up. Meredith was standing there, looking at me. “Hey.” I came to my feet. “Feeling better?”

Meredith walked forward. Her bare feet were quiet on the carpet; she’d lost her heels somewhere in the fight. Her dress was dotted with tears and ash marks and her hair was tangled, although it didn’t do anything to diminish her looks. “Are you okay?” I said. Somehow, the closer she got, the harder it became to do anything but look.

Meredith stopped next to me, looking into my eyes. She had to tilt her head to do it; she barely came to my shoulder. Her eyes were a deep brown and I started to lose myself in them. “Alex?” she said softly, and her voice seemed to come from all around me. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

I stood dead still for a second. A small voice at the back of my mind was trying to tell me something, but it was hard to listen. Then Meredith stood on tiptoe to kiss me and I stopped thinking about anything at all.

I don’t usually sleep well. I sleep even less well the closer I am to someone else. But I found some peace that night and when I woke I felt better than I had in days. I lay propped up on one elbow for a while, watching Meredith as she slept, until she stirred and opened her eyes to give me a smile. “Morning.”

Over breakfast, Meredith and I talked about our plans for the day. “You’re staying in your shop?” Meredith said in surprise.

“It’s a workday.”

“What about …?”

“I’ll close early,” I said. “I need to check out the factory in the afternoon. You?”

“I’m meeting some people.” Meredith brushed at the ash-stained dress with a resigned look. “And shopping. All my stuff was in my flat.”

I hesitated. “You could stay here if …”

Meredith shook her head with a smile. “That’s okay. I don’t want to be too much trouble.”

“Are you going to be okay on your own?” I’d made the mistake last night of thinking that there wouldn’t be another assassination attempt so soon and I didn’t want to be caught napping again.

“I don’t know.” Meredith looked worried. “How did they find us last night? I was sure they couldn’t track me.”

“They probably didn’t,” I said. “Just posted someone to watch your flat and waited for them to call in.”

“Oh. Could you …?”

“No problem.”

It didn’t take me long to sweep the area for spies. My area of Camden isn’t large and I know it like the back of my hand. Meredith left after a kiss. I watched her go, then returned to the shop in a good mood. My doubts about Meredith from last evening didn’t seem to matter anymore. Although I was planning to stay in the shop all morning, I didn’t feel like keeping it open for customers. Instead I flipped the sign to CLOSED and settled down at my desk to wait.

Most mages will think twice about attacking another mage’s home. Not only is it messy, but mages tend to treat fortifying their house as a personal hobby. My shop had been raided five months ago, and since then I’d gone to some effort to set up a few surprises for intruders. I could probably give even Cinder a run for his money if he tried to break in, and for exactly that reason I didn’t expect him to do it-mages who make a habit of launching attacks on prepared targets tend not to live very long. But after last night I wasn’t in any mood to take chances, and I spent a couple of hours exhaustively searching the futures for attacks. I came up blank, which was moderately reassuring. At least nothing was being planned right at the moment.

The glazier arrived while I was working and replaced the window. Once he was finished the morning light was pouring in again, making the shop much more cheerful. Luna arrived ten minutes later, and to my surprise, Martin was with her.

I’d included Martin in my invitation more for Luna’s sake than anything else; I hadn’t seriously expected him to show up. But he followed right behind Luna as she let herself in. I raised my eyebrows and he had the grace to look embarrassed. “Martin,” I said.

“Hey,” Martin said. “Listen, I’m really sorry about Saturday. I was just kind of out of it. Didn’t think about what I was doing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, uh, how much do I owe you? I meant to pay for it, it was …”

“Martin, did you listen to a word I said? You didn’t pick it. It picked you.”

Martin hesitated. “Uh … okay. Sure.”

“Look,” Luna said. She’d been watching from one side and now she sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. “We did listen. I told Martin why the thing was dangerous. We talked about it and we did some research too. This thing’s really famous.”

“Eyewitness reports?” I asked. “Or stories?”

“Just stories. But they matched with what you said.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t have happy endings.”

Luna nodded.

I looked at Martin. “But you decided to keep it any-way.”

Martin looked confused. “Well, yeah.”

“And you think this is a good idea because …?”

“Look, we’re not idiots, okay?” Luna said. “We talked it over.”

I took a breath. “Okay,” I said once I’d gotten myself under control. “What did you figure out?”

“The monkey’s paw only takes things,” Luna said. “It was in all the stories. It can’t make anything new but it can take something away and give it to someone else.”

I stopped. I’d never considered it but now that I thought about it, it made sense. “All right.”

“And you told me imbued items have a purpose, right?” Luna said.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “Okay. I see what you’re getting at. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been bad news for everyone else.”

“Only if you use it wrong,” Martin broke in. “Look, all the characters in the stories are stupid. They wish for something that’ll kill them. All you have to do is word it right and you can get anything you want! You’d have to be crazy to give it up.”

Luna and I both looked at him. I looked at Luna. “It worked,” she said defensively.

A nasty feeling went through me. “What?”

Luna didn’t answer. “You used it,” I said.

“Martin did.”

“For what?” I asked Martin.

But it was Luna who answered. She rose from where she’d been sitting on the edge of the table and walked to Martin. Four steps brought her next to him, and she placed a hand on his shoulder.