Page 38 of Curses & Keys
I peer at the screen and see myself sleeping peacefully. I squirm a little but continue watching. Suddenly, I go from sleeping to sitting up in the blink of an eye.
“Did you hear them enter?” Gatlin asks gruffly.
“Bad dreams,” I reply, a blush creeping across my cheeks.
“I’ve got plenty of those,” Gatlin mutters in return.
A warm fuzzy feeling wraps around me at his attempt to make me feel less embarrassed. I reach over and hit fast forward until I see me dash back into the bedroom with the soldier following, my sudden halt, my back arching, and then me dropping to the ground. Thank the goddess, there is no sound.
Gatlin presses stop. “What the fuck?”
“Taser,” I tell him, brushing his finger off the keyboard. I press fast forward again, but Gatlin stops it and presses play to watch the fight.
He hums when I snatch the book up from the nightstand to defend myself against the knife, which turns into a grunt when I clock the guy with my superman cross. “Nice move.”
Rolling my eyes, I point to the screen. “It’s coming up.” The video plays for the next few minutes, showing the three other soldiers entering, and then it leads into me touching the soldier and him choking to death. I stop the video. “There.”
Before Gatlin can reach out again, Mathias pushes his hand away and takes over. He rewinds the scene and plays it again and again. “I don’t get it. I don’t see any magic. Did you poison him?”
I look from Mathias’ obsidian eyes to Gatlin’s golden ones. “No, I used a curse on him.” Sucking in my bottom lip, I wait for them to catch up.
Gatlin whistles, but Mathias tilts his head, a puzzled expression in his eyes. “I don’t sense magic in you. How did you curse him?”
“Technically, it’s not my magic. When I remove a curse from an object, I sort of absorb it and it temporarily becomes mine to use,” I explain, watching his expression.
“Temporarily?” he asks sharply.
“I can only use it once,” I hesitantly tell him.
I’ve never told anyone about what I can do. I’m not sure if the gods know. They’re obviously aware of my ability to changeor remove a curse from an object, because they gave me those powers but not this one. This evolved over time.
Mathias asks where this curse came from, and I tell him about the fifteenth-century strand of pearls. His eyes widen, but he suddenly becomes angry. “Why did you only use this ability once during the attack? Why not hit them with more curses?”
Feeling vulnerable, I lift a shoulder. “My access to them is sort of…limited.” I’d rather he think my power is inconsistent than tell him it weakens me to use it. “Which is why I developed one hell of a right cross.” I wink at Gatlin, but he’s back to scowling at me.
Rolling my eyes, I point to the screen. “What do you think the council will do when they see this?” My brow puckers. The last thing I need is for them to change my status from suspect to threat.
Mathias stares at me. “Anything unknown becomes a threat. If they can’t identify or control you, they’ll try to eliminate you.
Gatlin curses and starts pacing around the room. “Fix it.”
Mathias throws him a fierce glare. “I plan to. Give me a second.” His fingers tap lightly on the keyboard as he thinks about the situation. “I might have something that could work.” His fingers fly across the board, faster than I can comprehend, until they’re nothing but a blur. He slides through his files, opening the ones he wants, extracting and copying, then he closes them. This continues for at least thirty minutes.
Gatlin continues to silently pace, his gaze flicking between me and Mathias.
Mathias stops and holds up a finger. Gatlin moves behind us to watch. I lean forward, eager to see what he did.
Mathias presses play, and I watch the entire thing again.
My brow furrows. “I don’t see anything different.”
“Look closer,” he tells me.
This time, I watch it frame by frame. There. “I touch his neck?”
“Actually, your ring touches his neck,” he says with a slow smile. When neither Gatlin nor I says anything, he heaves a sigh. “Your ring, full of poison, touches his neck.”
Ohhh. I play it again. This time, I can see the flash of gold on the dark screen. Clever. “Where did you get the footage?”
