Page 66 of The Curse Breakers

David leaned his elbow on the counter and shook his head. “You keep saying that, but I’m still not convinced it’s up to you.”

I stopped and swung around to face him. “I helped set it loose.I’ma Curse Keeper, and it’s my job to make this thing go away. Ideally, I’d do it with Collin, but Collin won’t help. He thinks we should let these things run amok until they settle down. But it’s hard enough to watch animals die. How can I stand back and watch it kill people?”

“You’re not getting my point, Ellie. There areprofessionalswho deal with this sort of thing.”

“You saw that cat on my porch. Do you really think that was done by a normal animal?” I pointed to the front door. “It wasleft for me.”

“Maybe it wasn’t for you. Maybe it just happened to be on your porch.”

“And the neighbor’s dog justhappenedto be next to my house. What a coincidence.” Leaning my head back, I groaned. “This is notan animal. This is a spirit. And it won’t stop until I stop it.”

“For argument’s sake, let’s say you’re right. How do you stop it?”

I lifted my chin. “That’s whereyoucome in.”

He sighed and moved to the sofa. “If you’re hinging everything on my knowledge, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed.” He grabbed his laptop off the coffee table. “When I did a search for an animal that eats hearts, I only found a short reference—just a couple of lines.”

“And?”

“It’s a sort of mythical creature.” He pulled up the document. “It’s said to resemble a badger more than anything else. It has claws like a predatory cat, teeth like a wolf, and night vision like a bat.”

I sat down next to him, lifting my feet onto the sofa and crossing my legs. “Bats use sonar to see, not their actual sight.”

“Don’t be so literal. This was written well over three hundred years ago. You get the point.”

“So it’s like some hybrid mix.”

“It’s not uncommon for these mythical creatures.”

“Does it say how to kill it or what it’s called?”

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing about how to kill it, but it does give it a name. Ukinim.”

“A name is something. It’s better than nothing.”

The wind picked up outside, the gusts rattling the door and windows.

David cast a hesitant look toward the door. “I didn’t think there was a storm in the forecast for tonight.”

My shoulders tensed and I uncrossed my legs, my feet touching the floor. “I’m sure there wasn’t.”

Despite the fact that I had almost nightly visits, I was rarely awake when they showed up. They usually woke me up by pounding on the door. And despite the fact that they visited so often, I still dreaded every encounter. Especially this one. What if the redrawn symbols on the door weren’t strong enough to protect us?

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

I didn’t look at him, trying to psych myself up for the encounter. “We’ll know soon enough.”

He closed his laptop and set it back on the table. “What happens when they show up?”

“They usually wake me up by banging on my door and shouting ‘Curse Keeper.’ I open the door to see what they want—”

“Wait. Why in bloody hell would you open the door?”

“The symbols protect the threshold. They can’t get in. If I didn’t open the door, they would keep yelling. I worry that they’d wake up my neighbors and kill them.”

His lips pressed together in a tight line.

Several seconds later, the door shook with pounding and my palm burned. “Curse Keeper!”

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