Free The Keeper's Curse by Diana Harrison

brother’s expectations.
    As they
got closer, Cyrus himself wondered how she would take seeing Brynn.
Because they were isolated from the orb network, they couldn’t even
send letters, so she had no idea they were coming. If anything, she
would be in tears at the sight of Brynn, who had been literally
ripped out of her arms.
    They
halted in front of the orb, taking the sight of it in. Little
Methelwood. Stupid, naive little Methelwood. After four years of
vilification against it, there was a part of him that wished he
could go anywhere else but there. But of course, he
obeyed.
    It was so
easy – one touch and he would be gone. The way to get back would be
much more complicated, but he would worry about that
later.
    “ Ready?” Cyrus asked.
    “ Ready.”
    He
squeezed Brynn with his left hand, and cupped Methelwood in his
right.
     
     
     

Chapter 6
    The
Fall
     
     
     
    “ You’re hearing voices in your head? ”
Alex demanded.
    “ Calm down, I’m not even sure if they’re real or not,” Emmy
mumbled on their way to school.
    “ That isn’t making me feel any better.”
    “ What if it’s just an unusual craft?”
    “ None of them can make you hear voices in their head, Emmy.
Crafts involve doing physical things, not mental things. I’ve told
you.”
    “ Maybe it’s not a voice, maybe it’s a real person.”
    “ Yeah, that’s better.” He narrowed his eyes down the road.
Jade was skipping ahead of them, her fiery red hair a dot in the
distance. Emmy wondered if he knew Jade liked him, and whether or
not he liked her back. Emmy knew she should probably tell him as a
sisterly duty, but she knew there was a possibility Jade might get
angry. She figured girls didn’t do those sorts of things to each
other.
    “ Do you want to visit a school counsellor?” Alex
said.
    “ No Alex,” she said firmly. “I’m fine.”
    “ Do you want to go talk to Mom about it?”
    “ No .” Alex had been trying for days
convince Emmy to visit Annalise, but Emmy hadn’t budged yet. The
thought of her mother still made her shake with fury.
    “ Fine, leave me to deal with Mom by myself. All she talks
about is you, anyway.” Before Emmy could respond to his harsh tone,
Alex said, “I’m not trying to insult you, okay? How about this – if
you hear the voice again today, go. If you don’t, don’t go. Trust
me, if you let them know they’ll let you skip class.”
    “ Any class?”
    “ Any class.”
    Emmy
grinned. She had a premonition she would fall ill right before her
peacekeeping lesson.
     
    ***
     
    Not
surprisingly, she was right.
    Ms.
Spillet was reordering a cluster of forms when Emmy requested to
visit a counsellor. In a frantic pace the receptionist exited her
desk and rushed to the back to find someone for Emmy to speak with.
Emmy tried not to blush, hating that everyone knew her problems,
but knowing all the while she had to get over it since there was
nothing she could do to change it.
    Ms.
Spillet came back with a woman with waist-length silver hair
dressed similarly to Vera, with flowered sheer material that looked
like it was made from a curtain. Also like Vera, she had a warm
smile, lessening the feeling in Emmy’s stomach of being trapped in
the lion’s cage that was Methelwood.
    “ Hello, Evangeline! My name is Willow Starling. I’ll be your
counsellor for this afternoon.”
    “ Nice to meet you.” Willow led her through the waiting room to
the far back where her office was. It was decorated for comfort,
with warm-coloured paintings on the wall, two comfortable plush
chairs, and a window with a lovely view. Crystal flasks of all
shapes and sizes filled the racks around the room.
    The two
of them started chatting on safe topics, like how she was coping
with all the new information and her feelings towards her mother.
Emmy knew the drill. She had been reading on how to question
someone in this manner for years, as unsettling as it was for her
to be on the opposite end of it. But as