Pirates' Curse by Susan McCauley

Author:Susan McCauley [McCauley, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781951069117
Publisher: Celtic Sea Publishing via Indie Author Project

“Come on, X. You know what we’ve got to do.” Jason had fished the crowbar from my satchel and offered it to me, a mischievous gleam of excitement in his eyes.

I shook my head. “We can’t just bust out the wall. Frank would kill me, and I’d never get another job on my own. He might even cancel my apprenticeship, kick me out, and send me off to a psychic school for remedial training.” I can’t believe I’d actually said it aloud, but there it was. One of my worst fears: being so bad at this psychic thing that I’d be sent away from my city, away from my family, away from my friends. I couldn’t stand it if that happened. I’d lost enough when Mom died. I couldn’t lose anything—or anyone—else. I didn’t think Dad could handle losing me either. Nope. I needed to stay here in New Orleans. I needed to work. Dad needed me to keep earning something to help with the bills. And we really needed my apprentice stipend.

Jason brushed the toe of his sneaker against the stone floor, then looked up at me. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”

I knew he didn’t want me to be sent off, but he couldn’t hide his excitement from me. I could see it in his eyes. He was still thinking about pirate treasure. Bones or no bones.

“Just let me try to call Frank first.” I hated how cowardly that sounded. I was brave enough to crawl in to retrieve the bones, but I had to do this right.

“Okay. Sure.” Jason gestured with the flashlight toward the liquor-crowded bar shelf. The bottles glowed orange and green, brown and amber. “There’s probably a phone behind the bar.”

Jason was right. I found the bar phone quickly, picked up the phone from the receiver, my hand hovering over the rotary dial to call our apartment. I held the phone to my ear, but there was no dial tone. It was completely dead, silence ringing in my ears. Why couldn’t someone invent phones you could carry with you? They’d need crazy-strong wards, but still. That would be so cool.

I dropped the phone back on the receiver, and the wind gusted against the windowpanes, rain spattering against the glass. The wind must have knocked out the phone lines. Part of me wanted to take Jason and run back to the apartment to wait for Frank, but if I did that, I would fail. And I didn’t want to fail. I couldn’t fail.

Jason leaned on the thick oak beam that served as the bar, twirling a little purple plastic sword back and forth between his fingers. “What’d he say?”

“Nothing. Lines are down. Must be the wind.”

“Maybe.” Jason looked around. “Or maybe the ghosts don’t want you calling out for help,” he said, in a voice that was a bit over-the-top spooky.

“Oh, come on,” I laughed. “It doesn’t work like that, and you know it. The phones are well warded and the copper wires are sheathed in iron.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.