Emma and that the two of you were alone in your talent.”
“So I’m here to protect Emma?”
“In a way. You are bound to Emma. Your mother is bound to you. Therefore, your mother is able to keep you both safe.”
“So I’m not a dreamwalker?”
“Technically, no. But your mother gave you the ability.”
“What about my father?”
“Your father is also a conjurer. Jefferson is very powerful. He was there the first night as well, and for many nights after. He learned everything from Hattie. She taught him very well.”
“So my father is even older than my mother?”
“By about twenty years, yes.”
“How old am I?”
“You and Emma were born just months apart. You are both seventeen.”
Zoë pushes herself up onto the bed. She drops her face into her hands and rests her elbows on her knees.
“Zoë, I know this is a lot to take in all at once,” my dad says, “but it is something that had to be kept from you and now it is something that you need to know. You and Emma are so much more than you believe yourselves to be. There are thousands of people around the world who have put their faith in us for centuries. This is hard to hear, I know, believe me. But this is real. This is who we are. This is your destiny.”
Zoë chuckles through her sobs. “Oh my God, I’m such a cliché. I have a destiny and I’m only seventeen. I have a secret life that I never knew existed because of the secret life that was a total farce.”
She wipes the tears from her face with the back of her hands. “So do I know how to cast spells?” she asks as if it has suddenly occurred to her.
“I assume you do, Zoë, but I don’t know what skills your parents have allowed you to retain.”
“Zoë, on our walks…the amazing things you create that I can’t even come close to creating, that has to be because of who you are.”
“If I’m not a dreamwalker, how will it work when I get to the colony? Will whatever they use still work on me?”
“Zoë, they know who you are. They know who Emma is. They know you’re coming. They’ve been waiting for you for years. They’re prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer immediately. “Dad, prepared for what?”
“Prepared for you to end the curse.”
“End the curse?” Zoë asks.
“The curse you’ve read about in the journals; the curse that came to us on that night in 1704. We have been working towards its end for centuries. It's time for that curse to be obliterated.”
Zoë and I look at each other. I know we are both thinking the same thing without either of us having to say a word. I break the silence. “How can we possibly break a curse? Especially a curse we know nothing about and one that has lasted centuries? It’s impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible, Emma. You are so much stronger now than you ever have been. There is never going to be a more perfect time for you to be able to do this. The journals have a written account of past experiences for you to learn from. The pendant is enchanted with a spell intended only for you and will trigger very vivid memories of what you have already experienced, ways you have already tried to break the curse. When you sleep tonight, you will relive occurrences that couldn’t be documented in the journals. You’ll replay lives you have already lived and walks you have already taken. The enchantment will attach itself to you as well. Once you enter your walk tonight, you will experience things differently than you have in the past seventeen years.”
“I don’t understand. If you’ve had the pendant for all of these years, why didn’t you figure this out? Why didn’t you break the curse?”
“I can’t break the curse, Emma. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve done all I can. She isn’t searching for me. She doesn’t want my soul for what she believes was a death I caused.” He stopped. I could tell he didn’t want to say what he was about to tell me. “She’s searching for you. It’s you she wants and only you and Zoë are strong enough to defeat her.”
“Why us? How are we possibly strong enough to do something we know nothing about?”
“The story I told you about your birth mother, about how something happened to her after you were born…”
“Yeah?”
“The something that happened to her was Alexander. He is