Part 12 (2/2)
”No!”
Austin snorted.
”All right. I don't know.” Claire glared at the cat. ”She's a powerful Keeper, or she wouldn't have been able to seal the hole, not to mention attempting to use it. But...” Her eyes narrowed. ”I am also a powerful Keeper, or I wouldn't have been summoned here. Waking her would be the only way to find out which of us is stronger, and I'm not willing to risk the destruction of this immediate area on a point of ego.”
”So she's still sealing the hole? Like a cork in a bottle?”
”Essentially.”
”You're here to pop her out and close the hole?”
”It's more complicated than that.”
”And that's why you called your mother?”
”Yes.”
”Okay.” He took a deep breath, and laid both hands flat on the table. ”The woman in room six is an evil Keeper.”
”That's right.”
”And you're a good Keeper?”
Claire leaned back and pulled a vinyl business card case out of her blazer pocket. ”My sister made these for me. She meant them as a joke, but they're accurate enough.”
Aunt Claire, Keeper your Accident is my Opportunity (abilities dependent on situation)
The card stock felt handmade and the words had the smudgy edges of rubber stamp printing. ”Should I call you Aunt Claire?”
”No.”
He'd never heard such a definitive no before. There were no shades of maybe, no possibility of compromise. When she indicated he could keep the card, he slipped it into the pocket of his T-s.h.i.+rt. ”I've always wanted to see real magic.”
Claire leaned forward, eyes half lidded, palms flat on the table. ”You should hope you don't get the chance.”
It would've been more dramatic as a warning had she not placed one palm squarely on a bit of spilled jam.
Dean handed her a napkin and managed not to laugh although he couldn't quite control a slight twitch in the outer corners of his mouth. ”So was Mr. Smythe a Keeper, too?”
Claire showed her teeth in what wasn't quite a smile. ”Augustus Smythe was, and is, a despicable little worm who walked out and left me holding the bag. He's also a Cousin.”
”Did he put her to sleep?”
”No, a Cousin can't manipulate that kind of power.” As much as it irritated her to admit it, Dean's little synopsis had to have been essentially correct. ”At some point, there was another Keeper involved.”
”But Mr. Smythe is a Cousin, and you said Cousins monitor unsealed sites.”
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