The Curse of the Lion's Heart Read online

  I shook my head at the thought of his parents abandoning him. “I can’t believe your mom was in on that, too, just leaving you like that.”

  “Mum wasn’t really the mothering type of person, believe me. When I was living with them, I got ill, strep-throat, and instead of taking me to the doctor, she painted the back of my throat with iodine and told me if I swallowed, I would die.”

  “Oh my god!” Penelope and I chorused.

  Jack shrugged. “Like I said, not really fond of my parents. I learned a cool skill set, but believe me, they weren’t the sit round the table for tea type of people. I don’t think I missed out on much by not being with them.”

  I wanted to change the subject again, feeling really terrible about every time I ever complained about my parents. Grabbing my laptop, I pulled up the picture with the A&C logo, and the one with Milton Barnes written on it and showed the screen to Jack. “Do either of those things mean anything to you?”

  Jack squinted at the pictures and scratched the back of his head. “There’s a logo on here,” he said, pointing to the restoration picture, “but I can’t make it out.”

  “Neither could I,” I said. “But it’s the clearest I could get, especially since we were in such a hurry.”

  “Well, they don’t really sound familiar,” he said, “although the name Milton Barnes rings a bell. But then again, my uncle is always parading loads of old, crabby British men in and out of the house for business deals, and their names all sort of sound like that.”

  I sighed and pushed the computer away. We’d gotten exactly nowhere with this, except that my dad had been alerted that the locket was a fake, and he was at least on the look-out for anything suspicious. We knew what Jack was now, and the locket probably disappeared when it had changed hands, but we still didn’t know who was involved. Milton Barnes seemed pretty suspicious, but all we had was a hunch to go on.

  “So why’re you looking for this locket thing, anyway?” Jack asked. “I mean, what’s it to you?”

  My face fell. I’d been hoping he wouldn’t ask that, because the last thing I needed was for him to think I was completely nuts. “It’s just… I sort of… find things sometimes. For people,” I stammered.

  Penelope shook her head, immediately coming to my defense. “Ghosts, Jack,” she said firmly, and when I tried to protest, she held up her hand. “Don’t be embarrassed, okay, because it’s cool and unique, and I don’t care if he doesn’t believe you. Alexandra can see ghosts, and she’s been asked by one to find a locket. A cursed locket, in fact.” I was mortified and tried to hide my face while Penelope just spilled my secret to him like that.

  Jack’s eyes went wide and he looked at me for a long time. “Can you really see ghosts?”

  My face flared up red again and I stared down at my bare feet. At this point my secret was out, so there was no point in trying to deny it. “Uh well… sort of, yeah. I mean, I don’t want to, it’s not fun at all, and they come to me at all hours of the day or night. But um… well yeah I do, and this ghost says that if we don’t find this locket, the entire city, and eventually the world, will fall victim to a plague brought on by the curse.”

  Jack’s face fell and he stood up. “Did you say plague? Like people falling ill?”

  I nodded and shrugged. “Well yeah, that’s what she said.”

  “Turn on the news,” he said in a very serious tone.

  Fear flooding my belly, I did exactly what he said and with horror, I saw a reporter’s face on one side of the screen and a video of a hospital emergency room lobby full to the brim with people.

  “With no idea where the virus has come from, the CDC is about to announce a state of emergency for the city, possibly extending two counties down where four more cases of the same virus has been reported. If you are experiencing any symptoms such as unexplained fever, sores on the skin, cough and chills, call your doctor and wait for instructions. The CDC is recommending anyone living in the city to stay indoors as much as possible.”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I switched the TV off and looked at my friends, my eyes wide with horror. “It can’t be,” I whispered. “There is just no way this curse is real!”

  Jack shook his head. “It’s the only thing that makes sense, Alexandra. Think about it.”

  But I didn’t need to, because I knew he was right. The curse was starting to spread, and Elizabeth had warned me about it. “The only way to stop it is to return the necklace to the museum. Soon.”

  Both Penelope and Jack nodded in unison. “We’ve eliminated Jack here as our suspect, so who does that leave us?” Penelope said.

  “Milton Barnes,” I replied. “He ordered the locket to be restored when it wasn’t necessary. Maybe he stole it. And if not, maybe he’s in league with the people that did.”

  “Do you know where he lives?” Jack asked.

  “No, but I can find out,” I said. “I’ll snag his address from my dad’s computer and we can break into his house. I’m going to get in huge trouble for that, but we don’t have a choice. We can’t let people die from this curse.”

  Jack and Penelope both nodded and Jack reached over, briefly squeezing my hand. “We’re in on this together now. We’ve got this, I promise. Tonight we find the locket, and tonight we put a stop to the curse.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Milton Barnes

  Breaking in to my dad’s computer for Milton’s address was the easy part. The hard part was it was Sunday and my dad wouldn’t let Penelope stay for another night. Jack had gone home long before my dad got done with work, and as much as we both begged, he said it would be irresponsible of him to let her stay on a school night.

  Just after dinner, Kate arrived to pick up Penelope, and she came up to meet my dad and say hi. “How were the girls?” Kate asked, smoothing a hand down the back of Penelope’s short hair.

  “Penelope was a delight,” my dad said and smiled. “She cooked breakfast and everything.”

  “Ah yes, my aspiring chef,” Kate said proudly. “I’m really glad these two met. Penelope was having a lot of difficulty making friends last year, and I was a little worried about her this year. You know how middle school can be.”

  “Mom,” Penelope complained loudly, but her protest went ignored.

  “Lex was the same,” my dad chimed in, and Penelope and I shared an eye roll. “She was never great at the whole social thing. I thought that was my fault, raising her in the museum, keeping her away from all that trendy nonsense, but I’m glad she found someone like her.”

  Realizing this conversation was going to take forever, Penelope and I snuck back to my room to try and form a plan. “How far do you live from here?” I asked, staring out into the darkening streets.

  “Really far,” she said with a groan. “There’s no way I could make it on foot.”

  I sighed, pressing my forehead to the window. “I might have to do this with Jack alone. I don’t want to, but neither one of us can drive and—”

  “It’s fine,” she said. “This has to get fixed tonight, Jack was right about that. And… and you were right about him. I’m sorry for doubting you.”

  I shook my head. “It’s fine, I didn’t totally trust him until today, and even now I’m a little nervous.”

  “Well hopefully you can get the locket, or at least find out where it is. This whole plague business is really scary, and it sounds like it’s getting worse by the hour,” she said as she grabbed her bag of stuff. We’d watched the news a few more times during the day, and the virus was still spreading across the city. They had estimated over two thousand people had fallen ill, though no deaths had been reported so far. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow at school and you can let me know how it goes.”

  “If I’m not in jail for breaking and entering,” I half joked, because it was a real possibility. I’d gotten into enough trouble in my recent past, that if I got caught breaking into a house, I’d be put away for sure. “Hopefully Jack has more awesome tricks to keep us from
getting caught.”

  “I’m going to be worried all night,” Penelope said, shaking her head at me. “Promise you’ll check in every couple of hours. If I don’t hear from you…”

  I nodded, knowing what she meant. If Milton was our guy, he could potentially be a very bad guy, and Jack and I would be in very real danger. “I promise I’ll check in, and if you don’t hear from me by morning, call my dad.”

  Kate called for Penelope and I walked them down to the car. I promised to text her as much as I could, warned her about not going into any public places, and then I hurried inside. My dad was putting a frozen lasagna in the oven and muttering to himself, so I went to my room to text Jack.

  He sent me a message back saying he’d be by after midnight. I knew that would leave us very little time to get everything done, and I’d be exhausted tomorrow, but it would be worth it. I ate and didn’t say much to my dad, and decided to take a nap before it was time.

  I set my alarm on my phone, and the moment my head touched the pillow, I was out. I didn’t wake until I felt a hand shaking me, and I gasped, sitting up in fear at the intruder in my room. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dark room, and another moment to recognize Jack who was crouched at the end of my bed, his head nearly touching the roof.

  “What are you doing in here?” I hissed.

  “It’s twelve-thirty,” he said. I called you four times, and it even looks like you had an alarm go off, but you didn’t wake up.”

  He was right, I could see the phone blinking next to my pillow. I had slept through the alarm and every single one of his calls. “You could have woken my dad coming in here like that,” I complained, but was secretly glad he’d somehow managed to get into my apartment to get me up.

  “That man sleeps sounder than the dead,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “Be quick now, put on dark clothes and let’s go. I’ve mapped the route to Milton’s house and it’s going to take us at least fifteen minutes on foot.”

  I nodded and quickly threw on some black yoga pants and a thick black sweater that was way too hot for the season, but covered most of my upper body. Jack tossed me a black beanie which I threw over my already dark hair, and within minutes, we hit the streets. I knew I needed to text Penelope, but rushing through the dark, I couldn’t risk drawing attention to us with the glowing light of a cell phone.

  I followed Jack’s nimble steps, weaving in and out of buildings’ shadows. It was incredible to watch him move, almost like he was walking on air. His feet didn’t make a sound, and he knew exactly where to duck, and which alleys to use that were darkest so we wouldn’t be seen.

  Milton’s house was near Jack’s, in the wealthy district, a house way up on the hill sitting almost alone with tall trees bordering the walls. I’d driven by it once or twice with my dad, and I remember him pointing it out, but I never paid much attention to it until now. We approached the wall from the side, and Jack surveyed the area. There was a tall gate with a security system, and cameras propped up on the sides.

  “We definitely don’t want to be spotted by those,” he said, pointing to the cameras.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but how else do we get in?”

  Jack motioned for me to follow him around to the side of the house where the wall was about a foot shorter than the front. He held his clasped hands in front of him and said, “Climb up.”

  I looked up, realizing what he wanted me to do, and panic took over. “I can’t climb that wall!”

  He walked right up to me and took my face in his gloved hands. “Yes, Alexandra, you can. I’m going to lift you up, you’re going to grab the wall and sit on the top. Wait for me to get up and then I’ll help you down. Got it?”

  I nodded, my body still humming with fear, but I did as he said, and I put my foot in his hands. With my eyes wide, and hands stretched far up above my head, I felt his arms shove my foot and I went flying up. For a second I thought I was going to fly over, he shoved me so hard, but before I could panic and scream, my hands hit the top of the wall and I laid with my belly across, legs hanging down.

  “Excellent. Just push yourself up, okay?” he said.

  I did as I was told, and pushed myself up to a seated position. My legs dangled on the side facing the house, and I looked down just in time to see Jack take a running jump at the wall. His feet hit it, like he was a spider, and he ran up a few steps before reaching up, grasping the edge and hoisting himself to a crouched position.

  It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. My eyes were wide, staring at him, and I saw his face break into a smile. “I told you, I know all the cool tricks.”

  “I guess so,” I whispered.

  Jack took my hands next, and with a strength I didn’t think he could have, he carefully lowered me to the ground, and followed soon, landing in a crouch behind me. He grimaced, shaking his ankle, but quickly motioned us forward to the side door.

  The door was almost all windows, and Jack peered inside, eventually pointing to a panel in the back, softly glowing. “Security system,” he said. “If we walk in there, the warning alarm will go off. Even if I could figure out the code, it would wake up the other members of the house.”

  “So what do we do?” I asked in a whisper.

  Jack reached into the small bag on his back and pulled out what looked like a tiny pair of pliers. Putting a finger to his lips, he began to chip away at the wood near the top of the door frame. After a moment, he stepped back and I could see exposed wires sitting there.

  With a wink, he reached the pliers up and clipped all three. He set the pliers back in his bag, pulled out his silver case, and with a loud click, the door unlocked. We held our breaths as he turned the knob and pushed the door open. I braced myself for the warning alarm bells, but nothing happened. Total silence.

  “He has the alarm set to stay,” Jack whispered near my ear, pointing at the glowing panel. “So any time an armed door opens, the alarm goes off. We can be in the house all we want without setting off any warnings, just as long as we use this door only.”

  “How did you do that?” I had to ask.

  “I cut the wires to the door sensor,” Jack said. “Some alarm systems will set off the alarm if the wires are cut, but he’s using a cheap company. I’ve pretty much mastered their entire system.”

  “Wow,” I breathed, and he laughed.

  “Come on. I think if we’re going to find anything, it’s going to be in his office.”

  I followed Jack up the stairs, hating how my feet seemed to be making noises like a drum while Jack somehow managed to be completely silent. The house itself was fairly large, but there weren’t any rooms downstairs besides the living room, so Jack led the way upstairs and into the hall. We could hear a TV on somewhere in the background, but all of the doors were shut, so Jack carefully pressed his ear to every single one until he found two that were the likely homes of either the locket, or the information on where it was. If Milton was our guy, and I was pretty sure he was.

  “You take one, I’ll take the other,” he practically mouthed at me.

  I nodded, scared out of my mind, but ready to do this. I thought of all those sick people, near death, and I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t. I pushed the door open and stepped into a very large, very dark library. There were books all over, a desk in the corner near the window, and a sofa near a fireplace. It looked a lot like the parlor in Jack’s house, which was slightly unnerving, but I had to ignore that for now.

  Jack was already inside his chosen room, and I shut the door before hurrying over to the desk. Thankfully none of the drawers were locked, so I began to quietly rummage through them, pulling out papers and trinkets, paperweights and letter openers.

  I started to feel discouraged for a moment, until my fingers brushed up against something. It was a depression in the wood, and when I hit it, something clicked. A secret drawer in the middle of the desk popped open, and I nearly cried out with delight. Sitting there, in the middle of the drawer, was a royal pur
ple box, just like the one my dad showed me.

  I snatched it up, turning it over in my hands. I had to be very careful with it, very careful. I wasn’t the owner of the locket, and the last thing I needed was to get sick with the plague before I could get it back to the museum. Still, I needed to make sure it was the right one. I sent a quick text to Jack to come into the library, and then, very carefully, I opened the lid.

  As it creaked open, my eyes widened in horror as I saw that it was completely, and totally empty. I heard the door to the library open, and I looked up, expecting to see Jack. But instead, to my horror, I saw the tall, dark-eyed face of Jack’s cousin smiling down at me.

  “Looking for this?” he asked, and I saw the locket then, dangling from his outstretched hand.

  I gave a gasp, my heart beating hard in my chest, as I saw the cursed locket glinting in the soft light from the hallway lamp. “You have to give that back!” My voice was tight and desperate, terrified that Jack’s cousin was not going to see reason.

  “Ah no, love, I absolutely do not have to give this back. This locket will be on its way to its new home very shortly, and you, I’m afraid, will also have to… disappear.”

  I whimpered a little, taking a step back as Daniel took a step forward. Where was Jack? My question was answered a moment later when Milton Barnes, the museum curator, walked in the room, holding Jack’s arms behind his back. He flipped on the light and I winced at the sudden brightness, which made both men laugh.

  “I had a feeling I’d see you eventually,” Milton said. “Five times now you’ve managed to spoil my finds. Five times. Does your father know you’re here?”

  “Yes,” I lied in a weak voice. When I looked down, something caught my eye. It was a flash of gold buckles on black polished shoes, and my breath caught in my throat.

  Milton followed my gaze and then laughed heartily. “So you were in the museum that night, you sneaky little brat! I knew I heard something.”

  “Yeah well, you’re so busted,” I said, trying to sound stronger than I felt. Truthfully I wanted to puke. These two were not joking around, and this was more serious than I could even begin to imagine. I had no idea how we were going to get out of here. “When my dad gets here…”