The Curse of Thelonious [✓]

twenty five

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

“Hurry up or else we’re going to be late, Lerato,” her mother called out, the following weekend.

There was a convention in London, hosted by the publishing company she worked with, that she was attending. As she was trying to be a little nicer to Atlas in an attempt to keep her now-only daughter happy, she had offered to take the two along with her to the city. They had to just show their faces at the slightly formal event before they were free to go off as they liked.

Atlas hadn’t thought there was anything they needed to do in London but Lera had jumped at the chance, squealing with happiness and hugging her mum. She had ran to her bedroom to get ready, leaving Atlas in confusion.

“And you too, Atlas. Go and get ready, I’m sure Lera will find you something semi-formal enough to wear.”

Atlas trudged upstairs, baffled at what was going on. His eyes widened when he saw Lera, his throat going dry. “Urm, whoa…,” he stammered before he was cut off by the girl in question.

“Oh there you are, about time you show up!” she exclaimed, floating through the bedroom to hand him a pile of clothes. “Here, go put these on. That’s your school shirt and a pair of my dad’s trousers, you’re about the same height so it should be okay. And there’s a tie there too. C’mon, chop chop, don’t just stand there!”

Barely hearing her, he only nodded, his gaze intense as he stared at her. Amused at the way she suddenly began bossing him around, he flicked through the clothing and went into her bathroom to change.

A sharp pain flickered through his side catching him off guard. Groaning, he clutched onto the front of his worn-out grey sweatshirt with a grimace. His entire body had been aching all day, draining all his energy until he couldn’t help but react to it. It was bad, he knew it was. It had something to do with the jinn inside him.

Pushing that thought away, he tried to focus on changing his clothes as fast as possible so they could get going. By the time he exited, tugging at the tie, Lera was almost ready.

She was wearing a metallic gold dress with black side panels, her hair tamed into neat waves and black heels on. She wobbled around her room for a short while, getting used to the height before she looked up at him from under glittery eyelids. “Ready?” she asked, flinging the gold chain of a small black clutch over her shoulder.

Atlas didn’t reply, he was too busy watching her in something close to awe. “Huh, what?” he so eloquently answered although she was already half way down the stairs. Shaking his head with a small chuckle, Atlas ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to neaten it before following her in admiration.

Lera’s mother was pulling a wool coat on, covering up the white dress she had on that contrasted so elegantly against her skin. “It’s pretty chilly, kids,” she said, rummaging in her bag for the car keys. “Put your coats on.”

Lera grumbled but eventually gave in and threw her leather jacket over her arm before dragging Atlas by the lapel of his coat until they were outside. “What do you think about us visiting that shop again?” she asked excitedly, her coal eyes glimmering.

Atlas wiped his somewhat sweaty palms on his trousers before stilling when he realised what she was talking about. “That Golden Amulet shop, you mean?”

“Yeah, I think we need to see that Kevon guy. Because what’s the point of us knowing what object the curse is on, if we don’t know how to break it?”

Atlas nodded, pulling the chain with the small ring on it from out of his shirt. He had tried to take it off, fearful of the curse within it but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He had been wearing the ring around his neck for as long as he could remember, having found it in the basement of Mad Manning’s house as a child.