The Curse of the Mekori


 
 
 
 Table of Contents
 
 Dedication
 Author Note
 Preface
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 Chapter 23
 Chapter 24
 Chapter 25
 Chapter 26
 Chapter 27
 Chapter 28
 Chapter 29
 Chapter 30
 Chapter 31
 Let's Be Friends
 Acknowledgments
 About The Author
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 
 
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 Start of Content
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Curse of the Mekori
 Copyright © 2022 by Brooke Clonts
 
 All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, 
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 Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book 
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 authors, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and 
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 For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the publisher. 
 
 Second Star Press, LLC 
 [email protected] 
 www.secondstar.press 
 
 Edited by Kelley Riegert, Fiona McLaren, and Kim Autrey 
 Proofread by EditElle – Writing & Editing Services 
 Front cover design by Ben Dougal 
 Interior design by Francine Platt, Eden Graphics, Inc. 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents 
 are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. 
 Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. 
 
 
 Ebook ISBN 9798985171945 
 Paperback ISBN 9798985171952 
 Hardback ISBN 9798985171969 
 Audiobook ISBN 9798985171976 
 Library of Congress Number 2022921518 
 
 
 Manufactured in the United States of America 
 First Edition January 2023 
 
 
 
 
 To my sisters.
 Because they keep me semi-normal.
 
 
 Author's Note:
 Dear reader, this story brings in the history of the Gunpowder Plot and the Pendle Witch Trials. I encourage you to do your own research to discover what’s historically accurate, and what I have twisted for the purpose of this story. Please note: This story contains graphic violence, homicide, and instances of accidental self-harm. Please only read if you are safe to do so.
 
 
 Prologue
 Lancaster, England—Year 1613
 The candle burns low. A drop of hot wax slides down its side as Thomas Potts squints to read an account of court proceedings by the waning light.
 It’s too late.
 He exhales and drops the document.
 Opened bottles of dried ink sit in neglected corners of the mahogany bureau in his private office. Beneath his feet, a thick, patterned rug stretches across the wooden floorboards and forms haunting shapes, like outstretched hands to claim him in his misery.
 Altham awaits the final draft, which means Potts can’t postpone this day any longer.
 Potts looks up and stares into nothingness as the candle’s flame flickers. Shadow faces leer at him on the walls. If he looks too closely, they might resemble the innocents he helped accuse only one year ago, so he doesn’t look.
 Pages of words are strewn before him. Many of them bear scratches over the letters and blots of ink from when Potts ruined them in 
 Chapter One
 October 13, 2016
 Water pours in sheets from the rain outside, the heat from the flower shop vents leaving ghosts on the windows. An assortment of fresh plants lines the shop, some in pots and others in cut and primed bouquets. The worn counter by the cash register gleams from my recent attack with Windex. No speck of dust survives my shifts.
 My reputation at the store says I can make anything grow, but today, the lilies wilt in my hands even as I add fertilizer to the water. Customers walk around me, but I check my phone rather than look at them.
 I get off work at 9 p.m. Want to come over tonight? Sadie wants to see you.
 It’s the last message I sent Teddy, my boyfriend, but he hasn’t responded. In fact, we rarely talk anymore, not like we used to.
 I wait for the three dots that say he’s texting me, but they don’t come.
 “Beautiful necklace.”