"She's clueless, how convenient." Morrigan waved away the useless mermaid and kicked more stones.
Jonas was hunched down next to Liriope but he had his head facing the ground with his hands over his ears. He was trying to keep the dead out. He had never seen more than one dead person in his life, and now he was surrounded by hundreds. They all called out to him. They begged him to help them, to give them their one last wish before they moved on.
Morrgian noticed he was looking pretty freaked. She couldn't see the ghosts but she did feel something was messing with him. She looked around and didn't notice anything but the way the wind blew through the trees. She looked at Liriope who sat looking confused, perhaps getting ready to bolt at any moment. Jonas wouldn't be able to stop her if she did, it was up to her.
The responsibility of it all dawned on her and she suddenly wondered why she had ever agreed to help Jonas in the first place.
I mean, look at him! He's a blubbering idiot. He can't even face up to his demons, why would I think he'd dig the likes of me.
Yet something inside her made her grit her teeth and let out a big sigh. She lowered herself to the ground and said a few magic words that sent sparks of energy into the ground. They flowed through the earth in trickles but all the while ran a course through Morrigan's fingers.
Morrigan rolled her eyes. Ugh, Light magic is for wussies.
She latched on to a rooted system and began to pull power from the earth inside herself. Once she was full to capacity she walked over to Jonas and laid her hands on him.
As soon as she did, lights flashed across her vision and sent Jonas into a shockwave. She was connecting her life force to his in a way she had only read about. She didn't know if it would work, but she planned on having a little farewell party for all the ghosts living inside Jonas' head. What she found inside him, she was not expecting.
It was the dead of the curse! They had to be, though they all walked separately, their spirit was intertwined in a web of magic. They were stuck here, something anchored them here at Lizard's Point.
The comb! The comb! They all began to yell at her. The comb!
She took her hands off Jonas and put them back on the ground.
"What are you doing?" Jonas asked.
"I'm getting you that comb." She searched with her magic until she found the source of the curse. They all followed her as she walked towards the outskirts of the nearest beach, the ocean in clear view, and she felt something buried deep within the sand. It had to be the comb. She knew only magic would return it to the surface. Magic, or an excavator, and she knew she didn't have one of those laying around.
She pulled it up and out of the dirt with her powers and flew it over to where she stood, next to Jonas and Liri. She grabbed the comb and studied it. She tried to hone in on the magic that held the curse. She felt it wrapping the comb in knot upon knot, but it was too hard for her to break.
"Huh, sorry, Jonas. I got you your comb but looks like the dead are here to stay."
That's when Jonas' Aunt walked up and laid her hand on Jonas' shoulder.
"You have to break it, Jonas. It has to be you." Jonas was in a daze. From the shock he received moments ago from Morrigan, he barely remembered where he was. But seeing Liri in front of him, knowing she could clearly see the hundreds of dead people around them by the look on her face, slowly his memory resurfaced.
"The comb." He reached out and took it from Morrigan. When he held it he was instantly given the memories of his ancestor Yunus Lutey, and his troubles with Morwenna. He remembered all the people he had helped by communing with the dead. He learned he could help the living just as much as he could help the ghosts that haunted him.
But he also remembered something that Yunus Lutey had wished for. Something his aunt had told him about too, just before she vanished in front of him last. That he had the power to break a witch's spell.
He squeezed the comb in his hands and thought as strongly as he could with as much focus as he had ever thought about anything in his life. Over and over in his mind he said, I break this curse, I break this curse, I break this curse. He didn't know any magic words or spells of any kind. He just thought of the first thing that popped into his head. I break this curse.
When he opened his eyes, the dead were gone. Morrigan smirked at him and Liriope stood in wonder.
That was when they all three heard singing.