Page 24

Titus left soon after his reveal, followed by Julian, who had to see his grandfather. He probably wanted to finish whatever he’d planned before I interrupted their meeting earlier.

However, we were not left bereft, for Maria appeared soon thereafter with multiple boxes of pizza and a large purple duffle bag in her possession.

“Here, see what you’d like!” she told me, throwing the bag on the floor at my feet. She ordered the remaining two men around, demanding the furniture be rearranged and various snacks assembled. Meanwhile, I sat on the floor in front of the fireplace and began to organize the items she’d brought.

Miles frowned at the pizza. “I could have made something”

Maria pushed past him, flipping her hair, before she took Damen’s remote and turned off the television. “No need,” she said. “A proper slumber party requires take-out. Not that you’d know. You are all hopeless.”

“Of course I know!” Miles clutched his fist to his chest. “We picked up Chinese food last time. ”

She ignored him and made her way back to me. “See anything you like?”

“I don’t know…” I gazed at the various options spread before me. I’d never even heard of most of these before. “You pick.”

“Sure.” Maria giggled—a little bit evilly, in my opinion—in response, and her blonde ponytail bobbed as she stepped over the options and snatched one off the floor before I had a chance to read the title.

She was so fast! “What does it say?” I asked.

“You’ll see,” she said, holding it behind her. “It’s a surprise.”

Damen had taken up residence in one of the armchairs, his right leg draped over his left knee. He now surveyed Maria’s back with a critical eye. “Out of all the possible games in the world, why this one?”

Whatever it was she was preparing, he didn’t appear to like it one bit.

“Because it’s precious,” Maria hissed at him. “Don’t be jealous because you didn’t think of it first.”

Damen frowned at her. “I’m not jealous. If anyone would be jealous, it’s Titus. Speaking of, does he know what you’re up to? Those must have come from his private collection.”

“For your information,” Maria snapped, “these are from my collection. Titus doesn’t care about board games. I just borrowed a few pieces here and there.” She began setting the game up on the coffee table while blocking my view of what she was doing.

“Really?” Miles had begun setting up the pizza on the TV stand. “I never took you as the girly type.”

“Oh, shut up.” Maria snapped her head toward him. “I was quite girly as a child.”

Miles’s eyebrows furrowed. “But—”

“All done!” Maria interrupted Miles, facing me with a flourish. “ It’s best played with four players. We’ll kill some time before it gets darker outside, and then the real fun can begin.”

“What do you mean ‘real fun’?” Damen muttered. “And what’s this nonsense about four players?”

Maria placed her hand on her hip. “We girls are going to end this ghost nonsense ourselves. I cannot believe you are all waiting for Bryce. Believe me, I’m much more efficient than him, at any rate. First, you need to draw out the spirit. Then, you destroy it.”

I perked up at her words. I wasn’t about destroying the spirit, but the opportunity to one-up Bryce sounded promising.

Miles sat on the couch, giving Maria a disbelieving look. “How do you plan on doing that? You’re not even a medium.”

“You’ve got everything you need right in this room,” Maria said and waved in my direction. “It’ll be all right. She’s tougher than she looks. Right, Bianca?”

“Yes?” I was pretty tough. Though I had no idea what she was plotting. “What do you want to do?”

How did she expect to call it to us, for example?

Was this my opportunity to be useful? I did so want to be useful.

If I could just talk to the evil spirit again, then maybe—

“No.” Damen glowered, and there was a deadly tone to his voice not to be argued with. “We’re not using Bianca as bait. And we aren’t going to antagonize it—Bianca is already a target. All we can do now is wait.”

Oh… My enthusiasm deflated a bit. I didn’t want to be bait either, not for this ghost.

Maria shrunk under Damen’s anger, and a hint of fear crossed her expression. But a moment later, she masked it with indifference.

“It was only a suggestion.” She shrugged. “In any case, yes. This is a four-player game. Are you going to deprive this poor girl of this essential experience?”

“What experience?” I was still kneeling on the other side of the room.

“I’m glad you asked.” Maria jumped toward me, grabbed my arm, and dragged me forward until I was seated on the floor in front of the table. “Voilà!” She gestured to the centerpiece dramatically.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. It appeared to be a circular board game. In the center was an open round container. Inside the container was a pile of colored jewelry.

But that wasn’t what had captured my attention.

Resting around the circular box was a glittering silver princess crown. It was shiny and delicate, like something out of a fairy tale.

“Oh…” I reached out my hand to touch it. “What’s this?”

“No touching.” Maria smacked my hand with the rolled-up rule book as she settled at my side. “You need to win the crown. You can’t wear it otherwise.”

“It looks real…” I pulled my hand back, unable to look away.

“That’s because it is.” Damen sighed, resting his arms on his knees. “Maria, you shouldn’t have that. Titus had it set aside for safekeeping. Why did you change the jewelry anyway?”

“Would you have her wear plastic?” Maria gasped at him. “What kind of man are you?”

Miles frowned, staring at the container. He, too, seemed to appreciate gems. “She does have a point—the plastic is gaudy.”

“Wait,” I began. I was so confused. Was the jewelry part of the game? “What is this game?”

“It’s called Pretty, Pretty Princess !” Maria gushed, twisting her ponytail into a bun at the top of her head. “I’m assuming that Finn never exposed you to the finer things in life. Don’t worry about Damen. He’s being a butt because I took the liberty of upgrading the game—”

Damen put his face in his hands. “Maria, you’ve replaced the original pieces with millions of dollars worth of jewelry. Does Titus know?”

“And now it’s better.” Maria shrugged as I gaped at the jewelry in horror.

“Is this Titus’s jewelry?” I couldn’t keep the wonder from my voice. So it was true; Titus did have a secret hoard of treasure somewhere.

“Not everything. Besides, he’s just guarding it anyway—it’s not like he’d miss it.” Maria clapped her hands, regaining my attention. “Here are the rules. You pick a color and claim the corresponding pawn with that color. We all spin, and the highest number goes first.”

She pointed to a silver disk, which had a dial and numbers, and added, “The gameplay moves to the left. You begin anywhere on the board, but you must move clockwise. The number that you spin determines how many spaces you move.

“Now,” she said, sitting forward, “the jewelry. Each space has instructions. You can gain an item, lose an item, and so forth. The objective is to collect all the jewelry in your color, to have the crown, and not to have the black ring.”

I stared at the game in front of me. This was fantastic, I had to win. I needed that crown.

“You can’t keep the jewelry,” Miles said, but Maria threw her slipper at him.

“As you can see,” Maria continued, “the four playing colors are pink, green, purple, and blue. I usually take purple.”

“I claim blue,” Miles interjected quickly.

“Goddamnit,” Damen, who had been hiding his face, jerked his head up and glared at Miles. “You can’t take blue! ”

“You’ve got to be quicker than that,” Miles smirked, picking up his coffee.

Damen glanced toward me, his eyes pleading. “What color are you taking?”

I bit my lip, glancing back toward the board. There was only green and pink left, and I liked both colors. The pink stone appeared to be opal, which was nice, but the emerald was even more tempting.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say green. But then I saw his face. “I can take pink.”

Damen groaned, ruffling his hair. “It’s fine, baby girl. I’ll take pink. Pink used to be a masculine color anyway. You can have green.”

“All right, whatever.” Maria scooted back. “Time to spin.”

We all took a turn, and it was determined that Miles would be first.

Maria cracked her fingers. “Miles, do you—”

“I remember how this goes,” Miles cut her off, an intense look taking over his expression as he flicked the spinner.

“Five,” he muttered as the spinner stopped, and he counted out loud as he moved. “Damn.”

I glanced at the board. Miles had landed on the pink necklace tile.

“You can only get a necklace if you land on your color,” Maria told him, pushing the lid toward Damen.

Miles huffed and slid back into his seat. “I know that! Damen, don’t let her win.”

Damen tentatively took his turn. “Two.” He moved his pieces. “I get a bracelet.”

“No!” Maria sounded distraught. As Damen pulled out the shiny bracelet, she slid the spinner toward me. “You can do it.”

“Okay…” I took my turn, not really feeling as competitive as th e others. Besides, I only wanted the crown. I would take it from whoever won anyway.

The game continued, with Miles and Maria becoming louder at each turn until finally, Miles won an earring.

“You’re not sticking that thing in me.” Miles leaned away from Maria, who hovered over the table, demanding that he play by the rules.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dedicated to the cause?” Maria waved the dangling earring in his face. “How much do you want to win? A needle and some ice will take care of that problem.”

Miles continued to push back into his seat. “I don’t need to win that badly. I’m not piercing my ears for a game.”

I glanced between them, wondering if I should interject. It wasn’t that big of a deal, and I, too, had no intention of piercing my ears. Finally, after Maria appeared ready to launch into a rant, I spoke. “He doesn’t need to wear it. He can hold it or something.”