Page 28 of Heir to a Curse

I let out a long breath. “I should probably call you more.”

“You can. You know you can. And I’d love to hear from you more. Gives me a break from the kids. So don’t think you’re putting me out.” We worked in silence a while longer. Putting up curtains and setting up the bedding, which she’d gone so far as to have washed for me. Finished, the little area of my cabin really felt like home. The elegance of the bed, the pop of color with the pillows Addy had added around the house, to theqilinart on the wall. I really loved the space.

“So I had a dream last night,” I began. “But not really sure it’s a dream. And repeating it will make me sound crazy.”

“Okay,” she agreed, taking a seat on the chaise as I sat down at the table. “Tell me.”

“Don’t judge me.”

“You know I won’t.”

“It’s really crazy,” I promised.

“Sure,” she agreed. “Tell me anyway.”

And so I did. Every detail I remembered, from the elegance of his hands, to the nightmare monster, to the kiss that still echoed on my lips. Waking to expect it to all be a dream, but finding the shrine damaged messed with my head. “It had to be a dream.”

She was silent for a little while, unnerving me. Then she said, “Okay, say it wasn’t a dream.”

“Then I’m crazy,” I said.

“Maybe it’s the curse.”

“The monster or the pretty man?” I asked.

“Both?” She tilted her head in thought. “Maybe we need to know more about the curse? You said there is stuff in her office? About her family?” She got up and came to the table to take my phone, opening it and scrolling to find the picture I’d taken of the names, then sending it to herself. “I’m going to look up this name. See if there is anything in public record.” She tapped a few things on her phone. “Appears to be Chinese. Wonder if it’s a name or a title. Chinese people often had three names, the birth name, the nickname, and a title. Most people were called by their title.”

“Your Chinese that good?” Her kids were actually taking some classes.

“Not at all. But I watch a lot of foreign drama,” she reminded me. “I know only about a dozen Chinese words. Sarah is becoming a fast pro though.” Sarah was her oldest daughter. “Jun Xiang?” She said looking at her phone. “I’m probably saying this wrong. Shon Shang? Jun would be the last name. Well that’s odd.”

“What’s odd? The name?”

“The names beside it in the picture. I would have thought it was a family line, but their last name is Jeng, slightly different.”

“Jeng sounds more like Yang, which was Sofia. Maybe it got changed when they came to the US? I know the government tried to Westernize a lot of people’s names.”

“Or he was adopted into the line because the rest of his family had passed?” Sofia stared at her phone. “Let me look into it.”

“You don’t think I’m crazy because I dreamt of monsters and Asian saviors?”

“If monsters come back, let him do the saving, okay?”

“He was hurt,” I protested. “Bleeding.”

“Mhmm.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m nuts.”

She shrugged. “Vivid dreams don’t mean you’re crazy. This is a new place, lots of old memories and new ones. And maybe it’s not all a dream. Maybe your brain is filling in some parts with things you need. Maybe it’s the curse and the way to break it is to destroy the monster with love.”

I squinted at her. “Love the monster?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? If it were a video game, what would you do?”

“Follow the cat sitting in the light to the next puzzle point,” I said, deadpan.

Addy laughed. “Okay, well then follow the man.”