Page 58 of Ashes and Lilies
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 frommycollection. 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.
