Page 59 of Ashes and Lilies
“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 calledPretty, 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 aboutDamen. 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.
