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Damien, who looked like he was in the midst of getting ready for date night wearing a freshly ironed polo shirt tucked into his more casual sweatpants, walked down the curving staircase and gave Robby a kiss before giving a fist bump to Xavier and a hug to me.
“Is there a family meeting going on?” Damien asked, looking around the room.
I shook my head. “No, we were just—” But I was interrupted by a yowling Bambi running through my legs, Warrick smacking straight into my back. I turned and grabbed my little brother before he fell back and hit the wall. He adjusted his glasses and thanked me.
“I’m never giving that cat a bath again. She’s going to the groomers from now on. They can be tortured by her. Not me. No, ma’am.” Warrick’s forest-green shirt and shorts were both soaked from his battle with the furry, wet troublemaker. He looked around at the group. “What’s going on? Something big?”
“Madds was just about to explain,” Xavier said.
“Explain what?” It was my sister, Dawn, walking out of a hall with her girlfriend, Claire, hand in hand. She wore a teal sweater that had the name of Claire’s store written across the front, “The Magic Box,” which was likely where Claire had just come from since she wore her more formal lavender work robes over her jeans and T-shirt.
Fucking hell.
This was already getting out of hand. I loved my family to death, but sometimes I preferred to handle things on my own, and this was one of those times. “I wasn’t going to explain anything. It’s nothing you guys have to be worried about.”
Xavier narrowed his gaze and flipped the blue baseball cap on his head, his face no longer in shadow. “You sound a little stressed, bro. You sure?”
“I’m very sure.” I puffed up my chest. “Bro.”
Damien looked to Caleb, sensing a weak link in my armor. My older brother pounced. “Is that true? Is everything okay?”
“Is this about the Crimson Ring?” Robby asked. The name of the cult was enough to drop the temperature in the room.
Caleb nodded, and the floodgates opened. Questions were lobbed at us from all directions. What did they want? What were we after? Were we safe? Did we have any idea on how to stop them?
“Hold up,” I said over the din. Not exactly a shout, but it certainly wasn’t a whisper. My words echoed around the main hall, bouncing off the painted ceiling. “Fine. If you all want a rundown, then let’s move it to the living room.” I felt like this was the wrong choice to make. I wanted to keep it tight, between just Caleb and me. The more people I involved, the more variables were introduced, which meant more to consider. Still, I could tell my family sensed something was up, and after everything we’d been through together, I was hesitant to keep things from them.
In the living room, Caleb and I caught them up on everything we’d pieced together so far. It was Robby who spoke first.
“Holy shitballs. That’s bad.”
Dawn leaned forward, holding back her hair as she propped her elbows on her knees. She exhaled and said, “They want to free Niazatos? And those paintings are going to allow them to do it. Yeah. That’s very fucking bad.” Claire rubbed Dawn’s back as they sat on the plush white couch. She shook her head and rested it on Dawn’s shoulder, the silver and golden rings and beads she had in her locs clinking together as they fell on her chest. The fireplace roared, flames licking up at the arching stone etched with roses and ivy. It matched the trailing bushels of ivy that fell from the second-floor banister, soaking in all the light from the floor-to-ceiling window, flanked by two intricate tapestries handmade by a now extinct dragon clan from Columbia. Such a peaceful setting to break such fucked-up, potentially world-ending news.
“You guys don’t have to worry. Caleb and I have got it. With his connections and smarts as a detective and my muscle and brains as a dragon, we’re good.”
“Maybe muscles, but Madds…” Xavier chuckled and crossed his legs on the ottoman he sat on top of. “Brains?”
My little brother loved poking the bear. Little did he know, this bear already had two of the three paintings in a room upstairs. How was that for brains?
I couldn’t say anything, though. Not before telling Caleb first. It felt like a betrayal if I spoke about the paintings in my possession right now, so I stayed quiet and took the verbal spar from my brother. “Just trust me when I say we’ve got this handled.”
Damien, who had been perched on the arm of one of the couches, rose to his feet. “Maddox, sometimes it’s better to accept the help than it is to push it away. We can all work together to solve this. If they’re trying to bring Niazatos back, then it means we all need to be working to stop it.”
