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They walk with me to the bedroom, and we all find Tay exactly where I left him—crumpled in a heap, flat on his back. At least he didn’t hit his head going down. I was so shocked he passed out that I was frozen and couldn’t move to break his fall.
Toren whistles as he bends to inspect his brother. “Man down is right.”
“Is it inappropriate to say how much he resembles a sack of potatoes right now?”
“Definitely,” Ash grinds out. “Come on. Let’s get him up on the bed. I’m sure he’ll come around soon enough.”
“Too bad no one told us to bring smelling salts, whatever those are. Isn’t it just regular salt?”
Toren shoots Kirian a patronizing expression. “Yeah, it’s just regular salt.” He grabs Taylen’s shoulders, and Ash and Kirian each take a leg.
Together, they get him up on the bed while I resist the urge to flutter and flap around like an agitated bird. I don’t like seeing Taylen so helpless like this. It makes me scared, but it also makes me feel totally at a loss because I’m utterly helpless as well.
I shouldn’t worry. Taylen’s brother, Toren, is on the scene, and he apparently has no qualms about open-palm smacking his brother on the cheek—a sharp smack that echoes throughout the room as his palm connects with flesh. It works, though.
Taylen shoots upright on the bed with a groan. His eyes whip from his brother to his cousins. “What the…”
“You passed out,” Toren fills in helpfully. “You saw the cursed brooch doing weird cursed things, like appearing out of nowhere…”
“Like a damn ghost…” Ash adds.
“And you fainted.” Kirian finishes.
None of the guys look at me, and soon, it becomes apparent why.
“Are you and Elodie dating?”
Ash gives Kirian a scathing look, but he can’t help but follow the same line of thought. “Granny said the curse got you. That we all better have a meeting like we always do when one of us goes down. She actually said that.”
“How does she know about the meetings?” Taylen groans. “Who tipped her off? Does she bug our houses? Is that why she knew your security sucks?”
“Hey!” Kirian yelps. “It didn’t suck! And it no longer sucks, thank you very much. If Lindy heard you talking like that, she’d hack all your accounts and send pictures of dancing cats to your phone all day so you wouldn’t be able to get anything done. Every time you turn it on, there’d be a dancing cat.”
“Well, are you dating?” Toren says in the most measured tone.
I sink closer and closer to the wall, hoping it might hold me up while I fade into the background because it’s not like anyone remembers I’m FREAKING STANDING RIGHT FREAKING HERE anyway.
Ash follows that up before Taylen has a chance to respond. “Are you really cursed?”
“Are you cursed together?” Kirian echoes.
“Are you guys finished?” Taylen shoves himself up from the bed. “Where is the dang brooch anyway?”
“I have it.” I brush my hand over my jeans, feeling for the bulge in my pocket.
“I wonder what would happen if we destroyed it,” Taylen huffs. “Like threw the bloody thing in the fire, drove it to a landfill and chucked it into a mountain of garbage, never to be found again, found a sidewalk that was being freshly poured and dumped it in to be embedded forever after, threw it off the eighty-first story of a high rise, drove out to the ocean and dropped it down for the fishes to find, or climbed a mountain and…”
“I don’t think you want to do that,” Ash says nervously. “We’ve all been against destroying the heirlooms, remember? Plus, we don’t know anything about the curse because Granny won’t fill us in, and we don’t know who cursed the jewels in the first place.”
“Where’s Leandra?” Taylen asks. “Shouldn’t we include her in this discussion?”
“She’s going to be the odd one out anyway because it seems like you’ve found your soulmate. Who would have thought?” Ash chuckles. “Elodie. She was right there the whole time.”
“I’m still right here,” I point out, shuffling away from the wall just a little. “Still very much here.”
There’s a scurry of feet shuffling and throat clearing, and then all four men turn to me with some semblance of guilt.
“Sorry, Ell,” Taylen whispers. “Thanks for getting them to put me on the bed after I passed out. You could have just left me there on the floor. If I were you, I would have been tempted.”
“Sorry.” Ash looks totally chagrined. “Ellis would probably have my balls if she heard me talking about someone like they weren’t even here.”
“I’m sorry too,” Kirian says. “But my security doesn’t suck, and also, remember…dancing cats. They’ll ruin your life in the cutest way possible.”
Toren nods. “I can see how that would go.” His eyes sweep to mine, the same shade of gray that Taylen’s are. “I’m sorry too. The fact is, we all tried very hard to resist the curse, but we’re all happy now, wondering why we ever tried to get out of it. Very. Happy.” He gives Taylen a scathing look. “Don’t try to get out of it. That’s what this meeting is about. It’s not a panic meeting. It’s a meeting where we all talk you into not panicking.”
