Page 76 of Their World

Removal of curses – To remove a curse, ask the snake to “withdraw” the curse from the being. It will bite the cursed person and suck out the bit of power that is placed to cause the curse.

My eyes widenedwith each curse and note I read. She hadn’t been kidding when she said Third to Reign, my grandma, had an odd humor and a temper. I could totally see someone using these for the wrong reasons.

So, the curse that was on the Grand Advisor. Was it just pain or had she combined it with drain for infection? If he was in pain and couldn’t sleep, but was also weak and stealing other beings’ powers, it seemed like he actually was cursed with infection. Could I use that against him? Could I just remove pain and not drain to keep him weakened? That seemed my best bet.

“Do you have an itinerary for her?” Piper asked as I re-read the curses and notes again.

“I’ll print one out for you,” Mason said and left the room.

“Can you print me one, too?” I called after him. How did I have enough things planned to need an itinerary? Had they been planning things without me knowing? I didn’t know of anything I needed to do except the meeting and now the morning shifts at the store. It worried me that I wasn’t able to go rescue Mom and Dad, but I knew going on my own would be handing myself over to the Grand Advisor … and stupid. As much as I wished to stop acting as if everything was fine in our world, that was the only course I could take right now. At least until the portals showed.

Mason returned just as I finished my re-read and handed Piper and I a piece of paper. My eyes widened as I read it.

“Picture shoot? Why are we having a picture shoot?” I asked and looked at Kayden.

“To take pictures to announce our mating,” he answered.

Oh, right. The public liked to see news articles and social media posts with pictures to announce royal activities. It was still weird to me how some people idolized us. Or perhaps that was just my imposter syndrome as an adopted royal.

Speaking of adoption …

“I want to go to the orphanage this week, too,” I told Mason. “Can I do that on …” I read back through the itinerary. “… Wednesday after my morning shift?”

He nodded and started typing on his phone. “Of course. Are there any other things you want to do this week? I’ll get them all added and the itinerary updated now.”

“I want to have a meal with Tony and a night with Maya.”

I also needed time to practice the curses and the other powers I had. There were too many things to do in such a short amount of time.

“Okay, I’ll get their availability and schedule something,” Mason said.

Piper tilted her head to the side as she watched us. “I never pictured Mason for the secretarial type. I assumed that would be Kayden.”

“Kayden hates creating documents like an itinerary,” Mason explained.

“I make all the important calls because Mason hates talking to people on the phone and he has terrible customer service skills,” Kayden said. “It’s part of what makes us a good team. We make up for each other’s failings.”

“What does Trey bring to the table?” Piper asked.

“My good looks and charm,” he said as he entered the room.

I rolled my eyes so only Piper could see, making her smile.

“He makes most of the business decisions, though we all discuss it,” Kayden answered. “He’s annoyingly good at convincing others to go along with the business decisions he wants and that’s why we let him do most of the talking during meetings.”

“He could talk a snake out of their scales,” Mason grumbled. His eyes darted to me and he smirked. “No offense.”

I smiled and said, “You say that like he hasn’t talked me out of my clothes.”

Piper threw her head back and laughed.

“Alright, it’s time for food. I can hear your stomach growling from downstairs,” Trey said and scooped me up off the bed and into a bridal carry. He kissed my cheek as he carried me out of the room and downstairs to the dining room.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek just below his bloodstone. “You just missed me and didn’t like me being up there away from you, didn’t you?”

He looked at me from the corner of his eye before setting me down on a chair at the table and rubbing his cheek along mine, marking his scent on me. “Perhaps.”

A huge amount of food had been prepared and set on the table. “Did you make all of this?” Had we been up in my room long enough for him to have time to cook all this?

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