Page 29 of Jacinth

“Harley, where is everyone?” I called once in range.

She shrugged, her face somehow paler than usual, even under the white makeup.

“You gotta fix this. We’re counting on you.”

“What...?”

She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, not even a puff of smoke like in those old magic tricks. I wondered again who she really was.

“What was that about?” Orion asked, catching up to me and shifting his shoulders uncomfortably under the load.

“I don’t know. Something is certainly off here, though.”

Feeling a little less of the elation from before, we moved toward Jacinth’s clearing.

We found her lying on the grass with Sky, idly pointing at clouds.

Both Orion and I dumped our loads with a groan and took a seat to rest a moment before setting up.

“Having fun, kids?” I asked with a grin.

Jace came over and pressed a sweet kiss to my lips in greeting. Not going to lie, my chest swelled with manly pride. That’s right, she’s mine, bitches. Ok, ours; but Orion would cop hell before she’d admit it to him.

“Hey baby,” she purred, clearly putting on a show.

After a moment of running her hands over me—which I was in no hurry to interrupt—she glanced over at my brother, as if only just realizing we weren’t alone.

“Oh. Hello, Oreo, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Oreo, huh? Well, you can twist and lick me all you please, just be the milk I dunk in. For now, I’m here to cook for you all.”

Everyone froze in shock at Orion’s repartee. I don’t know how long we would have stayed statue-still if a voice hadn’t broken through the silence.

“Oh, gag! If you’re all doing the sexual innuendo thing, I’m outie.” Birdie came stomping into the clearing, flushed and flustered, as though she had rushed to get here.

“Ok, that might have turned me on a little. Tell him and I’ll tell Harley you want a three-way,” Jace breathed in my ear.

A moment later, she jumped up and skipped over to her sister, completely ignoring how evil her threat had been.

“Not cool.”

I shook my head and wandered over to set up the grill with the help of my brothers. It amazed me how efficiently we all came together to get our meal going. Behind us, Birdie took a seat and talked quietly with Jace.

“Sorry I’m late. I ran into that priest dude on the way in. That guy gets creepier every time I see him. I hope he doesn’t come anywhere near you.”

I cast a quick glance over my shoulder in time to see Jace shake her head. That was good. If Birdie was talking about the same guy I had run into, he was bad news. Definitely something to watch.

“Did you buy an entire cow?” Sky groused as he pulled various cuts of steak from the cooler I had carried over from the house.

“You’ll thank me later when Jace is grateful we took such wonderful care of her sister.”

Sky cut his eyes toward the twins and away again. “Good point. By the way, are we going to do anything to help?” He nodded his head at where Orion was trying to get the grill to light.

I thought about the threat Jace had just leveled at me. “Nah, I think he’s on his own. She won’t take too long to come around, anyway.”

Sky grunted and bent to move the cooler closer to Orion.

“Oh! I almost forgot, I got something for you, Jace,” I said.

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