Page 170 of Cherish

“That’s Blackpink,” Flint says, showing the first bit of actual enthusiasm since we walked in the room. “They’re great.”

“I know that, but I meant—” I point to two people in the front row. “The Curator’s at the concert. WithJikan.”

“Seriously?” Eden demands as they all lumber to their feet and crowd around me and the Blackpink TV.

“That’s where she decided to go for her vacation? A concert?” Jaxon asks.

“Does that honestly surprise you? Have you seen this house?”

He inclines his head. “Good point.”

“Why don’t you take your break?” I tell him and Flint. “Go rest for a little while. We’ll take it from here.”

“We will?” Eden asks, sounding doubtful. “I think I’m broken.”

“Wewill,” I tell her. “It’s just a few more hours. We can do it. Right?”

“Sure,” Macy agrees, even though she looks like she’d rather have her fingernails and eyelashes ripped out one by one. “We’ve got this.”

Jaxon and Flint exchange a look. It’s the first time I’ve seen themreallylook at each other all day, and for once, they don’t seem annoyed.

“We’ll stay,” Flint says with a magnanimous wave of his hand. “Seven of us have to be better at this than five.”

“You don’t have to—” I start, but Eden cuts me off.

“Sure they do,” she says as she picks up a couple of notebooks and hands one to each of them. “Come on, guys. Chop-chop.”

She claps her hands as the rest of us burst out laughing.

On the plus side, the crisis seems to have passed, and we spend the next couple of hours actually working pretty well together, until the Curator finally walks in the door wearing a Blackpink T-shirt and a flower crown and carrying a giant Manchester United pennant.

90

The Give-It-

Back Tree

“Thanks for holding down the fort,” she says an hour later. We all sit down to lunch while Kleo mans the TV room.

“Don’t thank us yet,” I tell her. “We tried our best, but there’s a lot going on in the world at any given minute.”

The Curator smiles indulgently. “Isn’t that the truth? But I’m sure you guys did great. Here, have some pasta.” She grabs the bowl from the center of the table and slides it straight toward me like she’s slinging beers in a bar. “Besides, if you messed up, who’s to know?”

“Well, that’s a terrifying thought,” Hudson mutters under his breath.

“Thank you,” I murmur to her before putting some on my plate.

“And these spinach fatayer. They’re delicious,” she says. Another bowl comes careening across the table at me.

I take one of the small triangular pastries and dig in.

By the end of the meal, I’m stuffed and also frustrated, because no matter how many times we try to bring the conversation back to the Bittersweet Tree, she’s not having it.

The only thing making me—or Jaxon—not completely lose our shit on her right now is the fact that Mekhi actually looked a little better the last time we saw him on his TV screen. He’d just fed from Lorelei—which none of us had watched, because even when it’s not between mates, it’s still intimate—and had been sitting up in bed a little.

As she evades the question again, though, I wonder if she doesn’t actually know where the Bittersweet Tree is. She wouldn’t be the first god who’d tricked someone.

Eventually, I can’t hold my tongue any longer and flat-out ask, “Can you tell us where the Bittersweet Tree is now? I’m glad you had an amazing day, and I’d be more than happy to talk about coming back here and giving you another day soon—”

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