Page 35 of Dominion

At least I liked to think that we were stronger. and I only had to show them what we were capable of. What we could still do.

I pushed my chair away from the table, the scraping of the wood leg against the floor irritating everyone’s ears, but I didn’t stop to apologize for that. The moment Skylar left the room, I followed her, determined to stop this madness. To propel us into the future, to start planning.

We could sit around and wallow in self-pity, but it wouldn’t do us any good. Once you allowed yourself to think about all those things that you couldn’t change, the Devil would come, weighing down on you, sitting on your shoulders, until it pushed you directly into the ground.

I didn’t believe in God, but I believed that there was something out there, something in the universe that listened, that observed, that stood on the side of those who tried to do good and on the side of those who pushed forward even when every step felt like walking on burning hot lava.

“Sky,” I called out just as she stepped on the first stair, leading to the second floor. Her blond hair whooshed around her as she turned around, those bleak blue eyes narrowing when she saw me standing just a couple of feet away from her. She didn’t want to talk? Well, tough luck, buttercup, because we were going to talk.

I wasn’t going to allow her to destroy herself over this. I wasn’t going to allow her to destroy us.

“We need to talk,” I said matter-of-factly, stepping closer to where she stood. Her entire body tightened, her lips forming into a thin line. As she opened her mouth, I almost knew what was going to come out of them. “I’m tired, Ash.” The soft murmur almost brought me to my knees, but enough was enough.

I loved her enough to know that this kind of love wasn’t going to help her. This kind of care wasn’t going to bring her back to me.

I needed her back to comb through this mess. We had to go back to Winworth. We had to plan. We had to establish contact with Kane and Rowan. I had no idea what happened that night when the fire started in the Order, but I knew she had something to do with it.

When I asked Cillian, he only told me to ask her, that it wasn’t his place to say.

People were capable of monstrous things in the moment of insanity, when they thought that there was nothing else left to fight for, but that didn’t make them monsters. In my book, thatmade them human. That made them capable of feeling, capable of emotions that would otherwise be snuffed.

If she had done what I thought she did, then we had to talk about that.

Skylar was many things, but a murderer wasn’t one of them. If she was the culprit behind the fire in the City Hall, then we had to talk about it. She had to tell me if we were going to move forward. Not because I cared about all those members who closed their eyes to the horrors that Judah Blackwood created, but because I cared about Skylar, and I knew that it would sit heavily on her shoulders until it destroyed her.

“I know you’re tired,” I started, wrapping my hand around hers and propping myself to the same stair where she stood. “But we really need to talk.”

She scrunched her face, a frown appearing between her eyebrows, but we both knew that this conversation was inevitable. This one and many more. I allowed her to hide, to do whatever the fuck she wanted to do to erase the memories, to come to terms with what had happened, but she couldn’t hide forever.

None of us could.

If I could forget about Winworth, about my upbringing, about Judah fucking Blackwood, I would still choose to remember. Because not knowing about Winworth would mean not meeting Skylar and then Dylan.

There was a reason for everything that had happened, and one of mine stood in front of me, while the other one stayed back in the room. There was a reason why destiny brought the three of us together, and I would go through hell and back if I knew that they would be waiting for me.

“Moonshine,” I murmured, pressing my lips to her cold cheek. “Please.” I pushed the words through my lips even when my voice wavered. “I can’t do this without you. I can’t do thiswithout Dylan either. I need you back. I need you to come back to me, darling.”

I pressed my forehead against hers as my hand wrapped around the back of her neck, kneading the tight muscles there. “I don’t know how to move on without the two of you. And seeing you like this…” I pulled away, looking down at her. “It’s killing me, Sky. I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it, but please don’t push me away. Please don’t tell me to leave you alone because that’s one thing I won’t be able to do.”

Her eyes filled with tears, her agony as clear as day, and I saw it then, the amount of pain she was hiding from me. But she was breaking as I slowly pushed through.

“Please, Moonshine. Plea?—”

I never got to finish the sentence because the doorbell rang, echoing throughout the house. Skylar’s head turned toward the door before she looked back at me, questions filling her features.

There was no one else who should be coming, especially not at this hour. Everyone who currently lived inside the house was already here.

Cillian was the first one who came out of the kitchen, looking as confused as we were. “Are we expecting anyone?” he asked, looking at Skylar and me.

I shook my head as Skylar started walking toward the door. The warning was on the tip of my tongue, the plea to let us open the door, but I knew she wouldn’t listen. Later, I would blame myself for letting her open it, for letting her see what, or rather, who she was about to see, but I didn’t know.

I couldn’t have known.

The doors opened with a whoosh, the cold night air flickering through the foyer, revealing a tall figure I had never seen before.

His chiseled jaw was the first thing I noticed, followed by the palest eyes I had ever seen. His dark eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks as he looked down at Skylar, taking a step back. Butthe moment he stepped back, both Cillian and I came forward, crowding Skylar and slowly pushing her back.

His blond hair was in disarray, as if he had run his hands through it countless times. But it was his face, so fucking familiar. But I could swear I had never seen him before in my life. It wasn’t until he finally spoke, those words chilling every single bone in my body, that I realized we were in a bigger mess than we initially thought.

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