Page 41 of Dominion

But then again, none of us were exactly saints—me least of all—so maybe I shouldn’t be judging him without giving him a chance to prove himself first. Maybe he was like Lars, his alter ego who had helped me all this time. Maybe his intentions weren’t as sinister as we all thought.

I understood why Skylar was pissed, but I felt like we should hear what he had to say. We were pushed into a corner with nowhere to go. Judah had more power than all of us combined, and I refused to ask Storm and Ophelia for more help. They had their own shit to deal with, that much was obvious.

The door behind me opened, and I turned around, expecting to see Cillian there, but it wasn’t him.

“Mind if I sit down with you?” Casimir asked, looking uncomfortable for the first time since we had met him.

He was the kind of a man you couldn’t help but be drawn to. There was a certain type of charisma dangerous people carried and Casimir was no exception to the rule. He was older than us—at least ten years older—and while I had no idea if the story he shared was true, I knew I needed help to stop Judah.

“Please,” I answered, pointing at the chair next to mine.

I took a second to look at him—really, really look at him—and I could see it then. The resemblance between him and Skylar. Their eyes were the same shape and they both had those high cheekbones. The way they both walked, the way they both held themselves, and if that wasn’t enough, it was that small smile on his face when he looked at me after he sat down that sealed the deal.

“I’m not gonna sugarcoat shit, because that’s not who I am.” I figured that out on my own already, but I let him talk. “You guys are in serious trouble,” Casimir said, placing his elbows on his knees. “And you need help.”

“I know,” was all I said, looking at the bare backyard, refusing to meet his eyes even when I felt him looking at me. “It’s a mess.”

“That’s an understatement,” he murmured. If I thought that would be the only thing he would say, I was wrong. “You guys have no idea who Judah Blackwood is and what he’s capable of.”

“I think I have a teeny tiny idea,” I tried joking, but laughter never followed. I tilted my head to the side, and I looked at him, itching to ask the one thing that was sitting heavily on my mind. “Are you here to take her away?” I had to know.

I had to know if he was the same kind of monster just with a different face. I had to know if he was going to be just another adversary instead of an ally.

His eyebrow arched up, his back straightening, but if he thought that was going to intimidate me, he had another think coming. “You know what I’m talking about, Casimir, so there’s no need for you to look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me rephrase it if you didn’t understand.” I turned toward him, my eyes zeroing in on the small scar on his cheek that wasn’t as visible from a distance as it was now. “Are you going to take her to be a part of some fucked-up ritual where she has to marry her brother, or are you actually here to really help her?”

If my question shocked him, he never showed it, and I would probably never know, but there was something unnerving in the way he observed me, making me want to scoot back at least a little. I could see why Casimir held the position he did. I could see why Judah might fear him.

“You really do love her, don’t you?” he asked matter-of-factly, taking me aback momentarily. Out of all the things he could’ve said, that wasn’t what I expected.

“I do,” I answered flatly. “But that’s beside the point. That wasn’t my question.”

“I know.” He nodded. “But I also know what I saw when my men first mentioned you and your little quest, Ash.” I bristled at that. “I can see that you’re not that same boy who wanted to destroy every single person that carried the Blackwood name. What I can’t understand is why Dylan Blackwood is still here.”

“Because he’s one of us,” I answered. “He isn’t his father.”

“Isn’t he?” Casimir narrowed his eyes at me. “I can tell you I am my father. At least a little bit. I can also tell you that Skylar is a little bit of both of her parents, and I can definitely say that you are just like your parents. Or at least what I’ve heard about them. I can also see that Judah Blackwood brainwashed that poor man to the point where he has no idea if he has the right to be here.”

“That’s not true. Dylan isn’t Judah, and the sooner you see it, the better it will be for all of us.”

“Hmmm, we will see, but I stand my ground. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be with the two of you, especially not after everything he did.”

Of course I knew that he was right in thinking this way. Dylan had been a puppet in Judah’s hands for so long and I could see that he had to live with the regrets of everything he had done, but he wasn’t that person. Maybe I didn’t know him as well as Skylar did, but I trusted my heart. I trusted my instincts. I knew he wasn’t the monster Judah made him out to be.

“You’re wrong,” I bit out. “He deserves to be here. He deserves to be with us. If you won’t accept him and the fact that the three of us come in one package, then maybe you should leave, Cas. Maybe you don’t belong here.”

I didn’t expect the smile on his face or the sparkle in his eyes after I said that, but there it was. “I like you, Ash,” he added. “And because I like you and I always have, I’m gonna make you a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“The kind that’s going to take Judah Blackwood off your backs.”

I had a feeling that making a deal with Casimir was like making a deal with the Devil himself, but it wasn’t like we had a choice. We had no idea where Judah was or what his next step was going to be. I knew he wasn’t going to leave us alone even ifwe ran to the end of the world. I didn’t want us to spend the rest of our lives on the run, constantly looking over our shoulders, thinking about the danger that would constantly be looming on the horizon.

I didn’t want Skylar and Dylan to constantly fear for their lives because the real monster lived inside Winworth and they would never be able to go back home. It was important to be able to go home, to heal, to say goodbye to all those things that haunted us, no matter how painful they were.

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