Page 49 of Dominion

“Ash—”

“No, Skylar. Absolutely not. If we go there, we’re going to be sitting ducks, waiting for Judah to attack.” The moment those words tumbled out of my mouth, I recognized the look on her face. “But that’s your plan, isn’t it? To be a sitting duck. To lure him out.”

“He’s nowhere to be found, Ash,” Skylar said calmly. “He’s in hiding, and unless there’s something, or, in this case, someone, to lure him out, we’ll never get to him. He has connections, places to hide—places we know nothing about—and I’m sick and tired of all this hiding and running. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like this, waiting for him to attack. I want this to be done, once and for all.”

“Sky—”

“No, Ash. I understand you’re worried, and I’d be lying if I said that I’m not worried too, but we have to. Kane and Rowan are there. I have no idea if they’re alive or dead. I don’t know anything! And as much as I hate that town, I know we need to go back. We need to attack him on his own turf.”

“Babe.” I huffed. “We can’t just show up there. He has eyes and ears everywhere. The moment we step foot into the town, he’ll know where we are. Are you forgetting the fire?” She winced at my words. “Yeah, didn’t think so. They will rally around him, protect him, and we will be an easy target. They know us, theyknow people we care about. Isn’t it better for Kane and Rowan if we’re not in the picture.”

A chair scraped over the floor, and my head swiveled to the side to look at Casimir who was now standing. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Those eyes, the same as Skylar’s, narrowed at me, his lips pulling into a line.

“What I have to say is not something you want to hear, Ash. I already told you that I’ve been running my main operation straight from Winworth, but Judah isn’t there right now. Even my sources are unable to find him thanks to Belladonna, and as frustrating as it is, I know we have to wait.” Relief washed over me, before he snatched it back. “But I do agree with her. You have to go back.”

“You are fucking insane.” It was Dylan this time. “My father wants her dead. Hell, he wants all of us dead and he won’t stop until it’s done. What we did to him, what Skylar did to his precious Order… He’s not taking it well, trust me. He’s not going to just sit and wait for us to come to him.”

“And then there’s Danny,” I murmured, feeling sick just at the mention of his name.

Skylar’s expression thundered, but it wasn’t out of pain or sadness. Pure anger flashed in those irises, her hands fisting at her sides as she stared at me.

Danny was a sore spot for all of us. While we hadn’t discussed him since we had come back from the Red Manor, he still felt like a ghost presence in the back of my mind. An unresolved crime, a person I didn’t want to hurt because he used to be Skylar’s friend, but we all knew he had to be removed.

“Leave Danny to me,” Casimir said casually, almost too calmly, sending chills all over my body. There was no real threat in those words, nothing that could indicate what he wanted to do, but I understood the unspoken words better than anyone.

“Cas, don’t—” Skylar started before he cut her off.

“I said,” he looked at her, “leave Danny to me. You have your ways, Skylar, and I have mine. One day, you’ll understand that sometimes to do good you gotta do evil first.”

“Jesus,” Dylan whispered next to me. “And people think I’m bad.”

“You are.” I smiled at him. “But you’re not hiding it. This one…” I pointed toward Casimir. “This one is something else, and I’m still not sure if I trust him.”

“Riiight,” Skylar drawled, obviously displeased with the current situation, but we all knew that Casimir had a point. Danny needed to be eliminated if we were to get rid of Judah. There was no other way.

I could still hear his psychotic laughter while we chased him through the woods. I still remembered that blank stare on his face when we finally caught up to him, just before he got inside his car and drove away. I had no idea what happened to him, if he was always like this, or if it happened sometime in the last month before the ritual, but whatever it was, he managed to fool us all. He made us think he was a friend when he was just a puppet, controlled by Judah.

I saw the sickness on every single wall in the Red Manor. I felt the ickiness of the diseases Judah was spreading, controlling the narrative, during those days in the manor. A part of me wondered if Danny was just another victim. But whatever he was, it was too late to change now. Casimir would take care of it, and if I was being entirely honest—I was glad.

“I’m waiting for news on Belladonna’s whereabouts, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get Judah as well.”

“And if we don’t?” I asked.

“Then we’re going to Winworth,” Skylar answered, tightening that noose around my neck. “We need to put an endto this. I don’t want to spend months and years wondering when the other shoe will drop. This ends now, Ash.”

“I know,” I murmured. “But we still have one more loose end.”

“You mean—and I’m saying this with all the respect I can muster—that fucking man who fooled you into thinking that he had your best interests in mind?” Casimir practically growled, and I recoiled as if he physically slapped me.

Not that he didn’t have a point, but it still felt as if someone had sliced straight through my chest with a knife, reminding me that most of the things I was told over the course of my life were a lie. Until I met Skylar, and until I realized that she wasn’t just a pawn I could use to destroy Judah, there were only two people I loved in my life—my brother and my uncle. And to know that the man who’d practically raised me was the man who had probably destroyed my family was something I was trying to avoid.

“Yeah,” I gritted out. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

Dylan’s hand suddenly landed on my knee. I didn’t realize I was bouncing it up and down, almost moving the entire table. There were things I was okay with talking about, but other topics, such as this one, were a sore spot for me. But if Skylar and Dylan could discuss Judah and destroy him, then I could—and should—discuss my uncle as well.

“I don’t know where he is,” I said. “And I don’t have all the details about his past. I know that he was part of the Order and I know he was suspended.”

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