Page 50 of Dominion

Casimir’s gaze on me softened, his eyes moving from Skylar to me and then to Dylan. “We need to talk,” he said, looking at Cillian and Indigo. “Privately.”

“What for?” Cillian asked. “Everything you say to them can be shared with us.”

“I know, but I don’t think that this particular information should be shared with all of you, unless Ash wants me to.”

I didn’t. I didn’t want everyone to know what a fool I was, but I had also been a child. A child who needed someone to look up to. A child who wanted his family back and who would’ve done everything to turn back time. I was just a child who had spent years hating the wrong person, all the while living with the villain.

“They can stay,” I finally said. “But I don’t want Sebastian to know.” He was already asking questions about Uncle Neal, and sooner or later, I would need to share all this information with him.

Uncle Neal was a father figure to Sebastian, and I knew this would affect him a lot more than me. Granted, I was angry, but Sebastian would be devastated. He trusted him—we both did—and to find out that he wasn’t as innocent as he pretended to be, well…

“I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, Ash, and I’m sorry for what I’m about to say. Neal Carwith was part of the Order as you’ve said, and yes, he was also suspended, but he never stopped working with Judah.” I froze. “You and your brother weren’t supposed to live with him. We were preparing to take you in, to help you, but Judah meddled with things that weren’t his to meddle with and Neal became your guardian.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Skylar murmured. “Not at all.”

“I know. I don’t like it either.” Casimir sat down, looking straight at me. “The instructions Judah gave him are not something I would like to repeat at this table, but…” he stopped and looked at Dylan. “Neal was supposed to prepare both of you for the Red Manor.”

“Jesus,” Skylar said, but I couldn’t move my eyes away from Casimir.

“He was to groom you and lead you back to Winworth. Judah would make it so that you would disappear without a trace. Ihave no idea what happened in the meantime, because it seems to me that Neal told you at least the partial truth—that Judah killed your parents. But Neal was the one who betrayed them. Your parents were helping Danika and Gabriel, our mom and Skylar’s dad. Neal was the one who knew where they were. They trusted him because they thought he wasn’t involved anymore.”

“But he was.” It was almost inaudible, but they still heard me when I said it. And whatever it was that Skylar saw on my face made her walk around the table and push me back, until she was able to sit straight in my lap. She wrapped herself around me, burying her face in my neck, while Dylan wrapped his arm around my shoulders, both of them giving me the strength I didn’t know I needed.

“Yeah, he was. We didn’t have official proof of his involvement, until recently.” Casimir pulled out his phone and opened something, before sliding it toward me. My hands shook as I picked it up, seeing the incriminating photos of Neal with Judah—laughing and chatting like old friends. As I kept scrolling, email after email, messages, photos of Sebastian and me, he’d been reporting everything to Judah.

It was Judah’s idea for us to finally come to Winworth. It was Judah’s idea to target Skylar.

“Jesus fuck,” Dylan murmured, looking at the same pictures as I was.

“We know where he is.” Casimir grinned. Our eyes clashed, understanding passing between the two of us.

“Where?” I was the first one to ask.

15

SKYLAR

I have seenrage more times than happiness during my very short life, but I have never seen Ash like this.

Like he was about to explode.

Like he was about to destroy everything standing in his path.

We all went to sleep shortly after Casimir shared all the information with us, and I had no idea how to erase the frown from Ash’s face. Both Dylan and I kept him in our sights, but none of us slept as well as we should’ve. And just like he promised, Casimir woke us up at the crack of dawn, ready to go.

Zoe was there as well, just to say goodbye since she was going back to Santa Monica. I couldn’t help but feel afraid without her there. She’d brought so much warmth into our otherwise bleak lives during these last couple of weeks, and I knew that if it wasn’t for her and the rest of the guys, we would’ve done something extremely reckless.

She practically pushed a cup of coffee into my hand along with a small bag filled with sandwiches for all of us, before we had to head out toward the small, private airport I didn’t know existed. Truthfully, I wasn’t going to ask any questions, considering Casimir was arranging this.

The less I knew about him and the things he was capable of, the better it was. I was still reeling from that bone-chilling statement in regard to Danny. Even though I knew he had a point, I still didn’t like it.

I preferred to believe that there was still a way to help him. I’d known him for as long as I knew myself, and there was that other thing—he was my brother. Maybe it was just by blood or because of our father, but I didn’t want to see him dead. Something told me that Casimir wasn’t exactly a guy who would sit down and talk to him.

But again, I didn’t want to know. If that made me a bad person, so be it. I had more important people I had to take care of, and Danny wasn’t on the list. Not anymore.

I would need to get in touch with Kane and Rowan the moment we got back home. I just hoped we would at least get some answers from Neal before Casimir did whatever it was that he wanted to.

We arrived in New York City a little after eleven in the morning, and while my entire body ached from the lack of sleep, my mind was wide awake.

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