Page 78 of Dominion

He didn’t blink an eye when one of Judah’s henchmen brought a knife to Rowan’s throat, after he wouldn’t shut up.

I couldn’t tell them about the plan. I couldn’t tell them that they would walk out of here unscathed, so I had to shut them up somehow.

“Danny told me you knocked out both Rowan and Kane.” Judah’s eyes searched mine, no doubt looking for anything that could make him doubt me, but I wasn’t gonna give him anything.

I shrugged, placing my legs on top of the table and relaxing deeper into the couch. “They were annoying me, crying about justice and what Skylar would say. As if I fucking care what Skylar would say. They are traitors, and we would deal with them as we see fit.”

“But you could’ve killed them then and there.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” I chuckled. “If we kill them now, Skylar and fucking Ash wouldn’t come all the way to Winworth just to see the two of us. They care about Kane and Rowan for whatever stupid reason, and I’m pretty sure that we would have a harder time getting them here if we didn’t have anything to lure them in with.”

“True, true. But still?—”

“Dad,” I interrupted. “Don’t you trust me? After all this time, don’t you think I know best when it comes to these things?”

“I do,” he started, taking a deep breath. “Trust you. I just want to make sure we’re doing everything right.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I’ve got this. Besides,” I smiled, looking straight at him, “Danny has already sent a video to Skylar. I’m giving them two days to show up here, and after that...” I imitated a knife cutting over my throat, showing what was going to happen.

The only thing was—Judah had no idea that Casimir already knew where we were and he was the one who approved of this plan with me.

He was the only one who knows why I left, and I just hoped it was all worth it.

27

SKYLAR

There werepromises I had made in my life I knew I wouldn’t be able to fulfill, but I never thought I would have to break the promise I made to myself, to save the man I loved and to rid this world from the monsters that took almost everything from me.

I promised myself I would never go back to Winworth on that night when I set that god-forsaken place on fire, yet here I was, sitting in the back of the car, with my hands folded on my lap, trying not to chew my nails when the tires hit that familiar gravelly road between the highway and the very entrance to the town. I also tried not to look at Ash the entire time, but I didn’t need to have my eyes on him to feel the tension surrounding him.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Casimir didn’t say a word the entire ride, and I could feel the dark energy emanating from him in waves. To make matters worse, even Hunter kept his mouth shut. From the moment we met him, I knew that this was a man who would continue talking even if his life depended on being silent.

We were all pretty much lost in our own worlds, trying to arrange our thoughts and our emotions, but it didn’t matter how many mantras I chanted, or how many lies I told myself, thetruth was that I was terrified of being back here. I was terrified of this town and what it represented.

I was terrified of the darkness living underneath the very streets I used to walk over for so many years. It was idiotic, being this anxious over the buildings and streets that wouldn’t be able to hurt me, but I knew that it was what lived within those walls that could destroy me.

Maybe it was my need to be better, to change, to stop with the apathetic feelings and the need to get high just to forget. To just not think about things.

Winworth will forever represent everything monstrous for me, for my life, and wasn’t it sad that the place that was supposed to be home turned out to be the place where I didn’t belong?

I was stuck in limbo, between places, because I didn’t know where I should go next. Should I return to the place that should’ve been home but was anything but, and try to make it work a second time around? Or was I a coward if I said that I never wanted to step foot here again after this shit was over?

“Are you okay?” Ash practically whispered, grasping my hand in his and pulling my attention to him. The tone of his voice broke my heart only a little bit more because we both knew what this town represented. We both knew the dangers that lurked in each and every corner, and we knew that there was nothing we could do to change the past. “But truly?” he added. “I don’t want you to lie to me.”

He knew me well—maybe even too well—but even with all the anxiety and the need to jump out of this car, regardless of how reckless and dangerous that was, I was also at peace. I knew that I wasn’t alone. This time around, I wasn’t going to face Judah by myself, and if that admission made me weak, then so fucking be it.

I had to learn the hard way that asking for help didn’t mean you were weak—it meant you were strong enough to recognize when you couldn’t do things on your own. It meant being brave enough to utter those three words so many of us dreaded.

I need help.

It rang inside my head for so many years, but I never had enough courage to say it out loud. Maybe if I had, we wouldn’t be in this shitshow now. Dylan would’ve been with us and I wouldn’t have to go back to the place where it all started. Where the sinners danced without a care in the world and the innocent paid the price for the sins they didn’t commit.

It was the place where I was born, but that never felt like home.

And after we survive this—because I know we will—I would put it into the little black box in the back of my mind and forget that it even existed.

---