Page 81 of Dominion

“We’re here,” Casimir announced, taking away all the warmth I had in me.

28

ASH

I had dreadedthis moment ever since Casimir said we were going back, but maybe I had somehow underestimated the strength Skylar possessed.

The car stopped in front of the gate I recognized from the brief period of time I lived here. I had always wondered who lived in the massive mansion just on the edge of the East Side of the town, when everything else around here looked about ready to fall apart.

The tall iron wall made it difficult to see anything inside, and the road down the hill you had to take to actually reach it was on the opposite side of the road we usually had to use to get home. But I still wondered, and I had always wanted to know who would choose to live on the East Side when they could obviously afford something like this.

Now I knew.

Skylar slowly exited the car as soon as Hunter slowed down and I followed suit, ignoring Casimir’s warning to get back inside.

“Sky?”

“He was here,” she murmured, more to herself than to me, her eyes were plastered at the tall wrought iron gate with theskull embedded in the middle and the snake wrapped around it. “I never knew.”

“Hey.” I slowly approached her, wrapping my fingers around her upper arms. “Let’s get back inside,” I whispered, just as the gate started opening. “We can ask all the questions once we’re inside.”

“It’s Morass Asylum,” she continued, ignoring what I had just said. “Oh my God,’ she exclaimed, turning toward me. “This whole time they were here.”

“Who?”

“The Dominion and my...” She trailed off. “I mean, I don’t know for sure, but, Ash…” she continued talking with confusion in her tone. “This means?—”

“Skylar!” Casimir belted out, exiting the car. “Get back inside.”

“You were here.” She started walking toward him. “How long were you here?”

“Sky.” He sounded pained. “Not now. I’ll explain everything inside.”

“No.” She shook her head, getting closer and closer to him. “I’m not mad, I’m just... I need to know. How long?”

Casimir tiptoed around the answer, his eyes trailing between her and me. It was obvious he didn’t want to answer.

“A couple of months,” he mumbled. “Before Ash moved into town.”

“Were you here when the accident happened?”

Oh shit.

“Yeah.” He avoided looking at her, keeping his gaze firmly plastered to the ground. “I was here, and I hated every single second of it.”

“But why?—”

“Why didn’t I reach out to you?” he finished for her, and I wondered the same. Why would he go through the trouble ofcontacting me and giving me all the information I needed, but he wouldn’t contact her when he was already here? “Because things had to fall into place. I didn’t want to just barge into your life and scare the living hell out of you. I knew you had no idea about the Order and I had no idea what was happening with Judah. If I had known…” he croaked.

“I know,” she mumbled. “But you couldn’t have known.”

“I’d been watching you, waiting for the perfect opportunity to approach you, but it never came. I had to be safe. Not because of me, but because of you. I’m sorry I cared more about making sure that we had all that we needed instead of coming for you the moment I stepped foot inside this town.”

“Cas.” She placed her hand on his heart, and I knew that there was no anger in her voice. I could hear it. I could sense her mood better than I could sense my own. “I’m not angry. I’m not blaming you. If you had barged into my life just like that, telling me all these crazy stories, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. Hell, I had a hard time believing you when you first came to me. Imagine what would’ve happened if you had just dropped by, unannounced, telling me these fantasy stories about the Order and Dominion?”

“I know, but I still should’ve done something.”

“You did.” She turned to look at me, smiling. “You brought Ash into my life. You made sure I had a safe place to go to when I needed it, and you came when the time was right. However,” she took a step back from him, “I hope you know that we won’t be staying here once we tie up all these loose ends. No matter how pretty that house is, I don’t want to step foot in this town ever again.”

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