Page 83 of Dominion

“What happened?” he asked as if on a cue just as I closed the door behind me, wincing at the loud thud echoing around us. There was barely any furniture inside, and the entire place looked like it could use some love. The wallpaper was peeling off. The touch of time was slowly eating this place alive, and as much as it pained me to say this, it must have been an amazing building back in the day. “Skylar?” Casimir boomed, stepping right in front of us. “What happened?”

“I think,” her voice wavered, her frown deepening. “I think I got a message.”

“You think or you know?” he demanded, which didn’t sit well with me.

“Cas, slow down man. Skylar,” I looked at her. “Check your phone.”

Her round blue eyes filled with fear, and I would’ve given anything to take it away. To erase it completely. “I’m scared,” she murmured. “What if it’s?—”

“If it’s Dylan, we will deal with it,” I said, ignoring the huffing bull standing next to us. I understood that he wanted to protect her, that he needed to know things, but he had to knock the overbearing behavior down a notch. “Come on, take it out.”

Her shaky hands took the phone out, her eyes plastered to the lit-up screen. “It’s an unknown number,” she mumbled, unmoving, just staring at it as if it could jump up and bite her. The encouragement was on the tip of my tongue, when she unlocked it, opening the message from the number she didn’t have saved.

“Hey, Sis.” Danny’s too cheerful voice filled the space around us, and I could feel the moment we all tensed. “I missed you.” God, I hated that guy. “I really hope you missed me too, and I hope you’re not too mad about our last meeting.”

Mad? He fucking tried to kill her.

I snatched the phone from Skylar and walked to the other side of the foyer with Casimir at my heels.

“It’s been a long time since we last saw each other,” the motherfucker continued, his face clear on the screen and that fucking smirk I wanted to wipe off his face. “I miss you.” He pouted, faking sincerity, but we all knew better. “There are other people here who have missed you too.”

My heart thundered behind my ribcage, my eyes zeroed in on two figures with their arms high above their heads, hanging on some sort of rope tightened to the ceiling.

“Kane and Rowan are here as well.” Danny grinned, moving closer to the two men who were almost unrecognizable. Kane’s face was bruised with blood all over his shirt and skin, but he was conscious, glaring at Danny with the hatred of a thousand men shining from his eyes. Rowan on the other hand... He wasn’t. Pale skin and bruises that matched Kane’s weren’t the worst thing.

Blood soaked his white shirt, his head hanging low, completely unconscious.

“See, they wanted to say hi as well.”

Kane mumbled something behind the cloth that was pushed inside his mouth.

“What was that?” Danny asked, coming closer to him. “You want her to come and meet us here?” Kane shook his head, his eyes flashing with fear as he looked into the camera. The message was clear—he didn’t want her to come. He didn’t want to be saved. “I want her to come, too,” Danny murmured. “It’ll be just like old times. Just how it used to be.”

Kane thrashed, the sound of chains that were tightened around his ankles echoing around us.

“Now, now, Kane.” Danny patted his cheek. “Don’t worry. You’ll get your chance to talk to her. She’s gonna come. I’m sure of it.”

I had no idea when my body started shaking or when my vision started blurring, but the phone was snatched away from my hand and I looked up, glaring at a concerned-looking Casimir who was completely ignoring me.

“We’re at the old church, Sis, waiting for you.” The message finished, the video ending, leaving us all with a thousand thoughts and not one single one of them was anything good.

My mind exploded with possibilities, the plans that we needed to make, but my voice didn’t want to work. How was it possible that someone like that could fool us all for so long, only to end up being the biggest villain?

“He’s gonna die.” My head swiveled around at the sound of Skylar’s voice.

She stood in the middle of the foyer, looking at me and then at Casimir, her face void of all emotion. “He is going to fucking die,” she bit out, her eyes filling with anger I had never seen from her before. “I couldn’t do it before because I still cared about the boy he used to be, but now…” she laughed coldly. “He needs to die. I won’t have it any other way.”

“Calm down, Sky,” Casimir said, giving her, her phone back. “They’re all going to get what they deserve.”

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!” she blasted, snatching the phone back and pocketing it. “Do not tell me that they will get what they deserve, when the only thing they deserve is a slow and painful death. They took our innocence. They played with us as if we were toys. They don’t deserve justice, Cas. They deserve to be butchered like animals.”

“And they will be,” a new voice reverberated around us. As I turned around, looking up at the small balcony connected to the grand staircase attached to the sides of the foyer, I saw a woman standing there with a man right behind her. “All of them will be punished.”

“I thought I told you to stay put!” Casmir belted out, walking toward the stairs just as the woman and the man started walking down them.

Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, her face marred with the lines of age, but she still looked beautiful, almost regal. It took me a second as they walked down the stairs to realize that she looked just like Skylar.

The shape of her face, the color of her eyes, even her movements, it was as if I was transported into the future, looking at Skylar in approximately thirty to forty years.

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