Page 96 of Dominion

I couldn’t tell her that walking a few steps felt like I was climbing a mountain. But life had to go on. Dylan wouldn’t want us to succumb to all these emotions that could destroy us if we weren’t careful enough, and I didn’t want to lose Skylar. God, Iwouldn’t be able to move on if she tried to push me away, and that was something I had to live with for the last couple of days.

The constant fear that she wouldn’t want to stay with me. That she would somehow blame me for not being able to stop this. I promised I would bring him back. I promised I would get us all back together, and I failed.

Little did I know that she felt the same. It wasn’t until today that I found the courage to really talk to her, to try and push her outside of the shell she had cocooned herself in.

But I never thought I would have to stand here, way too young to have seen all this devastation, burying the man I loved.

I didn’t want her to see my tears. I didn’t want her to see my grief, but I couldn’t stop the tears falling or the sobs that wreaked havoc on my insides when the men Casimir hired started lowering the coffin. There were no eulogies or big words, because none of us felt strong enough to stand there and talk about the kind of man Dylan was. I barely had strength to stand here and look at his coffin.

Sebastian stood on the opposite side of me, his eyes constantly jumping from me to Skylar, and I felt his hesitation to say or do anything, waiting for one of us to break apart.

This never should’ve happened, and if I was just a little bit stronger, just a bit better prepared, I would’ve been able to stop this. I would’ve seen this coming and we wouldn’t have to bury the man who sacrificed everything for us.

My hold on Skylar tightened when she started swaying on her feet, pulling her into my chest and hugging her to me. We had only each other to hold on to, and I was thankful when she wrapped her hand around my wrist, crying out when Zoe, Indigo, and Atlas started throwing white roses on top of Dylan’s coffin. And when the first batch of dirt hit the top of the coffin, she collapsed into me, sobbing uncontrollably, grieving for the man we both loved.

“It’s okay, Moonshine.” I tried calming her down, but I couldn’t put any conviction behind those words because I had a hard time believing in them right now. “Come here.” I turned her around, wrapping my arms around her body and lifting her up, walking away from the coffin. She shook in my arms, breaking my heart over and over again, but I had to be strong.

For her.

For Dylan.

For me.

“Ash,” Casimir called out. “Take her inside,” he said loud enough for me to hear. “I’ll come and find you.”

I frowned at his words, because for the last seven days, he gave us space. So much space that I started wondering if he even cared about us—about Skylar—but I guess that it was his way of giving us time to grieve.

“We need to talk about something,” he added. “Go. She doesn’t have to stay here to see this.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I continued carrying Skylar and walked toward the house, passing by a concerned looking Lazarus and Danika at the entrance. They opened the door for us and let me pass through.

Skylar’s soft whimpers echoed around us as I carried her upstairs and into our room, her arms tightening around me when I tried to lower her onto the bed.

“Sky—”

“Stay,” she whispered, looking up at me with bloodshot eyes. “Please. I don’t want to be alone.”

She wasn’t the only one. Deep inside I knew that the loss of Dylan still hadn’t hit me as it should’ve, and I worried that it would devastate me a lot more than I expected it to. I couldn’t fall apart, at least not in front of her, but seeing her like this, seeing the complete destruction on her face, wavered my decision to stay calm and collected.

“Okay,” I rasped, taking off my shoes as she slowly let go of me. “I’ll stay.”

I climbed into the bed with her, and took off her untied boots, letting them drop onto the ground. She scooted into the center of the massive bed, and let me pull the duvet over us, isolating us from the rest of the world. Her cold hands pressed against my chest, her face hiding in the crook of my neck, and I pushed my arm underneath her, wrapping her in my embrace.

Her legs entwined with mine, her sniffing slowly subduing with each passing second, until she relaxed, her breathing evening out and I knew she was asleep. I dragged one finger over her face, catching the tears that were still escaping from the depths of her soul, and instead of telling her that things would be okay, I settled down, allowing sleep to take over me as well.

The feelingof lips on my chin was what woke me up, and as I groggily opened my eyes, I saw her face right in front of me, staring at me with a weird look on her face. It wasn’t one filled with sadness, or even anger, it was just... blank.

From the first moment I saw her in that picture, something deep inside of me yearned for this blond angel. Something told me that she was supposed to be mine, but I was too stubborn to listen. Too jaded to try and seek her out like a normal person would, and instead I brought her so much pain because I didn’t want to ruin the plans I had.

“Hey,” I murmured, lifting my hand to her cheek. She nuzzled into my touch, closing her eyes momentarily, and for the thousandth time, I wished this was just a normal morning where I was waking up with the woman I loved. I wished that in thenext second, Dylan’s smiling face would pop up, and he would start teasing us about something completely idiotic.

But that didn’t happen.

Seconds ticked by as both of us just existed in the silence, too exhausted to say anything. We were too exhausted to even lie to each other, especially after we had to watch that coffin go into the ground.

My eyes scanned her face, looking for any trace of devastation from before, but it wasn’t there. Not like before.

Her blue eyes opened, filled with love and adoration for me, and the guilt I was trying to fight started gnawing at me, reminding me that I was enjoying something that another man was also supposed to have.

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