Page 80 of Buried in Blood
And maybe they are.
I don’t look at her when she enters. I keep my eyes on the blueprint spread across the bed—our plan, scribbled in red ink and fury.
“You’re quiet,” she says softly.
I grip the edge of the mattress. “Would you rather I scream?”
“I’d rather you stop pretending this doesn’t scare you.”
I laugh under my breath. Dry. Bitter. “Scared men don’t win.”
She circles closer, bare feet silent on the wood. “And dead men don’t try.”
I finally look up.
She’s standing in front of me, arms crossed over her chest, eyes hard. But underneath, I see it—that familiar flicker of fear. Not for herself. For me.
For what I might become.
“What if we’re too late?” I ask, voice low. “What if he already sold her? Or killed her?”
Astra doesn’t flinch. “Then we burn it all down.”
She always says shit like that. Beautiful, reckless things. But there’s something different now. Something is shaking in her bones, even if she hides it behind the blade of her mouth.
“She’s so young,” I murmur. “Destiny’s twin. I didn’t even know she existed.”
“She didn’t,” Astra says. “Not until he needed her.”
My hands curl into fists.
Damien has always been a sickness. Like fucking cancer. A ghost in our bloodline that we pretended wasn’t rotting the roots. And now? He’s become the monster we used to warn ourselves about.
And he has Brooke.
Hehas Harmony.
He’s always had someone.
And this time, I’m going to take everything from him.
“She trusts him,” I say. “Brooke. Dante said she’s… loyal.”
Astra kneels in front of me, her fingers brushing my knee.
“So was I.”
I meet her gaze. “And now?”
Her mouth curls into something between a smirk and a scar. “Now I see him for what he has been. I know there is no hope. And I want him dead even more now.”
Her hand slips up my thigh.
My breath catches.
“You think this is smart?” I ask. “Fucking while we plan a war?”
She climbs onto my lap, slow and unhurried. “I think it’s the only time I still feel alive.”
