Page 34 of Dust to Dust

My brows furrowed as my lips frowned. I didn't mind if Titan suffered by my hands, but to see him in pain by someone else's hands…that got me upset.

You do bad things when you’re upset,Ghost added.

Damn, right, I do.I still struggled with the onslaught of emotions all of a sudden. I went from forcing myself not to feel anything to an all-you-can-eat buffet of emotions. Hmm…so much for being a psychopath. It seemed this broken girl could feel after all.

I felt the need to protect. To guard the boy I once wanted to destroy. Titan was my war prize, and I wouldn't let my spoil of war be tarnished.

"Titan," I perched down next to him, but I didn't let my guard slip. In this state, Titan wasn't here right now, and there was no telling what he would do. It is dangerous when your mind has trapped you in the red haze. Like firing up a nuke, all the alarms were blasting.

When my hand touched his back, he stilled. His shoulders deflated, and he drifted out of his fog. My touch had a calming effect. "He's dead," I whispered, "Lucas King is dead, Titan." The words on my tongue seemed dry and untrue. I examined Lucas on the ground.

The King had fallen.

He was dead. The man who haunted my dreams, lied, murdered, and corrupted, taunted me for years with photos, and now, the man responsible for breaking me and making me stronger was no longer alive.

Titan remained frozen, his hands on his father's chest. Then in a sudden flurry, he stood, pushing himself far away from his father; he stumbled back in a drunken stagger. As if Lucas's death was a plague he wanted far from. I pushed to my feet and watched Titan as he pulled out his phone to call someone. "Fucking answer!" He yelled as he started to dial again. Three more times and relief hit his face, "Don't kill him, Damian. I need uncle Elijah alive!" Titan pleaded. Then I watched his face shift. He ground his teeth with such a force I worried he might crack one of his pearly whites.

Titan turned his back to me, unwilling to show me his failure or defeat. "Did you call Dash?" He asked. His voice was utterly empty. Titan nodded then his hand slowly lowered down to his side. We stood there silently for a few moments until Titan finally spoke, "I'm sorry." He confessed but kept his face hidden from me. That wasn't fair. He kept fighting and pushing for me to feel and share my feelings with him. So I was going to force him to do the same.

I walked to his side and turned him to face me. Under my fingertips, his skin felt cool and damp to my touch. Titan allowed me to pivot him towards me, but he didn't look me in the eye.

Fuck that.

I tilted his face to mine, "Look at me." I ordered. With the King dead, the crown was resting on my head now, and this new King would obey his queen.

Titan licked his lips, "I failed you. Again." His teeth sunk into his bottom lip. The skin became blanched and pinched under pressure. His teeth wanted the blood he was denied. I was the only one who was allowed to hurt him. I raised my thumb and freed his lip from the pain.

"You didn't pull the trigger, Titan. Lucas did. You didn't fail me." When Titan still refused to look at me, I did the only thing I could think of. I set my gun on the desk next to him and wrapped my arms around him. He felt like my armor, but that didn't mean I couldn't be his. The scent of his cologne calmed me, like taking a walk on a beach at sunset, minus the dead body in the room.

"My love for you killed you," Titan whispered.

"I forgive you." I voiced. How could a boy know that his love would kill a family? He didn't. Kids jumped without thinking about the fall. That was what was so magical about childhood. None of this was Titan's fault. I finally came to terms with that now. Finally, Titan's hands wrapped around me. My confession didn't just refer to today but everything. Titan knew that. There was a part of us that was synced. Darkness collided with darkness. We knew what each other was thinking. No other words or explanations need to be spoken.

Titan shook his head, "My father knew he was going to die when we entered this room. He was…settled. Lucas King wasn't God. He didn't know he would have a heart attack or whatever it looked like he had. He knew the moment it hit him. He was waiting for it. He timed it out. I could see it in his eyes." Titan took my hands, holding them tight. It felt like we were about to run into an unknown battle. I could hear the war drums beating in the distance. I just didn't know who the enemy was this time.

"Someone killed my father, Nova. Someone took what belonged to you. When I find out who," he pulled me closer, so our chests were pressed together. Our hearts were beating in sync as he vowed his promise. "I'll hand them to you on a silver fucking platter."

Chapter 27

The world beneath my feet crumbled, causing me to jump and keep moving quickly until I reached solid ground. My father was dead. His body was cold and growing hard as my security removed him. I didn't trust one soul in the house that worked for him, and my mind knew the cause was likely poison that killed my father. But dad knew he was poisoned and was…content with it?

Dash had arrived with Mila. He wasn't going to let her leave his side. I didn't blame him. Something bigger was at play here, something neither of my cousins knew. Dash placed Mila in the room just outside the office with a dozen men, six inside, and the other six stood guard outside the door. I tried to put Nova with them, but she wasn't so easily persuaded. It didn't matter now. Nova had heard too much. She was deep in my world, and I was chaining her to my side, arming her and allowing her to fight side by side with me in battle. The fact that Nova could handle herself was a significant benefit that turned me on.

Damian, on the other hand, was…breaking. The monster within shook, trying to break free. Unevaluated anger took hold of my cousin, and I didn't know what demon would be unleashed. Damian had suffered trials and tribulations I had witnessed. Uncle Elijah made my father look like a saint. Damian didn't get the gift of a parting word or a dying man's confession. All he got was a simple letter. I worried about how Damian would not only react but what he would turn into now that his father was taken from him, not by his own hands.

Blacken silk flashed in front of my eyes. Nova's raven hair shined like a dark cloud, backlighted by a full mood. Surprisingly, Nova was handling the news well. Relief rounded her shoulders. She was now married to a free man. I was forgiven of my past sins and free of the binds that tried to tear us apart. Yet as the waters settled around us, I knew it was only temporary. Maybe a few minutes or mere hours before the seas rose and tried to consume us again. Many things were still uncertain.

I didn't have time to ponder a world without Lucas King. He left too much of a wake after his death. I needed to uncover who The Rites of Passage were. We all stood around the office that my father once ruled. I retold the events to my cousins, and then Dash slipped out his phone to call the brotherhood. Like myself, many of us were left with more questions than vengeful glee today. Only half of us had plans that went accordingly. The other half were left with the mystery of who The Rites of Passage were. Whoever they were, they plotted with my father and other powerful men before they killed them.

"We're going to head out." Adam, my head of security, informed me. My father's body was loaded in a car, ready to go to one of our labs to find his actual cause of death.

"I'll go with you," Damian voiced as he pushed himself out of the dark corner. I hadn't asked Damian what he did with his father's body. He didn't tell us, and now wasn't the time to probe. What was important was guarding my father's body so we could hopefully get untampered answers. I nodded thanks as Damian left the room.

The list of people I trusted was growing smaller, and Damian would make sure nothing got fucked up with the autopsy. My eyes searched for Nova, seated in the chair that once belonged to my father. Her eyes were in a comatose daze as they looked into the flames in the fireplace. Her strong veneer, which pretended to be okay with my father's death, had begun to crack.

Dash cleared his throat, causing my eyes to shift, "We should talk alone."

I shook my head, "Nova can hear. She has heard enough. Nova has a bigger role in this game. We need to find Anton."

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