Page 122 of Ashes

“I’m really not interested,” I said firmly. “I can’t be. I-I keep thinking about leaving. About just letting you guys take her and getting your happy ending. I’d be good with it. You know that, right? I want you guys to be happy. I-I just don’t think I’ll ever be. Not now. I don’t deserve any of it.”

“We’re a family. You’re not leaving,” Ashes said. “We won’t let you. You deserve every ounce of happiness in the world, Sin. You know you do. Or you will once you let it into your heart again. So you’re staying. Got it?”

“No matter what?” I whispered, my heart in my throat as I stared at him.

He leaned closer, a frown marring his lips. “I get the feeling you’re not being honest with us. Sin, man, if you need to talk, you know I’m always here, right? I’m worried about you. You don’t tell us where you’re going. You stay out late and sometimes don’t even come home at all. Where do you go? Who are you with? Is-is there someone else?” His voice trembled with the last sentence.

“There’s no one else,” I answered. “I-I just walk. I sit at the lake and stare at the stars. Sometimes I got to the mausoleum.”

“Why?” Ashes crinkled his brows.

I rubbed my eyes, hating we were having this conversation. At the same time, it felt good because I couldn’t live beneath all this guilt.

“I sleep in the coffin where Sirena was.”

Ashes blinked at me. “You. . . what? Why?”

I opened my mouth, ready to spill it all out for him because I was tired of living the lie. “I-I hurt h—”

“Put me down, you fucking barbarian psychopath!” Cadence’s voice interrupted my confession.

Ashes jumped up and stared into the darkness, me joining him.

A moment later, Church appeared with Cadence thrown over his shoulder, her pounding her fists into his back as she struggled against him. He held her tight though, despite her hits and kicks.

He marched right past us as he took her into the house.

We wasted no time and followed him inside. He took her straight to Stitches’s room and tossed her onto the bed. She bounced and shot right back to her feet, but he simply pushed her back down.

She glared up at him, dark strands from her ponytail unleashed and tangled around her. Clearly, they’d been fighting. Judging by the cut on Church’s lip and the glint in Cadence’s eye, it had been a good one.

“Sit your fucking ass down. Go to sleep before I put you to sleep, Claws.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and sneered at him. “You’re not my boss.”

“When it comes to the girl I love, the girl I’d fucking die for, I’m everyone’s boss. Learn to deal with it or get fucking lost. If you ruin this, none of us will forgive you.”

She opened her mouth to speak but quickly snapped it closed as Church continued.

“Sirena won’t forgive you.”

She visibly swallowed. “She’d understand.”

“She’d hate you for taking away any potential happiness she could have. Trust me when I say that if you intervene the way you want to, it’ll be the nail in Sirena’s coffin.”

“Then we need a plan,” she whispered, her voice wavering.

For the first time since I’d met her, she showed vulnerability. It did something to my chest.

I’d fucked up everyone’s life because of my actions.

If only I had a time machine. . .

“Sin will go in and see Stitches. He’ll get all the information we need. OK? Trust in Sin.”

“Fuck Sin,” she snarled, glaring at me.

“Fuck you right back, bitch,” I snapped.

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