Page 141 of Ashes

“Sin, what if he’s hurting her and she can’t get help? Please. I’m begging you to help me.” Her eyes wavered as she stared up at me. “If you ever gave a damn about her, come with me. Take your hatred of me out of the equation.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment before nodding.

“I’ll go.”

“Thank you.” She let out a whoosh of air and grabbed my hand. She gave me a tug to move me, and I fell in step with her. Her hand moved up to my wrist, where she wrapped her fingers tightly as she continued to hold on.

“I said I’ll go. You don’t need to lead me like I’m on a leash,” I muttered.

“You’re a flight risk,” she answered back. “Speaking of your disappearing acts, where do you go? Do you have friends outside the watchers?”

I sighed as we walked through the courtyard, several students looking at us curiously. And why shouldn’t they? I was Sin. A watcher. And she was the new girl with her hand on me. No one touched a watcher.

I bet rumors would fly soon enough.

“I go to the lake. Or cemetery.”

“Why?” She gave Melanie the finger as we passed by. I didn’t know if they’d been introduced or not, but I was guessing they’d had an interaction or two given Cadence’s waving middle finger as Melanie scowled back, her eyes dark and filled with quietly controlled rage.

Great. Like we needed more problems.

“To be alone. To think. To. . . pray.”

“Pray?” She glanced at me. “You don’t strike me as the praying type.”

“We all pray, Claws. We’re all begging for help in one way or another. Some of us do it on our knees. Others whisper it when they sleep, but trust me. Everyone prays.”

She grunted but didn’t push the subject.

“Do you like the cemetery?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It’s quiet there. Everyone is already dead,” I answered as we pushed through the doors in Asylum’s building.

She released my arm in the lobby.

“Do you want to die too?” She turned and stared up at me.

I swallowed thickly and looked past her, feeling my eyes burn with impending tears. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of Cadence Lawrence. She’d never let me hear the end of it.

“I-I want to be normal,” I finally whispered. “Only death makes everyone equal. So yeah. I guess in a way I do. I don’t deserve to live.”

“Why do you think that?” She crinkled her brows at me.

I shrugged. “I’m not a good person, Cadence.”

“You’re a prick,” she said quickly.

I let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, guess I am.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re hiding something. It’s really tearing you up. I’ve been hiding stuff too, so I know how it can eat you alive.”

“What are you hiding?”

The corner of her lip twitched, her eyes sad. “I’ll show you my skeletons if you show me yours.”

---