Page 163 of Ashes

“The one where you hurt her? The shovel?” I wasn't sure why I needed to hear him say it, but I did.

“Bingo.” He winked at me.

I steadied my breathing. He’d fucking hurt her. Tried to kill her.

“And yet, I’m all about her and want to save her. Strange world, isn’t it, Malachi?”

“Get out of my head.”

“How about I save us both some time. You think she hates you for what you did to her there. She doesn’t. Sirena isn’t that sort of soul. She cares for you assholes in much the same manner she cares about me. Or will care about me once I grovel hard enough for her.”

“Don’t fucking come into her life if you can’t make it better, Seth,” I said, my throat tight. “She doesn’t need any more shit to deal with.”

“I’m bringing what she needs,” he answered. “And I’m Asylum. Not Seth. Stop calling me that. How can you not tell the difference by now? Do I fucking sound like him? I mean, come on. Even Sirena is able to tell us apart.”

“Sorry, you fucking dick slap. What should I be looking for on you to tell the difference? You both have shitty personalities.”

He let out a laugh. “You’re right on that. We really do, don’t we?”

I sighed. Conversations with him exhausted me.

“She’s fine. Sirena. She’s coping. I’m helping her. She’s becoming more comfortable with me. That was part of the plan. I have her intrigued, and God knows she adores Seth, and she won’t let him go now that she knows he wasn’t the one who hurt her. So I feel confident about our relationship at this point. As for the watchers, she cares about you all too.”

“You’re still there. With Seth. Part of him or he’s part of you,” I said. “How will we know she’s safe? That you won’t do it again?”

He shrugged. “Guess you’re going to have to have a little faith that things aren’t always what they seem, huh, Malachi?”

Fuck, he was a nightmare to talk to.He spoke in riddles and circles. It made me want to dunk my head in cold water and scream.

He smiled knowingly at me. Add to it the fact he seemed to be up in my head. . . fuck.

“I want them dead. All of them. Everett, Sully, the men behind the mirror. The fucking orderlies and wards. The nurses. Anyone with a hand in that facility is going to die.” He suddenly turned serious and cocked his head before looking to his left. He let out a snort and muttered something I couldn’t hear.

“I want them dead too,” I said, ignoring all the weird that came with interacting with him. “I feel responsible. When will we do it?”

He snapped his attention back to me, his head cocked. “I like your noose.”

I swallowed thickly. “Thanks.”

“We should hang at least one, don't you think?”

“I’ll hang them all,” I said.

He smiled at that. “We bide our time. Dante needs to be stronger. You need to be stronger. Sin needs to come back to you fully healed and Ashes. . . well, he’s the only one who’s ready. We can’t go in half-cocked. All will come to be as it should be in time. During that time, I suggest you spend it doing what you desire most.”

“What’s that?”

“Loving my forever girl. She needs all the love in the world right now. She is damaged, and I’m sad to say I had a hand in it, but I don’t regret it. It brought us to this very moment where everything is falling into place. As it should.”

“How do you know everything?” I asked. “How can you be so sure?”

“Everyone in the world has a gift. Some are talkers. Some are doers. Us? We’re seers.Invaders.The monsters they don’t want you to know about. We slink through the shadows. Welisten. We watch. We wait. We know. . . but it wasn’t always so. It’s something that slowly become us.”

“And now you’re going to save the world,” I said, studying him.

He grinned at me. “Malachi. Who said anything about saving it? We’re here to fucking destroytheirworld before we rule it. We don’t need a kingdom of ash. We still need bodies beneath our feet to stand on. What’s a kingdom without a few bodies? They won’t see us coming. Imagine being one of the bodies they tread upon and then rising up to take over? It’ll be glorious.”

“Truly,” I murmured as he threw his head back and cackled.

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