Page 69 of Ashes

I was safe. No one could see me. They could beat my body, but they couldn’t get my mind here. They couldn’t hurt my heart.

“If you don’t come to me, I’ll go to you.” Warmth brushed my cheek. Trailed to my jaw. To my ear. “And then we’ll stay wrapped together forever in the darkness.”

I shivered against him.

“No one can get you in the darkness but me, Rinny. It’s because I was made from the darkness. It’s my kingdom. My empire. I want it to be ours. Didn’t I always promise forever to you? You promised it back. We remember.”

I felt like I was falling slowly.

My back hit the cushions, and he loomed over me.

“Come back to me. Please, come backto us. I’m sorry you were hurt. I only wanted to save you. Now you’re trapped in this hell with me.” Warmth brushed against my cheek again. “I’ll give you a crown of daggers and slay anyone you want me to. Then I’ll make love to you over their remains. Whatever world my pirate princess wants, she will have. Just come out of hiding. I need you, Rinny. Fuck, I need you.” His voice cracked.

He needed me.

Seth needed me.

It was Seth.

He seemed like two people.

One I loved. One I feared.

But I knew that wasn’t possible for him to be two people. Asylum and Seth were more different than they were alike. I just … didn’t understand what it meant. All I knew was something was off.

He hummed our song softly. I couldn’t see past the darkness, but I knew he was there. That he was looming over me. Watching me. Wanting me.

I was so scared.

I missed Seth. My best friend.

He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.

“If we don’t play the game, they’ll hurt us. They will destroy you, Rinny. It’s how they’ll destroy me. Please, come back to me. I don’t want to break you, but I will. I swear I’ll shatter you into a million pieces before I repair what I’ve broken.Let me in. . .”

He shifted and dragged my limp body into his arms, where he held me with our song on his lips.

I breathed in and out evenly, falling deeper into the darkness.

And then a gentle heat brushed against my lips before it disappeared. So soft. So fast.

Through the darkness I saw him peering back at me, his blue eyes bright.

“The next time I kiss you, you’ll kiss me back,” he whispered. “I’ll be buried so deeply in your body and mind, you’ll never escape me. You’ll become another part of me, and I’ll be a part of you. I embedded my hooks long ago into your soul. Nothing will tear me from you, Rinny.Nothing.”

He stared back at me as I blinked slowly at him.

Seth Cain.

Not Asylum.

Holding me.

Making promises.

I belonged to him now.

“You see me,” he murmured. “Stay with me. Don’t go.”

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