Page 79 of Ashes

My legacy.

He backed away from me as Ashes got to his feet and Sin moved to my side.

I knew I couldn’t fight this battle like this, so I turned and left, taking my friends with me.

“What the fuck is going on?” Ashes snarled. “Stitches wouldn’t do that shit. You know he wouldn’t!”

“I know,” I said tightly. “We’re all fucked. FUCKED!”

“We need to get him out of here,” Sin murmured. “I-I’m sorry. Fuck. How? How do we do it?”

“He can’t leave until he succumbs and accepts,” Asylum’s soft voice called out.

I stopped and pivoted to find him leaning against a doorway, clad in pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt.

I stormed toward him. He didn’t back away or look scared. Instead, he simply peered back at me.

“You know something,” I said to him. I hadn’t forgotten how he knew Stitches was hanging himself in his closet or the other shit he’d said to us in the past.

“I know many things,” he answered, no emotion on his face.

“What the fuck is happening here? Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be out lurking in dark corners by now? Or luring girls into fucking coffins?” I demanded.

“You act like I’m always making girls get into coffins with me.” He waved his hand dismissively at me. “That was a one-time thing. Let it go, Dante.”

“Fuck you, you piece of fucking human garbage.”

“You want information? You have to play nice. You’re not being very nice.”

I tried to calm my breathing and rage. “I will fucking kill you.”

“Foreplay. My favorite,” he said, smirking at me. “Meet me at midnight at the mausoleum. We’ll talk then. Maybe I can seduceyouinto a coffin with me.”

I balled my hands into fists.

“Don’t take to violence so soon, Dante. I promise if you hold onto it, it’ll be much better placed later on. We can even discuss your sweet, little specter. Midnight. Take the woods, not the path. They’ll be walking through there at 11:53. Don’t need you getting caught.” He winked and backed away before closing his door in my face.

“Are we meeting him?” Ashes asked softly.

I ground my teeth.What choice did we have?

“Yes,” I said softly, noting the look of fear which flashed across Sin’s face.

I ignored it.

I had bigger things to worry about, like what the actual fuck was going on here.

ASHES

Beneath the cover of darkness, we slipped through the pitch-black forest to the cemetery, all three of us dressed in black to keep us invisible to anyone patrolling.

None of us spoke. Our entire evening had been spent in silence as we’d tried to come to terms with what Church had told us his father had said. Sirena was in danger. Stitches certainly was.

Something had to give.

Regret at having let Sirena go so easily weighed heavily on me. If she was in the same condition as Stitches. . . well, I might be inclined to burn this fucking place and its inhabitants to the ground. If Church didn’t murder someone first.

When we reached the mausoleum, we stopped.

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