Page 59 of Stitches

“I never meant for this to happen.” I gestured to her. “I-I didn’t know…how I’d feel. How I felt. I fucked it up.”

He nodded wordlessly.

“I’m sorry.”

“If you only knew the shit we went through, Sinclair—”

“I’m so fucking sorry. I don’t know what else I can say or do.”

“Nothing. There’s nothing, OK? Just…move on. Let it go.”

“I can’t fucking let it go.” I gestured helplessly to her. “I-I realize now—”

“It hurts. I know it does, but we aren’t ready. I don’t know if we will ever be. Understand that. She’s definitely not ready. And I’m…fucked, man. I’m fucked.”

“Malachi—”

“You need to go,” his voice hardened. “Church and Ashes will be here soon. You don’t want them to see you here.”

“If I could just talk to them…”

“I’ll make sure you fucking burn alive this time,” he husked out. “I will. When I say we aren’t ready, I mean it, Sinclair. You need to leave.”

“What if I can prove myself? What then? Is there a chance I can come home? That I can be part of what I lost?” I was desperate, a part of me coming through I didn’t even think I had in me. I wasn’t someone who begged, but here I was, begging like a bitch to come home.

“That choice isn’t mine alone. It resides with her.” He nodded to Sirena sleeping soundly in bed. “Everything depends on what she wants. There is very little that matters past that. You want to come home? Win her over first, not me. Then maybe you’ll be able to win us over.”

I nodded, my throat tight. “OK.”

I stepped forward to leave, but he put his hand against my shoulder when I made to pass him.

“Don’t ever let me see you kiss her again,” he said in a dangerous, low voice. “You do not belong to her, and she does not belong to you. You ever fucking put your lips on her again, I’ll tear them from your face and make you eat them. Got it?”

I said nothing as we eyed one another.

I didn’t need to though.

I got the message loud and clear, and I was ready to die for her.

He let his hand fall away from me, and I stepped into the hallway and went downstairs before going outside. The night air bit at me, but it was worth it.

Slowly, I made my way back to my dorm and opened the door to find Asylum lying in his bed with his hands behind his head and his gaze on the ceiling.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I assumed he’d still be out searching for Sirena in the hopes of finding her first.

“Waiting for you.” He didn’t look at me.

I said nothing and quickly pulled my pajama bottoms on before I flopped down onto my mattress and stared up at the ceiling too.

“You knew she’d be there tonight. You knew I’d be the one to find her,” I finally said after several silent moments.

“I may have had an inkling.”

“She’s afraid of me. She hates me.”

“She won’t always. I tried to kill her, bestie, and she still acknowledges my existence.”

He had a point.

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