Page 171 of Sinful

“He’s odd. He has a routine he sticks to. He reminds me of Church a lot. Stickler for shit. He has a better way of getting his way. Church commands it. Asylum wills it, if that makes sense.”

“Like he has some kind of mind control.”

“I wonder sometimes if he does.”

“But Asylum. Mirage. Can you tell when he switches?” I studied Sin to see his gray eyes rake over my face.

“Aside from the mask and carrot? There’s a lot more to him than his illness. In fact, hispersonalitiesaren’t really his issue.”

“It’s the voices, isn’t it?” I pressed.

He winced and looked back to the ceiling. “I think the voices are definitely a problem for him. Them. Whatever you want to call it. The struggle is there. But who would he be without them? I think it’ll lead us somewhere good. I always followed Church, but honestly, I think we should let Asylum help out more.”

I nodded, knowing Asylum knew his shit. I’d never known him to steer us wrong. In the beginning, I hated him. Deep down, I think I always knew he was cut out to be a watcher. The issue would have been he was working for Everett doing god knew what. Now, he’s come out with it and even saved Sirena in the facility. People who weren’t on your side didn’t do that shit. At least, I hoped they didn’t.

We were quiet for a moment before Sin spoke again.

“I miss him,” he murmured.

I frowned. “Who? Asylum?”

“Yeah. I like Mirage a hell of a lot, but he’s more unpredictable than Asylum is. He’s scarier, truth be told. You guys haven’t seen or heard him. He’s gentle, sure, but fuck, when he’s pissed. . .” his voice trailed off.

“Is she. . . would she be safe around him. . . when he’s like that?” I asked, the worry alive and well within me.

“There are two things I know for certain in life. One is that I would die for Sirena without hesitation. The second thing I know is Mirage would predict that moment and push me aside so he could hold the title. Does that answer your question?”

It did.

It helped relax me.

We were quiet again as we lay in my bed.

“Sin?”

“Yeah?”

I looked over at him. “I’m glad you’re home. Seriously. I’ve missed you.”

He stared back at me, a sad smile on his face. “I’ve missed you too.”

“Want to stay with me tonight? It’ll be like that time we had that sleepover at your place, and we drew all those dicks on Ashes’s face.”

Sin let out a snort of laughter. It was good to hear. It felt like forever since I’d heard it.

“He was so pissed he set my bed on fire. My mom was so mad,” Sin chortled.

I grinned at the memory. Ashes had calmly left the room as we sniggered. Returning moments later with a can of gasoline he’d gotten from the garage, he proceeded to pile Sin’s clothes on his bed before he dumped the gas onto it. Then, he dropped a match into the mess. It had gone up like the Fourth of July. Even the fire department had shown up. Sin was out of clothes and had to borrow some from me since Ashes had torched his.

Ashes wasn’t allowed to sleep over at Sin’s house again after that.

It had been a long time since then. It was a fun memory. Even Ashes had laughed it off after it happened. It took about a week since the dicks needed to fade off his face, but he was a good sport.

“So, will you stay? No dicks?” I asked.

Sin stopped laughing and nodded. “Yeah, man. I’ll stay. I’ll fight the demons with you.” He gave my hand a squeeze.

“No dicks,” I added.

---