Page 26 of Demise

It’s his fault she was taken, his fault she endured hell, his fault we almost lost her. Him showing up out of the blue after all these years is suspicious, to say the least, and the way he magically fell for Skyla in the same moment…I don’t trust him one fucking bit.

If I voiced my gut feeling, I’m sure I’d be dismissed as being pissed off that I have to share her with yet another person. Which, albeit is a bullet point on the list, but it’s not my main reason.

It’s also a reason that I don’t like Bartlett. She makes far too many sexual comments about Skyla for my liking, and the fact that she was fucking Skyla’s tormentor all summer doesn’t bode well for her in my book. Sure, none of them had met Skyla back then, but that’s not the point. Brenton has publicly attacked Skyla twice since she and Maggie met, and guess whose dorm room I watched Bartlett leave at three in the morning two days ago? You guessed it, Bridgette motherfucking Brenton.

My siren is so sweet, but she invites entirely too many untrustworthy snakes into her life. I’d be happy to make them all disappear if I knew she wouldn’t hate me forever when I did.

Asher answers the door, and Bartlett blows past him as she moves through the house. Skyla jumps out of my lap, which pisses me the fuck off, before jumping into Bartlett’s arms for a hug. I can feel myself glaring at her, but I don’t give a fuck. Bitch needs to let go of the love of my life and now.

Lucky for her, she does, but Skyla loops her arm through Bartlett’s and begins dragging her upstairs.

“Where are you going?” I call out.

“To catch up!” Skyla smiles, oblivious to my souring mood.

“And fuck!” Bartlett teases with a smile that has my eyes narrowing.

Asher shakes his head as he walks into the living room, Liam following behind him before jumping onto his bed. He lifts his walking boot onto the mattress, and I raise an eyebrow at him.

“When are you getting that fucking thing off? I’m sick of a bed in the middle of the goddamn living room.”

“Tomorrow,” Liam says.

“And it’s my goddamn living room,” Asher snaps. “It’ll stay here for as long as it needs to be.”

“Oh, my apologies, didn’t mean to offend your boyfriend,” I taunt.

Asher’s jaw tenses as he takes a step towards me before Liam grabs his hand, stopping him with a head shake.

“Aw, look at that. You guys can even communicate with no words.”

“What the fuck is your problem, Griggs?” Liam huffs.

“Probably hasn’t gotten laid in a while,” Wesley says with a bored tone as he and Ronan stride into the living room. “Where is Skyla at?”

A door shuts, followed by the sound of the girls giggling, and I mumble under my breath.

“Probably getting her pussy eaten by her bestie.”

“Hot, I want to watch,” Wesley says as he grabs a bag of chips and pops one into his mouth.

“Get in line, man. I was trying to encourage that shit in class the other day, I swear to God, Sky almost went for it,” Liam says.

I look over to see Ronan typing on his phone, a pinched look to his face.

“What’s wrong?”

His head snaps up to me as he pockets his phone and shakes his head.

“Nothing.”

I look at him blankly but don’t say a word as his eyes move to where Asher is now sitting on the edge of the bed beside Liam. He looks around the room before coming back to Asher.

“Asher’s birthday is coming up. Christopher and I are making arrangements for the ceremony.”

Ah, yes. The induction ceremony. Up until now, legacies have been doing the Brethren’s bidding while still being a living, breathing human. After that ceremony, their souls arepractically sold to the devil. Ironic, since the Brethren was founded by extremist Puritan Protestants.

I don’t actually know what the ceremony entails since I haven’t been inducted either. Though my birthday isn’t for a while, it’s only a matter of time. Then again, I lost my soul a long fucking time ago, so what’s the point?

---