Page 17 of Between Dusk and Dawn

Walsh looked down at me after making sure his sister wasn’t behind him, then whispered, "Show me the closet."

I nodded as we walked past Ember’s bedroom to a small closet.

He threw the box inside before grabbing my arm and shoving me in there with him. There was no light when he slid the door shut. Because of the size of the closet, there was no escaping him, and the only way we could stand was smashed chest-to-chest.

"What the fuck did you do?" he growled, grabbing my throat and forcing my chin to look up to his eyes.

Do. Not. Falter.He was trying to intimidate me, but he would never hurt me.

"I didn’tdoanything. I saw an ad that your sister was looking for a roommate." I tried to play it off cool, but he saw right through me.

"Tsk tsk, Muse." His mouth hovered over my lips.

His gaze scanned mine as his free hand grabbed a small lock of hair in his hand and pulled. "You fucked with the wrong person, because I will always be one step ahead of you."

"Just like you threw me out like trash? You fucked with me first." I glared at him. It had not even been six months since Cagen’s death.

He huffed off a little laugh before whispering, "You surprised me."

Walsh cocked his head to the side as he lifted my arms, displaying the one thing I hated the most. The crack of the door let the light stream in enough for him to see.

"Where did you get these?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Tell me where they are from?" His fingers traced the scars. I would never tell him, otherwise I’d have to peel back the tightly wound wall I kept around my heart, so I shook my head again. He grabbed my arm right above where the scar ended.

My burn scars were a part of my story, one I would not tell him—not yet.

"This isn't a war you are going to win, Madison. Every. Single. Move. I calculate. I will fucking destroy you where it hurts the most."

I mumbled through his hand, "Where?"

"Your heart."

Little did he know, my heart was full of ice.

He took the hair he’d plucked and shoved it in the back pocket of his jeans. "But what you don’t seem to know is that if there is one thing in this world that I love more than anything, it is my family. They are everything to me. So, I will be keeping an eye on you, and if you put my sister in harm’s way, then you are dead to me."

He paused before letting me go and opening the accordion doors to the dark closet. "And you’ll meet the same fate that Cagen did last spring."

"I’ll go missing?"

"If you think because you’re my muse that you’re safe from the devil, then you are so, so wrong."

I started to respond, but his hand came up to mine. "I am going downstairs to help my sister. When I walked up here, I never saw you. Do you understand?"

All I could do was nod as his fingers tightened around my chin. He let me go, then walked out of the closet, grabbed the boxes, and placed them by the front door. I sank down against the wall and took a deep breath, trying to relive everything that just happened. I couldn’t believe I actually stood up to him. For a moment, I thought maybe being Ember’s roommate was wrong.

"This is dope," Walsh exclaimed from the other room. They were back, and for my safety, I needed to pretend like everything was okay, because I believed Walsh. I would become like Cagen. I’d taken this too far, but was in too deep now, so I had to live inmy lie. Tell Ember she was simply missing when I believed what happened was so much more. I went out into the living room and three figures were rounding the hall toward the open door.

"This isn’t bad, Dad," Walsh said.

"I just hate that my baby is growing up. The house is going to be so quiet without the two of you running around," Ember’s dad said.

"Don’t start with that again," Ember joked. Her and her dad continued to talk for a moment while I stared at my new roommate.

Ember was a curvy, raven-haired girl who looked exactly like Walsh, but in female form. Her hair hung low on her body. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and was clutching a box.

"Hi," I squealed. "You must be my roommate."

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