Page 148 of Ink Deep Devotion

Chapter 52

Mila

I jerk awake, spotting Dash’s shadow lingering in the corner. Turning on my bedside lamp, I rub my eyes.“What, Dash?” I’ll never get back to sleep now. It was a miracle I did, and that was only due to utter exhaustion.

He’s so unmoving that he looks like a planet in the night sky, disturbingly alone, unmistakable enough to be marveled at but not able to be touched or discovered by humans. Leaning against the wall, his arms are resting on his knees; his eyes are pinned to his hands as if he feels all the blood on them.

A rolling wave of stress coupled with heat tremors through my body. I sit up and push the covers off.

I’ve seen Dash upset, broken, used, and utterly barbaric.

I’ve never seen him like this. Just…confused.

I want to run to him, hug him, heal him with my lips. I cross my legs instead.“What’s happened?”

Did someone else die after his uncles were killed? Is the world on fire or…no, that thought is too scary to think mentally.

After Dash grabbed me with more security guards than I’d ever seen surround us, he took me back to the campus house, and then he, Nova, and Titan went down into the basement with a man I had never seen before. A man who was their prisoner. I sat alone in his room and thought about my conversation with Avery. I pondered if I was a fool for trusting her or more of an idiot for thinking I should put myself last and love a man who wasn’t brave enough to have me standing by his side.

“I figured out a lot of things,” his voice sounds like dust, beyond broken, no longer repairable. He examines the other side of his hands in the dim light from the lamp as if it has illuminated new grotesque details,“and yet I know nothing at all.”

I clear my throat,“Wh…what did you figure out?”

Does he know about Avery?I grab the sheet covering my legs again.

“I knew someone was controlling my family. They still are.”

My thoughts slow to a dull drip drop, like an icicle clinging to a dirty roof’s edge.

Does he know? My shoulders curl in to keep me warm.

“I have a name.” He digs under his fingernails as if trying to remove a pesky thorn. Picking and picking until I want to yell at him to stop so he doesn’t hurt himself.

I know who is controlling your family. Avery told me.

“Apparently, I was born into a secret organization called,” he points one finger in the air like he’s signaling to an orchestra,“The Rites of Passage.”

Shit!My exhalation is shaky, as if the room dropped ten degrees cooler. Is there a connection between his timing and Avery’s?

The dim yellow light from the bedside lamp barely fills the large room. Only the edges of light graze his form, hesitant to caress his skin in fear his darkness will snuff it out of existence. The little that does wash over him gives him a spooky appearance, full of sharp angles and shadows.

“The man downstairs told us everything. His name is Anton. He’s a friend of Nova’s, and he works for The Rites of Passage.” He begins to crack each knuckle, taking his time and enjoying the sound that makes my heart skip a beat.

“Does Nova work for them?”

“No,” Dash rolls his eyes.“They played with her life the same way they did ours. She wants revenge. An enemy of my enemy is now my friend. Plus, Titan married her, so I’m stuck with her now.”

“Titan married Nova!” I gasp as I hug the bedsheet to my chest.

“Yeah,” Dash mindlessly replies.

“Why are you telling me this?” I curl my toes into the sheets and lean closer to the edge of the bed.

His gaze sweeps the room, noting the walls surrounding me.“You won’t say anything.”

Dash has done a lot of things to hurt me. This feels like one of the worst. He’s perfectly fine keeping me in a cage so tight that not even the light of day will want to be called my companion.

He’s allowed his fear to break us truly.

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