Page 82 of Shadow

“It’s taking her a long time,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“She’s taking a shower,” he said, cocking his head to the left. A moment later, the shower turned on. “Nice of her to do that unless you wanted to taste Chuch’s cock.”

I rolled my eyes. “Honestly, I don’t care. I just want to be with her. I accepted that she has other guys a long time ago. I’m OK with it.”

“Good.” Asylum sat beside me.

We were both quiet for a moment.

“When is Mirage coming back?” I asked. “When will you let him back out?”

Asylum sighed and looked at the wall in front of us. “I don’t know. He wants to always be in that stupid fucking rabbit mask. I’m worried about how many carrots he eats, too. He keeps it up, his ass will turn into a fucking rabbit and Dante will end up hunting him in the woods. It’s not a good look for me. I fucking hate carrots.”

I laughed softly. “I suppose that does make things more difficult.”

He huffed out a laugh before nodding. “I’ll let him out soon, though. My forever girl misses him. He misses her. As much as I’d like to keep her all to myself, I understand that others have needs, too. It sucks, though.”

I nodded. He wasn’t wrong.

“I like to think about it like this,” he continued softly. “None of us really has a family. We’re all a found family, or we will be soon. That means everything. If I could have that family unit, maybe life wouldn’t be so shitty. I’ve not had it since I lost Sirena all those years ago, and even then, all I had was her and Mirage.” He pointed to his head. “It would be nice to celebrate Christmas, maybe here and there.”

I studied him as he stared at the wall. He never really spoke normally. He typically was sarcastic and teasing and spoke in riddles, but this Asylum seemed thoughtful.

“I’m still weird,” he said, smiling at me. “Would you like to hear what I heard?”

“Sure, man.”

“Someday, the world will tremble when they hear a Ghost. The men at the top will stand to lose the most. Their sons will love our daughters. Marked by Frost and by Flame. They’ll dance on the grave of empires and play a harder game. They’ll wear their secrets stitched into their skin. Whispering truths where the end must begin.”

I logged his words deep into my mind.

“Asher? Flame?” I asked, studying him. I often liked to pick apart his riddles.

“Mm, Asher Valentine. Can you imagine a better man to be a father?”

I nodded at his statement. “He’s a good guy. Probably the most sane of all the Watchers.”

“For sure,” Asylum murmured.

“And Frost….Who is Frost?”

A faraway look washed over his face as he cocked his head left again.

“Who indeed… an enemy. The child of… Hmm.” He shook his head and sighed. “It’s unclear. I’m sure it’ll come when I need to see it.”

“Is his name Frost?” I pressed.

“Yes. His name is Frost. He’s a handsome fella. Hair white as snow. Eyes blue as the sky. He looks like a winter storm, and is just as cold and twisted. He is… a monster.”

I swallowed hard at that. In all the time I’d known Asylum, I never knew his predictions to be wrong. Maybe off a little with different scenarios, but never wrong. His endings were always correct. It freaked me out to think that someday Ashes would have a kid who got involved with a twisted enemy.

“Will everything be OK between them?” I asked.

Asylum looked back at me, his blue eyes glittering. “You ask too many questions, Shadow.”

I rolled my eyes at him. The door to the bathroom opened, and Sirena stepped out in nothing but a towel.

I swallowed hard as she approached us.

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