Page 6 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Cat had only arrived a few months ago, but she’d thrown us all for a loop when we discovered that she, like me, had visions of some of our futures. I’d picked up on some major kink vibes from her, and we’d become pretty good friends. She was a switch dealing with the loss of her husband and submissive, and we’d vented our frustrations to each other over whiskey several times over the past few months.

“Come upstairs and play monopoly with us,” Mark said. “Sophie will bring your food up when it’s done.”

“How’d you get her to fall in love with you, anyway?” I asked him.

“Man, I have no idea. She’s crazy about me and I can’t tell you why.” He scratched at the messy excuse for a beard he was attempting to grow, glared at the bandage on his hand covering his new tattoo, and then nodded to the stairs that lead to the game room on the second floor.

I settled in a recliner across Mark, and beside Alex and Jake. Alex looked up at me in a silent greeting as she prepared the game for the number of people we had.

“Alice,” she said, “Come sit with us and play.” Her thick Russian accent had intensified from the past seven months she’d spent overseas.Whoever Alice was, she didn’t answer and didn’t obey Alex’s request.

Maggie, Jake’s little sister, came and sat beside me with her typical glittering smile. “It’s midnight, little Greenwood,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I’m twelve. I can stay up now. Besides, it’s the weekend.”

A whole twelve years old.I tried not to laugh. I remembered when she was born. “You can stay up past midnight on the weekends?”

“I’m up until midnight almost every night, because I have rehearsals.” She lifted her chin proudly, and for a moment, she looked just like her mother.

“I see.”

“Alice!” Alex said again. “Stop ignoring me. I know you can hear me.”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. I glanced over my shoulder to see who the mysterious “Alice” was but couldn’t see her. DeVon and Lou were blocking my view.

Cat came upstairs, shaking her arms out. “Well, no need to go to the gym this week,” she sighed, and collapsed on the sofa beside Maggie, yawning like she was about to fall asleep and then laying her head on Maggie’s shoulder.

Maggie giggled and let Cat playfully lay on her.

“Alice Benson.” Alex tried to recruit her friend again. “Your spot awaits.”

“I’m not playing, you can’t make me!” A loud, snotty voice cut through.

“Why not?”

“Because... I willdestroyyou.”

My breath caught, and I felt my body freeze in anticipation. Was it really her?Not likely. No, not here, not today, not out of the blue like this...

And then my world came crashing down.

She stood up and came out from behind DeVon and Lou, her strange, beautiful eyes glowing in excitement, a light flush on her ivory cheeks, her hands gesturing emphatically. Her voice was serious, but there was a hint of playful sarcasm to her words.

“I will take everything you know and love. I will be ruthless. I will put you in the ground. There won’t be anything left by the time I’m done. Only ashes. Ashes of your dignity and your honor. You will bow to me, you will praise my name, and you will burn that game as a sacrifice to the board game gods because you will never want to suffer that kind of slaughter ever again... And the worst part is? You’ll like it.” She circled her wrist and then pointed at Alex before dropping her hand, sticking one hip out and putting the other hand on her hip, her lips pursing into a little pout.

The others in the room were laughing, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Alice Benson. Her light denim shorts were tattered at the edges and showed off her curves. She wore a pair of fishnets underneath. A dark blue tank top brought out the indigo of her eyes and showed off the hint of a tattoo above her breast. She sauntered around the room in her black studded Doc Martens, still spouting some bullshit about her competitive streak, all the while rocking her hips and withdrawing a stick of dark red lip-gloss from her cleavage. She painted her perfect lips and smiled, charming literally every person in the room.

Oh. Hell. No.

Brat.

The Destroyer, the girl I’d dreamed about for the past twenty-four years, was right here, in front of me. She was drop-dead gorgeous. She checked every one of my boxes. And she was a snotty, loud-spoken, obnoxiousbrat.

No, she can’t be. There’s no way. You wouldn’t do that to me. Out of every possible person you could send my way, you wouldn’t send me a brat to deal with.

Alice tucked her lip-gloss back into her cleavage and withdrew a tootsie-pop seemingly from nowhere. She unwrapped it, balled up the paper, and flicked it at Cat, hitting her right in the face. Alice snickered and guffawed as she opened her mouth, wrapping her lips around the candy. I caught a glimpse of a piercing in her tongue.

Her eyes fell on me, our gaze meeting directly for the first time. The light caught the glittery stones in her ears and the gloss on her plump lips. She smirked as she popped her lips off her lollipop.

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