Page 36 of Temptation
“Just like that?” I asked. I thought the Order kept their kids close, training them to replace them one day. It made no sense that they would kill them.
“Well, not exactly,” Kane said, sorrow lacing every word.
“Zane wanted to disappear, and we helped him,” Rowan started. “But it was supposed to be a setup, a way for him to get away from Winworth. But he never managed to do that because somebody killed him.”
“We played it off as a kidnapping. All of us were in on it, Rowan, Danny, Skylar, Lauren, and I. We thought we knew what we were doing,” Kane spoke, the two of them filling in the gaps of the story.
“But somebody betrayed him. Somebody told them where he was, and I will never forgive myself,” Kane whispered. “I basically killed my brother. They never found the killer. One night we were partying in the house behind…” he looked toward the burned ruins. “A fire started out. We ran out of the house, escaping, but when the firefighters came and extinguished the fire, they found a body. Zane’s body.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.
“He was there all along. We lost contact with him a couple of days before that, but we couldn’t exactly tell our parents what was really going on. Police established that he was dead for a couple of days, and that the fire that night only burned the body. It wasn’t the cause of his death,” Kane continued. “Zane was the good one, Ash. He was the best of us. I knew something wasn’t right when he came up with the idea. I think it’s because he found out about the Order. He was at the age where my family introduces us to the Order and all the rituals, and I think he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t do it. You saw what they were capable of. They killed Lauren last night when she did nothing wrong.”
I winced at the mention of Lauren. I didn’t like her, but I didn’t hate her either. I didn’t know her well enough to judge her, but I knew Skylar cared about her. Seeing my girl killing her friend last night because they made her… I couldn’t understand.
“You think they had something to do with his death?”
“We don’t think,” another voice joined in. The voice that haunted my dreams, and the voice that soothed all my wounds. I turned around, blood buzzing in my veins, because it was her. “We know they killed him. At least I do.”
Skylar strode toward us, the sharp edges of her face shadowed by the bonfire, but she didn’t look at me. She avoided my eyes and stared at Kane.
My hands itched, wanting to wrap themselves around her. My body hummed, wanting to feel her touch, but the way she was behaving, the way she was ignoring me, told me that whatever relationship we had before was long gone.
“I thought you wouldn’t start telling the stories before I came here?” She looked at Rowan, narrowing her eyes.
“Well, we didn’t know if Dylan would let you go.”
“Dylan can go fuck himself,” she bit out. “What? Why are you all looking so surprised?” She pulled out a pack of cigarettes from the front pocket of her jacket and pulled one out, lighting it up. A puff of smoke billowed around her, hugging her, caressing her hair, and I wanted nothing more but to be that smoke right now. “Am I supposed to worship the ground he walks on now?”
She was pissed. No, she was fucking livid, and it wasn’t only me she was pissed at.
I knew this would be hard. I knew she would think the worst, but that scalding look from last night was better than this indifference she was gracing me with. I wanted her to shout at me. I needed her to hit me, to tell me how much she hated me now, because you wouldn’t hate a person unless you loved them first.
You couldn’t, because the line between love and hate was thin, and I would at least know that she still felt something.
But this… this wasn’t right. Not so long ago, she was smiling at me. She wanted me near her, and now she didn’t even want to look at me.
“You’re not,” Rowan ground out. “But you’re also not supposed to be risking your life. You know what he’s capable of.”
“Oh, I know.” She snickered. “Do you?” She looked at Kane, then at Rowan, and finally at me.
Anger, pure, blazing anger stared back at me, but it wasn’t only that. There was hurt, pain so profound I could feel it in my chest. I stood up and took a step toward her just as she inhaled another puff of smoke, but she took a step backward.
“Moonshine—”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Ash,” she seethed. “I don’t want to hear you, and once all of this is done, I don’t wanna see you either.”
“Please—”
“Shut. Up!” Her narrowed eyes sliced through my chest, and I hated that I was one of the reasons for the pain and that lost look on her face. “Don’t you fucking Moonshine me, you asshole.”
I passed next to Kane and tried reaching for her, but she slipped away, getting away from me.
“I told you not to touch me!”
“I didn’t—”
“You didn’t mean to hurt me?” She laughed. “Is that what you were going to say? That you didn’t mean to hurt me? Let me ask you something.” The cigarette shone in the dark, and I loathed the maniacal look she was sporting. “You didn’t mean to hurt me or you didn’t mean for me to find out? Which one is it, because I’m not buying that whole ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you’ bullshit. You knew what you were doing.” She looked at Kane, then at Rowan as her eyes filled with tears. “You all knew what you were doing, but none of you thought for a second that it would be good to warn me. That it would be a decent thing to do.”
