Page 91 of Temptation
“Because I’m not going.”
I stopped packing for a second and looked at him. God, when did he grow up?
His once short hair was now falling over his forehead, disheveled from sleep. With each passing year, he looked more and more like me, but I didn’t want him to feel like me. I wanted him to be free, to live his life however he wanted to live it. I knew he would never get to do that until the people that wanted to hurt him were gone.
“What do you mean you’re not going?”
“Exactly that, Ash. I’m not going. I’m tired of moving each and every year, and never knowing what’s happening. I’m not a child anymore.”
“Dammit,” I cursed and slammed the suitcase closed. “Sebastian, you have no idea—”
“Then tell me!” he roared. “I know that there are things you’ve done you don’t want to talk about, but you have to stop doing this. You’re asking me to pack and I have no idea why. Where is Uncle Neal? Why are we leaving again? Why do you look like you’re about to kill somebody?”
“Because I just might,” I gritted out. “Uncle Neal is not coming with us.”Please don’t ask me anything else, I thought to myself. We didn’t have time to go through all of this now, but I knew I would have to explain things to him.
If I were him, I would want to know as well. Keeping secrets from those you love was never a good idea, but I was trying to protect him from this world. I never wanted him to live through the darkness, to live as if he had to always look over his shoulder.
“Sebastian, please. I’m begging you. I promise I’ll explain everything, but I need you to trust me now.”
“I do trust you, I just…” he trailed off. “I just hate being treated like a child, when I’m not a child anymore.”
“I know,” I murmured and walked toward him. “I promise, I will explain everything. But we don’t have time now. I need to get you somewhere safe, and I can’t do that if you’re staying here. Please, Brother. I really need you to listen to me right now.”
With his hands on his hips, he focused on an invisible spot on the carpet in my room, contemplating what I was asking of him. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but dammit, I couldn’t get into the complete history of our family with him now. I couldn’t tell him that everything we were led to believe was just a lie.
“Just.” He started inhaling sharply. “Just promise me you won’t shut me out again.” He looked at me with the torment visible in his eyes. “You’re the only family I have and I don’t want to lose you. Promise me you’ll tell me everything. Even if it isn’t now, I need to know, Ash. I have the right to know.”
He did have a right. He had all the rights, and I did just what he was begging me not to do again. I kept shutting him out, keeping things close to my chest, afraid that if I let it all out, I wouldn’t be able to shut them back into that little box I kept inside myself.
“I promise.” I nodded. “Now get ready and wait for me downstairs. We’ll be leaving shortly.”
I just hoped that Skylar and Dylan were ready for our trip to Emercroft Lake. Maybe I could ask them to leave Winworth as well?
18
SKYLAR
The senseof impending doom always trickled in slowly. It came with omens of death, apparitions I didn’t want to see, just like the crow sitting on my window this morning, looking at me with its beady eyes. The fog only started lifting from the ground, but I could see the mountaintop from my window here, almost fully covered in the mist.
The gray skies enveloped Winworth, and this early in the morning, it felt as if it was going to rain. I could hear Dylan’s footsteps going through the hallway, but he didn’t come to my room. Since we came home last night, he hadn’t said a word, and I worried that what happened between the three of us would set him back.
I knew he loved his control, relished in it, but what I saw in his eyes when Ash finally entered him was relief. No matter how much he loved the control, he also wanted somebody else to take it from him.
Living under Judah’s thumb for so long took some toll on him, and maybe I should’ve thought twice before getting into bed with both of them, but what I told Ash was the truth—I loved them both. I couldn’t imagine my life without both of them in it, and even though my love for Dylan was not where my love for Ash was, I loved him.
For so long he was the only home I’d known. The only bright spot in my otherwise dull life, and when the darkness finally descended, he was still the one I always looked for. He would always be the one I would turn to when things got to be too much, and I knew he would always protect me, no matter what.
Good people often got the best in their life, and neither one of us belonged to that category. The deranged, the depraved, the villainous, that’s what the three of us were, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d often dreamed of a life where only light trickled in, and everything bad was left behind. But what if that life wasn’t possible without both Ash and Dylan and all their broken and shattered pieces?
What if subconsciously I always knew that normal, or whatever it was that other people regarded as normal, wasn’t for me? I didn’t want to live life half lived, and having the two of them with me in my old bed last night was the first time I truly felt alive.
Each held something that my soul needed, and I would fight tooth and nail to keep them with me.
I just hoped that Dylan would see it that way as well. I hated the strain around his eyes, the worry, the sadness, and the burden he carried. I hated that they killed parts of him to create what they needed—a monster, a murderer. I hated them for almost taking away the boy that was capable of a lot more than just darkness.
Every time he touched me, it wasn’t with sorrow, it wasn’t with dark intentions, it was out of love. Love he always felt for me, and no matter how that love came to be, I still knew that he was the one I could always count on. Him and Ash.
My phone started vibrating on the nightstand, and I turned away from the window and walked toward it, curious and a little bit worried. It was still too early for anyone to be calling me, and we were supposed to leave for Emercroft Lake around ten.
