Page 256 of Stay Scared

We both keep our grip.

“You want it back.”

“Yes.”

I pull.

He resists just enough to remind me he could take it.

Heat turns beneath my skin. “Let go.”

His fingers tighten first.

Then they open.

I hold the Voice mask against my chest while Ash keeps looking at it.

Cade notices. “So we’re stealing his face again?”

Ash looks at him. “You should stop speaking.”

Cade grins. “There he is.”

I fit the mask over Ash myself. The straps settle behind his head, and the repaired Voice turns him back into the predator I remember.

He looks down at me.

I press my palm against the sealed mouth. “Do not ruin it.”

His hand closes around my wrist.

The warning means nothing.

We both know it.

I pick up Cade’s skull and toss it to him. He catches it one-handed while Owen pulls the white mask over his face.

The room changes as the three of them disappear behind their masks.

My pulse kicks.

Safety panels, paperwork, and proof that they learned how to become good men had nothing to do with why I came back.

I came back because the dark still knows my name.

I walk toward the corridor.

Cade follows immediately.

I look over my shoulder. “Not yet.”

The skull checks himself mid-step. Ash stands behind him, the Voice tilted toward me, while Owen disappears toward the observation passage without being told.

Ash says, “He still watches.”

“Of course he does.”

Owen’s voice comes faintly from the corridor. “I can hear both of you.”