Page 48 of Dominion
“You like playing with fire, don’t you?” he asked, those blue eyes searching my face as if he could find something there. He should’ve known that he wasn’t the only one trained to hide his emotions.
“Sometimes.” I shrugged. “And sometimes I just like to see how brightly it can burn.”
“Ash,” Skylar murmured. “That’s enough. From both of you.” Her eyes sliced to Casimir, his mouth shutting almost immediately. “We need to sit down and talk, without you two measuring dick sizes.”
“That’s fine, because mine’s?—”
“No!” She stopped Casimir from saying anything more. “I don’t want to hear it and I honestly don’t want to know whose dick is bigger. I’ve seen my fair share of them and, to be quite honest, I’m contemplating leaving you both here while I take care of this shitshow.”
“Fine,” I grumbled, letting my eyes wash over Skylar. She was making more sense than ever before, and I was equal parts elated and terrified to see the change. I hoped it wasn’t just a passing emotion that struck her now, but the clarity in her eyes made me want to believe that she was back. That she was ready to fight all this, instead of hiding behind things that could only damage her more.
A second too long passed before Casimir grunted, “Okay. But if we do this, we’re doing it my way.”
“Oh, my dear brother.” Skylar laughed and came closer to him. “You have people and all the power in this world, we know it. Hell, to anyone looking in from the outside, it would be extremely weird to see you standing here with a bunch of people who seem so far beneath you.” Yeah, she did have a point. “But if we’re doing this,” she almost whispered. “We’re doing this my way. You can take it or leave it, but I am tired of people trying to control everything I do.”
Pride like nothing I have ever felt before spread all through my chest, through my blood, humming softly in my veins. Pride for finally seeing her embrace the strength I always knew she had. I was fucking proud of the courage it took to come here, to this point in time, where she only cared about things she wanted to do, instead of caring what everyone else wanted.
“So, what’s it gonna be, Brother?” she mocked him, it was obvious, but instead of anger or even annoyance, a proud look sat on Casimir’s face, observing her as if he was seeing her for the first time in his life.
And in a way, he did. All of us did. I saw it in the way Cillian observed her, as well as Indigo. I saw the way Sebastian arched an eyebrow at the words coming out of her mouth, and even though I hated it, I saw a little bit of Ophelia in those words. I saw that fire in the woman who had fucking terrified me when I had first met her, but in reality, she only did what she needed to survive.
If Skylar listened to what Ophelia had to say, then maybe I should thank the woman instead of cursing her.
It shouldn’t have surprisedme that Casimir followed us to the dining room with no questions asked. It also shouldn’t have surprised me that Skylar went to get that fucking diary she wasn’t stepping away from ever since she got it.
The damned book fell onto the table with a thud as we all sat down, with only Skylar still standing. She had that look on her face. The one that said she was here for business and only business, while the rest of us sat dutifully around the table, waiting for her to start talking.
Cillian and Indigo followed after us once we left the living room. Casimir sat closest to Skylar at the head of the table, but he wasn’t talking. He was barely breathing, just looking at her with something akin to awe on his face.
Goddamn, I was in awe of her and everything she overcame. We all had our shit to deal with. The demons to conquer and the fears to tame, but she was dealt such a shitty hand in life thateven my life seemed like a fucking Disney movie compared to hers.
“So…” she looked over at all of us, opening the book in front of her. “I’m not gonna go over the silly facts or the things that Casimir already shared. In a nutshell, Judah Blackwood is a fucking psychopath who needs control over everything. He kidnapped me when I was a child and raised me as his daughter in order to complete a stupid ass ritual for his family. The Order in Winworth is not legitimate, nor is it working as it should. I know that many of you were concerned about me reading this.” Her eyes flickered to me. “But I can assure you that this has actually opened my eyes. Without mentioning the entire history, the Red Maidens that Judah’s Order has are not the same Red Maidens from the past, when the Order was first created.”
She took a deep breath, looking down at the book. “Judah wants me dead, there’s no denying that. And he probably wants a lot more people dead—people sitting at this table.”
“He’s working with Belladonna,” Casimir piped in, earning a glare from Cillian and Indigo. “For those of you who don’t know who that is, she’s a fucking psychopath hell-bent on destroying Storm Knoxx and Ophelia Aster.”
“In a nutshell,” Indigo grumbled.
“I’m sure that they’re working together just because,” Casimir continued. “But I’m not ruling out the possibility that Belladonna has something to do with Winworth and its past, especially not now.”
“Why not now?” I asked, interested to hear the rest of the story.
“Because,” he put an elbow on the table and leaned over it, “she’s been targeting our chapters and that’s not something that we can simply ignore. I know that Judah has been feeding her information, but whatever it is or whoever it is, is going to pay.”
“But Judah first,” Skylar stopped him.
“Yeah.” Casimir nodded. “Judah is the first one on our list.”
“Okay, now that we’ve hashed that out,” Skylar murmured. “I think we need to go back to Winworth.”
“What?”
“No!”
Dylan and I said in unison.
“We are not going to that God forsaken place,” I argued. “Absolutely not.
