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Why didn’t I feel bad about her being dead now that I was looking down at her dead body?

“What are we going to do with her?” Dash asked harshly, and I realized he was the one who’d been making all the A-hole comments. “I mean, it’s not like we can keep her down here like some dead pet or something. Eventually, she’ll start to smell. What are we going to do with some dead, smelly bitch we’ve got stored in the basement? I mean, come one, get real here guys. We should just leave her in the woods somewhere for some random hiker to find.” He waved a hand down at my mother’s body. “Look at her. She looks exactly like the kind of woman whose dead body you’d find stashed in the woods somewhere after some dude picked her up because he’d mistaken her for a hooker.”

“You fucking dick,” Tyson snarled. “That’s Ariel’s mother you’re talking about. Show some fucking respect.”

“And that’s another thing. Ariel, Ariel, Ariel. I’m so sick and tired of hearing about this stupid girl. We’ve been at each other’s throats since that fucking dream, since Quint got a good look at her sweet ass back in June. I was all for keeping her back in June when we had the dream and knew she had magic, but now we’re killing people and fighting with each other. We’re supposed to fight for each other, together. Not fight against each other, and we’re certainly not supposed to kill anyone.”

“Else,” Quinton barked.

“What?” Several voices said at once.

“You meant to say ‘we’re certainly not supposed to kill anyone else.’”

The air froze in my lungs and my heart skipped a beat. How many other people had they killed?

A hand, burning with heat, landed on my bare back and I let out a small scream and jerked away from it.

Everyone stopped arguing, stopped moving, stopped everything to watch me.

Abel, who had been the one to touch me, wrapped his arms around me from behind in a hug and pulled my body backwards across the table. My bare bottom slid across the smooth, wooden surface of the table until my back was to his front. He rested his head on top of mine, not seeming bothered by my wet hair, or my partial nudity. My legs were out straight in front of me on the table with my feet dangling off the other side.

The room was frozen as all eyes watched me in Abel’s arms.

This time I felt the tears as they slid down my cheeks and I knew I was crying again. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not that I could tell this time that I was crying. I was starting to feel things again.

Julian cleared his throat and, without taking his eyes off of me wrapped up in Abel’s arms, told the room, “I have a solution for getting rid of the body. All this dirt, I say we start digging.”

Oh god.

He was talking about burying my mother in their basement. I made a rude noise in the back of my throat and swallowed down the bile threatening to rise. I could not afford to be sick right now.

“You can’t be serious,” someone said and I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to risk seeing her on the dirt floor again with her crotch on display for all to see and looking exactly what Dash had accused her of looking like.

“I’m all for dumping her somewhere,” Dash semi repeated his first statement.

“I don’t want Ariel to be put through hell when the body is found,” Tyson said quietly.

“Agreed.” Quinton quickly put in. “I say we bury her.”

“You would, seeing as you’re the one who killed her,” Addison said snidely.

“It was an accident,” Quinton growled.

“I’m good with burying her,” Damien spoke softly.

“So am I,” Abel rumbled from behind me. “Twin?”

“Fine,” Addison agreed reluctantly.

“I’m in,” Tyson said.

“It was my suggestion,” Julian told them.

“One I backed,” this from Quinton.

Dash sighed heavily before saying, “Fine. We bury her.”

And, just like that, they agreed to bury my mother’s body in their weird basement room with a dirt floor.