Page 8 of Dominion

I wondered that myself. We murdered our dreams, our souls, our bodies, for a moment of oblivion that could make us feel happy.

But at what fucking cost?

3

SKYLAR

My eyes slowly blinked open,and I quickly realized I wasn’t on the floor anymore.

The room I was in wasn’t the one Zoe took me to in the morning, and then it hit me like a kaleidoscope of memories.Cillian, coke, me getting lost in the dreams of all the things that could be, and I jumped up from the plush surface and started looking around.

The sun shone brighter now, illuminating the entire room, but I was all alone.

I looked to my right where the coffee table stood, completely empty now. Cillian was nowhere to be seen, but I could see the piece of paper on the nightstand next to the bed.

Come down when you’re ready.

C.

Was I ready? What fucking time was it?

Did I sleep through the day?

“Shit,” I groaned, dragging my hand over my face. I didn’t want to go down. I didn’t want to see Zoe’s worried face, or an empty house.

I wanted to go back to the darkness that hugged me so tight when I went down. There, I wasn’t alone because Dylan andAsh were still with me. They weren’t fucking kidnapped by the monster I’d called father most of my life, and I didn’t have to worry if Kane was okay.

A knock sounded on the door and I immediately straightened up, waiting for the firing squad. But then I remembered I wasn’t in Winworth anymore. I didn’t have to fear for my life every time Judah knocked on my door.

The door opened slowly. “Are you awake?” Cillian asked as he entered.

“Yeah, unfortunately I am.”

He looked better now, freshly showered, but those dark circles still lingered around his eyes and I wondered what had destroyed this seemingly kind man. What happened to him?

It was the inane obsession I had, the attraction to broken things. Not in the way Ash and Dylan called to me, but on a completely different level. It was as if my soul always recognized the ones who had stories similar to mine.

The ones who were irreversibly broken but still surviving in this cruel world.

“Zoe made lunch,” Cillian said and closed the door behind him as he entered the room. “Uh, about this morning—” He scratched the back of his head.

“No one is going to know,” I murmured. “But thank you for letting me be here, even though I fell asleep.” I laughed.

“It’s okay.” The grin on his face was carefree and only then did I realize that I had no idea how old he was.

Right now, a boyish smile graced his face, but this morning, it looked as if a thousand armies had shot their arrows at him and he carried the burden of the entire world.

“Some of us have to be fucked up, huh?” I asked and slowly got out of bed.

“At least we’re more fun.” He shrugged. “Come downstairs. Indigo and Atlas are here. We don’t have a lot of time, so it’s better to just get on with this.”

Get on with this meant, get on with the plan to free Dylan and Ash. I was in over my head and I knew that the forces we were dealing with were not just high school bullies. These were serious men who could make each and every one of us disappear if they wanted it to happen. But from what I saw, Sons of Hades weren’t exactly a group you would want to mess with and that gave me at least a little grain of hope.

Something to hold on to until this was over.

“Lead the way then,” I said as I stopped right in front of him.

I tied my hair into a low ponytail as we walked through the hallway and down the stairs. A part of me dreaded seeing Indigo and Atlas, knowing that if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have been in this situation.