Page 125 of Stay Scared

“Stay here.”

The words are low and bare, with no speaker between us.

Across the room, Cade has Rook near the pulley frame.

Rook drives a knee into Cade’s injured ribs, folding him with a broken sound, but Owen hits Rook from the opposite side and catches him across the shoulder.

The beaked mask turns toward me.

Rook sees Ash at my feet, unmasked, bleeding, holding me.

He abandons the fight.

Cade grabs for him.

Rook swings the bar backward, catches Cade across the forearm, and disappears through a service opening behind the scenery.

Owen follows three steps before stopping. “The passage splits in two.”

“Leave him.”

Ash tries to make the order sound like the Voice.

The authority falls flat.

Owen turns back.

Cade presses one hand against the dressing around his ribs. “You look like shit.”

Ash’s hand is still around my waist. “I misjudged the opening.”

“You didn’t know it was there.”

“I should have.”

His grip tightens once.

I look down at him. “You are not turning Rook hitting you in a wall you didn’t know existed into proof that you failed to control the universe.”

“I built this place.”

“He built parts of it first.”

“And I retained them.”

“Then hate yourself after Mark is free.”

Anger flashes across his face, aimed at me, Rook, the broken mask, and himself for being seen like this.

His hand slides from my waist to my hip.

The hold is possessive enough that Cade catches it from across the room.

Owen does too.

“Can you stand?”

“I can.”