52. The Closed Door #2
“Lichenmoor is an island, and I know every secret hiding place,” Silas said through Lev. “You’re trapped here, just like me.”
Silas flipped Asher onto his back, and straddled him.
The abrupt change in position combined with a mouth filled with blood amplified Asher’s nausea.
He turned his head and spat blood. On the plus side, maybe if he vomited it would distract Silas long enough or snap Lev out of whatever the fuck was happening.
Struggling to slow his frantic breathing, Asher tried to focus on his senses. He saw a fire poker too far away, a shard of broken porcelain under the bed. The vein bulging in Lev’s neck. He heard the crackle of flames, the relentless rain.
“You poor dear,” Silas said in a sickly sweet simpering tone. “All that blood must taste dreadful. Try not to dwell on it. We can’t have you fainting.”
“I’m sorry I scared you. I know you just want to keep me safe,” Asher tried.
“Oh, sod off. I’ve gone mad, not daft.”
“You haven’t gone mad.”
Silas arced down and kissed Asher, invading his mouth with Lev’s tongue. Asher’s vision swam like he was floating on the waves flooding Lichenmoor. Saliva filled his mouth.
“Mm,” Silas hummed. “You’re delicious. Now I see what all the fuss was about.”
“Get off!” Asher shoved Lev’s stomach and bucked his hips, trying to topple him .
“Keep writhing around like that. I quite like it.” Lev’s dick thickened against him.
Disgust and renewed panic surged through him. Asher fought like a cat trying to avoid taking a bath, and sank his teeth into Lev’s arm, probably right on top of those fingernail scars.
Silas rolled Lev’s hips, rutting his cock alongside Asher’s. “I do love a bit of pain with my pleasure.”
“Well, I don’t. Red. Lev, I said red. Lev, stop.”
“What on earth are you going on about?”
With a sympathetic wince, Asher reeled back his fist and aimed for Lev’s balls. Silas caught Asher’s hand before it connected.
“I’d like to keep my bollocks intact, thank you very much.”
Asher gnashed his teeth together. His options were dwindling. Asher widened his eyes in fear and pointed over Lev’s shoulder.
“Lev, look out. It’s Silas!”
“That’s not poss…” Silas followed Asher’s gaze.
Asher reached for the shard of porcelain under the bed. His fingertips slipped on the sharp edge?—
“Careful. You don’t want to cut yourself, do you?” Silas shackled Asher’s wrists, and pinned them by his head. “I must say, you’re exactly as sharp as I hoped you would be.”
“And you’re as self-absorbed as I guessed, distracted by your own ghost. Silas.” He’d said the name like a curse.
“Aw. What gave me away?” Silas pushed Lev’s lips into a pout that didn’t suit Lev at all. “I wanted to play with you more, but now that you’ve guessed, I might as well get rid of you.”
“Lev won’t let you hurt me.”
“I’m afraid Lev won’t be able to stop me until the tide recedes. Don’t worry. I’ll tell him you said goodbye.” Silas patted Asher’s cheek. “I can’t wait for him to lose you. Killing you will be the perfect revenge.”
“Wait. Are you seriously still hung up on your ex? Hasn’t it been twenty years, or something?”
“Lev is not an ex. He’s my brother. Our bond is something you can’t understand because you don’t have that with him.”
“ Okay , Silas,” Asher said with a sardonic roll of his eyes. “That’s not what Lev said.”
“I know everything Lev has said. I know when he’s serious and when he’s just trying to fuck someone.”
“I don’t know, man. You sound kind of insecure to me.”
Silas scoffed. “Please.”
“You don’t go in the church. You don’t come here either, so no, you don’t actually know everything he’s said about you.” Asher chewed on his lip. “I wonder why you’re in here now. Probably because you aren’t real.”
Silas lifted Asher’s hands and slammed them back against the ground.
Asher hissed.
“Ouch. That sounded like it hurt,” Silas said.
It had hurt, but if Silas wanted to cause him real pain, he’d have to try a lot harder. Between his tattoos, and Ben’s mistreatment, Asher had a high pain tolerance.
“Do you know what I think after reading through that pining notebook of yours?” Asher asked.
If Silas hadn’t threatened to kill him, Asher might have felt guilty. Of all people, he knew how painful pining and rejection could be. But since Silas was trying to kill him, he might as well put all the snarky shower arguments he’d had with Ben in his head to good use.
“I had no idea you knew how to read,” Silas said.
Asher understood why Lev had been attracted to Silas. Aside from his envy-inducing beauty, he was witty and sharp-tongued. Fighting with him was fun.
“I know, right?” Asher said. “I can read and write and do something you can’t do, something only Lev and I can.”
“If you’re going to make a crude joke about some strange American sex act, spare me.”
“It’s not a sex thing,” Asher told Silas. “I can make art so powerful, Lev fell in love with me through a painting.”
Silas snorted. “That’s it?”
“Nah. But I don’t need to prove anything. You can keep trying to change my opinion though if you want.” Hopefully until Lev became Lev again.
“I’m tired of talking,” Silas said as casually as if killing Asher was nothing more than ripping a page out of a book.
“Lev will hate you.”
“Oh, I know. He’s hated me since long before I died, but there’s freedom in being hated. When people have already made up their minds, I can do whatever I want.”
Lev’s legs tightened around Asher’s hips as Silas released Asher’s hands, wrapped his own around Asher’s neck, and squeezed. The first thing Asher did was punch Lev in the balls like he’d intended. This time he connected.
Silas winced. “Poor Levvy is going to be so sore tomorrow.”
Asher and Ben had done breath play. He was no stranger to the sensation of being strangled, but for all Ben’s crimes, he’d never fucked around with Asher’s life. Safe breath play was one of the few kinks he still liked. The soft rising pressure in Asher’s head was so familiar it almost soothed him.
Maybe that was why Silas had let his guard down and gave Asher the chance to punch Lev in the kidney.
“For fuck’s sake, Blakely!”
Asher’s heart lifted with hope. Had Lev come back? But Lev didn’t release him. Silas tightened his grip, and Asher’s vision dimmed like a fire slowly burning out.
Lev would be so alone and heartbroken if Asher died. Asher had to stop Silas.
“I do wish you’d put up more of a fight,” Silas said. “This is rather anticlimactic.”
“Maybe you’re not doing it right,” Asher tried to say.
“Sorry. I’m afraid I can’t understand you, but no matter. Let’s not pretend you have anything profound to share.”
Asshole. Channeling all his rage, Asher kicked his legs and tried to pry Lev’s fingers from his neck.
“See, isn’t this more fun?” Silas asked.
When that didn’t work, he tried to scratch Lev’s neck, maybe punch him if he was lucky, but his arms were so hard to lift, each attempt slower. Lev was just too far away. White spots drifted in his vision like snowflakes.
The room darkened, tightening into a hallway with Lev standing at the end.
Asher called to him. Lev’s name echoed down the hallway but he didn’t answer.
Asher tried again and again but the hallway stretched longer and longer each time he sent Lev’s name echoing down the line until he said Lev’s name for the very last time and Lev disappeared.
The hall didn’t seem so long anymore. Lev had been blocking a closed door. A rectangle outline of bright light beamed through the gaps around the door. The light reminded him so much of lightning. Too white. Too blue.
But then the light turned off.
The hall went dark.
And Asher’s flame burned out with a final thought—he hoped Lev would forgive himself.