Ashes

ASHES A DARK ASYLUM ROMANCE THE BOYS OF CHAPEL CREST K.G. REUSS BOOK THREE Copyright © Ashes: The Boys of Chapel Crest 2023 by K.G. Reuss All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. To all my screamers. CONTENTS Foreword Prologue 1. Ashes 2. Church 3. Stitches 4. Sin 5. Ashes 6. Asylum 7. Church 8. Sin 9. Ashes 10. Church 11. Ashes 12. Sin 13. Church 14. Seth 15. Sirena 16. Stitches 17. Ashes 18. Sin 19. Ashes 20. Church 21. Stitches 22. Sin 23. Seth 24. Sirena 25. Stitches 26. Ashes 27. Church 28. Ashes 29. Stiches 30. Sin 31. Church 32. Asylum 33. Ashes 34. Sirena 35. Sin 36. Stitches 37. Asylum 38. Sirena 39. Ashes 40. Sin 41. Stitches 42. Church 43. Sirena 44. Ashes 45. Seth 46. Sin 47. Sirena 48. Asylum 49. Ashes 50. Church 51. Stitches 52. Sirena 53. Ashes 54. Sin 55. Asylum 56. Ashes About the Author Also by K.G. Reuss FOREWORD Dear Reader Please check kgreuss.com for all the information regarding this book/series. There’s a page you may be interested in to make sure Chapel Crest is a safe space for you. You know how things can get. . . wild. All dates for upcoming releases in this series are placeholder dates and are subject to change. Typically, that means they release sooner. The Boys of Chapel Crest are part of my Chaos Universe. Everyone knows everyone, so you have an entire world of characters to explore and obsess over. Read responsibly. That means one had on your book and the other. . . well, you know. Happy screaming -K PROLOGUE ASYLUM I watched as she walked across the commons, her black braid hanging to her waist, her eyes downcast. Her skirt was shorter than I’d like because it made all the creeps stare. I didn’t like people looking at her. Beautiful. Perfect. Rinny. Our Rinny. Look at me. FUCKING LOOK AT ME. I gave my head a slight shake and breathed out, hoping to quiet the noise inside. When the sounds lessened, I stepped out of the shadows and followed her, taking note of every motherfucker looking at her. Cataloging their names. Their expressions. The words falling from their lips they didn’t think I could make out. I didn’t need to hear the words to know what they were saying about her. But I was good like that. Knowing things no one else did. I called it my superpower, if monsters like me possessed such things. She rounded the science building, unaware I was following her. I was always following her. To classes. To her dorm. To the fucking watchers’ house. I made it my business to invade every facet of her life, whether she knew it or not. I was sure I still haunted her dreams even after all these years. She was supposed to be dead. Safe. Far away from any fucker who could harm her. She was our Rinny. My forever girl. My everything. I was supposed to meet her in the afterlife after I’d killed all the wicked. We were meant to kiss and make love and dance on moonbeams together. Forever. It was strange how I’d become what I hunted. Life had been going well for me. Then she came back from the dead. To torment me with my sins. She stopped walking to wait for Bryce Andrews. Her face was expressionless to those who didn’t know her, but I knew her. I knew everything about my forever girl. She cared for Bryce. It was in her eyes. Always her pretty eyes. It was where she hid her secrets. I always knew to look at her eyes if I wanted the truth from her without her saying a word. It was there the day I’d tried to lead her to heaven. She’d loved me too. She’d also feared me. Ah, fear. More powerful than love it would seem because now my forever girl only lived in fear because of me. I didn’t like that. But I also loved it. I watched as Bryce grinned at her. Spoke to her. Touched her. I breathed in and out slowly, watching. She never saw me unless I wanted her to see me. Even when she slumbered, and I stood over her bed in the darkness. Dante Church was making my life difficult though. He also watched her. I had to be careful because he was just as good as me. Fucking watcher. I knew her demons though. They played with mine. A game we’d been part of since our souls had collided all those long years ago. Our Rinny. My greatest failure. My greatest weakness. My greatest love. I didn’t follow her this time. I had work to do. Someone touched my forever girl. Someone she didn’t want to touch her. Danny Linley. And Danny Linley needed to pay. * * * I didn’t typically enjoy killing. The kill wasn’t where my triumph lay. Not even close. In fact, I found the entire act of death to be bittersweet and sad. Disappointing, really. It was in the torture and fear where my pleasure was. In the screams. Because there were worse things than death. Carving out an eye. Tearing fingernails from fingers, one by one. Forcing them to watch as I sliced deep into their flesh. Their fear. Fuck, I loved the fear. Ah, fuck. Glorious. Screams. Screams were the cherry on top of a big fucking sundae of agony. And Danny Linley could scream. “P-please. P-p-please. I-I’m s-s-sorry,” he choked out as I cocked my head and stared down at him on his bathroom floor, which was covered in blood and piss. His hands and feet were bound. For a large guy, he was easy enough to subdue. “What are