Sing, Canary - Ashley Amy Page 0,12

the ache building within me.

"Wise words, Lyra." Caine got into his bed, sighing.

My eyes counted the holes on the ceiling to try and pretend my life hadn't turned into this. Living in the fantasy of my mind, it would just be me with my parents.

Untucking my wings, I curled my body up into the cocoon of softness. My eyes tracked the grey feather almost immediately.

Biting my lip, I couldn't fight the addiction I knew would recreate the pain I missed. Swirling my finger around the root of the bottom, I caressed the flesh what would soon be angry with me.

It tickled just a little as my long nail created a feathered touch between the feathers. After massaging the flesh, I gripped the length of the grey one that marked me as defective.

I yanked it out, loving the instant sting of slicing it created. Reveling in the burn, I let the high of it ride out for the few seconds it lasted.

Maybe that's why I liked it so much. The pain was quickly fixed.

No one would ever know I had an addiction to harming myself, but I did.

During the time after my kidnapping, I let my grey feather float out my window after I plucked it. This time, I could only hide it inside my pillowcase. That would have to do for now.

As I drifted off to sleep, I could've sworn I heard Caine tell me to be ready for tomorrow's torment. I should've listened closer, but I wasn't in a caring mood.

8

Caine

And here came the pretty boy. Detective Talon Winston sat across from me. The man was undoubtedly in love with Lyra, but she never noticed his affections.

Most girls could read into it easily, but not my stepsister. She'd need to be clubbed upside the head to see how much every male wanted her. I was not excluded from that, but I only wanted Lyra for her body.

I hated the bitch that ruined my life. My mother warned me the day she married Armoni that I would need to protect his little angel of the light with everything I had.

The favoritism only worsened. Lyra had everyone wrapped around her little finger inside that complex. I was the only one who didn't treat her like she walked on water.

Axel joined me in the manhunt against her innocence. We made a pact to make sure the little brat got everything that was coming to her.

Though, when I expected a tantrum the first few times we bullied her, she only walked away. She never gave us emotion about any of it.

Her lack of anger and embarrassment pissed me off when we attended school together, but she never told our parents she was the apple of my evil eye. Well, when I needed to torment something.

Now, I sat across from her white knight. He was the cop that helped cover up whatever the fuck happened to her.

I think he and August were the last remaining ones that knew what happened to her. All anyone knew was that it was the same event that caused the death of her mother.

Pettiness aside, I had always wanted to know the story behind it all. Though, I knew I never would. Everyone was tight-lipped about it all.

My mother ripped me a new asshole the day she caught me pressuring Lyra into telling me. Before she arrived, that was one of the very few moments I saw the true pain in Lyra's eyes. Like the devil I followed, I wanted to taste that pain, making it my own.

Just like last night, in our cell. It took everything within me to let her go, knowing she could never handle the monster lurking within me.

I let go of my light a long time ago. Satan was my master now, but when I saw my angelic stepsister, I wanted to go toward her light.

It was a secret I'd die with.

"Caine," Detective Winston greeted me, slapping a case file on the table between us. "Want to tell me why I shouldn't believe this was your doing?"

"Why should I? You've already deemed me the prime suspect, haven't you?" I deepened my glare. I wanted to cross my arms, but they were chained to the table.

He was lucky for the iron that held me back. It was never a secret how much Talon and I disliked each other.

Though, as I watched the detective sigh into his hands, I saw what the last two days had done to him. His favorite little toy was stuck inside