“He’ll get his.” It comes off as a threat as her expression sours.
“Your disdain for my Fem of a husband astounds me, Mother.”
“Your disdain for your own destiny astounds me, Skyla.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means why are you fighting his unstoppable death? It’s his destiny to go the way of the world, Skyla. You’re to be with Logan—your true love—the one you’ve wanted from the beginning.”
Her words sting like a fresh slap to the face. “I love Gage. Logan and I had our moment.” Each word rips like a blade through my vocal cords. “Logan and I are in agreement that we both want Gage to stay. Gage and I have a family now. Besides, Demetri has achieved dominion through him. He’s—”
“He’s done with him,” she says it so matter-of-factly the words breeze by me as if they were insignificant. But they aren’t. They’re perfectly tragic, and it makes me want to howl in this crystalline paradise that my mother calls home.
“Do you love me?” The words tumble out from me, numb.
“Of course. Why in heavens would I go through the backbreaking work of producing an heir to deliver a people who otherwise had no hope? The Nephilim need you, Skyla. I need you. You were designed for a higher purpose. A purpose of light, not darkness.”
“But?” I can feel it dangling between us a like a viper.
Her gaze falls to the ground. “But, two dominions are to be born of you. And since you’ve accomplished the first, it’s time to accomplish the second.”
This strange world stills around me. Ahava itself seems to hold its breath at the audacious thought.
“Is that all I am to you? Some cheap breeding machine?” A wild rage strums through me, fueled with all the bullshit the celestial sphere has put me and those that I love through over the last few years. “I’m not putting up with it anymore. Yes, I love Logan, but Gage and I are together, and I’m begging you to keep it that way. Lock this in. Make it last. You and I both know you have the power to make this happen.”
Her features harden as she drills her lucent-colored eyes into mine. “Let’s talk shop, shall we? What have you done regarding the factions?”
“Not a damn thing since your kangaroo court kicked me off the hot seat. I’ve been evicted, remember? You nullified the war and declared the last few years of my life a joke. Not to mention, spit on the graves of the ones that paid the ultimate price during that ten stage battle.”
“Skyla.” Her demeanor shifts as she closes her eyes and shudders. “As the overseer of the factions, your authority could never be stripped. Yes, you have been removed from the chair, but the power still lies in you. In other words, you are their leader. Lead the people, for God’s sake!” A nest of lightning forms over her head, crackling and barking, flickering on and off as if a child were at the helm of the switch.
“What are you saying?”
Her eyes remain on mine as if we’re having a showdown.
“Oh my God,” I whisper as I piece it all together. “You’re defying them.” A dull smile twitches on my lips as the gravity of what’s just happened comes over me. “You want me to do the same.”
“Not true. You’ve already done it. I’m simply suggesting you take it to a grander scale.”
“The Retribution League.”
“Yes. That.” She folds her arms across her chest, her hair flying around like a golden electrical current. “Skyla, while you’ve been holed up in your bed, nursing your pups, listening to Lizbeth preach from her Mother Earth Handbook, your people have been placed in grave danger. There are no more hours left to save them. There are only minutes.” She glances back at the lake, and coming into view are her three backup singers—the Marshall twins and good old Rothello who got the ball rolling on the war to begin with. “The Decision Council has come to present you with a gift in honor of the precious princes you’ve ushered into the world. I’m aglow with pride these days. Sage is beaming at the thought of being a big sister.”
My body (soul as it were) warms at the mention of her.
Candace nods to me. “We will grant you one good deed—of no monetary value—to be done at once to the person of your choosing.”
“That’s my gift?” It’s so odd, but, then, look where I am. “Okay. I choose my daughter, Sage. And my good deed is to land her in a body and make her my legal child on the planet so I can put my family back together again.” Well done, if I don’t say so myself.
She closes her eyes a moment too long, letting me know it’s a no-go.
“A living person. Is there someone in your circle of friends you’d like to bless with a kind gesture? A surprise bouquet of Mylar balloons perhaps?”
I study this version of myself a moment. “Do you say silly things to mock me, or just to get my juices flowing?”
“Both.” She’s quick with the answer. In truth, that’s what I like about my mother. If anything, she’s a straight shooter.
“Very well, I choose Gage—I generously gift him a very long life. He’s to step into eternity only after me.”
She shakes her head. “Try again. We cannot alter length of years.”
Figures. “Okay”—I say it measured because I can already feel a no coming on for my next request—“I choose Chloe Bishop, the one in the Transfer. I want you to tighten her leash and freeze her morphing capabilities.” I raise a hand. “Before you say no, at least freeze her ability to morph into Laken and me. She slept with Logan under false pretenses. That alone should be enough to call her to court.” Although, no punishment ever seems enough for Chloe.
“Yes.” She taps her chin.
“Yes?” I jump with glee that I’m finally getting somewhere. Had I known my mother would go for it, I would have gone for the gold and banished Chloe’s soul from existence.
“Yes—no.” Her brows rise as if to annunciate her confusing answer. “Chloe is residing in Ezrina’s flesh. Ezrina worked very hard to harness those powers. Who am I to stagnate her spiritual synapses?”
“Who are you?” I’m not even going there.
“Her leash is tight enough. And Logan is a dead man. The Justice Alliance isn’t the least bit interested in the dead. Come, come—I’ve places to be. Pick someone.”
Crap. Who to help...Who to help…
Nat and her forever broken heart come to mind. I know we’re not close. In fact, some might call her an enemy of sorts, but we were in cheer, and I did kill her best friend and boyfriend, so I suppose I owe her a solid.
“Natalie Coleman,” I say flatly. “I’d like her summoned at once, as well as the souls of Pierce Kragger and Kate Winston.”
“Waking the dead, are we? What jurisdiction do you think you have around here?” Her eye twitches, as does her lower lip, alerting me to one of her schemes.
“That’s right. We’re waking the dead. They are my people, and I have waited too long to right this wrong.”
My mother takes a step back, and a brilliant glow envelops her. “There you are, my girl. I’ve been waiting for you to come into your own.”
She waves her hands, and out of thin air appear Nat, Kate, and Pierce.
“Oh, wow,” I marvel. They all look so, well—alive.
“Crap!” Nat runs over to me and cowers for a minute, her rust-colored curls bouncing like springs. “What the?” She gives a hard look to Kate, and for a brief second, I wonder if they even liked each other. “Katie?” She turns to gawk at the Kragger being. “Pierce, what’s going on?”
Pierce steps up. He’s well-built and fit, just like Nev, but there’s something different about this version of the O.G. Kragger. His demeanor is softer than I remember. He’s far more humble in spirit. If he were half this decent on Earth, Nat would have had a whole lot more competition.
“Natalie”—he says her name sweetly, the look of love still alive in his eyes—“I’m the Pierce you once knew, but I’ve long since passed. It’s not me in my body anymore.” He shakes his head as she runs into his ar
ms. “Babe, if that was me, you know we’d be together.” He peppers her face with kisses.
Tears come to my eyes, and Kate comes over and wraps her arms around me. Her hair is the palest color of butter, and her eyes glow bright as the sky. Kate always was, and still is beautiful.
“Greatest good deed ever.” She squeezes me, tight. “Thanks for thinking of my bestie.”
“No biggie.” I try to shrug it off, but the urge to blubber keeps getting stronger. Again, damn hormones. “Sorry again about killing you,” I whisper. I’ve already had a chance to meet up with Kate in the celestial sense. “I still feel awful.”
“It was my time.” Her eyes cut to my mother. “But there is one more task left for me to do down there.”
My mother and Kate enter into a standoff—their faces wash of all expression, their gazes locked like a vise.
“What is it? Do you want me to start a foundation or something?” My mind goes wild a mile a minute. I could start up the Accidental Slope Beheading Fund, but I’m not too sure who exactly would benefit.
Both Kate and my mother shake their heads in disapproval at me at the thought they heard.
Nat and Pierce pull away and join us after their alone time. They each have an arm wrapped around one another, and it looks easy as if they never spent a moment apart.
“So, what’s the news with my sister and brother?” Pierce asks it kind, not at all smeared with Kragger-tude.
“Your sister is an owl, safe in the Landon house. She’s one of our favorite pets. And your brother is a raven. He has a girlfriend who happens to be in the same plumbed predicament. They’re quite cute together.”
Nat’s mouth drops open at the revelation.
“Good for him.” Pierce shrugs at the idea. “But you need to do something about Emerson. She’s not a caged-up kind of girl. I don’t need to assess the situation to know she’s miserable. Isn’t there anything you can do for her?”
“I don’t know. Chloe killed her ages ago, and then Marshall resurrected her in the form of an owl to help me glean some information. She’s been trapped ever since. I don’t think there’s much I can do. She can’t survive in the wild. My sister’s been feeding her table scraps. Her cravings for mice have long since dissipated.”
“Keep her, then. But give her something to do. Put her in charge of something. She’s never been good with alone time. Like all Kraggers, she tends to crawl into her head a bit too much.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Talk about your far-reaching good deed. But I do like Emerson. And I hate that Chloe killed her. I will find something for her. Hey? Maybe now that her palette is more refined, I can convince her to dine on Chloe’s eyeballs. I recall Nev gobbling a few of those delicacies down in his prime.
Nat and Kate spend a few minutes chitchatting, lost in hugs and tears, and, before we know it, my mother calls time.
“The two of you back to Earth!”
“Wait!” I cry as my body begins to tremble, my soul loosening from this world to the next. “Let Gage live, once and for all! Please!” I shout those words with all of my hope, all of my love, all of my anger and fury rolled into one desperate plea.
“Skyla, my love.” She bends over and picks up a small ebony-colored rock from the edge of the lake. “His destiny is written in stone.” She tosses it to me, and it feels cold and hard, dangerous, in my hand. “Etched over the top is the amount of time he has left. You must wet the stone to read it. This is my gift to you, Skyla. I’ll be down soon to see my precious boys. Please, slather some lanolin over those cracked sores you’re feeding my grandchildren with. Celestra blood is not their choice of beverage.”
I open my palm, revealing a smooth black stone. I rub my thumb over and flip it, but it’s blank on both sides to the untrained eye.
The stone warms in my hand, igniting a pure shade of cobalt, identical to my husband’s eyes, and I drop it back at her feet. I don’t want it. I never want to see it again.
I startle back to life, back in my body with Barron gumming me into regular intervals of wild pain.
“Lanolin,” I cry out, and Mom blinks to life herself.
“Good call! I think it’s time. I have some in my room. I’ll be right back.”
I glance down at my empty palm. No stone—and I’m relieved. There is no way in hell I’m interested in seeing what that stone says. The only thing I’m interested in is reversing its curse.
If it’s one thing I learned tonight, it’s the fact my mother, the womb donor, is more than okay in sponsoring my rebellion.
In fact, you might even say she’s leading it in a roundabout way.
The Retribution League will expand, usurping the Faction Council’s power, and Gage will live.
I’ll see to both of those things.
Now—how to go about rallying the masses—and how to go about saving a life? I have no idea what either of those entails...
But something tells me I’m about to find out via my mother, the not-so subtle leader.
The baby’s mouth falls away from me, and we both give a sigh of contentment. I’m exhausted, delirious even. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if I hallucinated that entire scenario with my mother. My body needs a solid eight—make that eighteen—hours of sleep just to recoup from the trauma of childbirth three weeks back. I couldn’t care less if it’s the middle of the afternoon. The inside of my eyelids is calling, and I’m not about to deny my body its due.
I place Barron down into the bassinet, happily squirming in his sleep just as Nathan lets out a lusty cry.
A hard bite of acid explodes in my stomach as a surge of adrenaline courses through my veins.
A tiny whimper escapes me.
I didn’t really think I was going to get any sleep, did I?
Losing Battle
GAGE
“What did the stone say?” My entire body goes rigid, waiting for Skyla to answer. She’s just relayed the bizarre details of her visit to Ahava to both Logan and me. Logan swung by the house this evening and came up to the room to pay a visit to his new nephews. I’ll be the first to admit, it feels strange with him sitting on the bed that I make love to Skyla on—not that we’ve been hitting the sheets for the last few weeks. Her body isn’t healed quite yet. But the exhausted moments we’ve shared since the twins came home seem far more intimate than anything we’ve experienced before. For about an hour each night, Skyla and I lie over the bed, shirtless, with the boys’ bare skin over ours. Of course, Skyla is doing something far more productive in feeding them at the time, but while she has one, I’m bonding with the other, and it’s been magic every single night, every single day with our children finally here with us.
“It said nothing as far as I’m concerned.” She leans back onto the pillow, cradling Nathan while Logan holds Barron. “I gave it back. Besides, she mentioned it needed to be wet to read. It was dry as a bone, and I plan on keeping it that way—safe in Ahava.” Her lips twitch. “There’s hope for us yet. We don’t need my mother—as evidenced by her rebel-at-the-speed-of-light speech. She’s useless. I’m in charge. Get used to it.” She gives a sad wink. “The fact she gave me the green light on the Retribution League shows she’s all about bending the rules. Death may be eyeing your expiration date, but she’s just proved that nothing, and I mean nothing, is written in stone.” She winces because my expiration date is quite literally carved into a rock somewhere.
“That’s okay, Skyla.” I reach over and take her hand in mine. “I’ve got a few strings I can pull. I wouldn’t worry too much about me. Wes is full steam ahead in phase two of his make-the-Nephilim-look-like-psychotic-sadists.”
“Meaning?” Logan plants a gentle kiss to the top of Barron’s head. It warms my heart to see Logan so loving with him. Thanks to my reckless act, I’ll forever be fearing for Barron’s destiny. If I knew that breaking faith with the Barricade would cost me my son, I would be driving that crazy train right alongside my brother. A tight knot builds in my stomach because I’m afraid it mi
ght still be an option—hell, with Demetri, I’m sure that was the intent all along.
“Meaning, the Videns are freaked out,” I continue. “A third of their youth is missing.”
“The youth is missing? Track down their phones. Shut down their Wi-Fi. You’ll find them.” Logan shifts Barron to one arm and holds him like a football.
“These are consenting adults—eighteen to thirty—ninety percent males. Em says they were recruited to work as a part of some underground army.”
Skyla’s mouth falls open. “He sidestepped the Immunity League, so soon?”
I shake my head. “I’m thinking this underground army had a completely different purpose. The Immunity League was built from the best and the brightest. This Viden harvest was indiscriminate. Come as you are, ready to serve, no questions asked. And they came by the droves. And now, every single one of them is unaccounted for.”
“Shit.” Logan glances to Skyla a moment as if they had already discussed this awful scenario. “Anyone file a missing persons report?”
“Not to my knowledge. The Videns asked for answers, and I told them I’d shake down Wes myself.”
“And when are you going to do that?” Skyla sighs hard because we all know that Wesley and straight answers are strangers to one another.
“Tonight. I have a meeting with the Videns after that, and I’d sure as hell had better have something to tell them. Once the authorities get involved, we’ll all be eating a shit sandwich.”
Logan nods in agreement. “About how many people would you guestimate are missing? Fifty? A hundred?”
“Try two thousand, worldwide.”
“Oh my God.” Skyla closes her eyes like she might be sick. “Gage, the Videns are my people, too. They’re an affiliate faction, and they need to be treated as such. If Wesley is hurting our brothers and sisters, he needs to be stomped out like a flame.”
“He’s bulletproof. Demetri made sure of that.” And so am I until I’m not. It’s a funny thing to be on top with your father one minute, then sail so far down to the bottom you can’t even see the surface anymore. A thought I’ve been stifling struggles to break free. “There’s something you should know about Demetri.”
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