My mouth falls open as I look to my mother, stunned. “Is that what this is about? You’re here to see me wed Logan? Here? In a barn? Tonight? Not a month after I had my heart pressed through a strainer? It’s still lying on the ground like hamburger, by the way. So, no thank you.” I offer an apologetic look to Jack and Judy. “I’m afraid you’ve come a great distance for nothing.”
“Skyla!” my mother snips, her countenance quickly piquing with color. “It’s only a matter of time. I suggest this happens sooner than later. Do not disrespect the royal gentry. Indeed they have traveled afar to witness the blessed event.”
“You mean spectacle. Mother, Logan and I aren’t even there emotionally.”
“He is,” she bites the words through the air, and it only enrages me to hear her raise her tone this way.
“You mean you are,” I snip right back.
“He loves you, Skyla,” she riots back, her body closing the gap between us.
“Well, I love him—I’m just not sure I need a husband right this very moment.” I bite down over my lip as I look to Logan. “Nothing personal.”
“Duly noted.” He blinks a wry smile right back.
“Oh come, don’t be silly.” My mother lifts her hands to the ceiling, and a heavenly choir rings out in perfect harmony. “I’ve put some thought into this, and what better eve to commence such a momentous occasion? Christmas Eve is so very special, and to share your special day with the Master is an honor indeed.”
I shoot my father a look and he shrugs.
“You’ve thought about it?” A dull laugh rattles in my chest as I look to this illuminated version of myself.
Both Jack and Judy inhale a sharp breath—and if I’m being perfectly honest, Logan might have done just that, too.
“Yes, Skyla.” Her eyes sharpen over mine, and that incredulous tone lets me know I should always consider the fact my mother is mapping out my future without my permission. “If not I, who will dictate where your feet may fall?”
“How about me?” Now it’s my voice that holds the incredulous tone. “It’s my future, Mother. It’s up to Logan and me to decide whether or not we’ll take that step one day.”
“Logan is ready now.” Her eyes widen just a notch, her bubbly demeanor quickly giving way to fury. “This shall be your wedding night. You’ll wed here, before the gentry. I was kind enough to exhume your father and your future in-laws from the heavenlies.”
“Where’s Rory?” I cast a suspicious glance in the vicinity, hopeful that we can change the subject.
A tiny girl steps out from behind my father, her dark hair set in neat twin French braids, her glowing blue eyes pinned to mine with hatred.
“She didn’t ask about me, did she, Grandfather?”
“Sage!” I drop down over her with a monstrous embrace and she wriggles out of it in record time.
“Don’t touch me,” she spits the words out as she heads to my mother’s side. Sage has donned a ruby red velvet dress lined with tapestry piping, and the buttons on her poncho look as if they were hand forged, steel lattice that I could stare at for days.
My mother drapes an arm over her. “Now, Sage. Do be considerate of the one whose womb you were knit into existence.” Her lips curve with a smile as she looks to me, perfectly satisfied by the constant rejection my daughter gives me.
Logan pulls me back and wraps an arm around my waist to comfort me, but it’s my father that heads over and does the same for Sage.
“Of course, your mother wants you, dear.” His soothing tone is a balm to me as well. “I’m willing to bet she’d rid the entire lot of us just to have you all to herself.”
“He’s right.” I don’t hesitate to let her know it. “I love you, Sage. I love you more than you can ever understand. You’re my whole—”
“Are you saying I’m a nitwit?” Her face inches up to mine.
“No, never. Sage, you’re everything to me. You and your brothers—”
“Where are the little pigs?” She sneers just past me. “I suppose they’re with Father. I’m off to tug on their ears.” She heads for the exit. “Their squeals of pain please me. I’ll make sure my new stepmother squeals, too. Consider it my first and last holiday gift to you.”
Judy taps her hand across her nearly invisible chest and shrugs my way. “She’s a lovely girl.”
Her husband nods to both Logan and me. “Upright in every way. It’s a tough transition visiting the home planet.”
Home planet. It makes them sound like aliens, and in a way I guess they are.
“I should probably get in there.” I look to my father, forlorn. “I have to face them sooner or later. And I don’t like the idea of the boys spending prolonged amounts of time with either Chloe or Gage.” I wince as I look to his grandparents. “Sorry.”
Judy crimps her lips. “No apology needed. We are equally vexed and perplexed.”
Logan offers my shoulders an affirming squeeze. “Thank you all for coming down. It’s always a blessing to see you.”
My mother’s eyes ignite with fire. “We’re not leaving. Skyla, you will wed Logan sooner than later. You have an obligation—”
“To my heart,” I cut her off. “To myself. And to Logan.”
She flits her gaze to him. “Are you prepared to wed my daughter?”
I can feel him stiffen against me. “Yes. I think everyone here knows how much I love Skyla—including Skyla. But it’s not happening tonight. Skyla is right. We’re not there yet.”
“She’s not there.” My mother glowers at me as if this were the ultimate disappointment. My God, she didn’t act nearly this way when she discovered that I lost my position, inadvertently started a war, and landed a majority of Noster in the heavenlies. She really does have one serious boner for Logan.
“Skyla!” she reprimands because obviously she heard my private musing. She’s been prying into my mind all along.
Marshall steps up from behind me. He was so quiet I had forgotten he was with us. “I do believe I should tend to my guests. Please feel free to linger and mingle.”
My father offers a warm smile and it lights up his entire face. “We will be lingering. Candace has offered an extended stay.”
Marshall lifts a hand. “Then I bid you to haunt my halls. My home is yours in every single way.” He tries to leave, but I leash my hand to his. Marshall isn’t leaving this good time until I do.
“That’s right.” A malevolent smile graces my mother’s lips, never a good thing. “I had warned them ahead of time regarding your stubborn heart.” Her affect flattens and she’s right back to glowering. “I might allow them to remain until your wedding day. Mind you, earth is not a pleasant stay for those who have partaken in paradise. As much as it will be a joy to witness your union, this will be a burden on their proverbial shoulders. Do be considerate of the fact.”
My mouth falls open at the audacity. “Are you kidding me? You take these poor souls back to paradise with you tonight. I don’t know when or if Logan and I are ever getting married. Not only are we emotionally not there, but he hasn’t even asked!” I hold a finger out at him. “Don’t you dare.” I turn my ill-affection back to my mother. “You’re impossible, you know that? You give me life, you mold my future—I’m nothing more than an inanimate object you hurled onto the planet with your name plastered over my DNA because you believe you own me. What you fail to realize is that I am my own. My thoughts, my dreams, and my heart belong to me exclusively. I decide who I love, when and if I wed again. I decide who I sleep with. I will sleep with Marshall or with Logan or with some unknown who strikes my fancy because I decide who I will spend my time with!”
The poor Olivers shudder as they huddle together. My father looks unsteady on his ghostly feet. But my mother glows red with rage.
“Skyla,” she seethes. “I forbid you to partake in carnal union with anyone until you have accepted a proper covenant. Let us do this now and the two of you—”
“No!” I’m so outraged I ca
n’t see straight. “Daddy, I apologize. I can’t do this anymore.” I look to Judy and Jack. “I’m sorry. Don’t wait around for my wedding.”
I detangle myself from both Logan and Marshall, but they’re both at my side before I get back to the boisterous crowd blooming from every orifice this mega mansion has to offer.
“Skyla, wait.” Logan pulls me in, his eyes lit with both regret and a touch of pride. “You know I love you. But I would never pressure you into something so serious. Your mother is—well, she’s just being a mother. She’s excited. She’s—”
“A lunatic with the keys to the kingdom.”
Marshall groans, “Ms. Messenger, do hold your tongue where Your Grace is concerned. Once she’s set her mind to something, there is no stopping it. The sooner you understand this basic principle, you will learn to adapt and work around it.”
“Work around it.” I nod up at his glorious eminence. Marshall shines like a heavenly host himself against the velvet night sky, the powder white fog pluming around him. “It’s time.” I tick my head toward the pulsating window behind me. “I’m going to get my boys. I suppose they’re holding them hostage until I acknowledge them.”
“Do not congratulate them,” Logan admonishes.
Marshall’s brows bounce with amusement. “Please do, Skyla. When the enemy sets your feet to the flames, extinguish them with the water of kindness. They expect rage, Skyla. Dare I say, they are hungry for your venom. Don’t feed the fire, my love. You hold the power.”
“I hold the power,” I say as I head on in.
The room is heated and thick with bodies. The ghostly gentry are scattered around the vicinity, glistening like stars, their laughter rising like holiday bells.
An arm plucks me from my mission, and soon I’m staring Natalie Coleman, Michelle Miller-Oliver, Emily Morgan, and Lexy Bakova in the face. Lex is the one who’s holding me firmly by the wrist and I’m quick to wriggle free.
“I see you’ve already staked your new claim,” she grouses while hosing Logan down with her hatred. Her copper hair is cut short and curves neatly under her jaw. Her skin glows a deep tan and her features are precision cut. Lex has always been a stunner. “Chloe says you’re fine with this new setup. What the hell has gotten into you, Skyla? Gage Oliver was the love of your life up until a few minutes ago, and now you’re fine with him bedding Bishop nightly?”
Those last few words spear me like a knife to the gut, quick and blindingly painful.
“Shut up, Lex,” Nat barks as those tight ringlet curls of hers vibrate right along with her anger. “She didn’t know Gage was going to screw her over like that. He’s garbage to her now. She’d never take him back. She’s probably kicking herself for not sticking to Logan to begin with.”
I glance his way. “I need to go.”
Nat sinks her claws into my arm. “I’m still on your side. You did more for me than anyone. I’ll kick Bishop’s ass if you want me to.” By more, she means her brief reunion with the love of her life, Pierce Kragger, who has since gone on to the other side—specially delivered there by me.
“Okay. I’ll probably take you up on that.”
Em averts her eyes. “And once you give me back my brother, I’ll do ten times worse to her—as a thank you.”
“Great. I hope to have him to you soon.”
Michelle Miller—Oliver, flashes that enormous rock her father helped Liam purchase for her. “We’re family, Mess.” She offers a pearly grin my way. Michelle’s skin holds a deep tawny hue, and that smile glows as if she has a moonbeam trapped in her mouth. With her long dark hair, that naughty gleam in her eyes, Michelle has always been a wicked beauty. “But I guess Chloe and I are family now, too. Liam and I are taking them out to dinner sometime next week. We’ll pencil you and Logan in sometime after that.”
“Pencil me in.” I can’t help but shake my head at the lunacy.
Lex offers a short-lived smirk. “It feels like shit to have someone else steal your man from under you, doesn’t it?” She swings her hips my way as she takes a step closer. “The Enchanted Closet is having a sale on slut wear. I can hook you up with something that might help you land a man. Can’t guarantee you’ll keep him.”
Logan takes up my hand and attempts to pull me away. “That’s enough.”
Lex smirks over at him. “Oh, that’s right. Skyla has her number two. How does it feel to be the fallback guy? I bet you’ve already filled that gap between her legs. Everyone knows Messenger can’t go long without having something long and hard pounded into her. Isn’t that right, Mess?” She takes a bold step forward. “I know you slept with Dudley. Does he still get you going now that you’re no longer logging time in second period with him at the helm? Unable to flash him your panties whenever he was standing in front of you? We were there, Skyla. We saw it all. So how long did it take for you to fall back into bed with him? I’m betting it was night one. Gage beds Chloe and you bed Dudley. An orgasmic time was had by all. Deny it, Skyla. Go ahead. Logan is right here. God knows you love to defend your precious chastity.”
“I will sleep with whomever I wish, however much I wish, whenever I wish,” I say with my heavy gaze pinned to Lexy’s. My mind says take the high road, and my flesh says kick her in the balls she professes to have. “Logan is right. It’s enough. Yes, it hurt like hell to have my life flipped upside down. If you feel a fraction of the pain I do, Lexy, then I’m sorry.” Oh, honey—I glare at Lex with everything in me—I am saving my wrath for someone far worthier of it than you.
“Sorry?” a female voice trills from behind. “Is that what’s keeping you from your children, Skyla? Apologizing to each soul in this room might just keep you away from them forever.”
That voice, that wicked taunt—my body goes numb, and it feels as if I’ve suddenly become submerged underwater. It takes an enormous effort to pivot on my heels. The room rotates around me, the music fades to thick silence, and the people and morbid decorations my mother thought it a good idea to festoon this place with fade in a dizzying blur.
There they stand, my nightmare, my living hell, a reality during waking hours. Gage and Chloe.
Gage. So tall and stately, that dark hair, that pale skin, those knife-sharp eyes. His very presence stings me. Gage Oliver has always been a masterpiece to look at, Michelangelo’s David walking around among us. Those cobalt eyes spike into mine, cold and unfeeling, not one inch of affection for me remains in his soul. A flashback of every moment we ever shared pulses through me, strong as an electrical current, and every errant whisper, every soul-quenching kiss blinks through my mind like a series of photographs slapping down far too fast for me to process them all, breathtaking, unstoppable. Each moment felt so very genuine, not manufactured by any means. It felt so real, so solid, our forever secured by the potency of our immeasurable love.
In his arms Barron lunges for me, and I take him and hand him to Logan before plucking Nathan from Chloe. The boys wiggle free to the floor, happy and giggling. Em takes them by the hand and says something about taking them to my mother before disappearing. But I can’t tear myself away.
My gaze is immovable, my eyes set over his—the same eyes that watched me with love now look through me with ice-cold anger as if it’s what they’ve only ever felt for me. As if I’m a malfeasance in his presence.
He’s watching me, holding up a wall of thoughts as if his life were staked on it. I could always read it on his face whenever he did that. Even now he’s keeping something from me. His tortured version of the truth. I want to believe it.
Deep down, I want to believe that he’s plunged us into the miry depths of misery because the alternative doesn’t fit the narrative my heart demands to give it.
Gage Oliver has good intentions. The Gage Oliver I knew only wanted the best for me, for my people. The Gage Oliver I knew hated Chloe Bishop. He spit her lukewarm bullshit out of his mouth. And yet, this one drinks it up, laps her up like vomit off the ground. This one chooses her as his bride. This one, whose
mind is forever intact and blessed by the hand of God, the resurrected version has come back like a devil. Gone is the angel I once knew. Dead and buried.
I should fish his head out of that blue keeping solution Ezrina has it bobbing in over at Whitehorse. I should put it up in the butterfly room and build an altar to it. Defile myself with it the way Chloe did. That was Gage. This is someone I never want to know.
“Skyla?” A cheery voice gives my shoulder a quick shake and I startle back to life, only to find my mother—the earthbound version—Tad, Emma, and Barron staring back at me.
“Crap,” I mutter. As much as I hate to admit it, Emma’s gloating might have the power to take this hellish night to new heights. And judging by that tightlipped smile on her burnt orange lips, she’s ready to douse me with another round of gasoline just to see how bright I can burn.
“It’s time!” Tad bellows, knocking a knife over the crystal flute in his hands. That electronic bowtie of his blinks on and off, red and green, the stuff that seizures are made of.
I glance to Chloe and her wicked grin spreads a little wider. A representation of how her legs have been spreading for Gage ever since, I’m sure.
Every last part of me is numb. It’s far too hot in here to catch my next breath.
A hand lands on my back and a powerhouse of feel-good vibrations shower through me in deep, calming waves. I glance down to find Marshall’s thick hand cupping me lovingly from behind and I take everything he has to offer.
My mother shoots the new couple a curt look. “Gage—Chloe.”
Emma’s left eye comes short of winking. “Oh come, Lizbeth. Surely you can congratulate the happy couple. It’s not the end of the world. People go their separate ways all the time.”
“Emma,” both Barron and Logan boom at once, but Gage doesn’t flinch. His silence speaks volumes.
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 11