“Mommy pretty!” Nathan squeezes my legs before running off and Barron follows.
My mouth opens to tell off the terrible twosome before me just as Tad howls like a werewolf that I’m hoping will meet up with a hunter with a cache of silver bullets. Honest to God, I could fire off some bullets right about now myself.
Mom runs into the room, her hair set in rollers. “Tad! What is happening? Does this have something to do with tonight’s mystery date?” She looks to me and touches her lips with a look of surprise on her glammed-up face. “Tad suggested I get dolled up. I guess it’s date night for me, too.”
“You bet your bottom dollar, Lizbeth,” Tad grunts as he waves us all over to the dining room. “Gather ’round, children. Have I got a tale to tell! Last night I dreamed that big giant numbers were chasing me down.”
My heart sinks. Last month the same thing happened and he won the Big Ball drawing—and the Wild Fifty before that.
Emily strides over and stands next to me while holding sweet baby Ella, a precious dark-haired beauty with Drake’s widow’s peak and cleft in her chin. Ethan seems fine with the fact his brother sired his plus one’s baby—twice now, and seems to be smitten with the newest member of the family. Ember, Emily’s first daughter, thinks that Ella is her doll. Beau Geste and the boys have decided that Ella is a baby dinosaur and that’s exactly what they call her. I think it’s adorable.
“How’s it going?” I wrinkle my nose to Em. She’s had a hell of a time getting a wink of sleep. It turns out, baby Ella doesn’t believe in getting any decent shut-eye. Neither do the boys, so I feel for her in that respect.
“Same.” She takes a moment to glower at Gage and Chloe before reverting her attention back to me. “Tonight’s a big night for you, Messenger. You sure you’re ready for this?”
I growl as I look to the dual menace daring to stand within striking distance. “I can handle it. Logan will be with me and that will help. Bree and Laken will be there, too.”
“I’m not talking about that.”
Tad hops up on a chair and bangs a couple of pots together, causing the entire room to fall to an abrupt silence. Even the kids have ceased all chattering.
“It’s happened again, family! Thrice in one lifetime. They don’t call me Lucky Landon for nothing!”
Drake groans hard. “Just tell me you don’t have shingles again.”
Mom shakes her head. “Tad never had shingles.”
“He did before he met you!” Drake pipes up again.
“No shingles!” Tad barks as if trying his best to avert some cosmic backlash. “I’ve got money, dinero, more than a few fat nickels to rub together. I’m rich, rich, rich, I tell you!”
“What?” Mom squawks as if Tad just morphed into one big boil. “What do you mean it’s happened again?” She sucks in a quick breath and lands her hands over her mouth. “You won the lottery again?”
“That’s right, baby! I won the quick draw! A cool forty-five grand this time! I keep this up and we’ll be living behind the gates next door to good ol’ Demeet in no time. I’ll buy a mansion so big it makes his hovel look like a shoebox!”
“Good Lord,” I growl as I drag my eyes to Gage. “You did this,” I hiss, completely ignoring the fact my mother has got her hands on another set of pots and pans and she and Tad are banging away as if it were midnight on New Year’s Eve. And soon enough, the kids are flying past me into the kitchen to secure their own bit of chaotic fun.
Gage steps in close. I can smell his thick cologne and it arrests my senses, making me weep for him on a cellular level. My God, why has he done this to us? Doesn’t he know I still melt for him whenever he’s around? How painfully desperate that makes me feel. How loathsome I am to myself at the moment, but it’s a very primal instinct for me to want him so I’m not holding it against myself.
“I didn’t do this, Skyla.” He shakes his head, those watery blue eyes bearing hard into mine. “If he’s winning by some nefarious terms, it’s not my doing.”
I shrug it off. “Every other nefarious term is your doing, so it seemed like a logical leap.”
Chloe presses her hand over her belly and I can see the formation of a tiny round globe. My soul shreds just witnessing the sight.
“Why are you here making me miserable?” I don’t take my eyes off of Chloe’s blooming belly as she busies herself by cooing over baby Ella. Chloe hates babies. She thinks of them as paperweights, a snack, an appetizer, but she certainly does not appreciate them for what they are.
Gage sighs. “Barron forgot his blankie. You know how he gets. He can’t sleep without it.”
“Next time leave it at the door. You’re not welcome in this home anymore.” I force my gaze to meet with his. “And do not drag your whore along with you. Although, at this point in my life, Chloe is a far more welcomed guest than you are.”
A breeze envelops me and I take in an all too familiar cologne and something in me loosens.
Logan pops up beside me, looking resplendent in a dark suit, his hair slicked back, that scruff on his cheeks just begging me to run my fingers through it and forget about the world and the menace standing before me.
“What’s going on?” Logan shoots Gage an eviscerating look and it makes me want to put on my old West uniform and cheer for him.
Gage twists his lips. His eyes grow dark as he inspects Logan from head to foot. “Here to pick up your date?” He says the word date with a sarcastic inflection.
I scoff at the thought. “Don’t you dare answer him. He is a repugnant pig who just flaunted Chloe and her demon seed in front of me as if it were no big deal.” As innocent as Chloe’s child is, it felt natural to refer to it as such and so I went with it. “He was dropping off something for the boys and I’ve made it clear he’s not to set foot in here again.”
Logan chuckles to himself as if he found humor in it all. “Skyla, he’s sick.” He shakes his head, his eyes never leaving the man he once regarded as a brother. “First of all, he’s eating shit right now because, face it, you look amazing and he wishes he were the one you were going to spend your time with.” Logan blinks a smile at Gage as if he didn’t mind tormenting him. “Second, being apart from you is wearing him down. Grinding his bones to powder, snuffing his soul out like a candle. Whatever it is that he claims the boys left behind, it’s bullshit,” he whispers the expletive. “Isn’t it, Gage?”
Gage opens his mouth and takes a breath, his eyes falling to mine as he presses out an easy smile. His eyes do a quick sweep of my body and my skin catches fire. It feels as invasive as it does like a hit of a drug I’ve been jonesing for months.
“You do look beautiful, Skyla,” Gage strums the words out like a song and it sinks into my spirit like a poem written just for me.
“Keep your eyes on your wife,” Logan offers. “Stay away from Skyla. It only hurts her. And judging by that look in your eyes, it hurts you, too. Honestly, I don’t care a hell of a lot how you’re feeling since it was you who pulled the roof down on your marriage. Man up. Deal with it. Cry yourself to sleep. Find some comfort in the arms of the beast you’ve leashed yourself to. But I’m not going to stand around and watch you stab Skyla in the heart by parading that witch around in front of her. The only business you have with Skyla is the boys. Period. End of sentence. If you need to communicate, you text her. If you need something picked up or dropped off, call me. I’m the go-between. Other than events like the one we’re attending tonight, or some outing that concerns the boys, there is no reason for you to be in the same room as Skyla. You lost that privilege three months ago. And while we’re on the topic, if the boys aren’t around and you happen to see Skyla out and about, you turn around and head in the other direction. You don’t get to have your cake and eat it, too. You don’t speak to her. You don’t look at her. You don’t think about her. She’s off-limits.”
Gage glowers at Logan. You can see the steam coming from his ears and his eyes burn with a fire all their own—twin blue flames that I
can hardly recognize.
A breath hitches in my throat. “It’s not what you thought it would be, is it?” I shake my head at him, incredulous. “Whatever warped plan you concocted when you lost your mind and gave both your heart and soul to Demetri, you thought it would be easier than this, didn’t you?”
His gaze falls to the floor, his lips twisted in an angry knot.
“Chloe.” He takes a breath and heads over to her as if he were in a trance.
The wicked witch scuttles our way with Gage’s arm wrapped stoically by her side. “We’re off to the dance. Isn’t this romantic? Prom night.” She gives a hard wink my way. “You know what that means, Messenger. We’ll both be getting some action tonight.”
Kill me.
Better, yet. Kill her.
They take off just as Bree makes a splashy entry in her hot pink sequin gown and Drake belches at the sight of his dazzling wife.
Tad and Mom are still losing their ever-loving mind while drilling holes in the pots and pans, drilling a hole in my brain. But the boys are laughing up a storm. Twin versions of their father, but far happier by a miracle mile.
I wrap my arms around Logan. “My white knight.” I press out a shy smile his way. “The man who always knows what to say.”
A dark laugh strums from him as he shakes his head just barely. He rides his eyes up and down my body. “You’ve rendered me speechless. You do realize that you look an awful lot like the prom queen.”
“You look an awful lot like the king.”
He tips his head, amused. “It’s a good thing we’re going together then.”
“Let’s get out of here, Logan. Let’s take back the night.” My life—our happily ever after, while trying to forget the version of Gage we still love.
I kiss the boys, thank my sisters for keeping an eye on them, and Logan and I take off to where it all began—West Paragon High.
Paragon is chilled to the bone, the fog wafting in and out in waves, but you can still make out Cerberus loud and proud on the side of the boys’ gym. There’s a backlight on him and you can see the ferocity of each of his wicked heads. Whoever thought it a good idea to gift a three-headed dog as the mascot of West must have been wicked themselves. I’m betting it was a Count.
Logan and I park in the overflow near the forest that butts up to the school. He helps me out of the Mustang like a perfect gentleman—that and the fact I needed a good yank to excavate all this tulle I’ve sandwiched into the vehicle. I fall into his arms and a laugh bubbles from me for a second. His serious gaze is pinned on mine, and with the moon glowing like a spotlight over us, his eyes look illuminated like burning embers that refuse to let their fire die out its magic. That’s Logan Oliver in a nutshell. Magic.
An owl calls out from deep in the forest and we both glance that way. Those dark unknowable woods illuminated with a lavender mist sends a chill running up my spine.
“It’s like we’ve traveled back in time—and not on purpose,” I say. “It’s as if we’re back at West all those years ago. Any minute now, a clown Fem is going to rush out from between those haunted evergreens and bear its yellow fangs at us.”
“The good old days.” Logan doesn’t quantify it with a laugh. “And now it’s Gage who’s far more frightening than any clown with knife-sharp teeth. His soul is discolored, and his fangs really know how to go for the jugular.”
“But thank God for Ezrina. Thank God for Cooper Flanders’ brilliant mind. We’re taking back what’s ours, Logan.” I reach up and give the stubble on his cheek a quick scratch. “And I’m taking back what’s mine.” My breath plumes between us as I say it. “It’s time for me to move on. And tonight, I’m celebrating it like a victory.”
That side-lying dimple I gifted him way back when digs in deep and it makes me a touch sad as much as it does magnify his comely features.
“Skyla, I need you to know that in moving on, with whatever happens between us, I don’t want to hate Gage. If anything, I think we should come from a place of pity.” Tears glint in his eyes, making them look holographic in nature. “We should remember who he really is at his core, who he was, and understand that he’s sick, he’s insane.” He presses out a sorrowful smile. “I don’t want to tell you what to feel. That’s not where I’m headed. But in all fairness, I need you to know that I feel compassion for him, sympathy. I still care very deeply about him.” He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath. “And I understand if that puts you off about me, about us.”
“It doesn’t.” I lean in until I catch his gaze. “In fact, I feel the exact same way. I’m not angry that you don’t hate him. I don’t hate who he was, who he might still be at the core. Although, at the moment, he’s lost without reason. And I thank you for making your position known.”
He shakes his head, his lips curving toward the moon. “To be clear, I stand with you—with our people. You come before Gage in every sense of the word. You are my heart, you are my soul, you are my home, Skyla. I just didn’t want there to be any surprises. No more secrets. We’re done with those forever.”
I squint over at him, my chest falling to his. “Are you sure about that, Oliver?”
“I’m sure.” His tongue edges over his lower lip as if he were readying to indulge in a meal he’s been craving for a very long time. “We’d better get in there before I’m incapacitated to walk.”
A warm laugh bubbles from me. “Sorry not sorry?” I shrug as we stagger our way toward the gym where a giant banner reads Welcome West Paragon High Alumni to the Comeback Prom!
I think on it a moment. “Do you realize that I don’t recall one major dance ever being held in the gym? Certainly not a prom. But then, this way, all the money they collect goes straight to the smart board fund. I’d hate to see this place held back in scholastic times.” I wrap my arms around Logan as we make our way to the boxy building bursting with lavender light and music so loud it vibrates the ground beneath our feet. “Our kids will be at West one day.” I catch myself and hold my breath at the malfeasance I just let fly. How dare I toy with Logan’s heart and promise him children. I meant the boys, but I’m too ashamed to admit it.
His fingers squeeze mine.
I hear you. He tucks a quick kiss to my forehead and my cheeks burn with fire.
“Come here.” I pull him into the shadow of an evergreen as couples in formal attire stream into the building. I scour his features for a hint of grief, but I can’t seem to detect it and I’m glad. “You know I love you, Logan. My head—it’s exploded with everything that’s happened these last few months. And my heart feels as if it’s waiting to beat again, as if it’s holding its breath, afraid to join the land of the living.” I glance back at those dark foreboding woods. “But tonight is different. Tonight I live. I’ve been determined from the beginning to take back what belongs to our people, and tonight I take back everything else as well, including my fearful heart.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” Logan wraps his arms around me tightly, a death grip of a bear hug before he relents.
“Well, look what we have here!” a female voice chirps and we turn to find Chloe and Gage headed this way, her hand leashed to his, his body dragging a foot behind her. “I think we’ve found a couple of lovebirds.” Her dark eyes glitter like cesspools.
I glance to Gage to find his face set in a scowl, the shadows fall over his features, and it looks as if he’s twisting with anger, with pain, with an agony too dark and scary to ever comprehend.
Logan grunts, “I’d say the same, but I don’t believe what the two of you share even comes close to love. I don’t think either of you understands the word.”
Gage pumps out a quiet laugh. “I understand the word far more than you will ever know. In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say that I understand intimately how deep it runs, how dangerous it can be, how unstable it can make you feel. I understand how it feels to drown in it, to plunge yourself into a hellish pit all in the name of love.” He wraps an arm around Chloe and gla
res at the gym.
A dark laugh rumbles in my chest, and he shoots an incredulous look my way.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It’s just, you have to admit that it’s funny. I mean, clearly Chloe’s vagina is the hellish pit you plunged yourself into for love.” Both Chloe and Gage gawk my way as if I let the ultimate insult fly. “Wow, I had no idea Chloe’s ass was a hard line I was never to cross.”
Chloe gags as she struggles to get a proper rebuttal out of her throat. “Gage would never liken any part of my body to a hellish pit, Skyla. Clearly, he was talking about what he has to endure for the boys because you’ve made his life a damn nightmare. You’re the ultimate, bitter psycho bitch who doesn’t understand how to grow up and be a mature adult when someone decides that they’ve outgrown you, that they realize what a mistake it was to be with you to begin with. It was all about winning with Gage and some stupid rivalry he had with Logan. He couldn’t see the lines. They blurred under his innate desire to be the leader, because he is a leader. And once he discovered the real reason he was stuck with you, he decided to man up and leave.” She pulls him in close with one caustic move. “He looked deep in his heart and decided life was too short not to be with the one he truly loved.”
Now it’s me choking up a river of responses. “I don’t even know where to begin, Chloe.”
Logan tries to pull me toward the gym, but I resist. “Skyla, don’t,” he pleads lower than a whisper.
But Gage tips his head back as if to say bring it, and I will.
“Chloe”—I pause to catch my breath—“Gage Oliver’s love for me was genuine. It was more of a reality than your mere existence. And you’re wrong. Gage didn’t wake up one day and discover his life was short, nor that his life was over. Clearly, there are a few kinks in the resurrection armor that need to be ironed out before there is a mass revival because things have gone very wrong with his gray matter.” I shift my gaze to Gage and glower at him. “Is that a line you’ve fed her? That I was some prize to be won between Logan and you?” My heart beats so fast, the sound of the blood rushing through my ears is deafening. “A competition you had to win?” A wicked laugh brews in my chest and it frightens me. I take a bold step in close to Gage, closer than I’ve been in months, and every cell in my body catches fire from the mere proximity. It feels unsafe, dangerous, like a hellish pit I might fall into. “I have news for you, Gage Oliver”—I can feel it coming, the urge to go for the jugular, for his low hanging fruit, and it far outweighs any desire I might have to take the high road—“you were never in the lead. You were second best.” My voice shakes as I say it and Logan barks my name from behind like a reprimand. “It was never you I was drawn to. It was Logan. The only reason I tolerated you was to keep the Counts at bay and protect my relationship with the one my heart truly belonged to.” His features smooth out, his eyes widen a notch, glowing in the night. Chloe’s jaw unhinges, but I press on. “There was no competition. I married Logan first because that’s where my heart was. The only reason I even considered you was because he was dead. My first choice was gone. Eliminated. So you see, not only was I second choice to you as evidenced by the fact you so boldly righted your destiny with Chloe, but you were my second choice as well. Clearly, I should have gone with Marshall or Ellis to pass the time. FYI, Marshall is much better in bed. I’m sure Chloe knows this herself. There was a reason I wandered into his arms each night once I fell asleep. I needed a real man to finish what you started.”
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 23