But then, it’s not much of a surprise. Is it?
By the time I get home, I find Chloe prancing around the living room wearing a thin see-through robe, opened in the front, her naked belly protruding the way Skyla’s did when she was carrying the boys—and Sage.
“Get to bed, Chloe.” I head to the fridge and pull out the OJ, drinking it straight from the carton.
“That’s the point.” Chloe rubs up against me, her bare flesh trying its best to seduce me. “You and me in bed together, Oliver. No more of this runaround. I’m your wife. Your body is my body. It’s in the New Testament. Crack the Good Book, would you?” A dark laugh bubbles from her like poison from a witch’s cauldron.
“That’s not happening. Head hurts.” Head hurts? More like heart hurts. Balls hurt. Everything hurts from watching the horror of that Mustang moving like it was designed to do just that all along. That vision I had way back when I thought I was a Levatio comes to mind and a dull huff of a laugh bounces through me. The vision came true a long time ago, but it was a misunderstanding. Logan and Skyla weren’t really sleeping together then. A part of me wonders if the vision had been for tonight all along.
“What’s so funny?” Her voice is curt. Chloe is at the end of her sexual rope with me and I couldn’t give a shit.
“Logan and Skyla. I saw them, together, in the Mustang.”
“What?” Her entire face opens up as if I just delivered the best bit of gossip.
“That’s right. They are officially right where they were designed to be from the beginning.”
“Oh, who cares. You heard her. Second best,” Chloe spits out the words as if the thought of me being anybody’s second best enraged her. “Trust me. They deserve one another. Logan has always thought he was superior to you and don’t you deny it. He’s a little punk and she’s a little bitch.” She pulls me to her with insurmountable strength that I can only credit her Celestra lineage for. “You are Gage Oliver. You are the king of the Fems, the Steel Barricade, and soon you’ll be the king of the free world, too. And they will answer to you. Skyla and Logan will bow down in your presence, begging you for mercy. Don’t you forget that you are in charge. You knocked that little bitch right off her pedestal. You don’t have to burn over the fact she used you. You don’t have to compete with Logan anymore just to win.”
It’s ironic how Skyla didn’t buy that bullshit, but Chloe ate up her own lies.
“Don’t worry”—I gently brush the hair from her eyes—“I am most assuredly going to remind them who I am and what I am capable of.”
Her bottom lip trembles for a moment. “What are you doing?”
As much as Chloe’s devotion for me runs deeper than reason, she still has a heart for her people. If I like anything about Chloe, it’s that.
“Don’t worry. You and your family are safe.”
Her hand cradles the side of my face, her eyes widening with horror. “But my people are not.”
“You don’t have people, Chloe. You have me.” I press my mouth to her hand in an effort to quell her. Chloe is a wild card, and if that faux kiss calms her down, then it was well worth it.
She draws her hand back, giggling like a schoolgirl. “A sign of things to come? Namely you and me?”
“Maybe.” I head up the stairs. “But not tonight. See you in the morning, Chloe.” I head straight for the attic, to the butterfly room that I built for the only woman I will ever consider my soulmate, and my heart wrenches.
Skyla. I bet she considers Logan her soulmate. I’ve been left in the dust, the discard pile the way Demetri discarded Chloe. I know the pain she went through with that, but it’s nothing like this dagger in my heart. I step into the dark room and lock the door behind me as the cobalt butterflies stir to life, illuminating the darkness.
“Where are you?” I roar it out, angry and bitter at what the night has brought me, what it’s made me do.
Skyla’s form emerges from the darkness, her Cheshire cat smile, those glowing baby blue eyes, but it’s not truly Skyla and we both know that.
“Here I am, master.” A husky laugh quivers from her. Those long, wavy locks glow like shimmering gold as her body comes toward me, paper-white, inhuman, but it’s Skyla’s body replicated right down to the lightning-shaped scars she garnered from carrying the kids.
“Face the wall,” I growl. “I want you on all fours.”
She bites down on her lip, feigning the look of innocence, but we both know there’s not one innocent thing about her.
She looks up at me from under her lashes. “Will this hurt?”
“Yes, Skyla. It will.”
15
Logan
The moon shines a spotlight over the Mustang, the windows dripping wet with the remnants of our affection.
I press a kiss over Skyla’s cheek as she settles in my arms, our flesh seared together with heat, something I wondered if I’d ever get to feel again and I drink down the sensation like the finest wine, like the only elixir I’ll ever need to survive.
They say let go of the ones you love, and if it’s meant to be they’ll come back to you. And Skyla has come back. Yes, we crawled through hell, and we were severely burned by the enemy, by Gage. We were witness to the destruction of our love story, to the destruction of our people, to the destruction of the one we love perhaps more than ourselves, Gage himself.
But our love story has resurrected itself—next, we will restore our people, and finally we will save Gage. Even if we need to shut down the entire planet to do it. Whether or not Gage Oliver likes it, he is ultimately one of us. He is us. A strange holy trinity on a far less grander scale than the original but nonetheless, we are like water, existing only with three parts and as it stands we’re almost there. Almost back to where we need to be, and with Gage back in the fold one day all will be well with my soul, and I’m betting Skyla’s, too.
She tips her face toward mine, a fragile smile on her lips, her eyes sleepy, drugged with delight, and I never want to forget how beautiful she looks at this moment.
A small laugh pumps from her. “I agree on every point.” Skyla nods as if there were no words for how deeply she feels it and I know she does. “We win, Logan. Celestra will rise from the ashes.” Her eyes close for far too long, lids trembling, tears spilling from her lash line. “And yes, we will save Gage from himself.”
“We will.” My lips land hot over hers and we share an oven hot kiss. “But most likely not tonight.” I pull her up and give her ribs a gentle squeeze until she pumps a smile out for me. “How about we take a quick trip? Somewhere a little roomier where I can show you just how much you mean to me?”
A throaty laugh comes from her. “I think you just did. Besides, it’s getting late. The boys never sleep well until I’m in that room.”
“That room.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it doesn’t matter. She would have heard it anyhow. “Think about Whitehorse. Pick out some beds you like for the boys and let’s get them out of those cribs.” Skyla and Gage had already done that back at the old Walsh house. I let Skyla pick them out and I bought them for both their home and a set for mine for when they came to visit. Adorable little car beds. But the investment was sorely underutilized. “In the meantime, maybe we see about squeezing another twin in your room? The thought of the boys on bunks doesn’t sit well with me. But if you want them, they’re yours.”
“No way. They are way too little.” She gives the tip of my nose a quick peck. “I love how we’re on the same page.”
“Good. Because that means you are going to love the little adventure I’m about to take you on. And before you say a thing about time, it won’t cost you any. In fact, it will be as if we never left the Mustang.”
“As if we never left the Mustang?” She sits up in my lap and her bare chest shines as if she were illuminated from the inside. “Logan Oliver, are you taking me for a light drive?”
A slow blooming grin takes over as I wrap my arms around the woman I love and land my mout
h over her ear.
“Yes, Skyla. I am.” And just like that, the Mustang fills with an explosion of light that I have never experienced before, a brightness that rivals the sun, every star in the universe, as a room forms around us—familiar walls, dark antique furniture, a spacious bedroom. The air holds the distinct scent of our lovemaking, warm and humid just like that Mustang, and Skyla gasps.
“Logan!”
Gently I clamp my hand over her mouth, that devilish grin on my face, suddenly filled with a touch of grief as I nod to the couple in bed.
There we are, Skyla and me, in the middle of a December that faded years ago. The old me is reduced to tears. My time on the planet cut short once again, our honeymoon over, Skyla and I seemingly over forever. I land a sweet kiss to her beautiful mouth and we dissolve, our cellular structure blinking in and out of existence as if we were fighting it tooth and nail. I took her to Gage. To his bed. I entrusted her to him. My beautiful bride. We were over before we ever began. That was always the backbeat to the rhythm of our love but no more.
“They’re gone.” She breaks free from my hold and swoops to the bed, a laugh caught in her mouth. “Come here, Oliver. The sheets are still warm.”
I head over and land beside her with a bounce. “We have the room for one more night. I thought it’d be a shame to waste it.”
Skyla tips her head back, laughing as if it were amazing, so very brilliant, and I have to agree wholeheartedly it is. “I bet that do not disturb sign is still out front.”
“I sure as hell didn’t move it.”
Skyla glides into my arms, a dirty grin blooming on her lips. The feel of the cool fabric of her dress excites me. Hell, everything about this girl excites me. It’s always been true.
“Can you believe it?” She sighs. “That couple that just left has such a hard road in front of them.”
“Yes, they do, but they find their way back to one another, and in the interim a lot of fantastic and some not so fantastic things happen.”
She nods in agreement, her cool hand slipping inside my shirt. “It’s almost as if we’ve come back to the beginning.”
“That we have.”
Skyla lands her back onto the mattress and pulls me on top of her. “There are so many things I want to say to you, to discuss with you. It feels as if I’ve woken out of some spectacular stupor and we’re just now seeing one another since the last time we left this room.”
“Start talking.” I land a heated kiss to her neck and she moans like a dove.
“I don’t think this is the time to hold down a conversation, but when the time is right, we need to think about attacking the Barricade and making it hurt.”
“I’m on the same page.” I dot a string of kisses to her temple.
“And then there’s saving Gage from himself. We will need a plan of attack for that one, too. Do you think there’s a possibility we can convince him to be for us? For Celestra? Maybe he’s the key to getting my standing back?”
I growl without meaning to. “From here on out, I don’t think we can depend on Gage for anything. He’s in too deep, skidding out of control. It’s almost as if he’s incapable of helping himself—let alone us.”
Skyla bites down on her lip. “His coronation is coming up in a few weeks.”
A slow breath expires from me. “Gage has mentioned it in passing, but Emma—she can’t stop talking about it.”
“I don’t see why her enthusiasm would wane,” she says. “This is exactly why she slept with Demetri to begin with. It’s dark and twisted, but it did give us Gage, who in turn gave us the boys.”
A thought comes to me. “His word says He will make everything work for the good of those who love Him.”
Skyla works my dress shirt off, and I ball it up and toss it across the room.
She nods up at me, her gaze magnetized to mine hypnotically. “And they certainly are good, aren’t they? And if they’re not, they will be.”
“Oh, they will be.” A dark laugh rumbles deep inside me.
We are good.
16
Wesley
They say there’s no time like the present, and knowing what massive misstep my brother has most likely entered into last night, I’ve chosen to embrace the moment.
I’ve taken Laken, Tobie, Charlie, and Eli down to our home in the Transfer. I’ve invited Demetri, Gage, and Chloe—Skyla for Laken. Ezrina and Nev to help watch the kids, and, of course, I’ve extended a personal invite to Cooper Flanders himself. He’s not fooling me. I know who that warbling routine was supposed to impress last night. And truth be told, Laken was smitten. But today she’s mine. And perhaps after we’re through here, he might be inspired to warble out another tune, one that my new wife and I can dance to.
“What’s going on?” Laken bounces Eli while I hold Charlie. “Why is Demetri here? Ezrina and Heathcliff? I mean, I know she has a special bond with Tobie, but this feels like something more.” She shakes her head, but those denim blue eyes never leave mine. “Wait a minute. You’re up to something, aren’t you? Why are all these white roses suddenly adorning the living room?”
“Because they reminded me of you.” I can’t hide my smile any longer. Just as I’m about to spill the matrimonial beans, in stride Gage and Chloe with Skyla and Coop hot on their heels. I thought about inviting Logan. He’s been an odd friend to me, but I didn’t think it was necessary. And that’s my new MO—cut out everything in life that’s not necessary sans my family, the Barricade.
“Skyla?” Laken speeds over and embraces her friend, my own enemy, and the irony isn’t lost on me.
Coop and Gage head this way while Chloe bitches to Ezrina about wanting to vomit.
Gage slaps me on the back. “What’s going on, man? It sounded urgent.”
“It is.” I open my arm and Laken fills it. “Charlie, Eli”—I look to the two of them before zeroing in on Tobie as she runs my way—“princess. Today I am going to marry your mother.”
Laken gasps. “A surprise wedding? Is that what this is?” She squeals with delight. “Wes, that is so romantic.”
Chloe gags. “Most women would hang you by the balls for even considering the notion.”
Coop’s face bleeds out of all color. If I’m lucky, he’ll drop dead from shock. An early wedding gift from him to me.
Laken spins into her old friend. “Skyla, you’ll have to help me get ready. My dress is in the master bedroom. I picked it out for the New Year’s wedding and it’s been taunting me ever since.” She cocks her head as she inspects her good friend. “Skyla, I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re genuinely glowing.”
Chloe scoffs. “More like who she’s doing.” She cuts a giddy look to Gage before running off with Laken and Skyla. “Wait for me. I’m not missing the fun. It’s not every day a girl gets to help her ex-husband get hitched. Come on, Tobie. I’ll make sure you upstage the bride.”
“Great.” Coop tips his head back.
“What’s the matter, Coop? You’re not happy for me?” I can’t help but swallow down a laugh.
“I’m freaking ecstatic.” He heads over to the bar and pours himself a stiff one. He’s going to need it.
Ezrina, Nevermore, and Demetri make their way to us.
“A wedding”—Ezrina says it without an ounce of emotion—“how very grand.”
“It will be. Marrying Laken is the grandest event of them all. Isn’t that right, Coop?” I give the small crowd a little wink.
Demetri leans in, that permanent smile edging on his lips. “Be careful, son. A wounded bee still has the power to sting.”
“Duly noted.” I look to Gage. “Speaking of a sting. Any news?”
He shakes his head. His eyes flit to Ezrina as if to let me know he’s not interested in sharing this tidbit with her. I’ve got news for my baby brother. Nothing he does will ever stay quiet. It’s just a matter of time before the world hears of it.
Nevermore bows slightly in my direction. “Ezrina and I don’t mind sha
ring that we’re close to bringing back the first round of Spectators.”
Ezrina straightens with pride and her hair rises high to the ceiling itself as if it were prideful, too. “They’re in a holding pattern. Soon, Wesley, all will be within Celestra’s grasp.”
“I hate to break it to you”—I bow her way—“but Celestra is nearly eradicated, Ezrina. I realize they are your people, but unfortunately there’s not much to fight for and you can’t blame me for it either. The Counts were taking them down long before my brother or I arrived on the scene.”
Ezrina turns her nose up at me. “Skyla will prevail.” She sighs as she looks to Gage. “Justice will be served.”
Gage gives a wistful shake of the head. “Come on, Ezrina. You’re a smart woman. Look how fast I was able to knock the chess pieces off the board. This is done. It’s in the bag. Don’t fight it. There is no correcting the course for Skyla or Celestra.”
“Oh really?” A female voice scoffs from behind and we turn to find Skyla with Laken coming up behind her looking like a dream in white satin and Italian lace.
“Dear God.” The words leave my mouth, but I’d swear that I heard Coop echo the sentiment from behind.
Chloe and Tobie emerge, and Tobie indeed looks every bit the princess in a pink fluffy dress, her hair pulled up into a bun with glitter strewn through it.
Demetri stands before the raging fire and Laken and I take our places. Gage stands up for me while holding Eli. And Skyla stands up for Laken with Charlie in her arms.
Gage and Skyla don’t take their eyes off one another. It’s like a showdown at the O.K. Corral, but I couldn’t care less. I don’t dare take my eyes off of Laken. Demetri runs through the spiel and Laken and I exchange heartfelt vows. Soon enough, Demetri utters those magic words.
“Wesley, you may kiss your wife.” And I do.
My greedy mouth falls to Laken’s and we indulge in a holy exchange that breathes new life into who we are, who we’ve been since our humble beginnings in Cider Plains. Who needs a covenant? Who cares if I’m already sealed to the witch behind me, the one who ironically thinks she’s finally managed to leash herself to my brother.
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 28