“You know you’ve got me, Messenger. I’m a lifer.”
“Thank you,” I say, wiping my face.
“Me, too,” Em grunts it out like a threat.
Michelle looks injured as she looks my way. “Liam is doing it. I guess I will, too. Even if we’re not meant to be together, I don’t want to die in some government holding cell.”
Lex nods. “Carson and Carly, the Winters, even Kresley is on board. It’s crazy how fast everyone is turning on the Barricade.”
“Not me.” Chloe snaps her fingers in the air. “My husband has a bomb he’s ready to drop. I’d hate to find myself on enemy lines once he does.”
My stomach sinks as she says it. The thought of Gage doing something else, something far more destructive than ever before is my worst nightmare. Then I remember who I’m fighting for and how far we’ve come. I spot Marshall walking into the mouth of the grand room and excuse myself as I make a beeline over.
“My”—he muses, his lids hooded seductively low—“if it isn’t the birthday princess. Would you like to come to my chambers where I’ll remove your clothes and twist your—”
“No,” I deadpan. A simple kiss will do. I point to my cheek and he scowls.
“How about a kiss from yesteryear? The mouthwatering delicacies that came equipped with a vision. I have one for you.”
“No thank you. In fact, I just turned Em down flat, too. Well, actually, I asked her not to share any at my wedding and she mentioned she was fresh out of visions for me. She said she hasn’t felt this way since before I showed up on the island.”
His lips part as he cranes his neck in Em’s direction. “What’s this?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. And if that vision you have for me is going to rob me of my sleep, I’ll take another hard pass.”
“No, Skyla,” he says with a morbid level of concern in his voice. “The vision was of the two of us naked in my bed. It’s something we’ve already partaken in a time or two. Just wanted to offer you a beautiful memory and open the door to creating more.” He manages to say every sultry word while staring over at Em with a look of concern.
I wave my hand over his eyes. “I’m down here. Who cares about Em? Thanks for the heads-up on what you were going to show me. And if you can give me eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, I’ll take off all my clothes right now and walk naked to your bedroom.”
A dull laugh pumps through him. “I’m afraid there won’t be much sleeping while you are a guest of mine in that capacity. Measures will need to be taken to reprogram what those Olivers have taught you. I assume it will take no more than six months to fully revise your neuroplasticity.”
“Marshall!” I swat him playfully on the arm. “You’re an animal.”
“I can be a beast when needed,” he purrs loud and strong like a ferociously large cat. He takes up my hand, and those feel-good vibes are right back where they belong and stronger than ever. “On our wedding night, you will open for me, Skyla. You will display yourself, and it will be a feast for my eyes, a feast for my senses, a feast for my—”
“I get it,” I say as that sweet spot between my legs begins to spasm involuntarily. “And if I stand listening to you any longer, Logan is going to kill me.”
“Him I wouldn’t worry about.” He nods just past me, and I glance back to find Gage and Wes grumbling about something while looking this way.
“Well, well,” I say. “It looks as if he can’t take his eyes off me tonight. I’m guessing someone else wants to take a bite out of me in all the right places.” A spear of heat bullets through me all the way back down to the sweet spot as a memory of Gage doing just that rides through me. But I’m sure that has nothing to do with why he’s looking at me. I’m pretty sure he’s furious with my magnificent wartime maneuvers. “I’d better find Logan. I think I overheated on that dance floor, and I could use a little relief.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” he calls out as I stagger back out into the crowd.
There’s not a person on the planet who can tell me that my errant baby hormones don’t cause an avalanche of wanting dirty sex in a corner. Mama wants what she wants, and right now she wants to impale herself over Logan Oliver’s smoking hard body while he whispers the dirtiest things he can into my ear—preferably of the dirty things he’s about to do to me. Just yesterday, our lovemaking had been cleared to resume its normal baby making frequency by Doctor Ezrina, and we’ve decided to wait until tonight to continue our flesh feast after an all too long and rather exhausted hiatus.
“Skyla?” My name comes from the right, the echoing cry of a female, of a soft voice that sounds hauntingly like my own. I glance over and note a pale blue glow that only grows brighter as it leads to the formal living room. The bodies are fewer in here, but that’s where I see her, standing in the corner. Had I passed her at any point, I would have thought I was walking by a mirror.
“Rory?” I whisper her name like a secret. At one point in time I would have thought it was my mother, but I’ve since grown to tell the difference. My mother sparkles both inside and out, a reflection of her arrogance and pride most likely.
“Skyla.” Rory takes me by the hand, and a tingle emits from her to me as she leads me out of the room. Her body, her hair glows with an ethereal aura, soft white light with a pink and blue patina. “Happy birthday to my beautiful, beautiful sister. Was it all you’d hoped it would be?”
“It’s been a wonderful day. Logan will make sure it’s an even better night.”
“Well, let me start it off on a good trajectory. I’ll let my sexy soon-to-be brother-in-law finish you off with a bang.” She winks my way, her cheeks glowing pink as if she manufactured them to do just that. We circle around the foyer and to the lip of the party where the crowd has only grown thicker.
I spot Mia and Rev making out in the corner, and as much as I don’t care to see it, I’m happy for them. They truly do seem to be genuinely in love.
“There she is,” Rory whispers.
“There who is?” I glance in the direction she’s squinting in just as Chloe and the rest of the Bitch Squad head this way. Okay, so they’re not all bitches, not anymore, but the nickname still has a rather nice ring to it.
Chloe bounds up with Lex, Michelle, and Nat.
“What’s going on?” Chloe looks to me before glancing to my side, and her eyes widen when she sees my doppelgänger. “Well, well, if it isn’t the coward of the celestial sphere. Long time no see. Rory, is it? Come to wish your sister a happy birthday? How adorably boring.” Chloe makes a face. “Ellis just hooked us up with some premium shit and we were about to get high by the fountain just like the good old days. You’re both welcome to join us.”
Rory steps forward. “We would love to. But why don’t you ladies join us first?” she says, navigating us down the elongated hall to our left that leads to mysterious rooms and gyms and shopping complexes for all I know.
Nat skips alongside me in an effort to keep up. “Where are we going?” Her fingers move spastically over her phone.
“I don’t know. Who are you texting?”
“Bree. She’ll slice my balls off if I let her miss this.”
“Tell her to bring Laken,” I whisper.
And in less than ten seconds, the two of them are running down the hall just as Rory leads us down the stairs and into a darkened room to our left, to the theater the Harrisons had installed not too long ago. The only light illuminating the room is the enormous screen up ahead, glowing a soft shade of lavender like a paper lantern.
“Ooh!” Michelle wiggles her fingers as she and Lex take a seat in the middle. The chairs are all comfort chaise lounges, and the carpet is lush and crimson. It’s chilly in here, and the faint scent of popcorn permeates the air.
Rory steps to the front of the theater as I take a seat with Laken to my right and Bree to my left. Chloe is seated on the other side of her looking smug as usual.
“Ladies, welcome to the show.” Rory lifts her hands,
and her hair illuminates soft as the flicker of a candle. “Tenebrous Productions presents a featured delight that’s been a year in the making. And once you partake in this cinematic wonder, you will know how far a girl is willing to go for her sister. Never has there been a deeper bond. Remember this, Skyla. I did it for you. I did it for our people.” She looks to Chloe as the light from the screen begins to dim. “The girl you’ll see isn’t my sister. It’s me. These are the sacrifices I have made for my people.”
Laken leans in. “Should we be afraid?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation. I’m downright terrified, down to my bones.
The sound of light instrumental music begins to play, something heavenly, easy for the senses before the music dims and we’re treated to a vaguely familiar scene, and as soon as it becomes clear what it is, my stomach drops.
It’s the master bedroom at the house Gage and I bought. Our first house, our last. The very last place I made love to my husband before he lost his head quite literally.
Chloe saunters out of the bedroom in a silky black negligée and slips it off her shoulders, exposing us to her naked form. Gage flashes before the screen, looking angry, sick. He rolls over and the scene cuts to Chloe rocking herself on the corner of the mattress, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The next scene is in the butterfly room. There I am—wait, no, not me. It’s Rory looking hauntingly like yours truly and Gage pressing his lips to hers. He’s on her, taking her from behind, hard and heated.
“Oh my God,” I whisper.
The same scenes repeat on a loop. Chloe begging for attention, Gage shutting her down. Gage going down on my sister. Gage taking Rory over every inch of that butterfly room, and tears streak down my face as I watch it. I can’t look away. I can’t believe what it’s telling me.
Gage pulls Rory’s head back, rough by the hair. “Say my name. Tell me you love me.”
Rory looks right at him, and if I didn’t know better, she was doing her best impression of me while she’s at it.
“I love you, Gage Oliver. It’s only ever been you for me.”
My heart sinks as she says those words. His eyes soften just enough to let me know he wants to believe them.
An entire montage plays out of Rory and Gage going at it. Seasons change, and Chloe tries again and again to seduce her husband, but he’s not having it. Gage is satiated over and over by my likeness.
In the next scene, Chloe and Gage are raging at one another all through the house. Chloe is chasing him in the nude. Emma is there in the background. But Chloe is unceasing as she shouts over at Gage, demanding him to have her. She chases him into the street, naked, shouting her anger into the dove gray Paragon sky.
The music shifts to something heart-stoppingly loud, an incredible drumming that you can feel in your chest, pulsating through every bone in your body.
The throne room appears. There I am on what should have been our wedding day. Gage and Chloe enter the unholy room with a bed laden with roses. He takes her and they lie down on the mattress. The room, the walls catch fire as a blaze rolls to life all around me. And I scream—at the top of my lungs I cry out in anguish. But the focus shifts to the figure of a man standing behind me, far past me in the distance. We zoom in on his face. It’s Wes, his best man that day, with tears rolling down his face.
Implying, implying…
Oh my God. Why is Wes crying? Why would Wes cry?
My heart stops cold as I see the color of his cobalt blue eyes.
“What is this?” Laken pulses to life.
“Rory?” I call out as the screen goes white once again, the music cuts out, and we’re met with the stale sound of our breathing.
All eyes shift to Chloe.
“That bastard.” The words hiss from her lips in a broken whisper. Tears slick her cheeks, but the anger brewing in her eyes is as deadly as a fire.
Chloe bolts out of her seat and I follow. I can feel the rest of the girls in flight right behind us.
“Skyla.” Laken’s voice trembles with rage.
But I don’t answer her. I do my best to beat Chloe to the punch as we weave through the crowd at lightning speeds looking for him, anxious to let him know exactly how we feel.
There they are close to the kitchen—Wes, Coop, Ellis, Logan, Brody, Liam, Marshall, and Gage. A celestial lineup of the testosterone who’s who.
Chloe spots them at the very same time, but I implement every ounce of Celestra speed in me and practically float over, quick as a poltergeist.
I grab onto Gage, and his eyes widen a notch.
“How dare you lie,” I riot in his face. “How dare you sleep with my sister pretending it was me. You killed me for nothing. It hurts no less knowing the truth.”
His mouth falls open as he tries to assess the damage.
“That’s right, Gage,” I pant violently. “You never slept with Chloe. Not even on your wedding night. You don’t have any children with her, and you never will. Everything for nothing. Tell me why you did it, Gage? Why did you throw us away so easily?”
Chloe knocks me to the side as she takes him by the shirt.
“My turn.”
30
Gage
Shit.
Chloe pulls me in, her jowls quivering as she growls right at me.
“You unholy piece of celestial shit,” she seethes the words from clenched teeth. “How dare you try to pull one over on me. How dare you make me believe you loved me. That you chose me. You asked for time, and I gave it. You tried my patience, wore me thin, but I loved you right through it. And now the world knows exactly how you’ve humiliated me.”
Her nails dig into my flesh, and she pulls me down and screams into my face at the top of her lungs.
All of her fury, her white-hot rage blows over my skin like a nuclear fallout. And I deserve it. Hell, I deserve all of it. Yes, even from Chloe.
She releases me with a thrust, landing my back against the hard granite counter.
“That day you chose me over Skyla in the throne room? I thought it was a joke—that is, until you took me to that glass room and made love to me thoroughly, incomprehensibly, convincingly, but once we hit the island, you were stone-cold. A man without needs. An open wound, with no suture and no cure. And even then, I loved you. On the day we exchanged vows at Demetri’s, I was the happiest I had ever been. A dream wedding with Gage Oliver, the boy I pined for. The one I let mold me into a monster. I became whatever was necessary to be with you. I all but sewed my vagina shut for you. And here I thought you had planted a child in me. Those days were magical. A dream within a dream. I walked this island with a pride I nurtured from the inside out. I was so very pleased to show the world, to show Skyla a tangible piece of our love. It was my way of saying to her, See? You were the mistake. It was me he was destined for all along.” She slaps her hands over my chest three times hard, and it feels as if she’s about to blow a hole in it. I wish she would. I wish to God there was a way to end all this misery.
She tips her head back with a marked aggression. “And I suppose in a twisted way that was true. I was your destiny”—her eyes meet with mine, glowing with wrath—“so you could use me and make a spectacle of me the way you did.” She turns and glares at Skyla, tears congealing over her eyes, too afraid to fall. “I’m sure you’ve extracted a sick sense of satisfaction from this.” Skyla opens her mouth, and Chloe holds a hand up silencing her. “I will seek vengeance.” Her eyes meet with mine once again—her voice is even, yet tight, her breathing measured. “I will destroy you, Gage Oliver, and everything you stand for. And do not grow cocky in the fact you think you are indestructible. I know where your heart is buried, in those boys, in that woman you tormented for the entire last year. I know how to carve out your beating heart and kill your immortal soul. I will weigh my options as needed. But, for now, my chief concern is taking you out. You can kiss your crown goodbye. I’m siding with Celestra.” Her voice is threadbare when she says those last few words as if it pai
ned her that she ever left. “Whatever it is you’re afraid of—and you are running scared, I have seen it in your eyes all these months—I will make sure that your worst fears come true. It will be my pleasure.” Chloe’s chest rises and falls with her every breath. “Wesley”—her eyes never leave mine—“take that river rat you spawned the night you raped me and drown it, bury it alive, do with it whatever you wish. I don’t give a damn. But do not under any circumstance so much as mention it to me.”
“Chloe,” Brody barks.
“Oh, shut the hell up,” she roars right back. “Help me get my things from that godforsaken house. I’m going to your place.”
“All right.” Brody slaps the back of his neck. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.” Her eyes harden over mine. “I am not done with you, Gage. Nobody creates a mockery of me and lives to tell about it. And since you are impervious to death, I will be exceptionally creative with your punishment.”
A familiar giggle emits from the right, a ghostly cackle that I’m guessing is for my ears only.
“Remember, Gage, what we spoke about.” Rory’s voice sounds as if it’s coming from another dimension entirely.
I glance over and see the witch that turned my world inside out.
Yes, I know exactly what we spoke about, you whore.
She gives a little smile. “I’ll keep my end of the bargain. You keep yours. It’s the only way, Gage. Deep in your heart you know it to be true.”
My ears clog up with the sound of my beating heart as if it needed to.
Rory can’t be trusted to uphold air, let alone a promise.
But, like she has been for so many months, Rory is simply a means to an end.
Chloe steps up close, her rage has completely permeated her, and she looks sublime in her hatred for me. Her hand strikes me hard on the cheek, a Celestra fortified response, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say it hurt like hell.
She turns to leave, and Laken grabs her by the wrist.
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 62