Roar of the Lion : Celestra Forever After 7

by Addison Moore

  Logan kisses my hand. “It will happen.”

  Marshall and my mother stride over, and we catch a glimpse of Demetri headed off in the same direction that Gage took off in.

  Marshall’s lips curl as he takes me in. “One step closer to me.”

  Logan growls, “How about you start with congratulations?”

  “And that.” Marshall bows my way. “Congratulations to you both. Another beautiful child will soon grace our presence.” He gives a worried glance to the Landon house, and I watch as his expression quickly morphs to anger. “I’ll be in the lab at Whitehorse if you need me.” He takes a few steps and dissolves in a blaze of glory like only Marshall can.

  My mother chortles as she takes up Logan’s hand and mine.

  “Congratulations indeed. May this child be blessed coming and going. May angels guard its every step, its every precious breath. May it learn to live in a world of chaos with a heart full of peace that only He can provide. May you both be blessed beyond measure with the precious gifts you’ve been blessed with.”

  “Thank you,” I say, wiping the tears from my eyes. “Mother, you have to help us. We are desperate to convey to Gage that Demetri is stringing him along with a rope of lies.”

  Logan nods. “A rope that Gage has already hanged himself with.”

  “And the world,” I add.

  “I can’t.” My mother glows with hues of incandescent pinks and blues. “The deception is his and his alone. I’m not to interfere. The stipulation is as follows: the heavenlies shan’t divulge the nature of the offense. But through the natural, the deceived may be apprised of the deceiver’s intentions.”

  I close my eyes. “And that’s why Marshall is out as well.”

  “Don’t worry.” Logan pulls me close. “All is not lost. We can do this, Skyla.”

  “I know.” I swallow hard as I look back to my mother. There is so much I want to say, so much of it volatile. “Rory is back and she’s in another body. Why do you allow such foolish games with the dead? Does the Good Book say it is appointed for a man to die once—and then to enter into many bodies post death? No, it does not. You are defying the laws of the written word, and for what?” My voice comes back to me as an angry echo.

  “Those who are dead to the world are not dead at all to God,” she replies with a stony calm. “Rory has a role in this madness, Skyla.” She leans in until all I see is her crystalline blue eyes. “Make her work for you.”

  I lean in a notch myself until we’re just about nose-to-nose.

  “I don’t need her.” I pull back and Logan clasps his arm around me tighter in the event I feel motivated to claw this entity’s blind eyes out. “Tell me how to get my standing back. Gage has no people. They have all sided with Celestra once again. Rory had them accept a covenant to stay with me forever.” Stay with her, but thankfully she’s gone. “It may have been the one good thing she did. I would never have thought of it.”

  My mother’s chest bucks. “Because it was foolish.” She pins her glowing eyes on Logan. “I see Chloe has caused a little chaos. The people Celestra has acquired are slow to believe anything my daughter says. You will be her mouthpiece. The time has come for you to shine, my son. You will no longer stay in the shadows. For a time, my daughter will remain in your shadow. There will be difficulties.” She narrows her gaze with the warning. “You will need to persevere great challenges. The enemy is pulling back his sling. In a moment, all you worked to build will be lost. You must stay strong. The both of you.” She takes a smooth breath, expanding her chest as her unbreakable gaze penetrates Logan. “You must fight harder than ever before. Let them see exactly how fierce you can be. Let them hear the roar of that lion who lives within you.” She bears those crystalline eyes over me. “All that is mine is yours, Skyla. Remember that always. Remind yourself of it so that you never forget.” She lays her hand onto his head and does the same to me.

  My mother speaks a bold prayer, a chant, an incantation over the two of us in the language of God, and my entire body responds as a whirlwind of warmth and light as she pours those feel-good vibrations straight through our bones and into the depths of our souls. My womb radiates every ounce of love that has ever existed, and in this moment I realize this is the child that my body and this world have been waiting for.

  “It’s time,” she whispers as she pulls Logan forward by the cheeks and plants a kiss directly on his lips.

  Logan’s body jerks in response and he’s lit like a flame from the inside out. Logan clasps his hands onto her shoulders and struggles to push her away, but my mother and her electrifying smooch is unrelenting in its ferocity.

  Every part of me demands to intervene, and yet I’m immobilized, completely a voyeur with no use of my limbs.

  The wind picks up with hurricane force as the blaze of light emanating from Logan accelerates to blinding levels, and just as quickly as it came, it’s gone in a flash.

  The woods are quiet, the fog is thick with secrets, my mother is gone, and Logan is left gasping for air.

  “Shit.” He wipes his mouth down with the back of his hand.

  “Logan.” I pull him to me. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” His features harden with a newfound anger. “And neither is the world. She gave me a vision. This virus isn’t natural, Skyla. And it’s not a biological attack from any world government. It’s a direct FU from the Fems. Demetri did this. And Gage gave him the seal of approval.” He takes my hands and pulls me close. “It’s going to get worse, Skyla. And it’s going to hurt like hell.”

  “The world needs a hero who will swoop in and save the day.” I close my eyes as a heavy sadness takes over. “And that so-called hero will be Gage.”

  He gives a single nod. “We can’t let it be him.”

  “We won’t,” I whisper. “It will be us.”

  Now to convince myself and the world of this.

  Heaven help us.

  God forgive Gage.

  It’s time to roll up our sleeves and come up with a whole new serum.

  It’s time to put the devil on notice.

  18

  Gage

  That was a hell of a Christmas.

  No sooner do I pull a beer out of the fridge than a knock erupts at the door.

  “Go away,” I belt it out as I head for the couch and flip on the tube. I’ve got about six games recorded, and I plan on watching them all on repeat.

  The pounding starts up again. It’s aggressive, angry, commanding, and a touch arrogant in nature. It’s not Skyla. It’s most likely not Logan. They’re both into shouting to alert me to their presence. Besides, they’ve got great news to celebrate. And good for them. I hope they’re reveling in it. The news will be the only bright spot they can cling to when I pull the rug out from beneath them.

  Angry, pulsating, thunderous sounds emit from the door as the wood begins to split and crack.

  “For shit’s sake,” I riot. “It’s unlocked.”

  Damn idiot.

  Wes strolls in and closes the door politely as if he never tried to break it down to begin with.

  “You?” I laugh to myself. “Since when do you knock?”

  “I’m a gentleman. I always knock before I take over the house.”

  I avert my eyes. “Not this crap again. What do you want?”

  “Just thought I’d swing by and spend some time with my little brother on this, the holiest day of the year.”

  “Yes, well, I’m not feeling so holy at the moment, so you can show yourself to the door.”

  “I’m not leaving.” Wes plants himself on the coffee table and effectively blocks my view of the game. “This crap the world is dealing with. It’s you, isn’t it? You’re destroying the world, Gage. You need to stop.”

  “It’s not me. But if it was, why would I stop it? So I can join your ranks? Burn in Hell alongside you? No thanks.” A rumble of laughter rattles my chest. “You believe them, don’t you? You think this is all some grand delusion brought on by Demet
ri, and I am a glorified fool for going along with it. Don’t worry, Wes. I may have lost the people temporarily, but I’ll get them all back. And you will benefit right along with me.”

  His dimples dig in. “Gage,” he whispers my name with marked disappointment. “You’re falling for his schemes. Demetri is stringing you along, and he’s using Skyla to do it. If you keep moving in his direction, you’ll confirm my theory. You’re not the brightest bulb.”

  “Because I’m motivated by who I love? Newsflash, Wes: if those are the parameters to wisdom, you’re not the brightest bulb either.”

  “True. But I don’t see the world through the lens Demetri is holding out for me anymore, and you shouldn’t either. Cooper showed me the book. He showed me how he was able to decode it with the help of Dudley and Ezrina. Coop is right, we were being spoon-fed bullshit by the heap full. We were never going to rot in Hell. Don’t you see? Demetri hit us where it hurt. In our hearts. He knew we’d fall over backwards—not for him—for Laken, for Skyla, our children.”

  “I’m not going to throw away everything I’ve worked for just because some book says otherwise. Why should I believe this book?”

  “Why should you believe Demetri?” His exasperation with me hits new heights. “Did you know this little virus you’ve concocted—the damn thing is lighting the globe on fire.”

  “I didn’t concoct shit. Although, I see how easy it is to blame me for everything that goes wrong. I’ll accept responsibility for some things, but not this crap.”

  “Oh, it’s all you, buddy.” He swipes the remote from me and turns the channel to the news. And sure as hell, they’re showcasing it as if it were a global superstar. “There. How about you stop living in the past by way of watching old football games and tune into something real, something wicked that you are actually responsible for. You don’t play the gridiron anymore, Gage. You sit out on the sidelines and give the world the finger while you kill millions.” His voice ricochets off the walls. “Do you realize you’re about to obliterate a third of humanity in six months’ time if you keep up with these numbers? Seventy countries infected so far. A twenty percent death ratio. You’re off the rails if you don’t think those numbers won’t double in a month. Your kids, mine, they’re all susceptible.” He tosses the remote so hard it blows a hole right through the wall. “And did you know the Earth officially has two moons now? It’s as if we’re living in some sci-fi movie—a bad one at that. And you, my brother, just so happen to be starring in it.” He pulls me off the sofa by way of my shirt and rattles me. “Get it together. What’s the end game in all this?” His eyes widen, his expression grows vacant, and it’s as if it hit him all at once.

  And then like a brick crashing through my brain, it hits me, too.

  Hell. The serum.

  This? This is what Demetri has in mind?

  I get up and stagger to the door.

  “Where are you going, Gage? There’s not a place on this planet you can run from yourself.”

  I take off in an otherworldly sprint up the street. I don’t give a rip if Wes is next to me or if he’s gone to Hell for the night. I have one serious conversation to have with our father.

  Demetri’s overgrown mansion comes up on me quickly, and before I know it, I’m taking a page out of Wesley’s book as I thunder over the door with my fist.

  “Come in.” Demetri’s voice blares from somewhere inside as if he drilled the words into a megaphone.

  I make my way into the colossal nightmare, and find him standing next to a raging fire, drink in hand.

  “Whiskey?” He lifts his glass with the offer.

  “Are you responsible for this hellscape the world has been thrust into with this new virus?”

  His dark brows lift an inch, as a devious laugh rumbles through his chest.

  “It is not I, but you, my dear son. Don’t you recall? We discussed a certain serum that would return your people to you in a single bound. And now we hold the key.”

  “Oh God.” The words pant from me. “Demetri, I never intended, I never knew you’d cause this much chaos. We need to put a stop to this right away. Hundreds of thousands of innocent souls have perished. People are panicked. Entire countries are under quarantine. The stock market has tanked. Another month and this will hurl us all right back to the Stone Age. There won’t be enough of us to bury the bodies.”

  “Of them,” he corrects. “You will be just fine.” He lifts his chin. “This is what we wanted, Gage. The entire world is looking for a cure—a vaccine, and we have it. Our people at Althorpe are at the finish line with a vaccine that will inoculate the world from this menace. The government doesn’t have any idea where this new plague has come from.”

  “They have theories.”

  “Not the right one. And do you know where it came from, Gage?”

  I close my eyes a moment too long. “Aliens.” I don’t even see it as a question.

  “It is brilliant, you must admit. And not only will every person in the world need the vaccine we provide, they will simultaneously be tested to see if they’re indeed human. You see, the vaccine itself is a biological mirror of that serum your brother cooked up. It will expose the Nephilim DNA even with the serum Celestra has put out to hide the markers. There is no running and hiding from this one. The only way for your people to counter the expository nature of the vaccine is to take the proprietary serum we’ve developed right along with it. That is their only protection. You’ll have your people restored in a heartbeat. And thanks to Rory’s self-righteous ego, they will belong to the Fems forever, unable to switch their alliance on a whim.”

  The snapping flames garner my attention, and I lose my gaze in their fiery tongues.

  Demetri is right. He didn’t issue this decree. I did.

  A vision comes to me. The black sands of Rockaway. Skyla running toward me, into my arms.

  I turn my head and close my eyes.

  That won’t be happening again as long as either of us is on this planet.

  I’ve destroyed everything and everyone in an effort to make my way back to her. And in an irony only my life can provide, I won’t have her ever again.

  “Get the serum ready to go. I’ll talk to the Factions. I want the vaccine for the Kingdom Virus distributed worldwide as soon as possible. I don’t want any more blood on my hands than I already have.”

  I take off just as a peal of thunder erupts in the sky and rain drives over the island in buckets.

  I walk slowly back to my place, wishing I would drown.

  Wishing I had never existed.

  I’m missing you, Skyla.

  But you’re wrong. This is no delusion I’m embroiled in.

  It’s my worst nightmare.

  And soon it will be yours, too.

  19

  Logan

  Skyla.

  She sleeps soundly in my arms, her eyes moving ever so slightly beneath her lids as she glides from one dream to the other.

  I’ll never forget the day she walked into the bowling alley—never forget the charge that electrified the air as she walked my way. The smile, the face of an angel. I knew right then she was the one for me.

  Unfortunately, Gage Oliver was thinking the very same thing.

  I glance out the window and spot Holden Kragger and his pale plus one, Serena, gliding through the early morning sky in all their winged glory.

  A week has passed since Candace blessed us with the knowledge of our precious angel that’s on the way. Skyla’s body is about to transform once again as a symbol of our love grows inside her. We’ve decided to hold onto the news for a minute and let it soak in before we share it.

  A dry laugh bounces through me. Jaxson is just two months old. Skyla didn’t catch a break. I suppose that’s my fault. Jaxson and the new baby will feel like twins, and hopefully share a very special bond because of it.

  A part of me still can’t believe that the girl, the woman I have worshipped for so long is finally in my arms—our family surrounding
us like a shield. Every wild dream I’ve ever had has come to fruition, and included with that were some things I didn’t ask for.

  All week we worked tirelessly side by side with Ezrina and Wes, struggling for a cure to this pandemic that’s eating the world alive. According to Ezrina, the Kingdom Virus has had thirteen different mutations so far. By the time she comes up with something that could possibly eradicate the monster, it’s already obsolete.

  Then as soon as the virus departs from my mind, Rory and her demented games take over—or more to the point, Chloe’s.

  Damn Chloe for being the unstoppable scourge she is.

  And because of that, I’m playing the part of Skyla’s voice—at least as far as the Factions go.

  I thread my fingers gently through her hair.

  I would be anything Skyla needed me to be. And I will help lead the Factions as long as it’s necessary. Together, we will defeat evil, pull Gage from the flames, and stop this flood of wickedness that Demetri has unleashed.

  All of it will be done.

  And Celestra will prevail once and for all.

  I look lovingly to my beautiful wife and whisper, “I promise.”

  Some might say Ellis Harrison’s crowning achievement is a thriving cannabis business. Others might venture as far as suggesting it’s the gym we went in on—that was primarily his baby. But I think almost everyone who went to West Paragon High with Ellis all those years ago would agree that Ellis’ big mark on the island is his raging keggers.

  Skyla glows in a baby blue dress, sparkling earrings that dangle halfway down her neck, and a pair of silver heels. She’s wrapped in a fuzzy white cardigan and looks like a winter dream as she talks to Laken and Bree on this, the night, which just so happens to be New Year’s Eve. The grand room of the Harrison mansion is dimly lit, the music is loud, the bodies are plentiful, and true to Ellis himself, the entire place holds the light scent of weed.