Crown of Ashes

by Addison Moore

  “You don’t. Money does. And as dumb luck would have it, vaginas really are the next big thing.” She’s raking in so much, Tad hasn’t lamented his lack of employment once. Even though Althorpe all but dumped him, he’s still managed to eek a decent living from the disability checks stemming from what he now refers to as his lucky burn, but like all Landon great prospects, that good time is coming to an end.

  Chloe grunts out a laugh. “You should know. Your vagina was the next best thing as soon as you showed up junior year—so young and so tight, it even turned the head of inhuman faculty members.”

  “Just the one.” I wag a finger at her as we share a quick laugh. “I’ll summon my mother, and we’ll do the covenant this afternoon. Why put off a good thing?” I drill her with my gaze. Chloe has always been a class act liar, but her eyes, they’re too feral to contain any secrets. Chloe’s eyes give her away before every single one of her bad intentions. But, at the moment, they look gleefully in line with her maniacal heart.

  “Yes.” She draws a fist toward her chest in victory. “I’m going to break open one of those million dollar bottles of wine Wesley keeps molesting in the cellar. Of course, since he’s received his Ezrina-issued sex toy, he’s even refrained from that.”

  “Did you ever find out who the girl is?”

  “No.” Chloe looks just as frustrated as I do. “She’s some tramp who’s hot to trot with the idea, though. He says get in bed, and she asks how wide do you want my legs spread open. She’s a real tramp, this one. I don’t get it, though. With my ability to morph into the idiot, you’d think Wes would have been more than pleased with that. Why the body double?”

  “You’re asking me?” I scoff at the thought that anyone could figure out Wesley. “But then, you are his bride. No offense, of course, but you’re, well, you’re you. If this other girl is as willing as you say she is, then she’s probably not mouthing off and giving him a hard time.”

  “The only thing she’s giving him is a hard-on.”

  “Disgusting. I mean, doesn’t she have family? A life? Who is this girl that just dropped out of the blue and let Ezrina rearrange her face?”

  “Did you ask the hag?” Chloe has no respect for Ezrina, even though she utilizes her genius as much as the rest of us, not to mention her body. If it wasn’t for Ezrina’s misfortune, Chloe might have descended to the depths of hell quite literally.

  “She’s not talking.”

  “Good.” She sits up straight. “Because I don’t want to talk about Wesley’s skank either. Let’s get down to brass tacks, Skyla. The rules, if I remember correctly, were, I side with Celestra, fight the good fight for our people, and you let me live above ground once again.”

  A half-smile rises to my lips. In typical Chloe fashion, she only reiterated half of what was spoken that night by the fire. I will never forget the pain, the anguish in my heart, and yet the startling resilience to carry on for my people. Putting Celestra—the Nephilim as a whole before me, was the only thing that got me through those miserable Gage-free agonizing days, outside of the boys that is.

  “Yes.” I spin the glowing piece of equipment her way. “You are my equal in leadership in every way with the exception—you are my number two. You may not make a move without my authority, my approval. You are my—”

  “Bitch.” She twirls her hand as if prompting me to get on with it. “Yada, yada— and I get to dwell among the living, on that desolate God-forsaken rock called Paragon, and my aversion to that God-awful bird will be forever revoked.”

  My lips purse at the thought. “Not really. I don’t think that’s possible. Besides, Holden and his new bride happen to be running around that desolate rock in coats of flesh at the moment, which brings us to our next point.”

  “The dawn of the dead,” she says it flat while folding her arms across her chest in defiance. Chloe isn’t a huge fan of the dead in general—but she sure is a huge fan of pushing people to that oxygen-deprived side. “Name it and it’s as good as done,” she strums the words out, bored, as if she were capable of pulling off anything. And, seeing that she’s desperate to get what she wants, I believe she is.

  “I need all of the dead discovered. I have maps, locations of where I’ve shipped them. I need you alerting authorities. I don’t have the next fifty years to dwell on this. My mother and I went to Cost Club last week, and the feds have descended on that food court like pigeons. There’s no escaping them. I need Wesley’s project halted in its tracks. Once the feds collect enough specimens, they won’t bother coming after anyone with a crooked biomarker. Wes and all of his nefarious biological dealings can go straight to hell.”

  “Done. I’d be thrilled to land every last rotten corpse in a cage by midnight if that’s what you’d like for me to do. I just need to go home, Skyla. I can’t live with that weasel in his dark, brooding hell any longer. My mother says she’ll take me back. I can have my childhood bed to rest in. I’m sure Brody will be more than happy to help me assimilate. Bree thinks I can take on a permanent position at West as the head cheer coach. Life will come full circle for me.”

  And sadly, those are all the things she already has on some level, but I refrain from sharing that with her. Chloe knows it well. Chloe is already ten steps ahead of everybody else. Or at least she thinks so. And don’t even get me started on the fact she never once mentioned poor Tobie. October Edinger is essentially nobody’s daughter. I can’t quantify Wesley as a parent no matter how loving and nurturing he might be. Deep down, I wish he would abandon her the way Chloe has so we can evict that poor child from living in the hell of the Transfer—in the hell of the wicked influence Wes is sure to have on her. He’s branding her, burning his emblem of evil over her very soul. Each day she’s with him, she drifts further and further from sanity’s edge, and she hasn’t even hit her first birthday.

  “That is the plan.” The heavy sky presses over us like a lid set to enclose a boiling pot, and for a second I can hardly breathe. This moment, right here, will change so many lives. So many mistakes can breed from this disease seated before me, but I know that all too well. That is my truth. Deep down, I realize this is a necessary evil. If there is even the slightest possibility of having a rogue Gage Oliver on my hands one day, I need to seal my enemies to my side. I can’t have them running and hiding. I can’t give them the upper hand—and ironically, silence and distance do exactly that. That was a principle I understood well on that horrible night when I saw with my own eyes my husband standing on a stone just like this one gifting himself to Demetri and his twisted cause. And in an irony only fate could provide, here I am nearly six months later on a stone just like that one with another demon, readying to launch myself in a covenant that seems wise in my own eyes. My own wisdom has been known to abandon me quickly, but as it were I still see the need to have the most dangerous knife in the drawer as a part of my arsenal.

  “Do you love Celestra?” I hook my gaze into hers, and she flinches. Chloe squirms under the microscope of my scrutiny. For as much as she hungers to be the center of it all, she can’t handle the scorching heat that comes along with a psychological dissection.

  “I do. And I will go to the ends of the earth proving this to you. We are taking back what is rightfully ours. You and I will never lie down for Wesley and his Bullshit Brigade as long as we have breath in our bodies. I may not like you, Messenger, but in this task, we are united. We are one, and I will do whatever it takes to destroy whatever, whoever, however many stand in our way. We were born for greater things than these.” Chloe reaches over and picks up my hands. “And for God’s sake, don’t worry, Skyla. I am not about to snatch the crown off your head. You remain the Faction leader, scream queen supreme, whatever the hell it is you’re calling yourself these days. I just want my life back and a chance to stick it to the bastards who keep controlling it.”

  I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. “No use in putting it off then.” I tip my head back and visualize my mother in the hea
venlies holding little Sage’s beautiful hand as they skirt the crystalline shorelines of paradise. “Mother?” I blink up at the sky. “You say you are always with me—ever-present in my time of need. And I am in need. I ask you once, come quickly. Chloe and I have business to tend to, and we need your presence to officiate the new bond we’re looking to undertake.”

  Chloe drops my hand like a dead fish. “That’s it? No hocus-pocus? Just a please show up if you have the time? If that was my mother, I’d tell her to get her ass down here asap.”

  “And that’s why you live in the Transfer and I live on Paragon.”

  “Touché.” She scowls. “For now.”

  “For now, indeed.”

  “What’s this?” a cheerful voice calls from behind, and both Chloe and I turn around, stunned to find my mother, Candace Messenger herself, donning the cliché paradise couture, white silk robe, shiny golden sash to complete the celestial look. “A meeting of the minds and I wasn’t invited?” she bubbles with a trill of a laugh, and my stomach sours on cue. My mother is never timely when I need her. And she never bubbles about anything. My radar goes up because if I’ve learned anything about the woman who bore me it’s that I should very much watch my back around her.

  “Oh hush, you.” She flicks her fingers my way. It’s clear my mind is an open highway for her curiosity to travel whenever the hell she feels like it. “What’s this bond we’re looking to undertake?”

  Chloe and I stand as she joins us on the stone.

  “A covenant.” My heart thumps wild. First, because I still can’t believe she showed so willingly, and secondly, because I’m about to enter into a binding covenant with the girl who has caused me so much heartache, the one who took Logan away from me.

  My mother cuts me a quick look, sharp enough to slit my throat. “Yes, Chloe is responsible for killing my precious.” My mother glides right by his formal moniker and dives headfirst into adjectives when it comes to the fair-haired Oliver. Figures.

  Chloe lifts a finger, her face full of false adulation. “And I am sorry about that. I do love Logan. You both know that.”

  “It’s true,” my mother affirms as she lands an arm around Chloe’s shoulders, and I shudder right down to my core. “Now, what is it that has two Celestra sisters bonding over in Tenebrous? Come, come—I’ve a multitude of needs to meet this afternoon. So many destinies to alter.” Her eyes sharpen over mine, clear as a white-hot flame.

  “Chloe and I would like to enter into a covenant together,” I say it plainly like placing an order for a short stack at the Gas Lab.

  A quick flash of lightning flickers from above.

  My mother’s affect flattens as if she didn’t see this coming, but I don’t buy that for a hot and holy minute. “Hold hands. Outline the terms.”

  Chloe huffs in disbelief, “Just like that?”

  “Don’t doubt me, daughter.” My mother is quick to cut her down with the lash of her tongue, but it’s the term of endearment she chose to give her that unnerves me.

  I take up Chloe’s hands, and my mother shakes her head at the sight.

  “Not like that.” She manually crosses both our hands until we’re conjoined in a fleshly figure eight. “Like this. Now outline the terms.” She looks to me, hard and stern. “Carefully, mind you.”

  “Carefully.” I give Chloe’s hands a quick squeeze, fully aware she can read my every thought at this point. “Chloe Jessica Bishop, I, Skyla Laurel Oliver, enter into a holy covenant with you, on this day, in this hour, effective this very moment. These terms that I outline with you are permanent and binding.”

  Chloe gives a solemn nod, and suddenly it feels as if we’re exchanging wedding vows, and sadly, this is tantamount to exactly that.

  “You, Chloe, will be my right hand. You will do my bidding. What I decree will be so. I will take into account all of your thoughts, your wants, your dreams as far as Celestra and the Nephilim people are concerned. We are in unity for the advancement of our people. To serve, to protect, to guide with love is our chief resolution. There is nothing we will not consider when it comes to the well-being of our people. We are Celestra. You and I are as close to pure as there has ever been. We will act in one mind from this moment on to shield our race from those that wish to destroy it. There will be no day like today ever again when powers unite in the name of all that is holy and true. We will move swiftly and without regret to extinguish the actions and on occasion the very beings that stand in our way. Our people are in peril, and we will create a shield over them under the banner of our love.”

  “Amen.” Chloe gives my mother a cheeky grin.

  “And”— I tip my nose in the air, my eyes still locked over Chloe’s shallow pools of murky darkness—“you will not harm my family. You will not plot to harm nor carry out actions to harm my sons, Barron or Nathan, and you will not harm my husband, Gage Oliver. You will not harm Logan, Marshall, my earthly mother, her husband, my sisters, or anyone we hold near and dear—and that goes for pets as well. You shall not harm a hair on my head.” I bear into her with something just this side of hatred. “It will not even enter your mind. You will not harm the Celestra people or the Nephilim nor go against any of my ordinances. And if you do, the repercussions are uniquely mine alone, and whatever punishment I decree will be binding on earth as it is in heaven.”

  Chloe averts her eyes to my mother before sneering my way. “That’s our Skyla, always sucking all the fun out of everything.” She gives my hand a violent tug. “Yes, my God, yes, Skyla. That’s why I’m here. I will be your subordinate, your subservient. I will be the sickly worm that crawled under a rock, and you will be the sun, warming me, welcoming me back to life. And, yes, I understand fully that your interest in me is our unified love for our people—Celestra first, then the Nephilim in turn. I am against everything Wesley Bastard Edinger stands for. May his destruction, his grotesque misuse of his powers fall squarely over his rotten head. I am not interested in moving forward the agenda of my husband, but of my sister’s—that would be you, Skyla.” That mean shiver returns once again, shaking my vertebrae like fingers scaling the keys on a piano. “We will work together to restore all that Celestra has lost, to secure the lot of our people so they no longer live in fear of the Counts or the Barricade, or any nefarious dealings the Fems might have instore. They have sided with the Counts, but Celestra has sided with the Sectors. Though the intimate details of their battles are not ours to have, we understand our people’s rise to power coincides with theirs, and therefore, we are inseparable and will bolster the Sectors’ needs along with our own. It is under the Master’s love and His banner that we stand, and both you and I, Skyla, understand that He gifts us the knowledge, the wisdom, the power to stand in the presence of our enemies. We will be swift with retribution to whomever stands in our way, and I will not dream of harming a hair on the head of those you love.” Her left eye comes shy of winking as if those words pained her on some level. “And if I do—you, Skyla Laurel Messenger—Oliver—may instate the punishment you see fit. From this moment on, I am your right hand—just a little lower than your equal. All of my thoughts, my ways, my every move will be yours to monitor. I am a living sacrifice, yours to utilize as you please.” Her fingers press into mine, hard, bone over bone. “Skyla—” She steps in, her breathing erratic. There’s a pleading, a fear in her eyes that I have seen only once before, and that was the day my mother doled out her fate and sent her to the Transfer. “I need you to promise you won’t harm me—that this isn’t some setup to send me to a worse fate than the one that I’m escaping. I need to know that you mean what you say and that your word is binding and true. In order for us to be successful, I need to be assured that we are truly on the same team.” She tips her chin up, those ebony eyes falling hard over mine. “Woe to the hour you turn on me, Skyla. There will be a darkness in your life like never before or after it. I will be swift with my punishment, for my spirit is a wildfire—this slash-and-burn heart of mine is primal, and though
intrusive to many, it is one I cannot control. My rage is the brightest kind of flame. It cannot be tempered. Even I cannot douse the fire. My anger, my hatred has always stemmed from hurt, from pain, from being denied what was rightfully mine. I have always believed you took my place, and yet I am yielding all of my primal tendencies to act against you so that I may stand with you, shoulder to shoulder. Together we can, and, we will, rule the world. Assure me of my safety before we proceed.”

  I swallow hard. “Fine. Mother, search my heart and hers, and assure us both we are true and right with our intentions.”

  My mother steps forward and places a warm hand over my forehead and the other on Chloe’s as if reading a fever. Her hair lights up, each follicle its own filament of lavender, blue, pink, and the palest shade of yellow. My mother is a vision with her fiber optic appeal, and my body buzzes with delight with those feel-good vibratronics that pour out of her.

  She pulls her hands back and straightens. “It is as the two of you suggest. Any further stipulations?”

  “Yes.” I offer a peaceable smile to the girl who was once a sworn enemy, the killer of my father, my husband. “You can live on Paragon as we agreed. But I have the full power to send you back to the Transfer, or worse. From this moment on, your morphing abilities will be disabled. Take a moment to mold yourself in the exact likeness you will live out your days.” A thought comes to me. “And, also, on your behalf, I will have full access to Tobie.”

  Chloe flinches. “You want the brat? Wesley won’t have it.”

  “That’s why I want you to fight for your rights with the girl. When it’s your time with her, she will be with me. I will be the mother to her that you refuse to be.”