Crown of Ashes

by Addison Moore

  But I don’t take off. I head straight for a pack of them with my arms held high.

  I run straight into the fire.

  Standing with the Angels

  Skyla

  “Skyla!” Gage thunders as I shove Barron into Kate’s arms.

  “Go with him,” I hiss as I take off back in the direction of the party—the raid as it had easily transformed into—and just as I’m about to hit the clearing, a body tackles me and sends me reeling on my heels.

  I pull back, momentarily blinded by a face full of long dark hair.

  “Chloe?” I blink at my new sinister sister. “What the hell?”

  “Get back here!” Gage roars with a fury as he snatches me by the wrist.

  Chloe’s nostrils flare as she sets those dead eyes over me. “Don’t worry. I’m not letting her go.” She smacks me just shy of my temple. “You nitwit! You’re going to get yourself detained, and then who the hell will help the plight of your people?”

  “Our people,” I correct as Gage aggressively leads us back to the thicket where Kate holds two startled babies who look as if they’re about to burst into tears.

  “Hold on.” Gage pulls us into a tight huddle, his hot mouth buried over my hair. I watch as the ground of Marshall’s estate turns to ash, and I feel like a coward. I should have fought tooth and nail to get back there.

  And do what, Skyla? Chloe asks the question as the world around us transforms into a familiar landscape.

  “The Transfer?” I gasp as the gray world comes into focus. The skeletal trees, the parched ground, the deep violet sky, and, of course, the hungry mouth of Wesley’s castle waiting to swallow us whole.

  “We’ll be safe here.” Gage ushers us in as if he owns the place, a frightening thought in the least.

  “Seemingly so,” I pant, keeping up the pace while taking Barron from Kate’s overloaded arms. She holds tight to Nathan while soaking in the horrors of this monolithic hellhole with wide-eyed wonder. “Chloe, take us to Tobie’s room. We’ll have the boys stay there.” I turn to Gage. “Get Ezrina and bring her here. She can watch the boys, and she’ll be safe as well.”

  Gage offers a dry smile as we follow Chloe into the bowels of this slate-walled, slate-floored ode to stone and steel wonder. The entire structure is gothic in nature and the interior motif morbid in style. Instead of your average family pictures running along the hall, Wes has an array of sabers hung precariously as if inviting his guests to arm themselves if need be. And believe me, the need will always be there. It’s safe to say Lex wasn’t asked to work her magic in this hellscape. As much as Lex and I rub each other the wrong way, I’ll be the first to admit she’s got a gift when it comes to outfitting a homey interior. Wes has a gift for outfitting a precarious one.

  “The zookeepers’ favorite cage.” Chloe kicks the door open to a docile nursery that looks shockingly familiar.

  “Holy—wow, is this my old furniture?” I run straight over to my old canopy bed with its wicker frame and ruffled topper. The covers jerk, inspiring me to jump back while shielding Barron from the boogieman about to leap from my old bed.

  A girl sits up, messy golden brown hair, sleepy eyes, and it’s not until she blinks to life do I note the striking resemblance to my good friend. It’s Laken’s knockoff—Kresley Fisher.

  “What the hell’s going on?” she moans as if she hadn’t quite caught up on her sleep.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” I growl at her before heading over to the crib and landing Barron inside. “Not only does Wes take advantage of you, but he keeps you stowed away as the nanny.”

  Gage takes Nathan from Kate and lands him next to his brother. “Wes is proving to be quite the utilitarian.” He lands a quick kiss to my lips. “I’ll be back.”

  I grip his arm as if he were threatening to leave me. “I’m going with you.” I nod to Kate. “Watch the boys. We’ll be back as soon as we can. Chloe can’t be trusted, and neither can that skank on the bed who’s still trying to decipher if this is all a dream.”

  Kresley grunts. “I can hear you, Skyla.”

  “And ignore her, would you?” I implore poor Kate who has to endure a fate worse than death—time alone with Kres and Chloe. “The boys will be getting hungry soon, but I’m sure Ezrina will know what to do. She’s practically raising Tobie.” I glare at Chloe a moment. “Apparently, motherhood isn’t for everyone.”

  Chloe blows a breath through her nostrils. “Hell no to that.”

  “I’ll be back soon.” Gage storms out, and I follow him to the doorway. “Skyla, I’m not taking you with me.”

  “What?” I hook my arm around his in a lame attempt to protest. “You are taking me, Gage. I have to get back. I need to assess the damage—help whoever I can. Any powers the boys have gifted have all but faded. I need your help to get back to Paragon.”

  “You need to be here for the boys.” He steps outside those massive doors and turns to me—his hands lay heavy on my shoulders as if begging me to understand. “As long as I’m alive, Skyla, I’m not letting anything happen to you or our children. It’s dangerous right now. There’s no way in hell I’m taking you back.”

  He turns to leave, and I spin him toward me. “Gage! I’m not asking for your permission. You are taking me back. I belong with my people.”

  “No,” he thunders a little too loud. “You’re staying with the boys. They need you. Trust me to take care of your people. They are my people, too.”

  A million thoughts run through me at once, none of them bode well for my husband. “Then I’ll take myself!”

  Gage offers a depleted look my way before glowering upwards, and a thin blue film covers the perennial night sky.

  “Holy shit,” Chloe balks with a laugh garbled in her throat. “You just erected a shield of some sort to keep your little wifey in line. I’m not sure if the best day of my life was entering into that covenant with Skyla or this one.”

  “I gotta go.” Those dimples of his depress, right along with his spirit.

  “No!” My throat rubs raw from ejecting the sentiment. “You will not leave me here. You will not imprison me like I’m some child, like I’m a pet you need to look after. I forbid it.” The words flit out like the sharpened blade of a knife, but Gage merely steps back, evaporating slowly, those glowing blue eyes remain fixed on me and are the last to dissipate.

  “Gage! Get back here! You’ll regret this!” My voice shrills so high and loud that the blue film up above warbles under my tyranny. “Oh my God. What have you done?” I can’t catch my breath. “He left me.” My husband defied me. He pulled rank and put a lid on both my powers and me.

  “Face it, Skyla”—Chloe chums up next to me, her gaze set on that void Gage left in his wake—“there’s nothing hotter than Gage Oliver telling you to shut up and sit down.”

  My blood boils in an instant, but it has nothing to do with Chloe’s ridiculous sentiments. It’s Gage’s ridiculous actions. He very much told me to shut up and sit down.

  She huffs a dull laugh. “I bet he’s twice as demanding in bed. I bet he’s more than happy to fill your mouth with his body, and tell you where to sit and how.”

  I stagger back a moment, still stunned over the fact my husband saw fit to lock me in a demonic closet. He outright defied me. He pulled rank, and now I’m stuck in the Transfer with both Chloe and Kresley. I turn around to find the ditz in question stomping this way.

  Kresley starts a mile a minute with questions, and I’m quick to tune her out, my mind already clawing at the walls trying to get the hell out.

  Kate comes up as I head back into the grand room with those eternal flames forever burning bright in the oversized fireplace, that spinning wet world Wes keeps in a megalithic fountain, the granite sphere floating and spinning on a dizzying loop.

  “The boys fell right asleep,” Kate whispers. “I’ll go back and stay with them in case they wake up. It’s safe to say they’re a long way from home.”

  I offer her a quick
embrace. “Thank you. Ezrina should be here shortly.” Surely Gage hasn’t completely lost his fucking mind. He’ll bring her here to keep her out of harm’s way. And he’ll bring me back to Paragon.

  I glance over to Chloe. “Don’t just stand there. Put your demented thinking cap on and get me out of this hellhole,” I bark so loud Kate jerks back as if I slapped her. “Sorry.” I wince, speeding to the fireplace as if I’m about to jump in.

  “Chill out.” Chloe stomps over. “You have options. Turn down the blonde volume on that panic and fire up those brain cells, will you?”

  Kresley jumps in between us with the face of my best friend, and it kills me. Hell, it makes me want to kill her. The flames lick higher as if begging for a treat. “What the hell is going on?” she howls at the two of us. “Is this some kind of a joke? You two can’t stand each other. Wes says if he locked the two of you in a room, one of you wouldn’t come out alive.”

  I step in close to the slithering skank until we’re eye-to-Laken-wannabe-eye. “That would be you and me who wouldn’t come out of a room alive. Chloe and I are on the same page. I don’t care what your thoughts are. I don’t give a damn if you approve, disapprove, or want in on the action. What I do with Chloe is my business—and soon you’ll be my business, too. You made a grave mistake, Kresley. Wes is using you, and sadly we both know it. But I will not allow you to run amuck anywhere, in any plane of existence, with that lie embedded on your face—a face you probably can’t stand to look at yourself.”

  Her gaze shifts to the floor because she knows it’s true. “It’s none of your business. Wesley still loves me.”

  Chloe clicks her tongue. “No, he doesn’t. My God, is this entire room filled with nitwits? Wesley is not in love with you, Kres. You had to knife up your face just to be in the same room with him. He doesn’t even call you by your given name. He calls you Laken.”

  My head ticks back a notch at the idea. “If that’s true, it’s beyond sad.”

  That horrid scene at the party relives itself in my mind, and my heart ratchets right back up to my throat. “Mother!” I roar to the ceiling. “Demetri?” My voice tears past that shield Gage thought to erect in my honor. I’ll be erecting something in his honor tonight—a cold front.

  “That’s my girl.” Chloe offers up a slow clap just as the room begins to shake. The sky outside the window flickers with a warning as the room takes on an eerie translucent glow. “Well, well, it looks as if Glinda the Good Witch is about to pay a visit to the celestial crap house. You’re in for a treat, Laken. You say your mother abandoned you? Wait until you meet Skyla’s mommy dearest. She’ll make you look fondly upon those lonely nights you cried yourself to sleep.”

  The room brightens then dims, and lo and behold Candace Messenger appears with her hair lit up like gold floss, her face radiating an otherworldly glow as if she had just seen the face of God.

  The ground continues to rumble, quake, and quiver under the weight of my mother’s beauty.

  “Stop the shaking!” Kresley panics as she grips the edge of the granite lip that holds the spinning globe, water sloshing to the ground around her.

  “Darkness cannot handle the light.” My mother strides past her with her gaze set to mine.

  “Skyla.” She closes her eyes a moment, dejected as if my own lowly estate were enough to depress her. “Whatever are you doing here?”

  I run up and grip her by the shoulders, that familiar pleasant hum runs through me and soothes me straight to the bone. “I need to get back to Paragon—the feds have taken just about everyone into custody. Everybody is in danger. They have Marshall!” I shake her slightly as if to drive home the point, and her eyes grow wild—so much so that I drop my hands to my sides.

  “Sector Dudley can make a mockery of them if he wishes, and he almost always wishes.” She chortles out a laugh as if reliving a memory. “He is a sly one. If anything, I should protect those feds which you speak of, posthaste.” Her lips curve into a nefarious smile before it glides off her face as if it were a cliff. “Why have you summoned me? I was in the middle of teaching Sage the finer points of destiny robbing.” She growls at both Chloe and Kresley. “Some of us here are more familiar with the concept than others.”

  “That was meant for me.” Chloe’s eyes round out with the revelation.

  I scoff at the thought. “She was talking to Kresley. Although she’s hardly robbing Laken of her destiny.”

  My mother pumps a nefarious smile. “Chloe had it right.”

  “Knew it. You robbed me!” She glares at my mother as if there would be retribution. Try as she might, Chloe is no match for my mother—a close second, but no match.

  My mother gives a hard sniff. “It wasn’t you who was robbed. You were the thief looking to steal a destiny. You were never in line to receive the celestial adulation your black heart desires,” she snaps before looking to Kresley. “And you—don’t blame others for the misfortune that awaits. I had a better way!” My mother bears in hard, her voice hitting volumes I have never heard before.

  My heart stills a moment. My mother had a better way for her. It makes me wonder about my own destiny. Here I am sprinting to who knows where—perhaps if I hadn’t taken to rebellion I would have landed where I wanted to be all along—in a better way.

  Kresley steps in with a fury raging from her. “Your way didn’t include Wesley!” she roars into my mother’s face so loud her hair blows back.

  A choking sound emits from my mother as her hair lights up in a rainbow of citrus hues. She’s on fire right down to the very last follicle. “My, my, someone is feeling rather brave.” She steps in close to Kresley and gives a slight tug at a lock of her hair. “A cheap replica. Is that what you think I’ve decided for you? You are juggling dynamite. You have landed yourself in the perfect storm.” Her eyes flit to mine without a twitch of her head. “You”—there’s an accusatory tone in her voice that I’m not appreciating at the moment—“I charge you with this one. She will try both your patience and your mercy—and perhaps the fabric of your integrity.” Her gaze dips to the floor before she turns fully to face Chloe and me. “Look at the two of you.” She tips her head back as her voice dips to saccharin levels, all of it drenched in sarcasm. My mother hopped up on sarcasm is a very dangerous thing. A dark chortle comes from her because undoubtedly she heard. “Who is writing your story?” she purrs as she heads over and runs a cool finger under my chin. “Is doubt creeping into your heart, my love? Has the Celestra spring come crashing down around you so soon?” She looks to Chloe. “Has the victory you sacrificed for eluded you already?”

  I look to Chloe, and my heart thumps hard. Had Chloe been hoping for something outside of our covenant?

  “Oh yes, you little thing,” my mother sings through a bubbling laugh. “Skyla,” she trills. My mother bows her head and laughs as she pinches her eyes shut. “My dear Skyla, you never learn—try as you might.” Her eyes shine like shards of glass as she steps in ever so close. “Fight the urge to bow to those who oppress you. Fight the urge to let down your guard and believe in silly words. Rules and laws are frames of perfection—covenants are one in the same. You are still very much mostly human as are those around you.” Her eyes flit to Chloe for the briefest of moments. “Do not relish the downfall of your enemy. It comes with a price.” She bears those crystalline lenses into mine. “And you will rue the day you ever stepped away from my careful guidance.”

  “Your guidance?” A sputtering laugh comes from me, and I couldn’t stop it if I tried. “When have you ever guided me? I have been in peril since the moment I stepped on Paragon all those years ago. What have you done with my destiny other than damning me to a life of strife?” Her lips part as if shocked by the audacity—either that or she’s just come to the conclusion that I’m right. “Guide me now, Mother. Guide me back to Paragon. Guide me to my people. Tell me what to do with this nightmare the Steel Barricade has inflicted on us and themselves. The government is insatiable. And we are all in peril
.”

  She takes in a breath, her hair turning an odd shade of lavender, each follicle alive with its own peculiar light. “That ring.” She glances to my finger, the blue stone that once belonged to the throne of the living God. “Skyla, whose is it?”

  I glance to Chloe, although deep down I know. “Melody Winters?” I ask with a childlike curiosity.

  “Indirectly.” Her brows rise as if proud of the fact I’ve answered right in partial. “And how would our dear Chloe have swiped this from Ms. Winters’ crooked little finger?”

  I look to Chloe for help, but she’s quick to turn her head from me. Chloe denied stealing it. And obviously, she lied. “She stole it. Chloe, you stole it.”

  “The ring doesn’t belong to Melody Winters.” Chloe grunts with disgust. “As usual, your mother is taking you down a long and thorny road and wasting the fuck out of everybody’s time. Marlena took the ring from Cassandra Graham and gave it to me.”

  Cassandra Graham—I didn’t want to say her name. In truth, I want to forget all about that ratty old dive bar Chloe and I visited last December. That twisted light drive lit a fire line in my life. I look down at the ring as if to confirm my theory.

  “And what was the promise Marlena gave you?” My mother curves her palm over Chloe’s cheek, and it looks almost loving. Almost.

  Chloe takes a breath as she looks to me. “That it was a portal to getting everything I’ve ever wanted.”

  My chest thumps with a quiet laugh. “The only thing you’ve ever wanted was Gage Oliver.” Everything in me freezes. She’s still trying to make him hers. Of course, she is.

  Chloe steps toward me. “But I didn’t even think of taking Marlena up on that ring until that night you whispered into my ear by the fire. It was right here in this room, Skyla, just a few short months ago. The night you were betrayed, or so you thought. And when we ended up in England, I knew—it was destiny. It was my time to make my dreams come true.”