“This is home,” I say, taking in the boats docked in the harbor. “And like they say, there’s no place like it.” An oversized raven glides overhead toward the sign reading Welcome to Paragon.
“So why the harbor?” He gives a wry smile as a group of girls giggle their way to the ferry.
“I wanted to watch Skyla take off for her first day of school.” I still don’t feel right about interrupting any bonding time she needs with Gage, but it’s been weeks, and I’m dying to see her. I hope to hell they’ve got their kinks worked out because I’d do anything just to be near her again.
I glance around the lot and don’t see a sign of either his truck or the Mustang.
“Hey.” Liam slaps me over the arm. “Check out that couple dry-humping in the back of the pickup.”
I squint over at the all-too-familiar truck nestled off the grid with two bodies writhing over one another in the back.
Shit.
My heart stops. I can’t catch my breath.
“That’s them,” I whisper, mostly to myself.
“Get out.” Liam takes a few steps forward. “Look at him go. He’s going to fuck her right there, out in the open.” He cups his hands over his mouth and gives a whoop.
“Would you shut the hell up? They can see and hear us.” I take a step forward. Unfortunately for me, I can’t seem to take my eyes off them. My body goes numb just watching. Gage may as well have parked that mega ton truck of his right over my heart. It feels as if the weight of the world has landed on my chest.
I thought I could handle it.
I thought I would be glad just to be near them—that I would be happy for them. It turns out it was nothing but the worst lie I’ve ever fed myself. To think I’d ever want to see Skyla with anyone else is a cruel joke to begin with.
“Let’s go.” I start heading back toward the woods we came from.
“Where to?” Liam is slow to catch up.
“Paradise.”
“Whoa.” He pulls me back by the shirt. “No can do, baby bro. That’s a one-way ticket, and I still haven’t had my first cheeseburger in almost twenty years. You owe me that much and maybe a small crowd of loose chicks. I’ve got a serious itch to scratch, if you know what I mean.”
“People don’t say ‘loose chicks’ anymore. And if you even imply to someone of the female species that you’ve got a rash on your balls, they’re going to run like hell the other way. But it doesn’t matter because we’re not staying. We’re going to find Candace and tell her this was just a big mistake.”
“You know I care about you. I don’t want to see you hurting.” He yanks me in by the collar, stern as shit. “But I’m not opposed to giving you a little tough love by way of my fist just to get the point across that we’re not going anywhere. You got that?” He pulls back his hand, locked and loaded and ready to bust a jaw to prove his point.
Liam and I are a two for one deal. The only reason Liam gets to stay is because of me. I guess you could say he’s riding on my coattails quite literally, but I owe him that much, so I don’t mind.
A violent wind whips through the vicinity, and we look in the direction of the unexpected gust.
A woman appears in a dense, dark cloud. Her black hair flows like a necrotic river, her eyes knife through the darkness like shinning green lanterns.
“Holy hotness,” Liam whispers.
“More like holy crap,” I say as she strides in this direction. Crap and Chloe Bishop are one and the same these days. She’s made life on Paragon miserable the last two years and happens to be the sole reason I’m stranded on the other side of the eternal veil.
“My, my…” She walks a slow circle around my brother. Chloe looks sharper, more refined, far more wicked than I ever remember. She’s been relegated to the Transfer to endure Ezrina’s punishment, only it turns out Ezrina’s tattered features were of her own doing. Chloe can be as beautiful as she wants. And judging by my brother’s reaction, he completely approves.
Chloe locks eyes with him while wearing her lust on her sleeve. “Who in the hell are you?” She moans it out as if he were everything she wanted. But both Chloe and I know that’s a lie. For one, he’s not Gage.
“By all means, ladies first.” He walks his own circle around her, and now it feels as if I’m intruding on some primitive mating ritual.
“Chloe Bishop.” She holds out her hand, and he’s quick to bring it to his lips.
“Liam Oliver.”
“Oliver?” Chloe’s eyes widen to the size of Texas. “Do tell…” She looks from me to my brother. “Where have they been hiding you all these years?” Chloe looks genuinely thrown for a loop.
“None of your business. Come on, Liam.” I try to pluck him out of her midst, but he’s screwed his toes into the ground.
“I think Liam wants to stay,” Chloe coos, threading her fingers with his. “You up for some coffee? Maybe catch a good old-fashioned steak and egg breakfast? My treat.”
Liam perks at the mention of a juicy tenderloin.
Chloe is good at what she does, I’ll give her that. I’d better set my brother straight before she gets her hooks in too deep.
“She’s the reason I’m dead, Liam. She hacked my head off without thinking twice, and she’s got it out for Celestra.”
Chloe tilts her head in my direction. “And I’m going to kill Skyla, knock Celestra off its imaginary pedestal, and have Gage all to myself one day. There.” She gives one of her deranged smiles over to my brother. “I believe you’re all caught up. Shall we?”
“Yes, we shall.”
“Would you care to join us?” Her eyes spit a fire into mine.
“No.” I tap my brother. “Let’s get out of here, Liam. I’m sure Barron and Emma would love to see you. We can take a light drive—visit Mom and Dad. We can even hunt down that girl you’ve been telling me about. I bet she’s still as beautiful as you remember.” Right about now I’d offer to take him to the moon if he wanted. I used to be the last person to light drive—time travel—anywhere, but Skyla helped me overcome my fear.
Liam stares off at the woods while considering my offer. He’s falling hard under Bishop’s spell, and it’s not a good thing—especially since he’s looking to get laid, and she’s all too willing to provide the ride.
A horn blares into the virginal morning as the ferry pulls away from shore. I turn to find the tailgate to Gage’s truck in its upright position, not a sign of either Skyla or him near it.
I stare off at the ferry, trying to make out the passengers, but from this vantage point, everything looks like a sponge painting. It’s foggy as hell. Skyla and Gage are probably inside. Skyla never did like what the Paragon weather did to her hair—said it turned her into a bush. God, I miss her. I wouldn’t care if she were covered with fur from head to toe. I’d love her just the same.
“Who are we seeing off today?” Chloe stands beside me, squinting as the ferry pushes toward Host.
“It’s Skyla’s first day of school,” Liam offers.
Crap. It’s pretty clear I’ve got a whole list of do’s and don’ts I need to go over with him, starting with don’t feed into Chloe Bishop.
“Skyla’s first day of school? How absolutely precious.” Chloe nestles into her own skin as if she were pleased as hell with whatever it is she’s plotting. “I’ve got a little business I need to tend to with the Paragon Princess.” The words swim from her lips like a thinly veiled threat. “In fact, I have a guest in the Transfer I’ve been dying for her to meet. I might just arrange for that—” Chloe doubles over abruptly and cuts short her rambling speech. Her face bleaches out, pale as concrete. A groan expels from her throat as she starts in on a series of dry heaves.
Liam bounces back. “You feeling all right? You need some water?”
“I’ll gladly push you into the harbor,” I offer.
A raven screams overhead, and Chloe gives a quick glance up before backing the hell into the forest as if a demon were about to snatch her.
Liam and I w
atch as she fades into a mass of swirling molecules.
“What the hell was that about?” He touches the air in her wake as if making sure she’s truly gone. With Chloe you never know.
“I think that’s what it’s about.” I point skyward at the raven still hovering above. “That bird is the new home of Holden Kragger. My friend, Nevermore, used to live inside that ball of feathers. You’ll get to meet Nev soon. There are quite a few people we won’t be avoiding, and Nev’s one of them. If I remember correct, part of the punishment was that Nevermore’s form couldn’t be near Ezrina’s, which would explain the fact Chloe had to excuse herself. I guess Holden makes her sick—literally.”
“Good to know. I’ll be sure to keep Ms. Bishop in a bird-free environment the next time we meet.”
“You won’t need to. With any luck we’ll know where that damn bird is 24/7.”
“Where’s that?” Liam looks slightly ticked as if I were suggesting we use his dick as a perch.
“With Skyla Messenger. It looks like Holden Kragger is going to be her warped little guardian.” And that alone saved his neck. Holden once tried to force himself on Skyla. I had planned on removing him from the planet permanently—giving one of the feathers to Nev to stick in his hat out of posterity, but, for now, Holden Kragger is very, very safe. “And you’d better get Bishop out of your brain. She’s nothing but trouble. Besides, you’ll want someone who’s into you, and Chloe could never be that person. She only has eyes for Gage.” I learned that the hard way myself, but I wasn’t too sorry. She wasn’t the one for me.
“Yeah, well, she looked pretty interested in the goods”—he grabs his crotch—“and a lonely guy like me has to start somewhere.”
“Start somewhere else.”
I glance over at the gaping hole in the harbor. The ferry has long since faded from sight.
There they go. Gage and Skyla are embarking on a new adventure without me—the first of many. The thought has my stomach feeling as if it’s been scraped with a razor. If it wasn’t for Liam and his decades-in-the making hard-on, I would have been long gone by now. But something tells me neither Skyla nor Gage would approve of that.
Just the thought of seeing them together kills me. This is going to be harder than I ever imagined.
A pain, with no beginning and no end, settles in my chest. It feels familiar, as if I’ve owned it all along, for as far back as losing my parents. Losing the ones I love seems to be a theme in my life.
The dark fog of depression rolls in, crashing right over my head.
Watching Gage with Skyla is going to be a fate worse than death. It was one thing in high school when he was there to protect her—to keep her safe until she could be with me again. But now, I’m nothing more than a ghost, some phantom from the past, haunting them until the day Gage leaves this planet. And if I’m right, Skyla is going to move heaven and earth to make sure that doesn’t happen anytime soon. She loves Gage, and so do I. Hell, I’ll work with her to make sure he sticks around for a good, long while.
“You okay?” Liam lands a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Let’s head over to Barron’s, I think I still owe him a wedgie. People still do that?” He gets that sarcastic look on his face that I remember all too well. “Maybe you’d like a demonstration.”
“Touch my boxers and you’ll have very little left to impress the ladies with.”
He holds up his hands. “Let’s get out of here.” He walks us over to the woods. “It’s going to get easier. I promise, man. I’ll be here for you every step of the way.”
Easier. I wonder how easy it’ll be for me to congratulate them on their wedding day. Or to look either one of them in the eye each day after that because I know for a fact how they’ll keep warm on those cold, Paragon nights. I wonder how easy it’s going to be to restrain from ripping off Gage’s gloating balls. Not that he’s the gloating type, but she’ll put a grin on his face, and I’ll want to take it right back off.
“It’s going to be hard as shit,” I lament.
“It’s going to be fine.” He drapes his arm over my shoulder.
“It’s going to be hell.”
“You always such a ball of sunshine?”
“Only on days that end in Y.” I hook my hand over his arm.
“I’m glad to be back, man.” Liam gives a quick sniff. “Thanks for thinking of me. I plan on making the most of it.”
“It’s good to have you.” I glance over at the long, lonely highway up ahead—the thicket of evergreens to our left, the fog settling over the island, heavy as wool. “It’s good to be back on Paragon.”
It’s going to be hell, but it’s good to be back.
2
A Dragon’s Tale
Skyla
A veil of clouds glimmer above Host University in shades of navy, in shades of guttural charcoal as the wind gives a somber moan. If there’s anything good about the constant storm that sits above these islands, it’s the fact they act as the perfect backdrop to accentuate Gage in all his glory. They exclaim Gage Oliver as an exquisite alien being in the most magnificent way—a god of heavenly descent.
We stand outside our first class of the day, U.S. History, holding onto the dregs of summer and perhaps that of our scholastic youth. Once we cross the threshold into class, it all becomes official, we’re college freshman, and there’s no turning back.
I drink Gage down with his dark hair, those flame-blue eyes.
“You’re hot, you know that?” I steal a kiss off his tender lips and linger. Gage has the softest lips on the planet, and I could stay up all night doing just this.
“You’re hot.” He tweaks my ribs. “And all twenty of those guys checking you out on the way over can testify to that.” His dimples press in, and my panties beg to melt right off my body. Gage and I worked each other up pretty good in the back of his truck before we boarded that ferry. If it weren’t the first day of class, I would have insisted we blow this off and let our bodies take us where they want to go.
“Oh, yeah?” I ride my finger down his chest like a snake ready to disappear in the forest, only his forest is off limits right now seeing that every coed in a fifty-foot vicinity can’t take her eyes off him. “I think I’m going to be sick to my stomach if I have to deal with all these girls drooling over you for the next four years.” True story. The only girl I really had to fight off at West was Chloe Bishop. Although Chloe probably equals a hundred girls at Host. She was tenacious to put it mildly.
A soft rumble of a laugh echoes from his chest to mine. “Come here.” His hands flex up and down my back, sending a quiver of warmth straight through to my bones. “Then I’d better do a lot of this to let them know where I stand.” His lips find mine and Gage imparts a kiss that puts every being in the universe on notice. I belong to him and nobody else. In every real way I believe it, and my heart sinks just a little for Logan. My mother told me, not long after the faction war, that the universe had ordained Gage for me. It makes sense because this feels right. But I would have been with Gage no matter what the universe decided to dictate. Being with Gage feels beautiful and safe—as if I’ve made my way home.
A sea of bodies drift in through the door, forcing us to step to the side. I gaze out at the Student Union for a moment. The giant effigy of a dragon has been masterfully crafted in a lifelike mural that spans the length and width of the building. Its large, scaly body stretches out as its mouth opens wide with a stream of flames shooting from it. Black feathered wings sprout from its back that stretch to the rooftop. Under its claw sits a rose with its petals scattered around, crushed by the cruel beast. The entire mural is disturbing to look at, and it’s safe to assume the sight could easily scare young children—me included. It’s evident the artist took their time to bring the creature to life, stroke by stroke. A pair of ruby eyes glimmer over campus, bleeding out an eerie spray of sanguine light. Painted just above him reads Host University, Home of the Dragons. Below the creature, in an old school gangster block font, reads, Omen. It�
�s nice they’ve named him, but it doesn’t make that fire wrapping around the building any less menacing.
“Creepy.” Gage lands a kiss on my earlobe. “Sort of makes me miss Cerberus.”
I give a wistful smile at the mention of the three-headed dog. Cerberus was our high school mascot.
“I guess I miss Cerberus, too.” There’s a sentiment I thought we’d never share. “We’d better go in. I’d hate for us to be late.”
“No warning bells just a five-minute grace period. We’re not at West anymore, that’s for sure.” He cinches his backpack over his shoulder just the way he did a few short months ago when we were both students at West Paragon High. But we’re not. Nothing is even remotely the same, and I guess you could put us in that category as well.
“I was just thinking how everything has changed.” I tug him in by the belt loop.
“And we’re the same?” He steals a quick kiss off my cheek.
“Nope.” I bite down over my lip playfully and watch as his eyes round out into twin cobalt eggs. “We’re about to get a whole lot better.”
“Damn straight.” Gage presses out his infectious grin, and we share a simple kiss before he nods into the class behind me. “Let’s do this.”
Gage and I walk in to find a small auditorium with stadium style seating. Almost every seat is taken with the exception of a couple spares here and there, making it impossible for us to sit together.
“Plenty of room up top.” He nods behind me, and I spot a few familiar faces from West, including an obnoxious face from East, Carly Foster.
My stomach turns at the sight of her. She and one of her bitchy friends were responsible for me getting my arm hacked off by Ezrina—and poor Dr. Oliver was forced to switch it out with Chloe’s useless limb. But that’s when Chloe was still safely tucked in her coffin, nothing more than a spare parts conservatory—otherwise known as the good old days. Then, in a series of unfortunate events, the rejuvenating power of my Celestra blood brought her back to life, and Chloe was free to wreak havoc on every last soul in Paragon, beginning with mine. And now she’s… actually I’m not really sure how to classify Chloe anymore other than a constant pain in my ass.
Celestra Forever After Page 4