All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6)

by Addison Moore

  Giselle bops in rhythm to the music. “Skyla says I can be a bridesmaid in your wedding. Chloe hasn’t asked yet, but I might be in hers, too.”

  Logan moans out a dull laugh. “Yes, Giselle, you are most certainly welcome.” His fingers dig deep into my waist a moment. “It’s going to be a blowout.” That sly smile on his face rides higher as he looks to Gage.

  “So when’s the big day?” Gage takes a breath as if he needed to steady himself, and suddenly I am addicted to catching him off guard.

  “We’re undecided,” Logan answers for us. “Might be a year, might be next week.”

  “I want to do things right this time.” I wrap both of my arms around Logan as I tuck a kiss to his cheek. As soon as my lips hit that scruff on his face, a spark goes off in the pit of my stomach. There it is. I’ve been waiting for you. My feelings for Logan live, after all. His chest bucks with a silent laugh because my hand is touching his arm and he heard every word.

  “A wedding, huh?” Gage looks from Logan to me, his jaw moving from side to side. He’s trying to contain his emotions, maintain his cool. I think this is a perfect chance to challenge his steely resolve.

  “Honeymoon in Rome?” I wince at Logan as I ask.

  “Been there, done that. I say we do something new, something unexpected.”

  “Oh, I so agree.” I’m about to pull Logan into the crowd and get away from the cloying air Gage seems to bring with him these days just as Chloe pops up next to Ellis.

  Giselle leans her way. “We were just talking about your wedding. The one you won’t let me be a part of.” She rolls her blue eyes and it reminds me to track down Emerson Kragger. Emerson wants Chloe dead just as much as I do. I have no doubt my mother left Emerson on this planet long after her ninth life expired just so she could do my dirty work for me and I can keep my hands clean for the sake of the Factions.

  “Of course, G,” Chloe growls over at her because clearly it was not her intention to include her. Chloe likes all the attention on herself. Nothing has changed at all. “In fact, you can be my maid of honor. And since Wes is getting married, too, Ellis, you can stand up for Gage.” She snarls at Logan, “We don’t expect much out of you.”

  “I’m not going.” Ellis shoots death rays at Gage. “You can screw your life up all you want. I’m not sticking around to witness it any more than I have to.”

  Ellis has always been like a brother to both Logan and Gage.

  “Ellis!” Giselle snaps at the love of her life, and, honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen her display this much emotion. “You’re going to the wedding. I’ll be wearing a pretty dress, and I want you to see me in it.” She drags him off into the crowd. Giselle is a loyalist to the end and so is Ellis. It’s a beautiful thing, with the exception they’re each loyal to the other side, mostly.

  Logan glowers at the two malfeasances left in our presence. “I’d be offended by your comment, Chloe, but I wasn’t invited to the re-launch of our nightmares.”

  Chloe wraps an arm around Gage’s waist and he hesitates a moment before doing the same. A part of me insists on believing this is all an act, something fake to upset me to the core, but the Gage I knew would never be so shallow. And for the life of me, I can’t understand why he would be.

  Her hand rides over her nearly flat stomach.

  “Of course, you’re both invited. We’re family.” She jostles Gage by the arm. “Isn’t that right, honey? It’s important that our family witnesses the renewal of our vows. The boys are in the wedding—that goes without saying. Twin ring bearers. Emily volunteered Ember to be our flower girl. It’s amazing how everything is falling together so quickly. When something is right, the universe moves heaven and earth to make it happen.” Her head tips to his shoulder. “Just the way heaven and earth moved for us.”

  A dull laugh bounces through me. “When you take heaven and earth out of the equation, Chloe, all you’re left with is hell.” I look to Gage. “And that’s exactly where you are. You just don’t know it yet.”

  Chloe presses out a forlorn smile. “Skyla, so petty. Are you still planning my demise?” She pats her belly. “It would be a double homicide. The half-brother or sister of your own boys. What would your children think of their mother?”

  “Believe me, I’ll be their hero once I slaughter you.” I glance to her stomach, and just the sight of it spears my heart with pain. “But it looks like you don’t need a protective hedge around your neck. He planted one inside of you. I wouldn’t plan on getting too attached to the baby. But then, you never do get too attached.” I pull Logan with me into the crowd and wrap my arms around his neck as we begin swaying to the music as if it were a slow song.

  Logan Oliver is a resplendent sight tonight, all testosterone and sex, hooded lids, dirty grin, flannel over jeans, three-day-old scruff. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he were gunning to get laid—but this is Logan. He makes the girls moan in passing every single day.

  He tips his head back. “Laying it on a little thick, are we?”

  A tiny smile twists on my lips. “You love it and you know it.”

  “I love our spontaneous engagement, too. I’m glad you said yes.”

  I can’t help but frown at him a moment. “You knew I’d come around.” I toss a sly wink his way.

  He gives a slow blink. “Gage is about to blow a hole through the roof.”

  “You do realize that at the last two New Year’s Eve parties there was a literal hole blown in the roof.”

  “I remember. Last one was at the bowling alley and it’s just now recovered. But I think Gage should bottle rocket through the ceiling, any ceiling. It’s just the beginning of a long list of things I wish for him.”

  I shrug up at him. “It was pretty easy to rile him up.”

  “If you want, I can unzip my pants and you can ride me like a bronco right here in the living room.” His brows twitch because the dirty bastard means it.

  “That would be fun,” I say without the proper inflection. For a moment, I envision Gage’s fury, the old Gage, the one who actually cared. This version might cheer us on. “But when I’m with you”—my fingers dig into the back of his hair, thick and smooth, something I can get used to touching all night long—“and I will be, the only show I’ll be putting on will be for your viewing pleasure. I may have a broken heart, but I have needs.” I glance to the floor, embarrassed that I’m being so brazen, asserting myself sexually at the most inopportune time. Logan wants all of my heart and he has it, but in Gage’s wake, a thousand emotional walls have erected themselves, towers that rise into the sky and mask daylight and all of the good emotions I should be reveling in, and instead, all I see is black.

  He nods as if he understood. “Just for the record, I’m not opposed to revenge sex in or out of the public eye.” His gaze penetrates mine. “I made my feelings about you well known last spring, and I stand by them. I’m sorry he broke your heart, but I do not doubt for a moment that you belong with me.”

  “I know. I mean, I realize how you feel. My head feels the same. My heart is still plastered over the walls, trying to figure out how to go on beating after that utter pummeling he gave me—gave us. You loved him, too.”

  “I still love him, Skyla.”

  “I know, and believe me, it’s a betrayal, Logan. As petty as it sounds, I want you to hate him as much as I do.”

  “I hate what he did. And I hate it more than you can imagine. Possibly more than you do. I know your head is everywhere right now and your heart is nowhere to be seen, but, like I said, if you see him watching and feel the urge to drop to your knees and offer up a BJ, I’m in.”

  A laugh rips through me and I feel somewhat human again, not that I am human—I’m anything but. “You are a dirty, dirty boy, Oliver.”

  “You need to stop flirting with me.”

  “Oh, honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  He gives me a twirl and I spot Emily in the corner with a blue light aglow next to her as she works furtively
doling out those prophecies as fast as she can get them to paper. There’s already a line snaking into the living room, and I’m glad about it. The busier Em is, the less the odds that she’ll have time to whip one up for yours truly. But let’s be honest. Emily Morgan always seems to make time for me.

  A hand taps over Logan’s shoulder and I squint into the dark to find Marshall pushing him out of the way.

  “I believe the lady deserves a gentleman.” Soon enough, I’m in the sexy Sector’s arms, gliding clear across the room into a thicket of bodies, doing exactly this at supernatural speeds. Those brilliantly beautiful vibratronics of his strum through every last inch of my body. My God, just holding onto Marshall Dudley is like visiting a sexually satisfying day spa.

  “Hey, handsome.” I run my finger along his jawline. “Rumor has it, I’ll be making a pit stop into your private chambers this evening. I believe a wild, thoughtless romp should start the year off right.” This, the night before Gage and Chloe’s wedding. I strongly like the idea of showing up for their nuptials—and by showing up, I mean standing in the back long enough for the farce to commence so I can scoop up the boys and run the hell home—good and thoroughly satisfied by the surly Sector before me. A ragged sigh escapes me. How a part of me longs for the days where Gage and I simply thoroughly satisfied each other and were far more than content by that alone.

  “I’ve no intention on defiling your body—yet.” He runs a gentle line down my lips with the tip of his finger. “However, I am certain you will have creative, and might I add, satisfying dreams for many, many hours into the night.”

  “Then it sounds like I’d better call it an early night.” I give a quick sweep around and my heart stops cold when I spot Gage with his arms wrapped around that demon doing exactly this. “He’s a monster, Marshall.” The words swim from my lips like traitors.

  “That he is.” Marshall takes a deep breath. “Focus, Skyla. Do you know what my good friend Ezrina is doing at the moment?”

  I shake my head, my gaze still painfully pinned in that horrid direction.

  “She’s in her laboratory experimenting with hundreds of viruses.”

  I suck in a quick breath. “How is she going to test the effects? Please tell me she has no intention of using an animal.”

  “Bite your tongue right now.” He gives a sly wink. “Bite mine, later.” He gives a subtle shake of the head as if reverting his thoughts. “Heavens no. Rina would no sooner hurt a living creature with malice in her heart than she would her own child. She has a myriad of cells to work with. She can see the effects without harming a soul—at the moment.” His brows swoop in like a bird in flight and it makes him look frighteningly handsome. About sixteen different girls just sighed in this direction. Marshall is eye candy that has the power to detonate your ovaries all in one delicious blink in his direction.

  His lips curve at the tips because we both know he heard me.

  “Once again, however”—he begins—“she will eventually need a willing participant. What holds in a stabilized cellular structure held in a petri dish may not be what works in a living being—such as a Faction member, one of your people. Do you realize this subject must be willing to die for the effort?”

  A hard groan works from me. “It should be me.” I shake my head in the darkness. “I cost the Factions everything. It’s my foolish heart that was swayed so easily. But I swear to you, Marshall, that was the last time I choose love over my people. I won’t be made a fool of again. It’s God, the Factions, and my boys. That’s it. I have a one-track mind, and that track is not getting on my knees to please Gage Oliver’s penis.”

  “Ms. Messenger.” Marshall’s muscles tense with the offense.

  “Sorry.” I shoot a dirty look in the oversized penis’ direction, and Gage pins his eyes on mine. It takes everything in me to drag my eyes to Marshall’s heavenly features. “I have to focus on my hatred for him.”

  And that’s precisely why I shouldn’t jump into bed with Logan. What Logan and I have is far too pure to be reduced to revenge sex. I’m terrified of committing to him just yet. Sure we were just playfully engaged. But the real deal? I know once I cross over and give myself fully to Logan Oliver, he will own me. And after what happened with Gage, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing.

  A sorrowful smile twists on Marshall’s lips. “You have to focus on your love for the Factions, my dear.”

  “That’s why I’m not jumping into another relationship. I just think it’s not for me. I mean, I realize now that I should have been with Logan all along instead of falling headfirst into the enemy’s schemes, but…”

  “But what?” Those boiling cauldron eyes of his begin to glow like rubies, and as much as I want to tell him to knock it off, I’m far too mesmerized to do it. “Skyla, Logan is your destiny. Not even I can stand in the way.”

  “And you? What are you? Because I feel something intensely intimate with you, and I always have. I was too busy pretending to be number one wifey to acknowledge it. What are you to me? Did you win a portion of my life in some celestial bet with my mother? God knows you did not get around that battleax.” The room shakes under our feet and dozens of girls scream with delight.

  Marshall’s enormous chest expands like a solid sheet of granite. “Your time with the Pretty One has come, Skyla. There is no use in fighting it.”

  “I’m not fighting anything. I’m just not ready.”

  “He never left your heart. You don’t need to be ready. The restraint you feel is due to your fierce loyalty to Jock Strap. You have a desire to make amends with him, to right the wrongs, to burn the witch by his side at the stake as he begs his forgiveness to you. It’s not going to happen. You will sooner grow hooves and begin chewing your cud than having your old life pieced together. It’s over, and the sooner you let go of childish fantasies, the better for everyone involved.”

  My eyes widen as I stare down this not-so-heavenly creature before me. “I’d slap you, but I think I’ll save that for later when we finish this argument in my bed. Fair warning, I am very, very pissed. Expect a war. You will get one.” I try to leave and he reels me back. His embrace is tight, his eyes shining bright as flames.

  “I look forward to the battlefield. Know this, I am heavy-handed with the enemy, and I bring no mercy with me.” His thumb runs a quick circle over my cheek, and those vibratronics turn up to unfathomable volumes, forcing my body into a quivering quake right here on the dance floor.

  “I won’t need your mercy. I just need your rock…hard”—his brows hike an inch as I say it—“cunning personality.”

  I make a clean break and head for the backyard, where the Harrison estate rivals that of Demetri’s as far as sprawling in each direction goes. The music is just as jarringly loud and the faint smell of weed lights up the air. The fog is thick, but the sea of bodies is thicker. Off to the right is a Jacuzzi brimming with beauties, and I spot Ellis and Giselle in the mix. And if that steam emanating from the oversized swimming pool is any indication, Ellis has turned the entire Olympic-sized pool into a Roman bathtub. Although there is standing room only in there at the moment. All that body heat has probably spiked the temperature.

  I spot Wes by the woods that butt up to the property and make my way over. Unfortunately, Laken is never too far from that devil these days.

  “Hey,” I say as the fog swirls around us, the din of the music growing fainter with every step I take toward him. It’s not until his eyes flash to mine that my heart seizes, because it’s not Wes. It’s Gage. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were Wesley.” My entire body pulsates with a heartbeat of its own.

  His features harden on cue. “Don’t you ever apologize to me.”

  Something about that wicked look on his face, the way his voice cut through the night brings my anger right back to boiling.

  “Why are you looking at me as if I offend you? I have done nothing but give you my all. How dare you take a shit on me every chance you get.” I’m this close to slapping him si
lly, but God knows once I start I will not be able to stop until I claw his eyes out. Who am I kidding? It would end in tears, in my limbs attaching themselves to his familiar frame, begging him to wake the hell up so we can both be done with this nightmare.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way.” His voice softens, as do his features, and there’s something familiar in the way he looks at me before he sends his gaze to the woods like a punishment.

  “You’re still in there, Gage. I know you are.” My voice is faint, my words a betrayal to the rage still percolating in me. The very rage I’ll need to survive this. “I don’t know what’s happened. Why you feel the need to hurt me so very much. We could have had it both ways. With that stone—my mother was about to gift you everything we could have wanted. Seven more years, Gage. With the peace we brought to the Factions, we could have bought seven more decades. You and I could have held onto our family, onto each other, spared the world, our children, ourselves the pain of this wretched separation. From the moment I met you that day back in the bowling alley, you were nothing but kind to me. Not once since I’ve known you have you displayed this level of disdain for anyone. I have never seen your beautiful blue eyes with so much malice in them as they hold for me. Not even for Chloe.” Her name chokes from my throat. “You have a pure heart—a soul as bright as the sun. Your love for me was unshakable, unrelenting, immoveable, and as expansive as the east is from the west. There was nothing you wouldn’t do for me, not one person you wouldn’t have burned to the ground to protect our love. You have challenged my sanity in destructive ways that I cannot measure. The sheer ferocity of your cold heart makes me doubt I ever knew you. What an actor you’ve been all along. A rabid wolf in the best sheep finery.” My fingers graze over his arm and a spark enlivens in me. But I retract. Gage Oliver is no longer mine to do anything with, let alone lay my hand to.

  His dimples dig in deep as he takes his next breath. Those cobalt eyes make their way back to me.

  “Feel better?” It comes out sweetly, tender as if I had just finished vomiting my guts up and he were trying to comfort me, make things better at any cost.