In the evening, just as Nathan is coming out of his drugged stupor, a social worker interviews both Gage and me separately before calling us together into the hall. Her name is Susan Haskell, short pixie cut with coffee-colored eyes that look as if they’re kind enough if you’re on the right side of the law. And at the moment, I’m not sure if I am. Hell, I know I’m not.
“Skyla”—she reads my name off her notes as if I didn’t just repeat it a dozen times—“I’ll be stopping by the house tomorrow to evaluate the environment. Will there be someone home to let me in?”
My heart sinks as all the Landon madness flashes through my mind at once. That tiny room of mine with no space to move. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but is it illegal? My God, what a horrific can of worms. That burning ache in the pit of my stomach makes me wonder if this will ever be over.
“Yes, someone will undoubtedly be home.”
“Good. If for whatever reason I feel there is cause for concern, I’ll be visiting your home, Gage. Will there be someone available to walk me through it?”
“My mother or my wife will be there.”
Knife in the gut. It never gets easier to hear that.
Logan picks up my hand and gives it a squeeze. I’m sorry.
I nod, acknowledging this. I’m sorry, too. More than anyone can ever know.
“Very well.” She snaps her book closed and tucks it into her briefcase. “Unfortunately, the sheriff’s department will have to take a statement from each of you. I believe there was an illegal substance at play. We’ll pair our findings and you’ll be apprised all along the way.”
She takes off and I look to Gage with the fear of God in my eyes.
“Please don’t take my babies.” The words come out low as I plead for my life.
Logan’s chest expands as he pulls me close. “He wouldn’t do that.”
Gage twists his lips as he watches Chloe head this way with a hand on her belly. Not only will she have her own child with Gage, but she might just get mine, too.
“It’s not up to me,” he says. “We’ll be lucky if we both don’t lose them.”
Chloe glides an arm around his waist, all of her wrath pouring out in my direction.
“Are you happy, Skyla? You wanted me dead, and now the only one who’s suffering is our baby boy.”
My stomach gives another violent twist.
Chloe steps in. “All you think about is yourself. Your husband, your revenge, your wounded ego. That’s exactly why the Factions are hurting. That’s why Gage left you to begin with. You only think about what’s best for you—what fits into your agenda.”
Gage’s jaw clenches. “That’s enough.”
But Chloe holds a hand up dismissively to her new spouse.
“You have zero regard for the safety of others. That’s why our people are draining from under you. That’s why Gage took off for greener pastures, and that’s why your baby boy was almost fitted for a coffin.”
“Chloe!” Logan barks.
My stomach pulsates once, hard, and I purge everything I’ve eaten in the last twenty-four hours at her feet. Logan shouts something at Chloe, at Gage, but I’m too lost in my bodily convulsions to pay attention.
Both Gage and I spend the night in the tiny room they place Nathan in. Right in front of the nurses’ station. They wouldn’t let Logan stay past visiting hours. I’m sick all night, vomiting, assuring the staff it’s just nerves. They test me for the flu, and thankfully, there’s no sign of it. Gage and I stay three long days, two solid nights just feet apart, acting like strangers. It’s as if he’s afraid to let his guard down with me anymore—afraid to reminisce about who we were for even a moment. The old us is dead to him.
On the third day, Ms. Susan Haskell lets us know that my home was found lacking. An unfitting environment for the boys to thrive in. They can stay with their father until I can provide proper accommodations for them. She gives me her card and says she’ll touch base in a week. Logan whispers in my ear that we can move into Whitehorse, all will be well.
“I don’t want to be without the boys,” I say it to Gage once she’s out of the room. Chloe gloats by his side as if this were a victory she’s wanted from the beginning.
“They’ll be fine, Skyla,” she assures me. “In fact, I’ve gone to Cost Club anticipating this very thing. I’ve bought all of their favorite foods and fresh, organic fruit. Em says she’ll come over and teach me to cook a few basic meals. Wes says I can have Tobie for a few nights. It will be fun, like a sleepover. You go ahead and relax. Catch up on some sleep. You might even like the arrangement. You and Logan can have that honeymoon you never finished. Gage and I will take excellent care of our children.”
“No.” The word rips from me, violent and jagged. “They didn’t say anything about me not being able to be near my children. If the boys are spending the night at your house”—I take a deep breath—“then so am I.”
To say the last few days with Nathan in the hospital have been a living hell is putting it lightly, but as I packed my things, the boys’ things, to head to Gage’s house, my house that he’s yet to buy me out of, it feels as if I’ve slipped down into another level of psychological torture.
Welcome to hell, where I will have to witness Gage and Chloe living it up as husband and wifey, trotting off to bed in the room that I once shared with my husband, to a home that I lovingly hand selected each and every fixture, the flooring, the wall colors, how I begged, borrowed, and stole my then husband’s sanity for those pricy appliances.
It’s all Chloe’s now.
The house.
The husband.
And now you can add my boys to that list. Neither Nathan nor Barron is allowed back in the Landon house until we pass inspection. The earliest they’re able to come out is next week, which means seven full days of pure unadulterated hell. I had thought about asking Gage to have the boys stay with Emma, but Emma would never let me under her roof—not at this insane juncture of my life anyway. And Chloe—well, she’s all too eager to show off her brand new life to me. I suspect the consistent vomiting I’ve been subjected to over the last few days won’t be letting up any time soon.
Logan blows out a breath as we stare at the bright red door. It was my idea, a cute one at the time. I’ve always loved a good red door. It looked friendly and homey, but right about now it just looks angry—a harbinger of very bad things to come.
The door swings open before we can knock and Gage stands there with a limp Nathan in his arms.
“Mommy!” My baby garbles it out through tears as I scoop him into my arms.
“It’s okay, sweetie. Mommy is here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Barron runs up with a miniature fire truck in his hand and lifts it to his brother.
“Natey, look! Fire fuck!”
None of us correct him and none of us laugh. We’ve entered a brand new hell and laughter is the furthest from our minds.
Logan picks him up as we head to the living room and make our way to the couch.
Chloe shuffles in on Gage’s heels. She’s donned a light pink dress and has an honest to God frilly white apron tied around her bulging waist.
“Welcome to our home! Mi casa es su casa!” she sings.
“This is mi casa, Chloe,” I can’t help but snipe.
“Not for long.” She looks to Gage. “We’re currently speaking with a real estate attorney on how to get out of this mess.”
“Enough,” Gage thunders it out low as not to arouse the boys before taking a seat on the coffee table directly across from Logan and me. The old Gage would have done that just to be as close to us as possible. He loved us insatiably. This new version, not so much.
His lips tug downward as if he were about to lose his temper. His eyes are bloodshot, most likely from lack of sleep, his face stone-cold as if he’s never felt a happy emotion before in his life. This is the new Gage, heartless, self-absorbed, living it up in my house with my kids, with my nemesis. Everything about Gage Oliver has
morphed into one giant FU to me and everything I thought we ever had.
“I’ve fed them both,” he whispers it low like a secret, as if Chloe were an intruder in our midst and he didn’t want to include her in any part of our conversation. I like my theory. Sometimes the lies we feed ourselves are the sweetest. “Nathan only had a few bites, but I’m keeping his fluids up and that’s what the nurse said would be the most important.”
“Good.” I press a soft kiss to the back of Nathan’s head. “I’ll be sleeping in the boys’ room tonight.”
Logan nods. “And the couch is fine for me.”
“Heavens no!” Chloe is quick to interfere. “I have the guest room fixed up for you. We can make a big giant sleepover out of this. I’ve pulled out card games. We can watch movies. I’m catering in Chinese tonight and I think we have a bottle of Sake somewhere in the fridge. Skyla, wait until you see how much fun it will be to have a real couple’s night with Gage and me. And now that you and Logan are officially together, what better time to take it for a test run?”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at the stupidity before me. “I’m not here on some prolonged—unavoidable double date, Chloe. This is no social visit. I’m here to comfort my children, which is something you know nothing about.”
She scoffs as she pats her blooming belly. “I may not have been a perfect mother to Tobie, but this new baby inside of me has made a changed woman of me. There will be no child on earth loved more than this one.” Nathan moans into my neck as her eyes set wide. “Except for our boys, Gage. I do love my stepsons as if they were my own.”
I can’t help but grunt, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Logan nods over to Gage. “While we’re forcibly conjoined at the hips, why don’t you look me in the eye and tell me you had nothing to do with those thirty missing Celestra ending up on Raven’s Eye.”
Gage comes just shy of winking, a twitch that used to take over when he was suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “Not quite.” He looks to me. “I meant to kill them.”
My heart cinches. “I guess you went with a fate worse than death.”
Gage blows out a hard breath as if he were hard pressed. “No, Skyla. I didn’t.” He needles me with those cobalt eyes that once softened at the sight of me. “I wanted them hurt in a far more traditional sense—and that is the truth.”
A dry laugh pumps from me. “It begs the question, why did you want them hurt, Gage? Did they personally offend you? Is it not enough that you robbed me of my celestial standing? That you upended the very people you swore to me you’d protect? It doesn’t make sense. And in that sense you are very consistent.”
Gage glances back at Chloe before he settles his elbows over his knees. He’s so close I can feel the rhythm of his breathing heating up my knees.
“I will tell you.” He looks from Logan to me. His lips knot up the way they tend to do when he’s fighting mad. “Because I want you to focus on the Factions.”
Logan and I exchange a quick glance. I look up at Chloe and she looks equally baffled.
Barron kicks his way off the couch. “Natey and me going watch cartoons.”
Chloe is quick to mobilize and switch on the television—ever the doting evil stepmother—while Barron shouts at her to turn the channel.
“Gage”—his name comes from my lips sharp like a reprimand—“I am focused on the Factions. I am trying to protect the Factions from you, in fact. But in case I’m missing it—” Nathan perks to life and joins Barron on the floor in front of the television. I lean in toward this menace who once held my heart so completely. “What in the hell do you think I’m focused on?”
Gage glances to Logan for a moment. “Him.” He bears all of his anger into me through those stern, hateful eyes.
“Knew it,” I hiss. “Hear that, Chloe?” I glance to the witch. “Your husband can’t handle the fact I have someone else in my life. If he truly loved you, he wouldn’t care if I was with the mailman.”
Logan grunts, “You stole people’s lives because you’re angry that Skyla and I are spending time together?” The muscles in his jaw pop and I’m half-afraid I’m going to have to break up a fistfight.
Chloe scoffs as she looks to Gage. “That’s not true. Every move Gage makes in this war is calculated to help the Barricade.”
“The Barricade is winning, Chloe,” I hiss. “This was extracurricular bull that didn’t need to happen. Celestra’s numbers are so small, there isn’t a threat in the world we pose to your husband or the Barricade.” I pin my hostile gaze to his once again. “You know that I slept with Logan.” It comes out incredulous with a laugh buried in my throat. “My God, I don’t know how I didn’t see this before. This was straight-up retribution for the night I spent in Logan’s arms.” The words escape from me numbly as another far more horrific thought enters my mind. “You watched,” I whisper as the room stills strangely around us. “You saw us, didn’t you?”
Gage drops his gaze to the floor before glowering at the two of us again.
“Shit,” Logan hisses, I can practically feel the steam emanating off him. “Are you kidding me? Do you know the hell I went through when I knew that you were loving Skyla in the way that I wanted to? I didn’t choose to die, Gage. In case you’ve forgotten, your wife cut my head off in the first Faction war we were in. And then, I had to sit back and watch you paw all over my wife—and like it or not, I had to enjoy the show. I was civil. I was encouraging. I wanted you to keep your family intact long after I received breath in my lungs once again. I never set out to end you. But in retrospect, maybe I should have. You left Skyla for Chloe. You let her go. She is a free agent, and you or your temper has no say in who she’s with.”
“Gage?” Chloe’s voice sounds like an annoying squeak you’d want to power wash with oil, or in this case gasoline and a match. “You didn’t have to do that. You’ve already won.”
There’s an air of surprise in her tone and how I love the fact that we’ve stirred a whole new tension in the room.
Maybe something good will come of us spending copious amounts of time together. Logan and I will get front row seats to Chloe and Gage strangling one another, and knowing Chloe it will get her off just as good as anything that Gage does in the bedroom.
My stomach boils in its own acid and I run for the restroom, vomiting into the toilet before I ever get a chance to shut the door. Chloe shouts and curses up a storm—something to do with the fact my puking is making her have to puke. Nice. We will puke our way through this forced internment. That sounds about right. I clean myself up and Logan brings me a cold glass of water and wraps an arm around my shoulders as I try to decompress.
Logan looks to Gage while Gage studies us from the hall as if he were a scientist observing alien creatures for the very first time.
Logan sighs. “I think we’ll take the matter to the Justice Alliance.”
“It won’t fly.” The words speed out of Gage’s mouth as if he were resigned to it. “It’s war. I conferred with my council. We were all in agreement.”
I narrow my gaze in on him, turning the tables and studying him with suspicion.
“Was Wes in agreement?” I ask. “Because honestly, this level of wickedness doesn’t reek of Wesley.”
Gage tips his head back and his jaw clenches as if he were forced to digest a hard truth.
Logan shakes his head. “I think that’s a no. You’ve really outdone yourself. Do you know what’s going to happen? Because I do, and I don’t need a crystal ball to finish this story. They’re going to winnow away every detail that’s different about these creatures they think they’ve captured and eventually, perhaps fairly quickly, they will find the markers.”
I gasp as a thought comes to me. “You’ve told them about the markers, didn’t you? You’re close to permanently hiding them, and now you’re ready to feed my people to the feds. Only I’m betting that’s not your end game.”
“Nope.” Logan finished for me because it’s far too easy to see wh
ere this is going. “He wants everyone to surrender to the Barricade.”
“And don’t worry”—an incredulous laugh huffs from me—“as soon as this news spreads like wildfire, and it will, the Factions will bleed out until they’re all united once again—under your wicked leadership.”
Chloe steps back into our midst, her hair pulled up, a swath of fresh peach lipstick on her lips. “What did I miss?”
“The point as usual,” I say. “Chloe, he’s using you. And if you care about Celestra at all, you’ll let the Fem-shaped scales fall from your eyes and realize there will be nothing left of our people. He is burning them down, blowing away the ashes. He knows that as long as he has you on a leash he won’t have you as opposition. Is that what you want, Chloe? To be put on a leash—to watch as your people burn to the ground? Because if it is, and you have lost all heart for your people—once this baby is born, I will leash you. Emerson and I have already discussed the best way to end you. It looks as if my plan is a go. In the event you need a reminder, Emerson is going to eviscerate you and we’re going to strangle you with your own entrails.”
Her eyes widen with horror.
“I have dreamed of killing you myself,” she says almost hypnotically. “I have dreamed of wrapping my hands around your neck, squeezing the life out of you, Skyla. I would lie awake at night and think about how to best position my hands, how to employ every ounce of my Celestra strength. My powers against yours.” She stares vacantly at the wall as the scene plays out in her twisted mind. “You would kick and writhe as you clawed at my hands, eyes bulging, your tongue fat between your teeth. And then you would grow increasingly weaker as the world around you began to fade, until you mercifully passed out. But I’ve done my homework—I’d need to persist. If I let go too soon, you might catch a much-needed breath. No. My determination to snuff the life out of you would be too great. And once I was firmly satisfied that your spirit had left your body, only then would my fingers ease their tension. Of course, you would drop to the ground like a dirty rag—I’d step on your neck on my way out the door. And after that, the air in the world would be sweeter, every sound a symphony, every sensation heightened as I walked this Skyla-free planet as if it were a heavenly realm. And it would be.”
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 31
