Kresley and I exchange a quick look. And here I thought Emma and Chloe were BFFs.
Emma sniffs at her daughter-in-law. “I love you both equally.” She sharpens her eyes over Chloe. “You just take it easy, little miss. You’ve had a very big day and that baby needs you to get your rest. Off to bed with you.” She winks my way as she and Kresley head for the door.
Kresley leans back to look at me. “The boys loved Eli. They’re going to make great big brothers.”
“That warms my heart to hear,” I say. “Thank you, Kresley.”
They leave and I turn to Chloe with a wicked grin blooming on my lips.
“You heard the witch. Off to bed with you.”
Chloe groans. “Emma can suck it.”
“I guess I missed the memo,” I say. “I didn’t realize Emma treated you like a three-year-old. Is that where I went wrong all these years? Treating you like an equal?”
“We’ll never be equals, Skyla.” She moans even harder. “I’ll always be better than you.” She manufactures a short-lived smile. “Now help me get upstairs. She leans her elbow on the counter and reaches for me with her other hand.
“Why in the hell would I help you?”
“Because you think you’re a good person, Skyla. It strokes your ego knowing you went out of your way for someone, and now you’re going to go out of your way for me.”
“I’m not going out of my way for you, Chloe. You can haul your own fat ass up those stairs. I’m feeding my fat ass more of that cake.”
“Please, you can eat all the placentas you want later. Just help me into my room.”
“It’s my room, Chloe,” I say, snatching a sugar cookie in the shape of a diaper off a half-eaten platter.
Logan pokes his head in through the backslider. “Your mom and Demetri are watching the kids. Gage, Coop, Wes, and I are going to get these gifts to where they need to be. We’re going to head to Whitehorse first. Everything okay in here?”
“Yup. Have fun.” I blow him a kiss as he ducks out.
“Whitehorse, huh?” Chloe lands her other elbow over the granite while panting up a storm, her enormous bulge forces her to straddle her legs just to keep upright.
“That’s where the surplus goes. But I’m having the baby at home.”
“Home? You mean Mommy’s house? Oh, that’s right. She still has her tit in your mouth, too.”
“Isn’t it something that our mothers get along great, and yet you and I have an eternal hatred brewing between us?” I head over to the fridge and pull out one of those pink coconut waters I love. Logan stocked the fridge with them for me because he knew I’d be stuck with the wicked witch all day. I suck half of it down while Chloe moans as if someone’s trying to pluck her eyeteeth out.
“Help me up, Skyla.” Her hand fishes for me and I head over because she’s right. I am nice.
Chloe latches onto me and I help navigate her upstairs, straight to the old bedroom I once shared with Gage. To the bed that we made love on, the furniture I handpicked for the two of us. If only I knew then that it would be Chloe I had chosen it for—that it would be this monster Gage would whisper his sweet nothings to before he fell asleep, I would have chosen a bed of nails.
“Bed of nails?” Chloe scoffs as I usher her into the bedroom. “You do realize I can still hear you when we touch.” She nods to the mattress. “Give me a push.”
She does her best to crawl up and I gladly give her a shove.
A horrid groan comes from her as she clutches her belly.
“Chloe? I think you might be in labor.”
“I think you’re right, Skyla.” She crawls over to the front of the bed on all fours, a vision I won’t be able to unsee. A position I’m sure she’s familiar with. Gage does like his girls on all fours. I’m quick to wipe the memory from me before it has a chance to form.
“This is happening fast,” she pants as she lands with a thud in the center of the bed. “I’ll need Ezrina. She promised me drugs. I left my phone downstairs on the counter.” She gets the words out between grunts. “Oh God, Skyla, this hurts like hell! How in the world did I get myself into this again?” She lets out a blood-curdling scream. “Help me!” She stretches out each word for ten seconds each.
“I left my phone downstairs, too,” I say, backing out of the room, my adrenaline spiking to unsafe levels.
“Come back.” Chloe holds her hand out my way, her eyes glowing with agony. “Please, Skyla. I need you. I need you to get Gage and stay with me until he gets here. I can’t take the pain. Get Marshall. He can take the edge off until Ezrina arrives. But call Ezrina first!” she shouts as I get to the door.
“I will.” Not.
I slam the door and lay my body over the other side of it for a moment, my heart pulsating in my ears. This is it. Chloe and Gage are about to build their family, and it crushes my heart to think about it.
“Skyla! Hurry!” Chloe thunders and rattles the walls with her misery.
A part of me knows that I should have mercy and get Ezrina here asap. And yet a very petty part of me realizes this baby will take hours if not days to arrive. Why not give Chloe what she deserves? An unmedicated, solitary birthing experience.
They say you can tell a lot about a person when they are faced with extraordinary circumstances. The last time Chloe and I crossed this bridge, I bit the bullet and helped bring October Edinger into this world.
Chloe roars from the other side of the door as if the hounds of hell were trying to usher her home.
I could call Ezrina right now.
Or I can be petty.
I choose petty.
Evening falls hard. The evergreens crouch in as the fog begins to walk along the ground. All of the pink papery flowers have blown off the bougainvillea climbing along the outside of the slider leading into my old home. It looks like an overgrown briar patch, dangerous with its two-inch thorns, its menacing sprawl. Its branches wave in the wind like skeletal arms trying their best to snatch you.
Logan texted and let me know that Wes challenged them to a game of pool. Wesley put in a game room to end all game rooms a few weeks back. Laken told me all about how much Wesley loves his toys. I wanted to point out that she was one of his favorite toys, but thought better of it. We’re both hormonal and I’d hate for a sarcastic quip to lead to World War III.
But alas, Laken is a toy to Wes. He has proven that time and time again.
Anyway, I told Logan to have at it. To take his time. That I was actually having a good time with the boys in the Tad-free environment.
I spend the next few hours out back just shooting the breeze with my mother and Demetri while enough kids to comprise a preschool jump their hearts out in the bounce house. Funny how neither my mother nor Demetri found my behavior odd. Under any other circumstances I would never carry on an endless conversation with Demetri about the finer points of growing up Nephilim. But as luck, or my celestial mother’s twisted brand of fate would have it, all of the children in the bounce house are not only Nephilim, but a majority of them live under the Landon roof.
Mom shivers as she rubs her bare arms. “It’s getting late. There’s a chill in the air. It looks as if we’ll have an early autumn. But what a spectacular sunny day we had!”
I can’t help but make a face at the monster before me. “We had a spectacular day because someone put in an order for sunshine.”
Mom coos at him and gives his cheek a pinch. “You really are a prince, Demetri. Is there anything you won’t do for us?”
“I’d give you the moon—all you need to do is ask.”
He pulls off the jacket to his suit and wraps my mother in its hellish warmth.
My mother executes a series of lusty moans as she tap-dances in her heated bliss.
Figures. Demetri would disband the solar system for this woman—or so he says—and yet he willingly sends her daughter’s people to hell in a handbasket. But then, I’m technically not blood-related to her and my mother is a Count. I’m sure that p
leases Demetri to no end.
And, of course, the piece de résistance is that my mother has decided not to pick a side because she loves both Gage and me so much.
I call bullshit.
I wonder what she’ll do once I have the ability to hide the markers? A part of me wonders what would happen to Demetri if the feds caught up with him. But knowing that celestial weasel, he would dematerialize in a puff of smoke, thus threatening all of Nephilim-kind even further. He’s that much of a coward.
The backslider door growls open to the rear of the house and my heart lurches. I glance back, half-expecting to see Chloe waddling out wielding a machete my way. But it’s not Chloe, or Gage for that matter, with a fresh placenta in his hand ready to bury along with some green sapling. It’s Ezrina.
She lifts her chin my way. “It is done.”
“What’s done?” My adrenaline kicks in with all the possibilities. My God, Chloe could have died, and a very nasty part of me thinks that would be fantastic.
Mom scoffs. “She probably means dinner. Speaking of which, I promised Tad I’d bring home leftovers. Demetri, would you be my love and help me herd the kids into my minivan? I’ll grab the trays I’ve already loaded up in the kitchen.”
A normal person would have said “would you be a love,” but my mother got right to the point, didn’t she?
The kids march out in a single file line and I kiss each of the boys and tell them to be good for Mee-maw.
“Mom, I’m going to help Chloe clean up around here. I’ll be right on your tail and in time to give the boys a bath,” I say as I head over to Ezrina. She’s just standing there in the murky light, her hands spread out past her thighs as if she were soaking wet. “Ezrina, what are you doing here?” I feign surprise but hell, I am surprised to see her. Chloe must have slithered down the stairs like an octopus and gotten ahold of her phone.
My eyes snag on the red stains running up both of Ezrina’s arms.
“She had the baby?” It comes out breathless.
“That she did.” She narrows those beady eyes my way. “You were there, remember?”
“What?”
She treks off to the garden hose and rinses herself off into Chloe’s planter box.
“What did she have?” My heart palpitates wildly. A bite of emotion hits me hard like a boulder crushing my chest. Gage and Chloe have a child. It’s real. The nightmare has fully formed and come to life.
Could I love this baby the way I love Tobie? I don’t even view Tobie as Chloe’s. I view her as mine.
“Skyla?” Ezrina takes a step back and I hadn’t even noticed she moved. “I said come in. She’s calling for you.”
“Who’s calling for me?” A chill rides up my spine.
“Chloe. She’s rather thankful.”
I follow Ezrina into the house just as my mother and her tribe walk out the front door.
Ezrina could be carrying on a full-blown conversation with me, but I wouldn’t hear it due to the roar of adrenaline shooting through me. She picks up Chloe’s phone on the way upstairs and I follow behind, numb with shock.
The light from the master bedroom glows like a beacon and we walk in, greeted by the metallic scent of blood. Chloe sits wrapped in a blanket, cradling a tiny white cloud to her chest. A bowl filled with crimson liquid has the placenta floating in it like a sanguine aquarium.
Ezrina sighs. “Heathcliff is retrieving a cooler.” She hands Chloe her phone, but Chloe’s eyes are pinned to mine.
“Skyla,” Chloe mewls my name. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you. I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t see how I can think another bad thought about you after what you did for me.”
My eyes widen a bit, and this whole scenario feels as if I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Chloe gets right to texting with her free hand.
“Gage is on his way.” She tips her head back with relief. “Do you want to see her?”
Her.
It’s as if Chloe struck me over the head with a flat-nosed shovel.
Chloe gave Gage a daughter. The one thing my body tried to give him and failed. In truth, I failed in every way with Gage. Tears come to my eyes and mercifully blur the world. My feet stumble blindly toward the bed as Chloe holds the tiny bundle my way.
“Take her, Skyla. Yours was the first face she saw.”
“It was?”
“How could it not be?” Chloe strums out a dull laugh. “You pulled her right out of my body. Take her, Skyla. She’s as much yours as she is mine.” There’s a softness to Chloe’s voice as if she actually believes the lies she’s spewing. But Ezrina’s odd behavior comes to mind, and it suddenly feels as if I don’t know which way is up.
I take up the tiny bundle and my heart skips a beat.
“She’s lighter than air,” I marvel as I pull her close and uncover the blanket from her face and my stomach drops at the sight of her.
The door swings open and in speed Wes and Gage with Logan coming in after that and Coop and Laken holding up the rear.
Wes stumbles forward and takes a peek at the bundle, his mouth hardening to stone.
“It’s a girl,” Chloe announces. “Skyla delivered her. Isn’t that wonderful?” She says it slowly and measured as if she were casting a spell. “Gage, we have a daughter.”
Her tiny pink face looks back at me. Light eyes, a thicket of black hair, tiny dimples set in either cheek. I’m sure this is what my precious Sage would have looked like had she been brought to full-term and delivered whole and healthy. And for that matter, I wouldn’t have cared if Chloe Bishop—Oliver, herself had delivered her. I would be elated. No wonder Chloe is living out her delirium, accusing me of things I didn’t do. Whatever drug Ezrina gave her must be powerful.
“Here, Gage.” I bypass Wes and hold out the precious bundle. “Here’s your daughter.” My voice is weak and my eyes remain trained on the tiny angel’s precious face as if it were the last time I would see her.
Gage is slow to take her. His hands look mammoth as they do their best to cradle the newborn babe.
She squirms at his touch and he nearly drops her, and I do my best to act as backup.
“See that?” Chloe beams from her perch on the bed, the comforter pulled up mid-chest. “Skyla won’t let a thing happen to our precious angel.”
His chest expands, no words. I can feel him looking at me, scouring me for something, tears most likely. It seems all Gage likes to see from me these days is pain.
“Skyla”—Logan swoops over and physically removes me from his presence—“you must be exhausted. Let’s get you home.”
Logan is doing his best to end this trauma for me, and I sure as hell appreciate it.
“You can’t go,” Chloe barks it out like a command. “I need a name. Skyla, you’ll have to name her. You named the boys. You’ve named all of Wesley’s children, too. I don’t see why you can’t name this one.”
“No.” I shake my head as if coming to life. “Chloe, that’s for you and Gage to do.”
I give Logan’s hand a squeeze. Take me home.
“Well then”—Chloe grouses—“we’ll name her after her daddy, Gage Chloe Oliver.”
My stomach turns and I think I might be sick. Gage is just one consonant away from Sage. I don’t know how I’ll get through life without weeping each time I see her.
Laken’s eyes meet with mine and she shakes her head frenetically. “No. It’s too close to Sage. Sorry, Skyla, we’re all thinking it.” She cocks her head to the side as she looks to Gage. “Have mercy, please. Name her something else.”
Wesley’s chest bucks. “I agree. Not Gage.”
Gage grunts as he tosses a glance Chloe’s way. First one. No kiss on the lips, no I love you. I guess he is having mercy on me, after all, or at least I’d like to think so.
Gage takes a quick breath as he looks at the baby. “Chloe, name her something else.”
“Skyla, please,” Chloe groans. “You know I’m not good at this. I don’t even care.�
� Chloe catches herself and straightens as she looks to Gage. “All I care about is that she’s here and healthy. Skyla counted out her fingers and her toes the moment she delivered her. She even said a blessing over her before she patted her on the bottom. Wait until you hear her little cry, Gage. She sounds like a lamb bleating.” That’s exactly what the boys sounded like. “Our destiny has finally been achieved. We are a true family, Gage, just the way it was set out to be in the beginning. Name her, Skyla. My ass is on fire. Ezrina, hand me an ice pack, please.”
Wes takes the baby from Gage and rocks her close to his chest. He is such a natural father. Gage looked as if he got stuck holding the hot potato.
“What is it, Skyla?” Wes never takes his eyes off the tiny tot, bringing her close and whispering right over her lips. “What’s this beautiful princess’ name?”
I sigh at Logan and shake my head. “I don’t know. You can name her after the month she was born in like you did Tobie. How about Augusta?” It sounds foreign on my lips.
Chloe scoffs. “I don’t want to call her Gusty. Try again.”
Ezrina scuttles in with an ice pack and Chloe is quick to dip it under the comforter as she sighs with relief.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Chloe moans as if she were about to vomit. “Name the baby, Skyla, so Gage and I can get naked and hold her.”
My own baby leaps in my stomach as if she were laughing, and an idea comes to me.
“Celestra,” I say, my eyes widening as I take in their faces.
“Skyla”—Logan gives my fingers a tug—“that’s a name we were tossing around,” he says it low, but just loud enough to make his point known to everyone in the room.
“You can call her Celeste,” I say to Chloe, still working on the sale. Gage will be destroying the very same people who gave his precious daughter her moniker. It’s poetic gold.
“No.” Chloe shoots it down. “It offends my husband. I can tell by the way his brows pinch together.”
Something I suppose she’s used to doing herself. But I don’t think Gage was offended.
“No.” Gage’s voice is hoarse. “It’s a beautiful name.” He locks eyes with Logan for a moment. “Save it for yourselves.”
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 44
