“Okay, who cares? I don’t give a shit about their relationship.” She grips me by the shirt and curls into me. “I care about us. You and me, Gage. I’ve given you time. By anyone’s standards, I’ve been more than patient. It’s time we start acting like husband and wife. You married me. Our one-year anniversary is coming up, and we’ve yet to sleep together outside of our wedding night. What in the hell?” Her voice hitches up a notch. Her eyes are dark and cold. “I can only deal with so much. You can have me, Gage. All of me. I will do whatever you want. No limits. You can be as rough and aggressive as you like. I know you’re frustrated. I know you needed time to heal from Skyla. But she’s moved on, and so have you. That day in the throne room—you made your choice. You could have had Skyla forever, but you chose me. And believe me, I have not even tried to analyze that one.” A dark, husky laugh brews in her chest, and it sounds like a threat. “Gage, I turned my back on my people for you. I built a family with you. We share a daughter. Mally is our child just as much as I am your wife. Whatever hang-ups you have about the past, it’s time to let them go. I’m here. I’m your wife. Let me love you with my body. You know how this works. This isn’t your first rodeo. And don’t for a minute try to tell me you’re not into sex. I know for a fact Messenger was getting plenty.” She tips her head back and sniffs the air hard, her eyes never leaving mine. “I’m not dragging you to some human psychologist. You don’t need a doctor to help you get it up. You need to be a man and move past the hurt. You need to accept the decisions you made. You need to give me your body. Right now.” Chloe swings her hair side to side, slowly as if it were all a part of her seduction routine. “I don’t like you sulking night after night in this ode to your ex. It’s not healthy. That’s why Lex is coming by in a few hours. I’m dismantling the butterfly room.”
She glances at the blue winged creatures, and they scatter in fear to the four corners of the room.
“I’m turning it into a playroom for the kids.” She sighs. “You have a bedroom, a bed. You belong right next to me, Gage. Today is the day we’re turning this train around, and we’re starting right now.”
She cups my hands and bears hard into my eyes. “And now, you’re going to kiss me like you mean it.”
This is it. Do or die. I’m about to test the limits of Chloe Bishop’s resolve, and my stellar intuition tells me I will not care for where this is about to lead.
I have options, though. Kiss her. Satiate her every sexual need. Think of it as something perfunctory, something that needs to happen to keep the body going like breathing, eating a meal, or defecating.
Her lips meet with mine and I inch back a notch.
This isn’t happening.
For reasons unknown to me, I could freely fuck Rory into oblivion. But with Chloe, it would be like stabbing a dagger into Skyla’s soul. Yes, Rory is not a great choice either. Skyla would not be amused in the least. But with Rory there is something of Skyla’s she could offer me. I drifted away from perfection a hell of a long time ago. But with Chloe, that would be sinking far below the bottom rung. It’s bad enough I want Skyla to think I’ve settled there long ago. It would be hell for me to actually do that to her.
Some marriages don’t work out. Maybe a big fat divorce is what’s in the cards for Chloe and me. I needed Chloe to spur Skyla on—the stone in which Skyla could sharpen her fury, fight for what’s right when it comes to her people. What would happen if Chloe and I fell apart?
“I need to think about things.” I stand up and spill her out of my lap as I head out the door, but Chloe dashes down the stairs right next to me.
“You’re not going anywhere,” she riots as I snatch the keys to my truck off the table.
“I’ll be back. I’ll bring breakfast. I just need some fresh air. Last night was trying.”
“The hell it was,” she shouts, her bare chest bouncing and rippling along with her anger.
I can hear my mother stirring down the hall.
“Keep it down,” I whisper. “The baby is sleeping. I said I’d be back.”
I turn to leave, and she employs her Celestra strength to spin me back around.
My mother traipses down the hall.
“What’s going on? Is everything all right?” She steps into the kitchen, takes one look at Chloe’s naked frame, and recoils. “Oh God.” She scuttles back into the hall, but I can feel her lingering there, still waiting for the answers we never gave.
“Get some clothes on. I said I’ll be back,” I roar it out as I speed for the door.
“No! You are my husband, and you will act like it, dammit.” She throws herself over the exit, her chest palpitating with rage.
I simply open the door and head out into the briny fog, taste the salt on my lips, the chilled air in my lungs as if reminding myself I’m still here, alive, fighting for what I believe. And even though people think I’ve become the antithesis of who I once was, it’s not true. I am still exactly the same.
Chloe bolts down the porch and follows me all the way to my truck, giving me a hard shove away from the door.
“You don’t get to walk out on me because you’re afraid to face your fears. Get over yourself, Gage!” Her naked body ripples with rage long after she’s belted the words out. “You owe me, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to make you pay up. Get upstairs right now. I’m not putting up with your shit anymore.”
A couple strides by, walking a dog. They look up with a friendly smile already on their faces right before they go blank and take off in a rush.
“You’re causing a scene, Chloe.”
“I don’t give a shit. I will get in front of your truck. You will have to run me over to get away from me!” she thunders so loud a car alarm goes off down the street. “I have news for you, Gage Oliver. You’re not in the driver’s seat anymore. I am. I’m all done letting you lick your wounds, lick your balls.” A devious smile curves on her lips. “It’s my turn to lick them, Gage. And once you see how happy I can make you, how satisfied you’ll be, only then will you truly be healed. Come upstairs with me. Let me heal you.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I fish it out. It’s a text from Wes.
Did you hear? Shit just hit the fan. I’m coming over.
I glance across the street at his house. I don’t need to add Wes to this circus.
“Fine,” I say to Chloe. “I’m not running you over. I’ll leave on foot. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
I push past Chloe and take off for Wesley’s house.
“Get back here!” Her voice curdles into the sky like a terror. “You don’t get to decide our fate! I do!”
But I keep walking at a quickened clip, my feet deciding their own destiny.
“You’ll regret this!” she screams after me.
Oh, honey, I already do.
27
Wesley
The fog stretches out in billows as I step out onto the porch. I’m about to head across the street when I see Gage striding up my driveway at a quickened clip—Chloe naked in the middle of the street shouting obscenities at him.
“What in the hell did you do now?” I pull him in by the sleeve and yank him into the house. “Don’t answer that. Follow me.” I take us down to the basement. My territory, my expansive office where I replicated that haunted mansion my father gave me in the Transfer. A little piece of home, you might say. But you would be wrong. My home is Laken. Wherever she is, there my home lies.
“Did you see this?” I flip on the television. “Any channel, any time. It’s the same shit on repeat. The talking heads are in the middle of a heated discussion about aliens of all things. That was my strategy!” I belt it out like a reprimand as I look to my brother. “And now they’re using it against us. And who the hell knows how deep this runs.”
“What is this?” He winces at the screen as if it hurt to look at it, and I have a feeling it will.
“That’s right. This is going to hurt Gage. Once you realize the implications, the lasting effec
ts of this little stunt your ex-wife pulled, you might finally yank your head out of your ass and wake up!” I riot the words in his face.
His features harden, and for a brief moment, I gird myself for a fist to the eye.
“Look, I just took a hell of a lot of crap from Chloe. I don’t need it from you, too. Give it to me straight. I don’t have the time or energy to plant myself in front of the television today.”
“What do you think Skyla was doing last night?”
“Giving birth. She and Logan have a brand new baby boy to show for it, Jaxson.”
“Yes, well, it turns out, your ex, like most women, has the ability to pull double duty. You know those Spectators they rounded up last year? Ezrina’s found a way to restore them all.”
You can practically see his stomach bottoming out. Gage looks sickened.
“So we’ve lost the Viden youth, so what?” His eyes expand a notch as if he’s not willing to absorb the impact. I refuse to believe he’s too dense to see it.
An instant rage builds up in me as I pull him in hard by the shirt.
“Don’t you get it? Skyla and Ezrina have taken a weapon right out of our arsenal.”
“The Viden youth was useless to us while they were locked up in Tenebrous.” He pushes me off him, hard.
“Yes, well, it’s worse than that.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re headed home. Skyla had them dropped off in Sedona—at a place known as the Red Rock Vortex. It’s been long believed that it’s been a celestial portal polluted with alien activity.”
His face bleaches white. Gage staggers to the middle of the room as if trying to get his bearings.
“That’s right, brother. She’s not merely freeing the Videns, she’s using them to kick this war into gear. You wanted a fight, and now you’ve got a war on your hands you may never win. I told you not to incite her. Do not underestimate her. And yet you insisted on doing both. Congratulations, Gage. Grab your handbasket. Skyla is about to send us both to hell in grand style.”
“Shit.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “She did this to tip off the government. That must mean—”
“Yes, Gage, it does. Skyla isn’t showing off the fact they’re able to restore a bunch of teenagers we hoped would give us the advantage. She’s shouting from the mountaintop that they’re able to hide the markers.”
His eyes flit to mine. “Where do we stand with the endeavor?”
“We haven’t progressed. I’m not even close to getting the markers to disappear for twenty-four hours. By a week’s end the effects have fully faded.”
He glances to the ground. “Skyla must have a permanent solution then.”
“Or one that lasts long enough to require a revaccination every now and again. I have never believed I could find a way that would hide them forever. We have a real problem on our hands, Gage. A problem we wouldn’t have had if you didn’t insist on making her so damn desperate. You could have come at this another way. You could have stayed with Skyla. That baby boy? He could have been yours. She wanted it. You wanted it. But because of your allegiance to her people—and don’t sugarcoat it for me, sweetheart—you don’t have the heart to have Skyla give up hope on all her Faction dreams. Skyla would have caved. She would have been one of us. You could have made her believe you were fighting for the good of all the people. You could have brought unification to the Factions.”
“It would have been a lie.”
“Well, now you have the truth, don’t you? And if you don’t understand it now, don’t worry, brother. You will have an eternity in hell to mull it over. Your undying affection for her has cost me everything. Get out of my house,” I seethe. “We’ll come together when and if I ever cool the hell off.”
Gage speeds past me, past Laken who’s striding into the room.
“Gage?” she calls out as she makes her way to me. “Is everything okay? What is this on the news about aliens? Have you and Gage done this? What does it mean for the Barricade?”
I speed over and wrap my arms around her tightly, bury my face in her hair a moment, wishing to God the entire world would just go away.
“It’s Skyla. She’s put every Faction in jeopardy with this stunt she pulled last night.”
“What?” Her eyes search the room as if trying to piece this together herself. “Skyla cares about every Faction member. Why would she do this? Why would she lay us all out for the government to see?”
“Because she has the ability to hide the markers. And”—I close my eyes a moment because I will hate every word I’m about to utter—“she wants every member of every Faction she lost to come crawling back to her.”
Her hands land against my chest as she pushes away ever so slightly.
“Because you can’t protect them.” Her watery eyes meet with mine. “Wes, maybe it’s time to unite the Factions. I can’t for the life of me figure out what keeps us apart other than the fact both Gage and Skyla want to rule. Let them rule—together. Who the hell cares? The safety of our people is all that matters.”
“Yes, you’re right. But it doesn’t work that way, Laken. You don’t understand. It’s deeper than that. There are consequences that I don’t want to think about if Skyla’s position among the Factions is restored. I cannot let her strong-arm our people into siding with her out of fear.”
A dull laugh bounces through her. “Wes, that’s exactly what you’ve been doing all along. And don’t tell me it’s any different. Work with Skyla. Make her see that we are one people. Make me see that you care more about the Faction members than you do about holding onto some supreme position you and your brother have garnered for yourselves.”
Laken trembles in my arms, her eyes sparkling with tears. I swallow hard as I take up her hands.
“Laken, you have to know how much I love you. How I would never let anyone or anything stand in our way.”
Her eyes harden over mine, and a chill rides down my spine right to my very soul.
“Oh, I know, Wes. I know exactly how much you love me. But do you know how much I love you? If you did, you wouldn’t work so hard to move things around behind the scenes. You don’t have to fear me leaving you, Wes.” She takes a full step back, taking her hands from mine. “We need to have a talk. Not now with you all worked up over everything happening with the Factions. Wes, this is your moment to do what’s right. Don’t retaliate against Skyla and hurt more people in the process. Come together with her. It’s time to put petty leadership differences aside and do so for the greater good for all. Wes, you have no other choice.”
I shake my head. “You’re wrong, Laken. You have no idea how wrong you are. Please”—I bury a kiss in her hair—“trust me on this.”
Her powder blue eyes press into mine, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say they didn’t trust me in the least.
I speed past her.
“Where are you going?” she calls after me.
“Eversor. I love you, Laken,” I roar it out like the battle cry it is.
Yes, I do love Laken, and that’s exactly why Skyla will never sit on that throne again.
But I love the Barricade, too. I’ve always believed we could do things far better for the Factions. And once I get those damn markers covered, everyone else will think so, too.
But for now, there’s only one way to fix this.
Whoever sides with Skyla dies.
There is no other way.
28
Logan
They say everyone has a breaking point—to each human heart its own elasticity. The line moves a little farther out with each passing horror.
And that has certainly been true for Skyla and me. We’ve been together, separated, dead, on top, on the bottom, tied up, walking through a wall of fire, and submerged with no oxygen left for us to breathe. Something tells me that we’re about to be stretched to capacity once again—and this, on the heels of one of the most precious moments of our lives.
It's November fifteenth. Jaxs
on is two precious weeks old today. And as much as Skyla and I don’t want to do it, we need to leave him for a short while tonight to meet with Faction members for a briefing. To say the shit has hit the fan would be an understatement.
Neither Gage nor Wes has breathed a word to Skyla or me after our hostile attack on the Barricade.
Nothing. Not one word.
Faction members who drained from Celestra and dove headfirst for cover with the Barricade are quickly jumping ship and returning to where they truly belong. Word on the celestial street is that Wes claims he has a serum to hide the markers as well, but he’s not coughing it up. People are getting nervous. People are quickly catching onto his lying, scheming ways.
Yes. Wesley and Gage are running scared—and that might very well be what we’re celebrating tonight, but my gut says there’s nothing more dangerous than a frightened pair of wicked brothers, especially when one of them isn’t willing to give up his crown. Nope. This may not be the right time to celebrate. But to hell with it—we’re going to do it anyway.
Skyla and I get ready for the night, keeping it casual, but in truth, it feels like prom all over again.
“Logan Oliver,” she pants as we head down the stairs and she pulls me into the foyer before we hit the nerve center of the Landon house. Her eyes ride up and down my body. “If I wasn’t taking a medical leave of absence from our sex life, I think we’d make another baby tonight.”
Ezrina asked her to abstain for a bit even though her Celestra abilities quickened her healing.
A dark laugh rumbles through my chest as I wrap my arms around her. “Rumor has it, we’re getting married in under a month. Maybe we’ll make a baby on our wedding night.”
“Now that would be a wedding keepsake of a lifetime. But we might have to live at the Landon house forever because there’s no way we could handle four kids under the age of five all by our lonesome. In fact, if it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be able to shower as it is.”
All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After Book 6) Page 58
