Roar of the Lion : Celestra Forever After 7

by Addison Moore

  Melissa nods. “She’s practically forcing Logan to play Mr. Mom. And she gave away the twins to that batshit mother-in-law of hers. That’s when you really know Skyla has lost her mind. I can always ask Dominique for some potion that might help. We see all kinds of jacked-up new moms down at the apothecary. Dominique is forever doling out a mixture of herbs and designer teas. You could say it’s her special tea—get it? Special tea?”

  “I get it,” I grunt. “I’ll go talk to her.”

  Both Mia’s and Melissa’s mouths fall open.

  Chloe scoffs. Unless you’re going to dish out some zingers, I suggest you sit this one out.

  A silent laugh bounces through me. Oh, I’ve got a few zingers, Chloe.

  I head on over to this new version of myself. “Hey, Mess,” I say as I plop down on the barstool next to her, and I take her in and drink down my own face in wonder. It has always been a little off-putting seeing Candace Messenger bear my likeness, and, of course, Mia. But for some strange reason, seeing my own face, my own body while outside of my skin makes me feel light-headed. Those features that I had only known by looking in a mirror are now fully alive in three dimensions. My hair has gone full bush. It’s clear Rory doesn’t have a clue on how to deal with my kinky curls. She has an odd amount of makeup on—too much kohl under the eyes and a strange shade of purple lipstick stains my mouth.

  Rory looks over at me, donut in hand, her mouth already opened ready to receive it.

  “Chloe Bishop.” She straightens a notch as her eyes ride up and down my body, and a part of me wonders if the gig is up before it ever began. “I’ve been meaning to have a word with you.”

  “Really?” I ask as I reach for a glazed cruller. These came from the Gas Lab and I’ve lived off them for the last six months. No wonder she’s powering her way through the box. She’s walked right into an addiction. “What about?” I lock my gaze over hers. What in the world would Rory want with Chloe? “I can hardly wait to hear what you have to say.” True as God.

  She gives a quick glance over her shoulder. “I think we should join forces.”

  Chloe groans. Sounds like she didn’t get the memo.

  I nod. “We have joined forces, R—Skyla,” I’m quick to correct myself. “Remember? The night of your birthday party.” It feels foreign saying my own name out loud. Even more foreign doing so while looking at my likeness.

  Her brows pitch. “Oh, that’s right.” She smacks her lips. “But that’s not what I meant.” She leans in. “I’ve always thought we’d make a good alliance. We could lead together, Chloe. Just you and me. We don’t need anybody else.”

  Rory wants Chloe on her team. I’m not too surprised. When Chloe has her eye on the prize, there’s no stopping her. She’s a powerhouse.

  Thanks, Mess.

  “You don’t need me. You have the serum. Focus on making that permanent,” I tell her.

  Rory makes a face, and I can’t help but note it irritates me on some level. Must be the Chloe in me percolating to the annoyed surface.

  Rory shrugs. “Ezrina’s latest dose lasts twice as long as the prior poison. She’s this close to procuring a permanent solution. Not to mention, Wesley is working with her. It’s as good as in the bag.”

  “What about Gage? He’s still a problem for you.” I’m almost afraid to find out what she’s really doing with him—other than bedding him. And dear God, she had better not be bedding him in my body. It’s bad enough she did it with Logan.

  “He’s not letting go of the win.” Her expression sours. “He’s got his place secured in the heavenlies, and he’s made it crystal clear Celestra won’t ever rule again.” She shrugs. “But he’s agreed to let me rule beside him. You know what I mean, that whole king-queen thing.”

  “What?” This is the first I’m hearing of this lunacy. “No, I don’t know what you mean. Skyla, Celestra has to rule. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

  Her eyes sharpen over mine and a breath hitches in my throat at the thought of being discovered for who I truly am.

  “You know”—I clear my throat—“that’s your destiny and all. You were never meant to cede your crown to another. You can’t just roll over and let Gage squat on your throne. We need to knock him off and send him back to paradise where he belongs.” She needs to be sent back, too, but I keep that little tidbit to myself for now.

  She shudders as if I had issued the threat directly to her.

  Her lips curl in a smug little manner that makes me want to smack her—smack myself as it were.

  “Don’t worry about Gage,” she purrs. “I have a special way of taking care of him.”

  She’s screwing him, Chloe is quick to point out.

  I huff at the thought, my eyes never leaving Rory’s.

  “Like that stupid sister of yours took care of him?” I ask with a ripe boldness. “Rory, the little slut, slept with my husband. I want revenge, Messenger. I want to nail that witch to a celestial wall and teach her a lesson.”

  Her eyes flash like white flames.

  Dude, Chloe grunts. I’ll admit, that was a spot-on impersonation, and the exact words I would have uttered, but I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to say them. I get that you’re angry, but the world is already burning. Why dump gasoline onto the flames?

  Why not, I counter.

  Rory lifts her chin a notch. “Don’t worry, Chloe. I’ll take care of my stupid sister.” Her eyes slit to nothing. “But I would caution you against speaking out against her. She is my family, and you are not. Don’t let me hear you utter another wicked word about her, or I will cut out your tongue and shove it down your throat.”

  Great, Chloe growls. Remember what I said about not making any enemies? I’ll deal with Rory on my own, Skyla. For now, I need you to get back on her good side. Aren’t you supposed to be watching her like a hawk? She’s got control over your brats and your people. Play nice and figure out how the hell to get back in that shell of yours. It’s getting crowded in here. You’ve already overstayed your welcome.

  I’m about to respond to the both of them when Bree skips into the room. Her freshly dyed blonde hair is neatly curled, and her face is made up perfectly with a prom-worthy amount of cosmetics.

  “Oh, Bree”—I run over and wrap my arms around her tight—“I’ve missed you. I need you. My God everything is upside down.”

  Messenger, Chloe snaps. Get a freaking grip.

  “Chloe?” She pulls back with a laugh caught in her throat. “A couple weeks without Gage and you’re falling apart?” She lands a crisp slap over my cheek and it stings like shit.

  Emily bops in after her with baby Ella dangling from her boob. Emily’s dark curly hair is knotted up in a bun, and her lily-white skin glows with an inhuman incandescence.

  “Hilarious,” she says without the proper affect to go with it. “Can I give it a go?” She steps in and smacks me across the face as well. “I feel better already.”

  “Come here.” Bree links arms with Em and me and drags us back to Rory. “All right. It looks like all of my friends are out of sorts.” She bumps her hip to Rory’s and Rory glowers at her as if she was about to grab a knife and cut her. “But not to worry because I’ve decided to bump up your bachelorette party, Skyla.”

  “A party?” Rory’s entire face lights up.

  “That’s right.” Bree’s blonde curls bounce around her neck. “You’re not just getting hitched to anyone—you’re getting hitched to Logan Freaking Oliver. Everyone knows he’s the love of your life—the forbidden one, the great tragic love story that almost never was. It’s almost as if fate moved heaven and earth—”

  “Don’t forget time,” I say. “Fate altered time as well.”

  Bree nods. “That’s right. And if that doesn’t scream penis straws and male strip clubs, I don’t know what does.”

  Chloe pretends to gag. Tell Bree, been there, done that. Let’s do something really creative.

  “I agree,” I say before clearing my throat. “Been there, do
ne that. Let’s do something really creative.”

  She looks at me, dumbfounded. “Like what?”

  “Like what?” I meant to say it to Chloe, but it slips out of my mouth.

  Emily sighs. “Like light driving?”

  “No.” Rory looks affronted by the idea. “And no to the vulgarity. I want to have a real party right here at the house with balloons, a frosted cake, a punch bowl, and with all of my friends gathered around to celebrate me.”

  Bree and Em look blankly at her as if she sprouted another head.

  Chloe bursts out laughing. I bet she wants a pony, too.

  “Would you like a pony to go with it?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “Oh yes!” Her entire face lights up.

  Crap. Not only am I dealing with a rogue spirit, but she’s got the maturity level of a three-year-old.

  Bree gives me the side-eye. “Don’t worry, Skyla. We’ll take care of everything. It will be a surprise party. I promise, you are going to have a blast.”

  Is it wrong for me to root for it to be as vulgar as possible? I’d love to see Rory get so worked up in her self-righteousness she’s ejected right out of my skin—literally. Which reminds me, I’ll have to ask Marshall on how to go about jumping back into my skin when the time is right.

  Mom hustles over with Mia and Melissa in tow.

  “Great news!” Her entire face lights up. “Tad just sent me an email. He’ll be home any minute.”

  Tad, my outrageously ridiculous stepfather, was arrested just a little before Gage decided that my stint on this planet as a living, breathing being should come to an end.

  All of last year Tad was suspiciously winning the lottery, different payouts, none too impressively life-changing, but that didn’t stop him from buying every gaudy thing he could get his hands on, like that cheesy gold throne in the corner and the TV that eats up the wall and makes it look as if those weapon-toting zombies in Drake and Ethan’s video games are about to come running right into the room. He also had a diamond glued to his tooth and bought a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair off eBay. It was shocking at how fast he spent far more money than his winnings provided.

  “Did the FTC drop the charges?” I couldn’t help but ask—although judging by the curious looks from everyone around me, I probably shouldn’t have.

  Mom shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s happening. Tad says he’ll explain it all once he gets here. I’d better go freshen up. You don’t think prison has changed him, do you?”

  Mia huffs, “Right. I’m sure he’ll come back rough around the edges from all that hard time served. How will he ever assimilate back into society?”

  Melissa glowers at her. “That’s my dad you’re talking about.” Her lips twitch. “He never did fit into society.”

  The two of them break out into cackles. It’s nice seeing Mia and Melissa finally getting along. Even if they are bonding while disparaging Tad.

  A thought comes to me.

  “Melissa? Please tell me you’re signing up for classes at Host next semester. Now that the money Tad won has flown away like a bat in the night, don’t you want to secure your own future?” Tad’s newfound fortune was the primary reason she was looking to abandon her post at Host University. I went to Host for all of five hot minutes before Gage knocked me up with triplets.

  She scoffs my way. “No, I haven’t. I’m happy working at the apothecary. Dominique is teaching me her weird witchy ways. Soon, I’ll be the one cooking up the potions and lotions with the best of them. She’s not going to live forever, you know, and her kids aren’t interested in taking over the family business. I’m as good as a daughter to her.”

  I’d hate to break it to Melissa, but Dominique has already sort of lived forever. She’s an old soul in a new-to-her body, and that body-snatching game doesn’t seem to know any bounds.

  I take a breath at the thought. Dominique is the one that actually sliced Gage’s head off—the last remnant of the Gage I knew—and sent him packing to the heavenlies. I didn’t know it for almost a year after the fact. Demetri convinced her to do the decapitating deed, and as a payment she received enough cash and prizes from the head Fem to last two lifetimes.

  Dominique and all of her so-called children are really transplants from an era gone by. They cheated death by light driving to the present from their rightful place in the seventeenth century and took possession of the real Winters family as they one by one bit the big one. I’m thinking a homicide or two is to blame for the early evictions of those souls, seeing that most of her kids are in their early twenties like me.

  “Melissa”—a shiny new thought begins to percolate within me—“do you think Dominique could concoct something to take a person to the brink of death? You know, with no lasting effects once the person is revived?”

  Wow, Skyla, Chloe muses. Purchasing something lethal from Dominique Winters, yet again? That worked out so well for you the first time. Maybe this time social services will take the entire tribe of Landon/Oliver children away. You really are going for the gullible gold. And seeing that Gage’s murderous intentions have now been revealed, I bet he’ll help you load up a bunch of arsenic laced PB&J sandwiches to give the little ones. Who knew you’d make such a killer team?

  I grunt, Be quiet, Chloe.

  “Sure.” Melissa shrugs. “Swing by anytime you want and pick your poison.”

  Mia makes a face my way. “Why do you care, Chloe?” She glances to Rory. “It’s a weird world when Skyla starts acting like Chloe, and Chloe starts acting like my sister.”

  Rory snaps her head in my direction, her mouth falling open and I can see her wicked wheels a churnin’.

  Chloe groans. Say something fast, Skyla, something that sounds like me. Leave it to your family to out you. But I don’t blame, Mia. I blame you. Stop being so nice, so concerned. And for God’s sake, when Logan strides into the room with that screaming brat of yours, do not shove him up against my tit.

  Duly noted, I say. But I’m not so sure I mean it. Logan and I decided I should hold Jaxson in the dark so he couldn’t see my face. And that I shouldn’t use my voice either. So far it’s taken the edge off, but that doesn’t help with Nathan and Barron. In fact, I have an idea I’m going to run past Logan when he comes downstairs.

  A ruckus erupts at the front door. The sound of howling and odd little whoops sets both Sprinkles, an adorable scrawny pup, and D-O-G, the mammoth pit bull Mia shares with Rev, barking up a riot. D-O-G actually goes by Bullet as well, and judging by the way he’s bolting to the door, he’s living up to his name.

  Mom gasps, and no sooner does she turn around than both Tad and Demetri enter the room.

  Mom screams as if we were just treated to Tad Landon’s ghost.

  Tad looks like a pudgier, paler version of the man that went into the pokey just a couple of weeks ago, so that whole ghost thing isn’t entirely off the table. His dark hair forms into the Landon-issued widow’s peak, and his eyes are wide open with delight as he struggles to remain standing while my mother freely accosts him.

  And then, just like that, she drops him like a wet rag and leaps onto Demetri with far more sexual zest. Her legs are strapped around his waist, her lips unrelentingly locked over his.

  Wow.

  Lizbeth Landon is a one-woman show today. Boy, does she know which side her financial bread is buttered on. I mean, I know she has a thing for the devil, but must she be so liberal with her affection? If Demetri really wanted my mother, he should have stepped up to the plate right after he killed my father.

  “Dear God, woman,” I bellow. “Control yourself.”

  Bonus points for me for not calling her Mom.

  Logan strides into the room holding a sleepy looking Jaxson, my sweet little lamb, with his sparse blond hair blowing back, soft as feathers, his big eyes trying to make sense of the chaos ensuing around him—something he’ll be doing for the rest of his life with this family, I’m sure.

  “Ooh—” I begin to coo then quickl
y catch myself.

  Retch, Messenger. Make it look real.

  And I do. I retch at the sight of everything happening, and I catch Rory smirking with satisfaction in my direction.

  Honestly, Chloe? I say. It’s exhausting being you.

  “What happened?” Ethan jumps the couch as all the children gather around to watch the spectacle.

  “Tampon’s back!” Misty shouts. With her cobalt eyes and wavy dark hair, she looks as if she might be able to pass as a Landon, but we learned the hard way, she belongs to Demetri. I’ve decided to sweep my mother’s indiscretion under the rug, and I really wish it would stay there.

  “Daddy!” She tugs at Demetri’s leg. “Tampon home now?”

  And there’s that. Misty has taken to calling Demetri Daddy openly. I’m betting there’s no going back.

  “That’s right, sweetheart.” He picks up his mini Fem in female skin. It’s true. Misty looks so much like Gage—like Sage. It makes me yearn for the daughter who loathes me. It certainly makes me yearn for the boys who love me.

  Logan walks over, and Jaxson looks cautiously at me from the safety of his daddy’s shoulder.

  “Chloe,” Logan says it coldly, unfeeling, and something in the pit of my stomach churns. “What are you doing here?”

  Rory jumps up and slings an arm around my shoulders. “She’s here for me, Logan. We’re planning a party. The kind you have before you get married? We’re going to have balloons and a pretty pink cake, and everyone is going to celebrate us. But mostly me.” She bites down on her lip as she gazes upon him. I recognize that lusty look in her eyes. She wants to make another meal out of Logan, and just the thought boils my blood.

  “That’s right,” I snip her way and give her an aggressive shake. “Messenger and I are going to have one hell of a ball. I’ll make sure of that.”

  Tad barks like a seal, assuring the attention of everyone in the room.

  “Listen up, family! I’ve got issues, and they’re far from over. It seems a little governmental agency known as the FTC thinks I’ve rigged my winnings.”

  Gasps abound, and I swear I even heard one from Emily.