“Merry Christmas, Skyla. I left the gifts for you and the boys at Barron’s.” He pulls back with that sad film over his features, the one he mastered not long after we met. “I’m hoping you’ll stop bytomorrow.”
“We won’t be able to make it.”Ever again, I want to add, but I know that’s nottrue.
Skyla.His lids lower, and that eerie iridescent light emanating from him seems to dim with disappointment. His thoughts press on, but I’m only able to grasp every third word,sorry, Gage,listen.
I shake my head, trying hard to hang onto the powers that bearing the twins afforded me, but those seem to be fading like the many other things in mylife.
“It’s not working. I can’t read your mind unless I touch you,” I muse, perusing the room as my sisters pass around the eggnog on trays. Both Mia and Melissa have donned sexy elf costumes, complete with pointy green stilettos. Emma’s obnoxious laughter lights up the room, and with the dizzying array of Christmas carols blasting from the boom box in the corner, I’m surprised the twins aren’t screaming hara-kiri bynow.
Logan presses out a cool smile. “Then we’ll have to go back to touching.” He wastes no time in threading our fingers together. His amber eyes bear hard into mine, and a spear of heat expands the length of my stomach.Skyla Laurel Messenger—Oliver. His smile stretches just enough, but that pained look takes over his features.Talk to Gage. Don’t drag this out. You and I both know you’ll regret losing a single moment withhim.
I pull my hand free and smirk. “I should have known it was going to be an infomercial for the dark side. You shouldn’t go so thick on the propaganda. It’s not a becoming look on you. He’s abandoned your people,too.”
Before he can put in a rebuttal, Michelle Miller hops over in her sky-high FMs with Liam by her side, and we exchange the necessary holiday niceties. Michelle is a dark-haired beauty that has always reminded me a little of Chloe—deeply tanned skin—super model features, soul as black as night. Okay, so maybe that last descriptor is a little harsh. And Liam, well, he’s just another Marshall knockoff along with Logan andCoop.
Michelle runs a finger along Logan’s cheek, and that rage I’ve been brewing all night long demands to unleash all over her. “A thousand bucks says you and Lex are the next to tie the knot!” She tosses her long curls over her back and cackles up astorm.
“Not this shit again,” I mutter under my breath. And just like that, Chloe pops up as if oncue.
“Skyla is right,” she snarks while standing shoulder to shoulder with me in a shocking display of solidarity, and every eyebrow in the vicinity goes up, including mine. Crap. I should have gone over the short list of rules with Chloe. The first and most important of them beingact natural. Declaring me right in any matter is a clear telltale sign that all is notrightwith theworld.
Chloe drapes an arm around my shoulder, and I cringe as I glance to Logan. His eyes are the size of soccer balls, because for one, I haven’t bothered to kick the Transfer troll back to thecurb.
“Skyla and Logan were meant for one another.” Chloe preens for my approval, but I can see the devil dancing in her eyes. “Have a little decorum,Shelly.” Chloe glances over her shoulder at Dudley and bites down over her bottom lip seductively as if she were gunning for some of that Clydesdale action tonight. Her deep, black, bordering on auburn hair lies heavy over one eye as she turns back to face her old Bitch Squad recruit. Back in the day, Chloe was the leader of the mean girls at West Paragon High, which included Michelle, Lexy, and Emily. Not much has changed in that respect other than the fact I find Emily livable at best, considering we’re held up under one roof. Plus, Em has mad skills when it comes to all things future. Emily is sort of a heavenly prognosticator, reciting visions from the Almighty Himself, and since most of her visions concerning me are, well,concerning,I tend to keep mydistance.
“Damn right! Brielle pops up from behind and jumps on Chloe’s back, causing her to let out an indelicate oomph. “God, it’s nice to see my besties getting along! What the hell. It’s Christmas,right?”
“Yes, what the hell?” Logan needles me with a private inquisition, but I refuse to go there with my glowing ex-husband. Logan and I were married for the short span of three days. It was bliss, and, as per usual, when I’m in any state of bliss, my mother up above puts the kibosh on that goodtime.
Chloe wraps an arm around me, and I can feel Logan stilling, reasoning whether or not I’ll be in need of some serious help momentarily. I might be, but at this point I’m so wrapped up in rage I can most definitely takeher.
“Skyla and I are working on rebuilding our relationship,” she mewls, meek and innocent, but I can hear the dark laughter already brewing in her chest. “We’ll be spending much more time together in the future, so you’d better get used to it.” She gifts Logan a sly wink. “Aren’t youlucky?”
Logan opens his mouth as if to say something just as my mother starts in on a howling spree. “Attention!” She claps and stomps her feet. Tad belts out one of his eardrum splitting whistles, and every baby in the room startles to life. I glance over to my own two cherubs, but they’re both knotted up like turtles with their legs tucked underneath them, each fast asleep—one with their grandfather, Barron—one still safely tucked in his father’sarms.
“It’s present time!” Mom calls out. “Let the festivitiesbegin!”
The entire house explodes in a fit of roars and laughter as gifts and wrapping paper alike go flying. I’m sure Emma is having a seizure at the scene. It takes twelve hours to open three gifts at theOlivers’.
I glance down at the small gift bag I’m still holding that Laken picked up for me and hand it toChloe.
“This is for you.” I force a dry smile. “It’s just a little something to brighten yourspirits.”
Chloe wastes no time in dipping her fingers into it and plucking out the amberbottle.
“Chloe”—she plants a kiss over the glass—“my favorite perfume! How did you ever know?” She pulls me into a strong embrace, and it feels strange, traitorous to be touching her this way. Touching Chloe, embracing her in any physical or emotional way wasn’t necessarily a part of our agreement, but for the sake of showmanship and rebuilding what we never really had, I go with it. “I have something for you, too.” She fishes something out of her pocket and places it gingerly in myhand.
“It’s a ring,” I say, surprised as I study it a moment. It looks familiar—platinum or silver I can’t tell. It’s vintage, that’s for sure, but there’s something about that cat’s eye sapphire that graces the top that clings to me like some distant memory long-forgotten—something about the way the precious metal is fashioned into two claws holding the blue heart together, and then it hits me and Igasp.
“Chloe!” I smack her on the arm before trying to stuff the haunted ring back into her hand, but she laughs and pullsaway.
“Now—that’s not how you say thank you, is it,Skyla?”
I pull her in and bury my lips in her ear. “You stole this from that hellion Cassandra? Are you insane? You of all people should know that manipulating the past is a piss-pooridea.”
“Relax.” She pulls back and fluffs my hair with her fingers. “You of all people know that you can’t really change anything.” My heart sinks when she says it because for a time I tried to save my father—the oneshekilled—or instructed Demetri to do so. They’re both guilty in my eyes. “What’s a little petty theft among friends and relations?” She scowls at me a moment, her jowls trembling as if she were rabid. “Relax, Messenger. It was gifted to me, and now I’m gifting it to you.” She trots off toward Demetri, most likely to gloat over her latest acquisition—my assumed friendship. Neither Chloe nor I are in this to rebuild something we’re not really interested in. We both came into our agreement with our own motivations, our own determined will to make it happen. And we will. If anything, Chloe and I share a ripe desperation, something animalistically charged and undeniablypowerful.
I jab the sapphire ring on my right ring finger. It’s not the ring’s fault Chloe has committed an interdimensional robbery. It might as well be cared for andappreciated.
