“Skyla.” She closes her eyes a moment, dejected as if my own lowly estate were enough to depress her. “Whatever are you doinghere?”
I run up and grip her by the shoulders, that familiar pleasant hum runs through me and soothes me straight to the bone. “I need to get back to Paragon—the feds have taken just about everyone into custody. Everybody is in danger. They have Marshall!” I shake her slightly as if to drive home the point, and her eyes grow wild—so much so that I drop my hands to mysides.
“Sector Dudley can make a mockery of them if he wishes, and he almost always wishes.” She chortles out a laugh as if reliving a memory. “He is a sly one. If anything, I should protect those feds which you speak of, posthaste.” Her lips curve into a nefarious smile before it glides off her face as if it were a cliff. “Why have you summoned me? I was in the middle of teaching Sage the finer points of destiny robbing.” She growls at both Chloe and Kresley. “Some of us here are more familiar with the concept thanothers.”
“That was meant for me.” Chloe’s eyes round out with therevelation.
I scoff at the thought. “She was talking to Kresley. Although she’s hardly robbing Laken of herdestiny.”
My mother pumps a nefarious smile. “Chloe had itright.”
“Knew it. You robbed me!” She glares at my mother as if there would be retribution. Try as she might, Chloe is no match for my mother—a close second, but nomatch.
My mother gives a hard sniff. “It wasn’t you who was robbed.Youwere the thief looking to steal a destiny. You were never in line to receive the celestial adulation your black heart desires,” she snaps before looking to Kresley. “And you—don’t blame others for the misfortune that awaits.I had a better way!” My mother bears in hard, her voice hitting volumes I have never heardbefore.
My heart stills a moment. My mother had a better way for her. It makes me wonder about my own destiny. Here I am sprinting to who knows where—perhaps if I hadn’t taken to rebellion I would have landed where I wanted to be all along—in a betterway.
Kresley steps in with a fury raging from her. “Yourway didn’t include Wesley!” she roars into my mother’s face so loud her hair blowsback.
A choking sound emits from my mother as her hair lights up in a rainbow of citrus hues. She’s on fire right down to the very last follicle. “My, my, someone is feeling rather brave.” She steps in close to Kresley and gives a slight tug at a lock of her hair. “A cheap replica. Is that what you think I’ve decided for you? You are juggling dynamite. You have landed yourself in the perfect storm.” Her eyes flit to mine without a twitch of her head. “You”—there’s an accusatory tone in her voice that I’m not appreciating at the moment—“I charge you with this one. She will try both your patience and your mercy—and perhaps the fabric of your integrity.” Her gaze dips to the floor before she turns fully to face Chloe and me. “Look at the two of you.” She tips her head back as her voice dips to saccharin levels, all of it drenched in sarcasm. My mother hopped up on sarcasm is a very dangerous thing. A dark chortle comes from her because undoubtedly she heard. “Who is writingyourstory?” she purrs as she heads over and runs a cool finger under my chin. “Is doubt creeping into your heart, my love? Has the Celestra spring come crashing down around you so soon?” She looks to Chloe. “Has the victory you sacrificed for eluded youalready?”
I look to Chloe, and my heart thumps hard. Had Chloe been hoping for something outside of ourcovenant?
“Oh yes, you little thing,” my mother sings through a bubbling laugh. “Skyla,” she trills. My mother bows her head and laughs as she pinches her eyes shut. “My dear Skyla, you never learn—try as you might.” Her eyes shine like shards of glass as she steps in ever so close. “Fight the urge to bow to those who oppress you. Fight the urge to let down your guard and believe in silly words. Rules and laws are frames of perfection—covenants are one in the same. You are still very much mostly human as are those around you.” Her eyes flit to Chloe for the briefest of moments. “Do not relish the downfall of your enemy. It comes with a price.” She bears those crystalline lenses into mine. “And you will rue the day you ever stepped away from my carefulguidance.”
“Your guidance?” A sputtering laugh comes from me, and I couldn’t stop it if I tried. “When have you everguidedme? I have been in peril since the moment I stepped on Paragon all those years ago. What have you done with my destiny other than damning me to a life of strife?” Her lips part as if shocked by the audacity—either that or she’s just come to the conclusion that I’m right. “Guide menow, Mother. Guide me back to Paragon. Guide me to my people. Tell me what to do with this nightmare the Steel Barricade has inflicted on us and themselves. The government is insatiable. And we areallinperil.”
She takes in a breath, her hair turning an odd shade of lavender, each follicle alive with its own peculiar light. “That ring.” She glances to my finger, the blue stone that once belonged to the throne of the living God. “Skyla, whose isit?”
I glance to Chloe, although deep down I know. “Melody Winters?” I ask with a childlikecuriosity.
“Indirectly.” Her brows rise as if proud of the fact I’ve answered right in partial. “And how would our dear Chloe have swiped this from Ms. Winters’ crooked littlefinger?”
I look to Chloe for help, but she’s quick to turn her head from me. Chloe denied stealing it. And obviously, she lied. “She stole it. Chloe, you stoleit.”
“The ring doesn’t belong to Melody Winters.” Chloe grunts with disgust. “As usual, your mother is taking you down a long and thorny road and wasting the fuck out of everybody’s time. Marlena took the ring from Cassandra Graham and gave it tome.”
Cassandra Graham—I didn’t want to say her name. In truth, I want to forget all about that ratty old dive bar Chloe and I visited last December. That twisted light drive lit a fire line in my life. I look down at the ring as if to confirm mytheory.
“And what was the promise Marlena gave you?” My mother curves her palm over Chloe’s cheek, and it looks almost loving.Almost.
Chloe takes a breath as she looks to me. “That it was a portal to getting everything I’ve everwanted.”
My chest thumps with a quiet laugh. “The only thing you’ve ever wanted was Gage Oliver.” Everything in me freezes. She’s still trying to make him hers. Of course, sheis.
Chloe steps toward me. “But I didn’t even think of taking Marlena up on that ring until that night you whispered into my ear by the fire. It was right here in this room, Skyla, just a few short months ago. The night you were betrayed, or so you thought. And when we ended up in England, I knew—it was destiny. It was my time to make my dreams cometrue.”
Kres steps in as if she were hooked to everyword.
My mother takes in a breath, and the room rumbles beneath her feet. “What was it that you said,Skyla?”
The fire calls to me with its bright, beautiful flames as I recall that night. “I said follow me. Unite your power with mine, and I will gift you what your heart desiresmost.”
“You knew it was Gage.” Chloe shakes her head as she steps in front of theflames.
“And Celestra.” I look toher.
Chloe’s chest bucks with her next breath. “And Celestra. My unity is genuine. I amsickof Wes ramming his big dick into the ass of my people”—she glowers at my mother—“while the powers that be sit idly by, filing down their proverbial nails until they are as dull and useless astheyare.”
