“Hey!” a male voice calls from the side, and we look to find Brody Bishop jogging over. “I heard what happened.” He nods my way. “What are wedoing?”
“We’re going to Tenebrous.” I look to Gage, to those startled eyes I love so deeply. “You can come with us or you can stay here, but this is happeningtonight.”
“Shit,” he says under his breath, and before I can determine how pissed he might be, a familiar looking Sector rises behindhim.
“Marshall!” I land over him in a hard embrace and soak in every good vibratory sensation. “You’re coming with us toTenebrous.”
“Perfect.” He glowers at the facility behind me. “Let the retribution be quick and swift. I’ve a home to tendto.”
I glance to Gage. “It will be quick and swift. The torment of my people ends tonight. Where’s Coop? I know he’d want to be a part ofthis.”
Logan shakes his head. “He’s in the back. It’ll be an hour at least until they processhim.”
“We can’t wait. We have to leavenow.”
Logan closes his eyes. “Skyla, your passion is great, but we need to figure out how to get the cells opened to set the people free. Gage can’t be in every cell at once to teleport the dead. We’ll only have minutes to complete themission.”
“The cells will open. Fire is greater thanpassion.”
Surely the cells at Raven’s Eye will open for theflames.
But judging by that furious look in my husband’s eyes, his heart willnot.
Tenebrous greetsus with long forlorn branches draped over the open road, creating a tunnel of darkness, open arms filled with thorns, a charred grin as if ready to offer a necroticembrace.
Gage dips a kiss to the crease in my neck. “We need to talk.” The others head for the holding tanks, but Gage pulls me toward the stone of sacrifice. And I go willingly since I’m not looking to turn this into the tornado that takes down ourmarriage.
“I know what you’re going to say.” I step up on the circular stone, and he does the same. It’s only a few feet off the ground, and yet it has the power to make Tenebrous, all of existence, seem diminutive while standing on its unholy granite. There is power on this stone, around it, through it, whether I like to admit it or not. The blood that was shed here has made it so. “And no, I cannot change mymind.”
“You must.” He cups my cheeks as if my face were blown glass. “Skyla, I looked those people in the eye and said I’d protect their loved ones. I can’t just do a one-eighty and feed them to the government. That’s not how I operate. That’s not who Iam.”
“Well, I can’t let my people suffer. That’s not howIoperate. That’s not whoIam. Besides, our friends—ourdaughteris inthere.”
He blinks back as if I’ve hit below thebelt.
“Let me get them,” he pleads. “I will find a way. I’ll free themtonight.”
I pull back, ready to leap from the stone and get the morbid show on the road. “Getting them is not enough. If we free the dead, then the feds will come for those they captured and tagged this afternoon. We need a diversion. One that will assure the Nephilim peace. Only the Spectators can provide it. Once the feds find real live zombies on their doorsteps, they won’t care that a few alien beings slipped through the net. In the hierarchy of chaos, zombies win every single time. We can buypeace—something that simply freeing the dead will never achieve.” Now it’s me pleading with him. “Side with me, Gage. You don’t belong to the Barricade. You belong tome.”
His Adam’s apple rises and falls, and already I know what his decision is. Our lives flash before my eyes—our short marriage, which I hope to God drives out straight through the second coming. I don’t want death for Gage or me. I don’t want our union to ever come to an end. I think of the two of us entwined in our bed back at the Landon house—the very house he’s so desperate to escape from. I think of those blissful nights lying naked with our infant sons draped over our chests. We were so frustrated with our lives at that point, wanting freedom that only money could buy, wanting to finish our education, our own place, the money to fix up our own place—we were at the apex of our happiness, and we didn’t even realize it. And here, life had taken a hairpin turn with Gage opposing my wishes, me opposinghis.
“Skyla”—he calls out as if I were clear across the universe, and our gaze solidifies over one another, hopeful that whatever comes next unlocks the key to our shared frustration—“do not do this.” His voice shakes, and it’s hard to tell if it’s with rage or hurt, probably both. “I forbidit.”
There it is, the dare I threw him earlier. And now he’s hurled it right back at myfeet.
A dull laugh dies in my chest. “We can’t seem to forbid one another to do a damn thing.” I head back through the woods, alone, feeling his void as heavy as a mountain, and it kills me. Then, as if eager to fill it, Gage appears by my side, his irritation nearing a boiling point as we make our way to where the others stand with Ingram Prendergast. Marshall, Logan, and Brody—the three of them hover over Ingram’s glowing notebook, where he has the Videns listed and organized right down to their eye color. Ingram is anal thatway.
“Marshall.” I pull him aside as Gage heads over to peer at Ingram’snotebook.
“Ms. Messenger.” His intense crimson gaze sears me as if he can smell my fear. “Gage said he promised the Videns he’d keep the Spectators safe. Helpme.”
“Help you? Skyla, how many other solutions are at yourdisposal?”
“None, and I’m not even sure if this is one of them. How can I save my people, occupy the feds,andhelp Gage keep hispromise?”
His chest bucks with a laugh. “Don’t forget to feed the starving and shelter the homeless. Throw in a wild night with yours truly while you’re at it. So many things to do, so littletime.”
“Point taken. I can’t solve everyproblem.”
