“Mia!” I bounce the boys between us. “You keep your legs shut, young lady. You hearme?”
“Ha!” She yelps out a laugh all the way down the hall. “You’re such amom!”
Chloe seeps in like a dark fog with Emily by her side. “My—isn’t she going to be surprised to see you, an old lady, show up at Ellis’party.”
“She’s going to Ellis’ party?” I straighten at thethought.
“That’s right. He’s not only the hottest party on Paragon, he’s the only show intown.”
“Then that’s where I’ll be.” I dot a kiss to each of the boys’ foreheads, soft aspeaches.
“Good thing,” Em huffs while gliding forward as if she were floating. Emily is stone-faced with dead eyes, very much her day-to-day self. “I have a vision, Skyla.” She shakes her head, and I’m afraid to guess why. “I need you there. I can’t get this out fastenough.”
“Do it now.” Chloe taps her shoulder into Em’s as if cajoling her along. She’s such a snake. Of course, Chloe would love to start my new year off with a message from the Master concerning the bleakness of myfuture.
“No, thanks. Not now, not tonight.” No way, no how. If I never hear another vision from Emily Morgan, I’ll be a happy littlebird.
“I have to.” Em’s eyes bug out, and my insides tremble. That’s more emotion she’s shown than in the last five years combined. “I’ll blow if I don’t get this one out, and I don’t think your mother wants me defacing her dining room again. We’ll do it at the Harrisons’. Gage needs to be there, too. This is a bigone.”
“The last one was a big one,” I correct as I display the boys before her. Emily accurately foretold the birth of my children, including the third triplet, my daughter Sage who never made it to this madhouse known as earth. Emily isn’t a fortuneteller or a psychic per se. She’s akin to an Old Testament prophet who receives her visions straight from the throne of God—or in the least my celestial mother. The Master strictly forbids witches, warlocks, fortunetellers and the like, so Emily really does have a pipeline to both heaven and the future. She’s a Viden, and that’s their gift. Only lately, and come to think of italways, the visions are enough to make me rethink the idea of a future altogether. Her visions are dark, ominous, and most definitely nothing to be giddy over, unlike the troll to myleft.
“Wipe that smile from your face,” I tell Chloe, and she slowlycomplies.
“Messenger’s right.” Emily huffs in the wicked witch’s direction, “You’d better wipe that smirk off your face, Bishop. I’ve got one for you,too.”
My eyes round out just as wide asChloe’s.
“Me,” Chloe says it like fact more than a question. “I haven’t had onesince—”
“Since word was sent you were about to be hacked to death in the forest.” Emily Morgan bleeds a silent smile. “That’s right, Chloe. There is something urgent inside of me that I’m just dying to divulge. I’ll see the two of you later.” She starts to take off, then backtracks. “And don’t think you can avoid it. Whether or not you bitches show up makes no difference.” Em looks right at me with those dark unknowable eyes. “Your fate is sealed.” She snaps up Ember and takes off down thehall.
Chloe fans herself a moment. “Well, she’s a breath of fresh air. I think I’ll go find Ethan and see if he’d like to play a round of hide-and-go-seek-the-penis like we did in the old days.” She offers a seductive wink my way, and I’m sick straight to mystomach.
“Don’t you dare. You know Em and Ethan are practically married. They’re raising Ember together. Ethan loves that baby as if it were his own. Don’t go screwing up someone else’s life just because you don’t haveone.”
Chloe’s gaze hardens over mine. “I can and I will.” She steps in close. “Don’t think just because you tell me to jump I’m going to ask how high. Yes, I am in line with our agreement. But it was just that,ours.”
I lean in until we’re nose to nose, clutching the boys to my chest with a vise grip. “Yes—Chloe, we very much have an agreement. Don’t you forgetit.”
“You don’t hold all the cards, Skyla,” she seethes and her chest palpitates dramatically. Here she is, the living, breathing bitch I always knew her to be. Gone is the Pollyanna routine.Yes, Skyla—no, Skylawill soon be replaced with death threats and very real follow-ups. I knew I was playing with fire, but it’s her fire I’m after. “Youneverhold all the cards,” she spits the words right over my mouth, and I half-expect a kiss in the process. “Don’tyouforgetthat.”
Chloe takes off, and I hear the door to Ethan and Emily’s room open and close. There’s that. Give Chloe a solid piece of advice, and the first thing she does is go out of her way not to listen to it. I hope Tobie grows up to be a firecracker of a teenager so Chloe can get a taste of her own poisonous medicine. On second thought, I’d rather Tobie grow up to be a respectable, sweet, young woman, not another thorn in my side. I doubt Chloe would care either way. She’s a python of a mother. I’m shocked she hasn’t eaten the poor thing bynow.
Brielle, my oldest and sweetest bestie, pops up and her features harden with concern—a look I’ve virtually never seen on her before. She plucks a sleeping Barron out of my arms and cradleshim.
“Why is Chloe here?” Her voice is low and tempered, and for the first time in a long while, it feels as if I have my best friend back from a long bubble-headed hiatus. “You need her for something, don’tyou?”
“The Savior needed Judas to accomplish his goals, and I need Chloe to accomplishmine.”
Bree tosses back her strawberry blonde hair as if I’ve struck her. “Who do you think you’re going tosave?”
“Gage.”
New Year’s Eve has always represented more than just the touchdown of a new year. It’s the promise of a better tomorrow, a better year, and an overall better you. I nurse the boys for over an hour just sitting in the comfortable glider my mother—the one who makes her home in the heavenlies—squeezed in here while I wasn’t looking, loving on my boys, counting their delicate fingers and adorable toes over and over. Wondering all the while what these little angels will do in life. Where will these precious feet take them? These beautiful hands, what will they build? What will theydestroy?
I settle them both in Nathan’s bassinet and yank outfit after outfit from my closet wondering how the hell my waist was ever the size that my ankle is now. I finally settle on the white dress I squeezed myself into for that demonic renewing of the vows in the Transfer—a maternity dress no less. It hangs baggy and sickly, making me look all together dumpy, so I cinch it in the back with a safety pin I dig out of my jewelry box. The protective hedge winks at me, so over my neck it goes, but Logan’s mirrored heart—I run my finger over it. Not tonight. I feel just as betrayed by Logan as I do Gage. But that ring Chloe gifted me—that little bit of heaven—I pop it right onto my finger. Lapis Lazuli—or sapphire as it were, from the very throne of God? I kiss it for good luck, and a current travels from my lips all the way to my toes. I marvel at the tiny wonder for a moment. Yes, this ring is special, and I cannot wait to find out all of the amazing things it’s capableof.
I peer in on the boys with their eyes sealed shut, their dark lashes so long and lovely. Two miniature versions of Gage. My boys are so beautiful it makes my heart weep. I turn on the nanny cam Logan gifted me for Christmas and make sure the app is synced to my phone. Enabling me to see and hear almost the entirety of my bedroom while anywhere on this planet is a stroke of genius. I might be angry with Logan, but this gift makes me very,veryhappy. I press a barely there kiss to each of their warm heads and leave the room with a silent click of thedoor.
