Skyla gives an annoyed blink my way. “I’m sure you’ll have fun. You seem to have a habit of imbibing questionable fluids atmidnight.”
Lizbeth swats her over the shoulder. “We won’t dare wait that long. These boys need relief now. Chloe, make sure you opt for one-hourshipping.”
Mia takes a seat on the coffee table. “When are you cutting his head off,Skyla?”
“He needs his head for now.” Skyla manufactures a sweet smile my way. “Butsoon.”
Mia gets up to leave but not before outright gifting me the finger. Shit. I can’t help but avert my eyes at thatone.
“Skyla, I need to speak withyou.”
Lizbeth nods over to Bree. “Why don’t we get the boys in their swings. They’ve been up all night. They can use somesleep.”
I wait until they’re out of earshot before sitting on the coffee table across from Skyla and Chloe. I can’t help but look from my sweet angel of a wife to the witch by her side and think she’s in way over herhead.
“What the hell is going on?” I growl it out far more aggressive than I meant to, but with Chloe around I can’t seem to helpit.
Skyla sharpens her gaze over mine as if she were ready to ax my skull in two. “The Tenebrous Woods are empty. Your father and brother swiped every petrified Viden soul right out of there and planted them worldwide to cause a mass panic, or don’t you pay attention to thenews?”
Chloe gives a solemn nod. “It’s in every paper. Every talking head is flapping their frantic jaw about it. You can’t open the Internet without reading another story of a scary clown sighting, a monster chasing children in the woods. The world has gone to hell in a handbasket, Gage Oliver, and—” She looks to Skyla a moment. “Andwhat?”
“Precisely.” I swallow down a laugh. “Skyla—Chloe doesn’t see a problem with any of this. Whatever it is you’re doing with her has to stop. You’re dancing in the flames.” I pick up her cool fingers and cradle them in my palm. “I promise you, things are going to end badly. She killed your father,” I whisper the horrible reminder. “Logan, too.” It hurts just to sayit.
She retracts her hand. “I know.” Skyla closes her eyes a moment and takes a deep breath as if trying to keep from getting sick. And then just as easily, her eyes snap open like a ventriloquist doll and she gives an eerie blink. “But we’ve moved on.” She reaches over and takes up Chloe’s hand, and now it’s me who’s going to be sick. For a moment, I try to recall which arm of hers once belonged to Chloe, and if she’s holding her own hand by proxy—but then, Chloe is no longer in her own body. She’s inEzrina’s.
Chloe bleeds that desolate smile, the smile of death, the smile that says I am ten steps ahead of you both—and you will most certainly be sorry you ever fucked withme.
And trust me, I’m alreadysorry.
“Skyla and I have mended fences.” She bounces my wife’s hand on her lap, and I want to free her. Every last part of Chloe is nothing more than a bear trap. “We’ve moved on from our childish ways and become a united front.” She looks to Skyla and gives a somber nod as if encouraging her to go along with thefarce.
“United,” Skyla says with her eyes locked over on the girl who has been her enemy as far back as I can remember. “Chloe and I are going to change things, Gage.” Skyla doesn’t take her eyes off the sinister devil next to her. If I were to suggest one thing with this strange demonic friendship brewing, it would be just that—keep your eyes wide open. “We are going to start withyou.”
“With me,” I say more to myself than anyone else in theroom.
Chloe lets out a bubbling laugh. “She’s traded you in for me, Gage. Isn’t that something?” She loses herself in a stream of laughter she can’t seem to contain just as Lizbeth breezes back into the room, forcing her to pause and appraise the three ofus.
“What’s this?” Tad balks. “She’s traded in Greg for a woman?” He staggers over with his arm swinging wide, still locked up in that baseball bat of a splint. His face is red and glossed with petroleum jelly to keep his skin from crusting over. “Is that what’s going on here?” he huffs as he struggles to get the words out. “Lizbeth!” he barks at his poor, emotionally neglected wife. I’ve no doubt that right there is the reason she seems so attracted to Demetri in the first place. He has a way of shining the spotlight on her whenever he’s in the room. And Tad has a way of ripping her to pieces with his caustic tongue. The math is pretty easy to do. “Your daughter here has given Greg the boot so she can entertain her lady friend.” His eyes bug out so far, I’m half-expecting them to shoot across the room. I want to say I feel the same way, Tad. My own head demands to explode over this bizarreunion.
“It’s not like that.” Lizbeth digs her fists into her hips, ready to go ten rounds if she had to. “Skyla and Chloe do not have an intimate relationship. For God’s sake, use your head. She’s got Gage Oliver to fulfill her needs. Why in the heck would she look in any otherdirection?”
A sheepish grin comes to me as I look to my wife. But Skyla rolls her eyes at the idea. I know what she’s thinking. Lizbeth has had a bizarre infatuation with me since the beginning. She’s as much on my team as Candace is on Logan’s. Too bad for me, Lizbeth has no say in just about anything that has to do with my destiny. Demetri pops to mind, and I glance up at her as if seeing Skyla’s stepmother for the very firsttime.
“Shit,” I hiss, stunned. Lizbeth might just be my saving grace after all. Nobody has pull with my father like shedoes.
“Iknow!” Tad does an odd little tap dance. “I’m just as shocked as you are.” His head juts out over and over in his wife’s direction like a chicken. “Like it or not, Lizbeth, I heard the whole thing with my own two ears! She’s traded him in for a new model, and that new model is missing a few boy parts!” He blinks back as if he’s just slapped himself. “Wait a minute. This might be the only form of birth control that will work. On second thought, congratulations, girls. I’ll have Lizbeth bake a cake to celebrate. If we gather all the loose socks in the house, we might be able to fashion together a rainbowflag.”
“Chloe’s got a kid,” I whip the words out before Tad decides to throw my wife and her fictional lesbian lover a party. “And a husband.” That should nail the coffin on that rainbow-coloredconversation.
“Jumping Jehoshaphat, Lizbeth!” Tad bucks as if the thought of another mouth to feed has him gripped with pain. “No way, no how are we taking in boarders. This nonsense has got to stop.Greg”—he grunts as he turns my way, and I narrowly duck in time, avoiding a splint to the eye—“you get that house of horrors of yours whipped into shape, you hear me? As soon as princess here has a castle of her own to fill with all the screaming babies she wants—I’m sure she’ll hightail it right back toyou.”
“Tad Landon!” Lizbeth barks so loud the boys start in on a bleating cry from the living room. “Now look what you’ve done,” she seethes through her teeth. “Don’t you ever try to kick my daughter out ofourhome. Skyla and whomever she loves is more than welcome here.” She ticks her head my way. “You, too,Gage.”
I blink over at Chloe a moment who isn’t missing the opportunity togloat.
Holy crap. What alternate universe am I livingin?
“Come on, Tad.” Lizbeth leads him back to the table. “We’ve got mountains of unemployment paperwork to fill out. I want to be on the first ferry to the mainland in the morning. Those unemployment lines are just about as fun as theDMV.”
