I pick up a small pillow and beam it at his head, but Dudley catches it like a pro at the last game of the World Series and launches it back, nearly decapitating me in theprocess.
“Do refrain from physical violence. I’d loathe rearranging that pretty face I’ve gifted you. And you’rewelcome.”
It’s true. It was revealed not that long ago that Dudley here is an Oliver gene generator, and that somewhere back in time our lineage meets up with Coop’s as well. That explains the good-looking family dynamics, although there’s not enough left to gift me any Sector glory. I scowl over at this created being that somehow managed to infiltrate myDNA.
“Why is Skyla suddenly friendly with Bishop?” I growl as if it were somehow his fault. A thought comes to me. “You know what? It is your damn fault,too.”
“Language.” Dudley’s eyes boil like rusty cauldrons as he glowers my way. “I know not what you speak of. Ms. Messenger and Ms. Bishop haven’t seen eye to evil eye inyears.”
“Until this year.” I lean in, ready to pounce and strangle this menace I’m facing. “If you didn’t invite Skyla to that hell Gage put himself through at the christening, then she never would have turned to Chloe. It’s clear she’s trying to get back at him—hell, she’s pissed at me, too. But what I don’t get is how she could ever think it’s a goodidea.”
“That’s funny. She said the same about you and Tweedledum the night he grafted himself to darkness.” He offers a shit-eating grin that melts off his face just as quick as it came. “The Fems, though not a fallen brotherhood, are just as damning to mankind as the nefarious ones, much like Bishopherself.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Chloe is fallen. She is evil through and through. I know for a fact she’s feeding Skyla whatever bullshit it is she wants to hear. And right now, I’d prefer bullshit to the truth myself. The truth is pretty bad.” I think that’s where Skyla is at with Chloe. She’s a bandage covering up the real wound, which is Gage. But why Chloe? To piss us off? She’s achievedthat.
“Were you present at the hour when Jock Strap laid himself on the altar to his newmaster?”
The thought of Demetri being Gage’s anything makes my stomachturn.
“Are you senile? Yes, I was there. Or were you too busy getting a boner watching Skyla lose hermind?”
“Must you always either invoke an expletive or a sexual analogy? Does your mind offer any other avenue of expression other than one that leads to the gutter? Please keep the grime of your thoughts to yourself, young man. You are in desperate need of my supervising services. You’ve informed me of this yourself just this afternoon, or perhaps you’ve forgotten and it’s you who’s goingsenile.”
“Wait.” I can only catch so many of Dudley’s verbal throwing stars at a time. “Back up. Yes, I was present at the altar call for darkness.” I tick my head in his direction. “And?”
“You seemed to have been paying attention to what was being said—you tellme.”
That night comes back to me in jags—Gage and I following Demetri into the woods like lost children to the slaughter, Demetri’s dissertation on wickedness, Gage stretching out his hands to heaven, begging forgiveness. Then it comes back to me. “Demetri—there was something he said that stood out to me. He mentioned something about the Steel Barricade, about the Fems, but he never mentioned that Gage was bound to theCounts.”
“Relay it to me word-for-word.” A smug grin twitches up hislips.
“I can’t do that. I can hardly remember what I had forbreakfast.”
“Who’s the senile one now?” Dudley closes his eyes for a moment and takes in a quick breath. “He said—may the Lord of Glory find favor upon my son, Gage Edinger, who is willing to war against the enemy in the name of the Steel Barricade, in the name of the glorious Fems, upon the dissolution of his soul from the flesh that is mortal. And that, my friend, is word-for-word.”
I drink down his words a moment, examining them as they swim by. “Okay, you’re better than me. You are not senile. I’m senile in comparison. But I was right. The Counts are left out of the equation. Yes, the Steel Barricade is a reboot, but it’s not a Faction. It’s a rebellion. If the Barricade is dismantled, then Gageis—”
“Still the king. He’s a Fem. Demetri is gifting Gage his right as leader of the pack.” He forces a tight smile. “Gage Oliver is a Fem, and he is their future king. There is no changing thefacts.”
“No changing the facts.” I scan the carpet while trying to decipher his words as if they were a riddle. “What if the Fems suddenly sided with Skyla and her people? What would it really matter if Gage was the king of the Fems? There would be nodiscourse.”
“Young Oliver.” He sighs with that perennial look of boredom returning to his face. “The Fems are insistent on removing the Sectors from their high place. We side with the light. We side with Celestra. We side with Skyla. Our beings entered into a bonding covenant with Celestra long ago, as did the Fems with the Counts. The ramifications during the church age are significant yes, but the real struggle holds eternity in the bounds. Time is running out. The Sectors must hold secure theirstanding.”
“Gage will gladly give it to you. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Demetri didn’t just slap a crown on Wesley’s head and call it a wicked day. He’s far more enthused with the idea of ruining our people and running over whoever the hell he needs to on the way to ruling theworld.”
“Wesley is greedy, yes. An attribute one would think valuable, considering the circumstances. But Skyla doesn’t care for Wesley, nor is she willing to bear hischildren.”
“So Demetri wants Gageandthe twins.” Shit. Shit.Shit.
“That is the prize package. I’m sure he has fantastic plans for them all.” He glowers at the fire, and it rages ten times in ferocity, igniting the room in a flash of nuclearlight.
“You’re right. I’m going to need your help.” A thought comes to me as abrupt as a slap to the face. “ButIdidn’t visit you this afternoon.” I’m not even going to bother suggesting Dudley is losing his mind after his word-for-word play-by-play. If Dudley says it happened, then it did. “Which version of me was it?” I already know the answer. It’s the same version that met me in the woods that horrible night Gage committed his soul to all of Demetri’s no-goodintentions.
“The one that counts. You saw a vision that night after Skyla let you have it. He mentioned you saw Gage on his throne, his body transfiguring into the serpent he is destined tobecome.”
“The dragon.” It’s true. I saw Gage on a throne with fire and rage shooting from him as he rose up and morphed into a hideous beast with wings—breath born offire.
“You will need me, indeed, but not in any way that youimagine.”
