Coop backtracks a step. “I’ll get my car and meet you at Dudley’s.”
Ellis and I pick up our clip, and soon enough Dudley’s spectacle of a house is before us. The house is lit up, the music trembles from the windows and spills into this early hour of the morning as a rather oddly dressed couple is getting down to business against the side of the house.
“Costume party?” Ellis says as we walk the behemoth beast past them.
“I’m thinking throwback Thursday.”
“The seventeenth century never lets you down, dude.”
We crest the side yard and enter into the back of Dudley’s expansive property, and low and behold there he is, arms folded across his chest, dressed in a three-piece suit, that permanent scowl he holds just for me etched on his face.
“This beast needs a new home,” I say, taking the threadbare rope from Ellis. “We chose yours.” I open up the gate to the corral and the beast moseys on in as if he belonged there, and I’m betting he does. “What’s with the party?” I nod to the house with its raucous music, the half-dressed girls oozing out of every orifice.
“There’s a celebration to be had.” He glares my way before shooting a look to Ellis. “Certainly you’re apprised of the good news.”
My heart stops cold. “Gage married Chloe and you threw a party?”
“What?” Ellis squawks so loud the lazy animals in the corral stir from their slumber. “No effing way.”
“Way,” Dudley and I say in unison.
I nod for Ellis to follow me back to the side yard. “It’s nice to know where your loyalty lies, Dudley.”
“My loyalty has never wavered, unlike your own,” he’s quick to spout back.
I stop short of rounding out the corner and turn to find those bright crimson eyes focused on me like laser beams.
His chin lifts a notch. “You gave her away out of fear, for a song. Unlike you, I understand my time with Skyla tarries.”
For a second, I think of charging him, knocking him into a fresh pile of manure, but think better of it. I’m saving all of my punches for someone else.
“Skyla is mine,” I say. “My heart, my attention is right where it should be. And you’re right. I made a grave error.”
“An error that has cost your brothers and mine their place on this planet and in the kingdom. You are dangerous. And if you continue to act uponfeelings, you will continue to destroy yourself and others.”
I think on it for a moment and shake my head. I hate it when he’s right.
“Duly noted.”
“Good.” His jaw redefines itself as if he were looking to charge me instead. “What comes next?”
“I find Gage. Beat the shit out of him. Don’t worry, Dudley. There are no feelings involved in this endeavor. It’s purely recreational at this point. Then I find Skyla. We identify those markers, get our people back, and get your people back where they belong. Is there anything you’d like to amend?”
“Carry on.” A sly smile creeps up the side of his face. “And Oliver? Get a good left hook in for me.”
“Done.”
Ellis and I head out front and hop into Coop’s truck.
“To the Transfer,” I say as Ellis and I buckle up for the bumpy ride.
Coop drives us to the base of Devil’s Peak, and the three of us stare at that wall of granite as he revs the engine, preparing the truck and us for the drive right through that rock and into another plane. The speedometer clocks eighty just as we crash right through the spiritual divide. The truck, our bodies, our bones vibrate like a tuning fork struck by God until we land with a hard thump on the rugged, dusty terrain of the Transfer. Coop drives straight up to the walkway leading to Wesley’s haunt, running over at least a third of the ghostly residents in our way. It’s unlikely they’re hurt, considering they’re long deceased.
The Transfer is filled with a vagabond group from ages gone by, the men still in their yesteryear suits with their spaghetti thin ties and the woman in full bustle mode, corsets, breasts hanging out like it was a sport to see how much flesh could be exposed without going full frontal. We hop out and make our way through the oversized doors leading into the castle.
The interior of Wesley’s gargantuan home is limestone and marble. A grand room the size of my entire house sits to the right with a fireplace large enough to roast an elk. The large bath with a globe rolling in it sits just past that—Tears over Creation, Skyla called it once. I’ve heard it referenced as Tears over Paragon as well.
“Wes?” I call out.
